As you know, Peder and I are big fans of board games. A side effect of this obsession is that we often collect games faster than we can play them, and the time between when we buy a new game and when we play it for the first time can sometimes be months.

However, we’ve had a bit of a “spring cleaning” mindset with our games lately, and have been trying to break out games we’ve been meaning to play but just haven’t had the time/right circumstances/right group for. The most recent game we chose for this venture was the one Peder gave me for Christmas — Hanabi!

Hanabi is a cooperative card game for 2 to 5 players. The Japanese word “hanabi” means “fireworks,” and as you can see by the cover, that’s the theme of the game. The object is to work as a team to build your fireworks by placing a sequence of cards from 1 to 5 for each of the five colors in the deck, without mixing up the order or the color. You have to do this before the fuse runs out (that is, before the fuse tokens are gone), or the fireworks will explode before you can build them!

You might be thinking that, with such simple rules, this game must be way too easy — but think again! The gameplay of Hanabi is unique not only because it’s a card game that’s cooperative, but also because of how you handle your cards — each player must hold their hand of cards facing out, so that no one can see their own cards, but so that all of the other players can see everyone else’s.

To figure out when and where to place the cards, players can give each other clues about what’s in their hands by spending hint tokens. Players can then give others hints one at a time, either about what color or what number the cards in their hand are. However, there are only ten of these tokens, so you run out quickly. And once they’re gone, you’ll have to discard cards to get them back.

That’s where the strategy of the game comes in. You want to use the hints to tell other players what they have so that they know what to do next, but if you use up your hint tokens too quickly, then players will end up having to either discard a card blindly, potentially getting rid of one of the rarer higher-numbered cards, or they’ll have to just guess what to put down next and have a pretty slim chance of getting it right.

The game is played until the fuse tokens are gone, or until all five sequences have been completed as far as possible. The goal is to collect as many points as you can by the end of the game. The highest amount you can get in one game is 25 — so far, we’ve made it to 20. Which is pretty good for only having played it a couple of times, I’d say!

I really enjoyed this game — so much so that it’s well on its way to becoming one of my favorite card-based games. As I’ve mentioned before, cooperative games are my favorite type, and this one is a great take on that style. Beyond that, Hanabi’s rules are simple and easy to pick up quickly, and there’s the perfect amount of strategy to keep things interesting without leaving strategy-impaired me feeling like I’m in over my head. You can play a round in about half an hour, and it requires hardly any setup, so it’s a great one for getting a game night started, or just for playing a fun, laid-back game with a few friends.

Overall Grade: A

Gamer Grade: B+

Casual Grade: A

———————————
Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @Kefka73
Visit us on Facebook here.