I got to try out a new game tonight -- Hispaniola. And I'm giving it the big "thumbs down." I rated it a 3 on BGG, and I don't think anyone I played with would dispute that.
Superficially, the game has a pirate theme, which could sort of be fun, I guess. But it's a trick taking game, and the theme felt like sort of a mismatch or afterthought. Or both. There's also a board involved, where winners of tricks jockey for good position. Again, possible pieces of a good idea here.
Unfortunately, in practice you have virtually no control over anything. If you're dealt a bad hand, there's nothing you can do with it. It's not like in Hearts, where you have a prayer of dumping off a few bad cards. Or the pinnacle of all standard card games, Up and Down (sometimes called Up and Down the River or Dump), where even the bad hands can be bid and played for a winning score. Instead, you just sit there and lose, or win, through very little control of your own.
Add to that a couple of superficial issues that brought the game's score down even more. The 9s and the 6s on the cards were indistinguishable in your hand, with only the pirate's picture telling you right-side-up -- the picture of course being covered while you're fanning your cards. And then they made the board fold the wrong direction, so you can't easily scoop the pieces into the bag at the end of the game -- a subtle, but important detail that a few other games I've played have also messed up.
(I'm looking at you, Pompeji!)
1 comment:
Too bad the game wasn't better, I like pirates, or the thought of them, and had hoped a good game would rise. Course its a bad time to be releasing new games it seems.
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