Here's an overview of the game for those unfamiliar with the original release:
When each player has only one card left in hand, the game ends. For each ace bird you've seen in a habitat, you score 2 points; for each other non-common bird you've seen, score 1 point; and if you've seen all seven types of birds in a habitat, score 3 bonus points for a total of 10 points in that habitat. Whoever has the most total points wins.
Birds of a Feather: Western North America differs from Birds of Feather thanks to new graphic design, a mini-expansion, and improved rules for two- and three-player games to make them more strategic.
Here's an overview of this trick-taking game in which you have the freedom to play any cards you wish:
You play the game with 1-3 suits of cards depending on your desired level of difficulty and the number of players at the table; each suit has cards numbered 0-10 and a wild, with each card appearing twice. The strongest play is a pair of cards that are the same number, with high numbers beating low ones, and with palm trees beating dolphins, which beat sunglasses, which beat pairs that are of different suits. If no one plays a pair, then whoever played the highest single card wins the trick. After five tricks, you score points if you've met your bid exactly. (If you bid a non-zero number of tricks but missed, you still score 1 point per trick taken.)
What's more, if you want to play risky, you can place bets on your bids, giving you an additional way to win (or lose) points. Whoever has the most points after the designated number of rounds wins!
I loved GOSU back in the day, so I'm curious to see how it's changed, especially since the developer mentions that it's been in testing for three years. Here's a link to my May 2019 post about this new version of GOSU.
• Japanese publisher Hobby Japan has previewed the new edition of Muneyuki Yokouchi's trick-taking game Cat in the Box, which will have an expanded player count from 2-5 instead of 3-4.
In this trick-taking game, cards don't have suits, so if someone leads with a 6 and says it's green, you can play any non-6 card and say it's green to match the suit. If you claim not to have green cards, then you can never play a "green" card in the future. The challenge is that you're trying to win the number of tricks you bid, while also trying to create an orthogonally connected block of played cards on the shared grid, while also not causing a contradiction by being forced to play a card that's already been played.
This second edition of Cat in the Box was originally scheduled for release in April 2022, but the manufacturing situation has caused a delay to an unspecified date, which is a shame as I've played the game three times and love its odd challenge and the different ways you think about playing cards.