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As always, Japon Brand will have a wide range of games on hand at SPIEL, many of which have already sold out via preorder. From this batch, I've previewed SHIBUYA (write-up+video) and Fruit Friends (write-up+video), and I'll cover animale tattica in my final preview video on Monday, October 22.
For now, though, let's look at the unassuming card game 5 COLORS from [person=110719]John Bannister[/person] and GALLERY OUCHI. The 100-card deck contains twenty cards in five colors (duh!), with most of those cards being valued 1-3 and only a few valued 4-6.
Each player has a hand of five cards, and on a round you each simultaneously play and reveal two cards, refill your hand, play and reveal one card, refill, then play and reveal a final card. Whatever color appear most frequently wins, with each player scoring the cards they played of that color; each scored card is worth points equal to the value on it. However, if a color has reached "burst" level — 5-9 cards depending on the player count — then that color is removed from play, after which whatever color appears most frequently wins. In the event of a tie, then those tied colors are removed. Keep repeating rounds until the deck runs out, then play a final round with the five cards remaining in hand.
I've played seven times on a review copy from Japon Brand, with two, three and four players. As you can tell from this short description, 5 COLORS is like a stock game in miniature. You want to be part of a rally for a color — ideally with higher-valued cards than opponents, of course — but if the market heats up too much, your investment evaporates. One other scoring condition exists: If enough 1s are played in a round — 6-10, again depending on the player count — then colors don't matter, and the 1s score on their own. I've yet to see this happen, and we've come close only a couple of times. This rule is an odd addition to the game, but perhaps we weren't trying hard enough to make it happen to thwart other players.
Rounds play out quickly, and with more players the entire game runs faster since the deck allows for only four rounds with five players, six with four, seven with three, and twelve with two. (You remove cards at random from the deck to make the numbers work.) I suppose you could play multiple times through the deck with more players, yet even our four-player games felt satisfying. Sure, the luck of the draw has a role in how things play out, but so be it. You're on a whirlwind ride, and ideally you can swing things your way enough times to win out in the end.
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