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Game Preview: Ketch Up/Absacker, or Then Tomatoes Are Seven

Game Preview: Ketch Up/Absacker, or Then Tomatoes Are Seven
Board Game: Absacker
Board Game: Absacker
Everything old is new again, the saying goes, and while we as gamers might first think of Android: Netrunner or Fire & Axe as living examples of this saying — games that have returned from Neverland to find a place in our homes once more — dozens of lower-profile game designs are phoenixed onto the marketplace each year to serve an important role that we often overlook: games for normal people — that is, games for people who are gamers but not gamer gamers, if you know what I mean; games that consist of a single page of rules and that a family or group of friends will come back to day after day after day when they're looking for something to play after dinner or while waiting for the subway.

Leo Colovini and Dario de Toffoli's card game Ketch Up fills that role, and that game has been reborn in late 2014 as Absacker from AMIGO, a title that few will rush to acquire during Spiel 2014 but one that will likely outsell all of the titles that are being rushed for. We often overlook such designs in our quest for the new, but they're all around us and an important part of the game industry for publishers, designers and, yes, even players.

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