R&R Games Hanabi Strategy Game

Five stars! Super cool collaborative dynamic, and great gameplay style where what you don't say is as important as what you do. Unique concept with high replay value and several gameplay styles to increase or decrease difficulty as needed. Small and portable with high replay value.

This is a really great game. The setup is simple, the rules are easy to learn and yet there is a lot of replay value.Even as you begin to learn the logic patterns, habits and methods that you and your friends share, there are ways to increase the challenge if you are brave enough to try learning new techniques.For example, you and your friends untangle formidable situations, grind through color after color and solve complicated circumstances that seemed impossible at first. Yes, you and your friends have become a well-oiled machine of serious logic bending awesomeness. You can handle anything that is thrown at you... so you add in the set of multi-colored expansion cards (that come standard with the basic game) and now you must retrain and re-tune your team as you are collectively challenged to re-invent your decisive awesomeness once more.Then try out some of the most popular rule-variants created by fans. Many of them are fantastic variations that will contain an appealing element that will shake up strategies for something fun and new. Many of these lead to amusing/hilarious outcomes or truly epic stories to tell your grandchildren someday. -- But Seriously, it is a fun game and can be very rewarding when played with the same players several times. (but is also fun regardless of who you play it with. )A fun suggestion for learning the game or teaching it to new players (this apples to youngsters, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, friends and strangers too!): We add a stack of 6 to 8 coins (like dimes or pennies) and mutually award them to players that 'accidentally' reveal too much information while playing the game. We call them "Scoldy-tokens", and lovingly refer to them as such, when we politely explain the reason for awarding the scoldy-token and then remind everyone the format of sharing information and what is allowed to be shared each time an information-token is used. ( These are also good opportunities to insert tips, example scenarios and assumptions that might be related to the incident that resulted in the scoldy-token to be issued). While players will trigger the scoldy-tokens to be issued, the scoldy-tokens should not represent a punishment or be kept by any individual (even if someone keeps incurring the “awards”). These scoldy-tokens are communal and belong to all of the players. They are placed in the center of the table. (or next to the 3-strike invalid card-play tokens)- If all of the scoldy-tokens are used up, the game ends there (or when playing your first few games, maybe you just add more tokens to the supply and keep issuing them). We find that 6-8 scoldy-tokens is a nice allowance for new players to make inevitable mistakes and goof as they are learning to play with the others. This helps new players quickly learn how to use the information-token the right way and establishes a collectively undesirable consequence for continuing to ignore the most basic rule of the game.It also allows new players to occasionally be silly join in the fun when sharing information for comic value without having to feel like you should be playing a strict un-fun game.Then, as players in the group are able to manage not using up all of the scoldy-tokens during a game, we add the rule that subtracts the total number of scoldy-tokens (‘awarded' to the table), from the final score at the end. Eventually, your players will have picked up on ways to have fun, laugh, cry and become an amazingly efficient team, without scoldy-tokens ever being issued again. (at least until you play again after a long break. I always slip up in the first game or two).Anyway,

I picked up this game after hearing about it running as a nominee for a 2013 Spiel des Jahres Award and perusing some other reviews, and it's quite an excellent game.UPDATE 7/8: It's won the 2013 Spiel des Jahres Award.~Component & Rule Overview~First impressions of the game is that the box is a lot smaller than I thought it is. The components are a simple deck of 50 cards and some tokens. The cards are a slightly smaller in size than Dominion card game cards (european standard). The box is very easy to pocket and take along someplace.Gameplay is simple but deep. You and your fellow "pyrotechnicians" are in charge of playing your fireworks cards from your hand in concert playing cards of five different fireworks colors in ascending order from 1 to 5 somewhat similar to playing and categorizing like the well-known card game Solitaire. The goal is to score a perfect score of 25 points (5 colors with 5 numbers)The twist to this game is that the players know everyone's hands but their own hand and communication is limited by the number of blue timer tokens on the table and the ways they can describe a player's hand (e.g. "you have this one color/number here, here, and here").Choices on your turn are few but significant. Give one piece of information to help a fellow person out and discard a timer token, discard a card (and hopefully not a rare number 5 card) to get a timer token back, or play a card on to the table hoping the card works with the other cards on the table or else lose a fuse token which would you take you closer to ending the game.~Review~I really like this game. Setup and break down is a breeze. Its games mechanics and choices are simple, but the choices made can have lasting consequences overall. It's one of those few cooperative games where it's difficult for one person to take command. Everyone must participate to play and contribute information. We as a group have cheered and sighed in despair over cards played or discarded. It's not a game that will take a whole night, and would be a nice filler in my book and would be a great game for those that are into light games. If you like cooperative games. Pick it up.Highly recommended.~Also, a quick note on the components. The version from R&R games has some pretty weak card stock. I've bent and frayed the edges on the cards in less than 10 plays. Also, the color suits can be hard to discern amongst each other. I sleeved the cards and also learned to match symbols in addition to the colors. Not a major deterrent to the game but is important to note.

Tried this in a game bar and it was great so decided to purchase it myself. It is very fun to play with friends and easy to learn! Since purchasing it we’ve played it several times on game nights and everyone’s loved it! Games don’t feel too long or short. I like the replay-ability and the cooperative experience! 10/10 recommend. It’s great for a stocking stuffer or to bring to a home party.

This game is simple to learn, but is also quite challenging in terms of thinking and strategy. It was really fun to play.

Challenging and fun to play. It takes a little practice but well worth it.