Following the unprecedented Kickstarter campaign success with Exploding Kittens, the same crew published Unstable Unicorns.
Here, each player is trying to build up a “stable” of a winning number of unicorns and/or unicorn-type creatures from their hand–totalling either six or seven, depending on number of players–while trying to prevent others from doing the same.
Each player starts with a baby unicorn/creature of some sort and is dealt five cards. Everyone’s turn starts with acting on any recurring effects from cards already in play, drawing a card, playing a card and acting on any subsequent effects (or drawing a second one instead), and finally discarding any cards more than the hand limit of seven.
Some unicorn/creature cards have abilities that affect the game, such as protecting your stable long-term or giving you a one-time search through the deck for something specific, while others are basic creatures and simply add to your stable’s total. Magic or upgrade/downgrade cards will affect other players and/or yourself, any of which may turn the tide on who wins. Don’t like a card that someone is playing? You can always play a Neigh card to stop it from being played (but if they’re sneaky and have it on hand, they can Neigh your Neigh, to have the original card still count, which my daughter may have done to steal my pending victory, BUT I’M NOT BITTER).
This basic game, already with numerous expansions available–which seem to largely be for an older crowd, while this one is 8+–was pretty fun. I’m looking forward to playing again.