Card Game Review: Loco!

Loco! is a card game designed by board game icon Reiner Knizia. Being compact and quick, it's a perfect filler, and makes a smashing bar game.

Components
The compact cardgame box contains thirty cards, six in each of five colors - red, blue, green, yellow, and purple - and numbered from 0 to 5. The cards themselves are smaller than standard playing cards, but larger than those found in games like Ticket to Ride. The intermediate size of the cards works out strangely well, as all cards are dealt at the beginning of the game. Also included are twenty-five plastic chips, five in each of the same five colors. The chips are fretfully light, their seemingly-inevitable fate of being lost forever under the couch mitigated by chunky ridges on each chip. A colorful, well-written rules booklet is included.

Setup
The chips are separated into their respective colors and set up in a circle or row on the playing surface. Two or three cards are removed from the deck, depending on number of players. This ensures an even deal and throws a monkey wrench into card-counters' plans. All the remaining cards are dealt to the players.

Play
Play is simple: play a card, take a chip. When you play a card, you place it next to the stack of chips of the same color. Then you make take a chip of any color. This small distinction is key to the strategy and scoring. The game ends when the sixth card of any color has been played.

Scoring
Your score is based on the value of your chips. Chips do not have a set value; rather, chips are worth the number of the last card played in that color (see picture). For instance, in this picture, purple chips are worth four points because "4" was the last card played in purple.

Strategy
The game becomes more chaotic with more players, but it is fairly strategic with two players. Ideally, you want to control the game ending with the highest numbered cards in most of your chips, and the lowest numbered cards in most of your opponent's chips. In practice, this can be quite difficult to do, as playing a "5" too early and collecting chips in that color will most likely backfire in your opponent canceling your effort with a "0" or "1."

Even though players' chips must be visible, it can be possible to watch for your opponent playing low cards on a color, then collect those chips yourself, and play your own high card in that color later. Conversely, you will watch for what colors your opponent seems to be picking up, and save a low card for them later. Tension becomes a factor as the card piles get to five cards, as one more card in those colors will end the game immediately and destroy your evil plans.

Summary
Loco! is a fun, light, inexpensive little card game with two Knizia hallmarks: unique scoring and "Argh! I didn't have time to complete my evil plans!" gameplay and game finish. The latter is not a bad thing. It adds delicious tension: in spite of what we think, we're more motivated by getting close to what we want, than actually getting what we want.

Play is so quick that we usually set a goal score, such as playing to 100 points, and then play several hands. It doesn't require a lot of analysis, so it's easy to keep a simple conversation going while playing, while at the same time the decisions keep things interesting enough to want to continue.

At around $6.95, Loco! makes an inexpensive gift or stocking stuffer.

Overall rating: 5/5 with two players, 4/5 with three or more players

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