- Beasty Bar: Review of the animal card game
- This is how it works on the jostling mile between bouncer and bouncer
- Information, evaluation and conclusion
The card game beasty bar Two to four people can play, and each has twelve identical animal cards of their chosen suit. And these cards are exceptionally large and so amusingly illustrated that that alone makes them a joy to play with. Each card features a different animal, and each animal has a special ability.
How does Beasty Bar play?
Another card is placed on the gaming table, Heaven’s Gate, the entrance to the bar that gives it its name. Then five seats remain empty, that becomes the jostling mile, and then the kicking card is placed. Here by the garbage cans is the discard pile for those who failed to get into the Beasty Bar. Each player starts with an identical animal card set with twelve characters, from which four randomly drawn animals are taken in hand. The aim is to guide as many of his animal companions as possible to the Beasty Bar. To do this, one after the other places four hand cards in the crowd and then draws another card from his own face-down draw pile. If there are more than five animals in the jostling mile, Heaven’s Gate is opened and the first two animals are allowed into the bar. The last animal is thrown out, onto the discard pile by the garbage cans.
Beasty Bar: Check out the game on Amazon
The highlight of the game are the characteristics of the animals (which are only memorized over time – so treat yourself to a practice round or two!). In this way, the skunk can catapult the two animal species with the highest card values out of the jostling mile. The crocodile eats all animals whose card value is lower than his. Our favorite is the seal: She swaps admittance and expulsion cards and is thus in first place if she was the last to make it to the jostling mile.
Since hardly anyone can remember these skills right away, there is a helpful overview card. You have to keep an eye on four animals with constant actions. These mean that the characteristics of the animals are queried not only once, but again in each player’s turn.
Animal fun and animal frustration
Beasty Bar is a wonderful card game to start or end the game night, but also for in between. As soon as everyone is familiar with the properties of the cards and knows how to use supposedly weak animals to their advantage, the game runs smoothly and, above all, varied. Although playing the cards would actually require a lot of prior consideration, it is not at all suitable for die-hard tactics fans.
Because the display can change constantly, again and again stupid monkeys or arrogant lions destroy their own strategies. And then this clumsy seal comes along and turns everything upside down.
In our test rounds, the game was much more fun with three or four players than with two. We found the bizarre design of the cards – wittily drawn, humanized animals – great, the game idea is as simple as it is original, the gameplay is mostly sympathetic and chaotic. Important to know: Many of the cards not only benefit the player, they also damage the opponent. This creates almost constant annoyances – and moments of frustration for sensitive players.
information and conclusion
Beasty Bar is one of those games whose fun factor depends 100 percent on the composition of the game round: if the gutsy players with a sunny disposition dominate, it’s a real firework of fun. With quickly snapped and dogged planners, it becomes a reason for argument. The animal wrangling at the club entrance seems to be successful in any case, otherwise the Zoch publishing house would have been there New Beasts in Town* and Born to be Wild not already released two expansions.
- info to beasty bar at a glance:
- Number of players: 2 to 4
- Age recommendation: from 8
- Duration: 20 minutes
- Publisher: Zoch
- Authors: Stefan Kloß and Anna Oppolzer
- Per:
- Whimsical card design
- Original animal effects
- short playing time
- Cons:
- nothing for tacticians and planners
- high potential for frustration
Conclusion: Nice idea, funny design, varied and surprising – beasty bar can be great fun for in between. However, the prerequisite is that the players do not take themselves too seriously.
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transparency notice: To test the game, the publisher provided us with a review copy without further conditions.
