Microgames are characterized by handiness, brevity of rules and an interesting idea for the game. They will be perfect as fillers between games in larger titles or as travel games. Below is a look at four microgames released by Lucky Duck Games.
Esy Floresy ( Tussie Mussie )
In this game we are going to compose bouquets. Each flower has its own scoring rule, and players try to collect as many card combinations as possible. The essence of the game is how we collect them.
On our turn, we draw two cards and offer them to the player on the left, revealing one of them, “I cut, you choose”. The other player decides which of these cards to keep and which he will give back to us. He then draws two more cards and repeats the process with the next player in turn. When everyone has four cards, we move on to counting the points.
Esy Floresy contain a large portion of bluff and uncertainty on several cards. During the game, we try to keep track of what cards our neighbors have, what they could offer us as a flipped card. We evaluate the strength of our own bouquet with incomplete information and make risky decisions. Or so it is in theory.
After a few games, you can unfortunately notice a lot of randomness in the title. Choosing a flower from the offer is a nested dilemma with incomplete information many times – the opponent knows that I know what card he has in his bouquet, so he will give me something to choose from that fits my bouquet card, hiding a card that might be useful to him. Sometimes you can play it well, but more often we just rely on gut and hope for luck. By randomly selecting flower cards, we can come across unexpected combinations. A five-year-old incapable of reading, choosing flowers by picture, was able to beat me on a regular basis.
If we don’t take the game very seriously, we’ll have fun. In two people, the bluff aspect can still be used quite effectively, but when playing with three or four people we have to accept the lack of a greater influence of our decisions on the result. Still – Esy Floresy will work well as a simple, not very engaging game .
The single-player variant involves a game against a virtual opponent who also collects cards for his bouquet. Interestingly, after the first and second rounds, the opponent leaves one of his cards for the next round, making his scoring possibilities drastically increased. I missed this solution in the game with real opponents.
Playing solo can be rewarding, but the random nature of the game makes itself felt, making victory more than just our planning.
Playability 7
Build quality 9
Originality 7
Replayability 7
