Matthew BaileyGame 46 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” is “HotShot Pickleball” played with Toby(6) and Jack(9)
“Hot Shot Pickleball” can best be described as a card-based, arena-style game inspired by the niche sport of pickleball, which itself is a sorta halfway point of tennis and table tennis.
In the game, you can play solo or in teams. For this review, I played against both Jack and Toby, controlling two characters, while they played as a duo. I will also say discussion amongst partners is meant to thematically be an “I’ve got it” or “you take it” but I decided to let Jack and Toby talk and strategise.
The game features two decks: Rally cards and Long Shot cards. Each player starts by drawing five Rally cards, which they use with their specific player. Each player also has a special ability that can be used once per game, such as extending their reach, moving to any spot on the court, or replaying a point.
I’m guessing most readers aren’t pickleball experts, so I’ll use tennis analogies to make things clearer.
At the start of each point, one player serves, simply moving the ball into the opposite quadrant, similar to tennis. If a player has drawn an Ace card, they can use it (requiring the opponent to discard three shot cards to return) instead of a regular serve. This is one of several special cards, which I’ll explain later.
The game then continues with players using Rally cards to hit the ball back and forth, moving around the court and aiming to land shots in the main part of the court or the kitchen (the two segments at the front). Each player’s side of the court is divided into four areas, meaning you have to move strategically to reach the segment where the ball is played.
When I first sat down to play, I thought it looked fun, but I didn’t fully appreciate how much it would actually feel like playing tennis or, in this case, pickleball. The way you move and play your cards feels intuitive, and aiming to hit the ball into the parts of your opponent’s court where they aren’t positioned mimics the strategy of a real tennis match. This level of authenticity really impressed me.
As you play points and your players get tired, it becomes more challenging to reach difficult shots. This is well represented by the way you work through your hand. Sometimes, if a shot is far away, you might need to use two move cards and a shot card just to return it, discarding over half your hand in the process. Meanwhile, your opponent might return the shot using just one card.
Since the game is broken up into points, even if you get a bad hand and your chances of winning are low, losing one point doesn’t feel like a big deal.
There are also a few scarce specials such as the Wall which is an instant return.
If you can’t return a shot, your last resort is to use a Long Shot card. These are essentially broken down into yellow or red cards that either miraculously help you return the ball or cause you to lose the point. From what I observed, roughly two-thirds of these cards allow you to return the ball, while about a third result in an instant loss. Some losses are particularly brutal, such as when your opponent gets to look at your hand before the next point, or you lose a card for the next point.
There are also a few fun, unexpected party elements that I wasn’t expecting. For example, one involves returning the ball and then having to do a little dance, which Jack particularly enjoyed. Another forces a player to stay silent during the next point or risk instantly losing it. These elements don’t overstay their welcome, appearing only once per game, but they’re quite fun. I would have liked to see a few more of these, perhaps even a green card that instantly wins a point—just to spice things up a bit.
The game continues until either one player wins five points, or someone reaches twelve points with a two-point margin, similar to badminton. It’s not as quick a game as you might think, and when playing with four players, getting through potentially 20 cards takes some time. We found that even in one of the shorter games, it felt like we got a decent amount of gameplay.
Sure, there were some points where luck wasn’t on your side, but because it was just one point in a larger game, it didn’t matter too much.
The artwork is simple but appealing. I really like the characters, and they fit well with the whole pickleball theme. The board is nice, and everything fits together as you would expect. Although I can’t comment too much on the quality of the components since this was a prototype, the components were of high quality, and I’d be very happy if this is indicative of the final product.
As you might have gathered, I really like “Hot Shot Pickleball”. It’s a unique game that feels like an arena battler with a pickleball twist, and it genuinely made me feel like I was using real racket game tactics to outplay my opponents.
The Long Shot cards add a really fun element, with the suspense of turning over a card to see if it’s yellow or red—wondering if a red card might mess up your next point as well as the one you just lost.
There’s enough complexity here to satisfy a core gamer group, but it’s also accessible due to its analogies to familiar racket sports and the well-presented cards with diagrams (which, according to the publisher, will be even better in the final product).
“Hot Shot Pickleball” is set to hit Kickstarter in mid-September, and you can sign up to be notified when that happens on the landing page. I’m not sure how much the game will cost, so I can’t comment on its value for money, but assuming it’s reasonably priced, I highly recommend it.
Disclaimer: a preproduction prototype of “Hotshot Pickleball” was provided by Midnight Training Co for the purpose of review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
