Pear Shaped

Today’s review, game 7 in our “Reviews Leading Up to (and now in) the February Half Term and Valentine’s Day” series, is “Pear Shaped” by Big Potato Games, also a part of our longstanding “Games that are like Uno but probably better than Uno” series.

Played with Jack(.8.) and Toby(5).

It is a relatively simple game. You start by shuffling all of the cards and handing out a hand of 6 and a draw pile to each player depending on the number of players.

Each card has a colour, a symbol, and a number related to the amount of symbols there are. The game comes with a pretty cool pear which serves as both a mechanism in the game and a storage for the cards themselves. The game starts by rocking the pear. Once you’ve done that, you then have a relatively short amount of time to attempt to lay as many cards as you can.

It works Dobble-style in the sense that players are trying to place their card on the pile before the other players. In order to play a card, you must match either the number, the colour, or the symbols, shouting out what you have matched as you lay the card.

One particular mechanic here that I really like, which is not as common as you would expect, is that unlike most hand-shredding games, you are not allowed to play the same match twice in a row. For instance, if one player places down a card and shouts “avocados,” then the next player must match the number or the colour instead.

This is a particularly cool mechanic that actually works really well, and I’m surprised that it is not more common in these types of games. While everything is frantically going on, there is also the matter of keeping an eye on the pear. If the pear stops rocking, you have to stand up and do the “Pear Shake.” The last person to do the pear shake has to pick up all the cards in the pile. In reality, when we were playing, we just wiggled around rather than standing up, just because I didn’t want any trips to A&E for someone falling off their kitchen chair.

The other key mechanic is if someone manages to lay an exact match, matching all three things on the card, they get to shout “pear shaped,” grab the pear, and then all cards on the pile get divided up amongst the other players.

There is a lot to like here about Pear Shaped. I really like the fact that you can’t lay the same thing twice in a row. I really like the fact that each player gets their own individual draw pile, which makes speed-based gameplay possible. Everything is simple, and it is actually a lot more fun to play than I initially expected it to be. As a family, we are normally not massive fans of these types of reaction games.

From a production point of view, the game is extremely well-made. The pear itself is really cool, and luckily, the box is reusable. Meaning if, like me, you like things in square boxes, you can still happily put it back on the shelf. The cards are an unusual shape which does actually make shuffling them pretty tricky, but we didn’t seem to have any problems using them when we played the game.

Henry(2) is obsessed with the pear itself and had it cuddled up next to him in bed the other day.

As well as fitting into the “Games like Uno that are better than Uno” category, it also just about edges into the “Games that are like Dobble but better than Dobble” category.

If you are not a fan of games that require speed and reaction times, then this is probably going to be a cautious recommendation. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a quick party game that you could easily throw in a travel bag to take on holiday, this is a pretty decent one. As an aside, I could also see this being decent fun being played late at night with adults after a bottle of wine (or five).

Disclaimer: A copy of “Pear Shaped” was kindly provided by Big Potato Games for the purpose of review. All of our thoughts and opinions are our own.