Matthew BaileyGame 37 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” – “Sakana Stack” played with Toby(6) and Jack (9).
“Sakana Stack” is a deck-shredding card game for 3 to 5 players based around the idea of being rival vendors at a fish market and showcasing your selection of seafood. I’m going to start off by saying that “Sakana Stack” is a really interesting deck-shredding game desperate to get out, but unfortunately comes with one of the most unnecessarily confusing rule sheets I’ve ever read.
In my quest to try and work out how to play “Sakana Stack”, I checked with some of my fellow reviewers, and all of them equally found it tricky to understand, which is bonkers considering it is actually relatively simple.
In the end, I watched two playthrough videos: one done by another reviewer and another done by a reviewer with the designer at the UK Games Expo. Now, you would expect the UK Games Expo video with the designer to be correct, but what was said in that video seems to directly conflict with what is written in the rule sheet.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is I’m going to do my absolute best here to explain the rules, and hopefully, I played the game correctly. But if I haven’t, it’s not my fault—the proportion is a bit of a mess. Hopefully, before the game comes out in 2025, this will be improved, as I genuinely think there is a good game underneath this.
The game consists of 60 cards of six different kinds of seafood: eel, tuna, shrimp, pufferfish, urchin, and scallops. You start the game by taking out some of the cards if you are playing with fewer players. Now, you have a central pile in the middle of the table, which is known as the draw pile. You then turn over the top card of the draw pile, which is the “Catch of the Day”. There is also a discard pile next to the draw pile. Each player then takes 10 cards from the draw pile, and this forms their player hand, but actually, it’s a personal draw pile. Each player then also has a score pile. (I’m really trying here.)
Now, what you are intentionally trying to do is get rid of your cards. On your turn, you lay a stack of cards in front of you, which can be one or more cards of the same number. The next player then has to either follow the number or top colour of your pile with the bottom colour of their pile, with all numbers matching. The key mechanic here is that you must lay the same number or more than the value of the cards that were laid by the previous player. For example, if the previous player laid three fours, you would have to lay at least two sixes or more in order to continue play.
You may also use the “Catch of the Day” card at the top of the draw pile as part of your hand.
If you play a set of cards and the next player beats you, those cards that you played are then placed in the discard pile and do not score you anything. If they cannot beat you, you score the top card of your pile and play goes to the next person in the round. What is a key mechanic here is, let’s say for example you lay two eights, which gives a very difficult-to-beat 16, but then because you’ve scored one of those eights, the score to beat by the next player in the round is now eight, which makes it a lot easier.
This is a really key mechanic that keeps play going. If you get back to your turn and there is still a card in front of you on the stack, then you get to score that card.
This continues until a player has shed all of the cards from their hand or the draw pile is exhausted twice. The game ends, and you add up the final scores.
Firstly, I want to say that I think I’ve explained this correctly. I think that’s how you play the game, even though the rules that come with it are fairly confusing for what should be a relatively simple game.
Ignoring this, however, after the initial not-best playthrough, I warmed to the game and actually fairly enjoyed it. I can see this as a really good step up from Uno-style games for someone looking for the next step in complexity with these types of card games. There is actually quite a lot of strategy involved in what cards you play, and sometimes it benefits you not to play your cards early because you can leave yourself with not an awful lot in your hands, which makes the scoring difficult. Really, in truth, you only want to be laying cards that you know you have a good chance of winning.
Artistically, the game is really nice. It’s simple, but the drawings are really effective. It suffers from the usual low-light pub issue where the pinks, oranges, and purples fall very similar under warm, darkish light. But that is a perennial card game problem, and hopefully, one day designers will realize this.
Overall, I would say “Sakana Stack” is an interesting card game that is a good next step from something like “Uno”. I don’t think it’s essential, and the dreadful rule book does dampen the whole proceedings, but I enjoyed all of the games we played.
“Sakana Stack” is due to hit Kickstarter in October of this year, with it expected to hit retail at some point in mid-2025.
Disclaimer: A copy of “Sakana Stack” was kindly provided by “Huff No More” for the purposes of this review via the UK Board Game Circle. All of our thoughts and opinions are, however, our own. While I am currently unaware of the price, this has been taken into account.
