Matthew BaileyToday we’re going to be looking at Slambo!, one of my favourite little card games I’ve played in ages. Even though it’s pretty simplistic, it’s great fun.
The rules are straightforward. You’re not allowed to go below zero or above ten in a back-and-forth battle using number cards. You start with a card on the table showing five, and in your hand you’ve got a mixture of plus and minus cards ranging from one to eight. You shuffle and deal out the deck so that each player has half, and this is key because it keeps the game balanced.
On your turn you simply play a card to change the value, without going above ten or below zero. If you can’t play, you lose. The whole thing only takes a couple of minutes and it can actually get surprisingly intense.
What makes Slambo! really clever is the balance of the cards. Because it’s strictly two-player and you use the entire deck, if one player ends up with loads of minus cards, the other will naturally have loads of pluses. If you’re paying attention, it’s not too tricky to start working out exactly what the other player is holding, which means the game can be as deep and strategic as you want it to be.
It works perfectly as a light, quick game that even kids can pick up, but it can also be a tense, card-counting duel if you want to push it further. The cards are nice quality, the artwork is brilliant, and I absolutely love the Japanese sumo theme. This is a perfect little handbag game – something you could whip out in Pizza Express, play in the back of the car, or on a tiny plane table. Honestly, it’s one of the best little card games I’ve come across in ages, and I just wish I’d found it earlier in the summer so I could’ve taken it on all my travels.
