Tacocat Spelled Backwards

Tacocat Spelled Backwards is a game from the makers of Exploding Kittens, and the overall cuteness of the package sold us.  "A game with a box that is also the board and a cat that is also a taco," for two players only.  The way the box opens into a simple game board is ingeniously simple.  So, you open the box, setup the taco cat and start dealing cards.


The cards are the kind of cute/funny/weird I would expect from these guys.  Odd palindromes with equally odd drawings.  But after a few rounds you don't really look at the drawings anymore.  You play cards to see who goes first, then the bulk of the game is the battle of cards to see who wins the round.  This starts with one player playing their highest card; other player can play an equal or higher card to take the trick, but if they can't succeed at that they must sacrifice their lowest card instead.  With the final pair of cards, the low card wins the hand.  This moves the tacocat one space closer to the player who won the round.

It's pretty simple, but there was some rule confusion.  Oddly, the printed rules start off by saying that printed rules are a terrible way to learn a game, and directs you to a video instead.  The video cleared up a few of the points we didn't get clearly from the rules, so yeah, I guess so.

The space the tacocat is on determines how many cards are dealt that hand, and the arrow points to the player who gets to decide how many cards to trade in -- the other player can trade up to that amount.  Aside from a section on how to play multiple cards at once, that's about it for rules.

I think we're both getting a little weary of trying new games only to find out they're "okay".  It gets to be quite an investment of time and money, and I am thinking of taking a few weeks off.  I am still having fun finding pop-culture mentions of board games, and other sub-topics.