Common Threads, Blink, Bold

Of the games in that 8-pack we got this weekend, three of them were so similar I will group them together for speed.  They are Blink, Bold, and Common Threads.  What's funny is that, if we had not also bought Set for the first time this weekend, it would not have been as obvious how similar these games are.

I get it, big game companies want to offer a variety of games at various difficulty levels, and there have always been card games where you match various symbols in various patterns.  But these three just felt like slightly simpler versions of Set with either a different theme or one of the matching criteria removed for less brain drain.

Blink has color, number and shape.  Bold has shape, size and pattern.  We haven't played those yet, they went into a box for some other day.  But we did play through Common Threads because it looked quirky

Common Threads has a colorful cartoony character on every card.  You start by splitting the deck among all players, with one card face down to start the discard pile.  Flip that one card to see the first character.  Then everyone looks at their top card until they find some element that matches the last card played.  So, you would say "same character", "red hat", "blue pants", and so on, and play your card.  There were a few items the characters might be holding -- skateboard, tablet, fishbowl, boombox -- so those might also match.  It's clearly meant for a younger audience, because after two hands, all we could say was, "Huh."  It was cute, but there was no thinking involved.  

Clearly, there is a sweet spot for every gamer.  Some games we find relaxing, while others are too easy or too confusing.  Sometimes we want a quick 5-minute game or an hour-long deep puzzler, or a year-long RPG campaign.