Super Kawaii Pets for Four

We had another fun gaming afternoon with Chris & Carol.  We looked at a bunch of their games and brought four of our own.  I had to reread the rules for all four to make sure I could introduce them properly.  We finally picked the cute Super Kawaii Animals game.  We had previously only played this with 2 people, so I wondered if it would be any different with 4.  The main difference was: with 2 players most of the cards are still there on your next turn, so you get to plan ahead a bit.  With 4 players, by the time my turn rolled around again, almost all the cards had changed, so whatever plan I had was ruined.


We played two games, and Chris won both.  The first time was funny, since I was mostly in teaching mode and barely looked at my own cards, so I ended up my lowest score ever ... 11 points minus 4 unfed pets.  Chris, meanwhile scooped up his third bunny on his very last play, fed it, grabbed a 7 point bunny house, and outscored the rest of us.  Without even knowing what was going on.

I tend to go for too many cards and end up with cheap ones.  In the second game, I scored that same 7 point bunny house but Chris got two 8 point pets and two sixes.

While this does look like a "too cute to be serious" game, there's a matrix with three levels of play here.  First, choosing the pets: the ones you need to complete sets, the ones worth the most points or with the bonuses you need, versus the ones you can actually feed.  Then, getting the resources you need to flip the pets to score them.  Third, making sets of happy pets to get the furniture.  Combine that with the chain reaction of bonus plays.  You could possibly draw a pet and resource on a turn, play the pet (which gives you a pink card which could be another pet) and feed it on the same turn, then use it (possibly with other pets) to score some furniture ... all in one turn.

It was fun.  Whenever there's a little lapse in action, we can just show off the cute art on cards and make little animal skits with silly animal voices.  I never figured it had the little roleplaying aspect before.  Just what are those creatures thinking?  The so-called "happy" panda looks like a demented clown and one of the rabbits is totally a hamster.

We watched the movie Flow again after that.  Just as gorgeous and mysterious as the first time.