Ninja Cat Cucumber Attack (Moon Sprocket Games)

We did a quick run through CVS to pick up some NyQuil and DayQuil a few weekends ago, and Anne always likes to go through the "fun aisle" on the way out.  That's the aisle with gifts and "As Seen on TV" stuff and weird random items.  This time there was one little card game on the shelf.  Just one.  It was Ninja Cat Cucumber Attack, by Moon Sprocket Games.

It had cats, so we figured we should try it.

When I flipped through the little rule sheet, I was disappointed to see yet another "slap the card" game.  But we had a chance to sit outside under the gazebo this afternoon and give it a shot.

Yes, it's a slap-the-card game, like the basic game of War but with cats and more variety.  Start by dividing the deck equally, and whoever gets all the cards is the winner.  Take turns throwing down one card each.  If you see two of the same number or cat or weapon, you can slap the deck and take the whole pile.  Or a "sandwich" of two matching cards surrounding another card, slap and take the pile.  Or it it's a cucumber, slap and take the pile.

That should have gotten old quickly.  But the other play adds the variety.  If you play a ninja cat, it will say how many turns the next player has to play another ninja cat card.  So if it's the ninja cat with the big 3, the next player has three turns to play a ninja cat of their own.  If you succeed, play continues.  If you fail, the other player takes the stack.

Where the game really gets fun is by the rules failing to mention about half the goofy things that end up happening.  Let's say Player A plays a ninja cat and Player B has two moves to hit is with another ninja cat ... let's call this a Duel.  Does this count as Player B's entire turn, and do the normal rules of pairs and sandwiches get put on hold during this dueling phase?

Now suppose B plays a Cucumber after that ninja cat ... can that immediately be slapped, taking the whole stack away?  It feels like this leaves the duel unresolved, but the cards are gone, so fine.  

How about this: there is an orange 7, then a White 4, then a ninja cat, and I have 3 moves to counter with another ninja cat.  If I play a White 3, does that White 4 plus ninja cat plus White 3 count as a sandwich?  If so, the stack goes away and the duel is avoided.  We could frame is as the ninja cats really not wanting to fight, so they take every opportunity to escape instead.

What if there's a White 3, then the next card is a ninja cat who happens to be White -- can we say the two white cats are a match even though they are completely different types of cards?  If I am faced with a Red ninja cat and the first card I play is another Red ninja cat, are those two a match?  Swipe!  

See what I mean by suspending the normal matching rules during a duel?  If not, it gets really messy: about half of all the duels get swiped before we ever see the second ninja cat.  If yes (the matching rules pause during a duel), then there's a thin haze of confusion hanging over every turn.  Can I slap this?  Are we in a duel or was that card part of normal play?

If you slap a card in error, you put two cards at the bottom of the play stack.

We got confused about whose turn was next after someone grabs the deck for whatever reason.  So we figured whoever gets a grab deals the next card, to keep momentum going.

Like War, there are a lot of minimal gains, but Anne did take a significant lead after one run through the deck, only to have it all trickle away, and she lost her last card about three deck refreshes later.  Like War, this game could theoretically last forever.  The ninja cat plays were like the moments in War when two of the same card come up and each player has to lay out three cards face down and one face up, and the highest face up card wins the whole batch ... and do it again if those are also a match.  But the ninja cat cards have the extra number from 1 to 4, and may very well add those 1 to 4 extra cards onto the pile to be swiped a few cards later.

So yes, this is a card slapping game.  But with the numbers and cat colors and ninja cats, there is enough variety to be entertaining.  Oddly, Anne was a whiz at spotted matching cats where I always saw matching numbers before she did.

We need to try this again.  Are the rules really that broken?  There are definitely some assumptions baked in.  It was certainly entertaining.