Meow Mayhem (Cenvodiq, 2024)

So I got a few more reward points at work and spent them on games on Amazon again.  That's an odd balance: do the thing I don't like during the day to directly get things I do like doing.  This time, I got Meow Mayhem, Rat-a-Tat Cat and MLEM (cats in space).

We played a hand of Meow Mayhem this time.  The cards were cute but the rules felt like something was missing.  The only valid plays are a Month Party (3+ cats from same month, different breeds) or a Scarf Parade (same color collar for 3+ consecutive months).  We played our own sets in front of us, like it was rummy, and the game just felt empty, then the deck ran out, and the rules were silent on what happens when the cards are gone.

First off, there should be month numbers and scarf color at the edges of the card, so they can be seen when fanned out in your hand.  Instead, you have to look at the full images to see these, and the breed is at bottom right, also not easily visible in hand.  There were some action cards, which we skipped the first time around.  Then, when we looked at them, they were not very interesting: block two breeds until it's your turn again, hand a card back to another player, take a card from a layout into your own hand.

When researching this, I found the developer Cenvodiq and saw they have an online demo of the game to help you sort it out. although the in-game title is "Meow Mix Mayhem."

The online version was quite confusing after we got the printed rules so wrong.  It looks like you don't play your hands separately.  Instead, all plays go into a communal set of sets that keep getting longer.  So if you have a February cat with blue scarf, the demo calls that a Blue-2, and it could be played on a Blue 3-6 set, since that set doesn't have a 2 (February) yet.  Now the action cards make a bit more sense, as you're trying to clear your cards first, so handing cards to other players is a good move.  One interesting part is if a valid run gets disrupted, you might end up shuffling those cards together and dealing them out to all players.

What happens when the cards run out?  I figured we would keep playing until nobody had a play and then whoever has the least cards wins.  The online demo confirms that guess.

On BoardGameGeek, this has a low 2.0 rating due to one 1-star rating by someone who accused them of using AI art, then insulting the developer and anyone who supported them.  We did not set out to support some nefarious strawman.  We got reward points at work and picked something from Amazon with a theme we happen to collect.  I guess we're supposed to hate everything now?  Or everything made after 2022 is fundamentally tainted because AI might have been used.  Or we were supposed to know (somehow) that it was AI art and throw it in a bonfire? This is insane.

At the end of our first try, we just said it sucked and packed it up, and we should try again when we got the rules sorted out.  They still need better markings at the edge of the cards where card players always look for card values and suits.

Update: After a few days, we decided to skip this one.  I can always play the online demo again.  If we have to put 12 cards side by side with no overlap due to their poor design, we don't have enough room on the table for it.  It's in the donate pile, and will probably end up at the local library book shop.