When it comes to classic family card games that even the kids can get involved with, it doesn’t get more classic than Snap. Pear Shaped takes Snap and gives it a brighter shine and a cool timer gimmick.
Most games carry their name on the box — it’d be pretty poor design if they didn’t — but Pear Shaped actually comes in a pear shaped, well, pear shape. However, the pear isn’t just the container for the games other components, it’s also the timer that you’ll set rocking back and forth to define exactly how long the players have to try and burn through their hand of cards.
Pear Shaped is incredibly simple. Each player is dealt a hand of cards, with each of those cards showing a quantity of icons (each the same, but the likes of Lightbulbs or Avocados replacing a card suit). The pear is placed in the middle of the table and the first card flipped, then the pear is set rocking and gameplay begins. Its open-turned, meaning that if you’ve got a valid card then you can go, so there’s definitely some worth in reorganising your hand so that you can burn through them quickly.
In order to legally play a card it has to have either the same number of icons on it, be the same coloured back or have the same icons on it. For example, you could place a Green Five Avocado card onto an Orange Five Lightbulb card as they both have five instances of the icon on them. You do have to declare your reasoning for placing your card, and that’s because players can’t repeat the same reason as the last card was played — so you can’t just burn through all of one colour, then all of one icon, etc.
If you place a matching card down on top of its pair then players race to exclaim “It’s All Gone Pear Shaped” and grab the pear. If you manage this, which happens surprisingly often, then you split the discard pile between all other players. If this doesn’t happen then the turn ends when the pear stops rocking, at which point the last player to point at the pear gathers the discarded cards up and adds them to their hand.
There’s a few wrinkles in everything going smoothly, of course. Get overexcited and claim the double when its not there and you’ll grab the discards, and if you focus too much you’ll likely miss the pear stopping.
It’s all simple enough that most kids can understand it, although it might not be immediately obvious that (much like playing cards) each quantity of icons are in a set pattern. With that explained though, Pear Shaped is another game from Big Potato Games that works perfectly for small to medium groups of young children.
Pear Shaped is available from Amazon.
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