Go for Gold is a fast paced game of plucking matches out from under the nose of your opponents, an Olympic game of speed and dexterity, if you will.
When it comes to games with card or tile-based pieces is there anything more pure than the ‘make a pair’ mechanic? I don’t think so. Well, Go for Gold is based entirely around that, with players challenged to pair up either competitions (which each have their own colours and iconography) or the number of sports represented on the cards. It’s quick though, with six cards in play at once, and a player count of 2-8 players.
If the pictures of Go for Gold seem familiar, that’s because Gibsons released a couple of Team GB games and each of them has used the same visual style, iconography and more. If you’re a regular reader then you’ll have seen our review of Ready Set Win. I’m sure that a few people might think this is perhaps a little lazy, but I actually think it’s a really clever design decision and that it creates a branding consistency that means that if you DO find yourself playing more than one game from the series, you’ll be able to slot into it easier because of it.
As you might have guessed from the intro paragraph, it’s incredibly easy to get Go for Gold up and running. You’ll shuffle the 100~ cards, put 25 into a Competition pile and then flip six of the remaining deck (sports deck, if you wish) next to them. A player then flips the top card of the competition deck and then players then race to grab cards of a matching colour to the competition card, or cards with the same amount of sports on it.
Once that’s done (and, odds are that only a few of the cards are applicable, so it’ll be quick) then next card is flipped from the competition stack and play continues. It’s all really quick, maybe five minutes if everybody knows the rules.
Once done players sort their cards into competitions. The player with the highest number of sports across their cards gets a gold medal, worth five, second place gets a silver worth four while third gets a bronze worth three. Medals are handed out for each of the eight competitions and then points are tallied. Simple.
Go For Gold might not be the most complex game, but it’s a great little warm up game — especially if your group of family or friends does enjoy the theming.
Go For Gold is available now via Amazon.
