Base price: $12.
1 – 4 players.
Play time: 15 – 20 minutes.
BGG Link
Check it out on Kickstarter!
Logged plays: 4
Full disclosure: A preview copy of Cat Rescue: Summer Festival was provided by Sunrise Tornado Game Studio. Some art, gameplay, or other aspects of the game may change between this preview and the fulfillment of the Kickstarter, should it fund, as this is a preview of a currently unreleased game.
I was in a great spot for reviews and then Metaphor: ReFantazio dropped and, honestly, I need to stop getting into 70+ hour RPGs. I just don’t have that kind of time, these days. It’s really hard to get through these long RPGs. The game is great, don’t get me wrong; I’m just wholly invested and I’m trying to balance that against getting other things done. Oh well; we abide. But in the meantime, I’ve been able to play some great games, like another new Sunrise Tornado title that just hit Kickstarter! Let’s talk about Cat Sudoku: Summer Festival!
In Cat Sudoku: Summer Festival, you’re putting a spin on Sudoku! With fun and cute cats and colors, you’re trying to place cards that will score you points while making it difficult for your opponents to do the same. At the same time, you’ve got some starting cards that you have to earn the ability to play. If you don’t, they’ll cost you a bunch of points. Will you be able to make the most of the cats you draw?
Contents
Setup
This one’s pretty simple. Set the Reserve Tokens aside:
If you’re playing with two players, remove all the purple Cat Cards; shuffle the remaining cards up and deal each player three face-up to form their reserve:
You’ll eventually try to make a 3×3 grid, so keep that in mind, space-wise, and flip one card face-up into the center. You should be ready to start!
Gameplay
This one’s pretty simple. Each turn you’ll draw and place a card, following some rules, and your goal is to eventually score the most points by emptying your reserve before the deck runs out.
On your turn, draw a card from the deck. You can place it anywhere you want, but you have to follow two pseudo-Sudoku rules:
- No cards of the same color in any row or column.
- No cards of the same value in any row or column.
- You cannot place on the card with the meeple on top of it. Note that once you place a card, you move the meeple on top of that newly-placed card.
You’ve mostly got it. If you can’t place the card or don’t want to do so, add it to your Reserve. If you place a card such that the condition on the bottom is fulfilled, you also get a Reserve token from the supply.
After you’ve done that, you can spend two Reserve tokens to place a card from your Reserve, following the normal rules. You can do that as many times as you have pairs of Reserve tokens.
If you make a mistake and someone catches it, they get a Reserve token and the game continues without fixing the issue. Once the deck is depleted, the game ends.
Regardless of scoring rules, the player with the most Reserve tokens gains 2 points (all tied players get 2). Also, any player with cards in their Reserve loses 3 points per Reserve card.
For basic scoring, each player is assigned a zone based on player count (usually the column to their left, except in three-player games where they get the left / right / middle column). You then get 1 point for each card in your column. For Advanced Scoring, you get 1 point per card in the space in your zone with the most cards, and then 2 points for each spot with two cards in your zone and 5 points for each spot with three cards in your zone (and nothing otherwise).
Player with the most points wins!
Player Count Differences
This one’s pretty fun, difference-wise. With each new player you add, each player gets their own scoring column, so there becomes an increasing number of places where you can’t “safely” play without helping another player. Note that, at three, each player gets a column (rather than having overlap, as you do at four players). To help with crowding, you use a purple card suit at higher player counts (just to give you more places you can play, color-wise. The game is so quick and lively at any player count that I don’t have a huge preference, just watch out for corners at four players! You’re not the only player who scores them (your left and right opponents share corners with you).
Strategy
- Your ideal goal is placing as many cards as possible in your scoring column on your turn. In the basic scoring mode, you get one point per card in your column, so the more you place, the more you score. It’s pretty straightforward.
- You can try to mess up your opponent(s) by placing cards that make it difficult for them to play. The blocking strategy generally works, but it’s even more helpful if there are already a few cards of each color or a specific number on the board. This might force them to either move their card to their Reserve (a bunch of negative points) or place it on your scoring area (points for you). Either way is good.
- I generally try to keep two Reserve Tokens at any given time, at least, in case I have to add an extra card to my Reserve. It’s good to be able to dump a Reserve Card at any time.
- Don’t get sloppy! You don’t want to get caught making a mistake. It’s not the worst thing, but it’s kind of wasteful since you’re just giving Reserve Tokens away to your opponent. Naturally, if you start doing it on purpose, you’re just cheating, so cut that stuff out.
- Take a look at each other player’s Reserves; you can potentially block some of their moves if you play your cards right. It’s challenging but possible. If they have a bunch of yellow cards, placing your yellow cards you draw such that it’s hard for them to place one anywhere useful can often be a workable strategy.
- I mean, you should also try to place cards such that you can gain Reserve Tokens; sometimes it’s worth giving a point to another player. It’s the same calculus as above: placing a Reserve Card gives you (essentially) 3 points; your opponent gaining a Reserve Token at worst gives them 3 points (one for placing a card on their side and two more for them having the most Reserve Tokens). So it’s almost always worth it (or at least neutral).
- Keep an eye on how many cards are left in the deck. If you’re waiting on playing Reserve Cards for some reason, you don’t want to be left holding the bag when the game ends.
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- The art for this one remains great. I love this style of art for cats; it looks so good.
- Mr. President is an excellent name for a cat. I never realized until I read it but it’s also pretty perfect? I would love to have a cat named Mr. President.
- This is probably Ta-Te’s most approachable title, and I love that? Quick rules and super easy to play. It’s really easy to pick this one up and just get going. We often play it a few times per session because it’s just so easy.
- The Advanced Scoring adds a nice little twist to the game. It incentivizes playing to your opponent’s areas more (because you can ruin their scoring), and it makes it so you don’t just necessarily dump all your cards to your side. It’s clever.
- Balancing getting Reserve Tokens against playing cards in your scoring row is a nice little puzzle. Sometimes you end up giving your opponent a point in the now to save yourself from a -3 in the long run. That’s a fun trade-off to have to make, but that’s part of why I enjoy the game.
Mehs
- The square cards drive me a bit nuts, but that’s my general dislike of square cards coming out again. I just find that once they’re spun around, the deck doesn’t shuffle well anymore, and it’s almost impossible to sort them in a useful way.
- I’m not entirely sure why you just don’t score the row in front of you? It seems like that would be rotationally identical to (and easier to remember than) the column to your left. This is another episode of “I’m Not a Designer”, so take that with a grain of salt, but in two- and four-player games, why not just score the row in front of you? For three-players, you’re going to be scoring columns no matter what, so maybe it’s for consistency?
Cons
- It’s surprisingly difficult to remember to move the meeple every time you play a card, which causes obvious problems. I have yet to figure out why this is such a challenge for me and my game groups, but it might be because the meeple is relatively small and I just kind of overlook it? I’m not sure. The problem is, forgetting to move it can cause chains of issues. Nothing more annoying than having a strategy planned and then realizing you can’t play where you wanted because the meeple didn’t get moved.
Overall: 8.75 / 10
Honestly, I could probably make this paragraph a lot shorter if I said “I think this is my favorite game that Ta-Te has designed”, and that would still be true. It’s between that and Promenade / Art Decko, which I also quite enjoy. The major advantages here are pretty straightforward: I could play this game anytime with basically anyone and I think they’d enjoy it, and it’s so quick that I’ve never played it just once in a session. It’s a perennial “do you want to play this again?” game, and those are rare. The form-factor is a bit too small, but that’s a lot of Ta-Te’s games, so while I worry about losing it, I’ll acknowledge that it fits pretty easily in whatever you want to carry games in, so portability works in its favor. Plus, a high-portability and quick-playing game is pretty much always a good combo. What I think makes the game such a keeper is that for a simple premise, it’s got a lot of fun interaction between players. You don’t have a particularly large space to operate, so you really have to stay frosty and flexible each turn if you want to empty your Reserve, gain Reserve tokens, and still try to play to block your opponent(s). Honestly, of those three, you can usually only do two (sometimes one) per turn, so the prioritizing element of the game is pretty key. I was pretty impressed! Plus, the cat names and art are super endearing, so players are bound to pick favorites during the game, which helps improve its embedding among players. I think Cat Rescue: Summer Festival is quite a good time, and if you’re looking for a quick and portable game, you enjoy a bit of spatial puzzling, or you just like cats named Mr. President, you’ll probably enjoy this as well!
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