Go Shark

A fast-paced reimagining of a classic game. With sharks. For 2 to 7 players. Objective: clear your hand of cards by playing combinations and capturing cards from other players. Components: Can be played with 2 standard poker card decks. Remove the face cards and jokers and shuffle the rest together (total 80 cards). Shuffle and deal 7 to each player. While Go Shark is inspired by Go Fish, key changes make it more competitive and faster paced. Basic Play: Seek to collect playable combinations, by drawing cards and creatively asking the player to your left for a card meeting your custom criteria, such as "4 or lower" or "an 8 or 9 of spades." But watch out, since each player can keep 2 protected cards (facedown), which can block your request. If the request is not met, it moves around the table clockwise until either fulfilled or blocked. Shark attack! Any played card can be captured with an exact matching cards, removing it from the opponents set or run and playing as an exact pair. Winning: The game ends when a player clears their hand of all cards or when they choose to "go out" with 1 or more cards, yielding that many additional turns to the remaining players. Win by having more point value in the played tricks using a nonlinear point system: 1 point value for any trick with 2 or 3 cards. Tricks with 4 or more cards are scored that number of points. Cards left in hand do not matter, and tricks reduced to only 1 card (after shark attacks) are valued 0. Go Shark starts with the "Do you have an X" mechanic from Go Fish, but deepens the strategy and risk. Keep your wits about you as you aim to clear your hand and outscore your opponents. —description from the designer

Players: 2–7 best 7
Playing time: 10–20 min
Age: 5+
Complexity: 1 / 5