I really like trick taking games. I grew up playing Euchre, Bid Euchre, and Rook. In college I took up Bid 500 and Bridge. This is not to say I am discerning or have some insight others may not, it’s just to identify this is a category of games I’ve played a long time and, generally speaking, enjoy. So with that as background let’s discuss this card game with peacock art.
In Pikoko, players bid how many tricks they think each hand will take for a round and then earn points based on bidding correctly, bidding off by one, or by way of a double down mechanism – betting on one of their bids. And how do players have enough knowledge to bid on each hand? Hands are played open information to every player but the owner of the hand. After the 3rd round, scores are totaled and a winner determined. Bids happen sequentially by hand starting left of the dealer, with all players who can see the hand bidding simultaneously (owners sit out bidding for their own hand), and once all hands have bids, a final bid allows all players to bid on their own (unknown to them) hands. Bids are open information tracked with player specific chits. There’s a lot of information to take in during a short period of time, so this item tracking is appreciated and a significant help to players. After all bids are placed, players can double down on one of their bids or play it safe and take a point for free by secretly selecting a card that will show other players the bet at the end of the round. But if you double down, your bid must match exactly or you’ll lose points!
And how do players play their hands if they can’t see them? They play the hand to their left. With 5 colored suits, numbered cards determine a hierarchy for who wins the trick. And a randomly determined trump suit allows for more than just follow the lead color play. Being dealt a bad hand has no bearing on your ability to earn max points for a round. The deck scales down by player count so the amount of hidden information (leftover deck) doesn’t balloon when you play with fewer players.
The rulebook is simple to follow and does a fine job of providing the opportunity for new players to read, teach, and begin playing in about 15 minutes (that’s roughly what it took me to do so at PaxU).
For components, Brain Games did something amazing. As a general rule, I don’t care for directional card backs unless there’s a solid functional reason. But when I have to arrange my hand so that I don’t see it but others do, that seems like a functional reason. The card backs have feathers printed off center so that when they are arranged in a fan such that you see each feather, other players see card numbers. It’s a small detail, but it’s one that you know is intentional and shows an obvious attention to detail and effort to make an awkward process easier. Now, it’s possible that it might have been just as easy to have the player on your right arrange your hand, but then again, that might have been just as awkward or resulted in unintentionally seeing cards that should remain hidden. The offset feather on card backs was something I noticed right away and really appreciated.
My first experience with Pikoko was playing with a few college friends – guys I’ve played thousands (no exaggeration) of hands of card games with. For me, this is a solid way to test the player interaction portion of a card game like this. We absolutely played each other as much as we played the cards, and probably more. It was an excellent experience! My next opportunity was playing with some extended family over the holidays which is a good way to test the fragility of the experience – does it fall apart when not all players are of similar experience or knowledge base? It doesn’t fall apart, but boy did that change the experience.
I’ve since played with a few groups of people with wide range card game experiences but all formidable board game rivals. In both the extended family and gamer experiences I had fun, but playing the player was so important and yet so unpredictable that I can honestly say my experience with my college friends was more enjoyable. I think a few games more with those same groups might change the experience for the better as I would better know how to bid with each group, but I did feel a bit lost at times in how to try to score points.
Pikoko brings enough of a new and unique feeling to trick taking games that for me it’s a definite keeper, but I may be selective with what group(s) I play with. What do you think? Have you played Pikoko? Was your experience different?
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