PUBLISHER: MORNING| RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Kill The Unicorns is a fun, family style card game that has a pretty obvious theme. You take the role of a fantasy style hero who wants to become the best unicorn hunter in the land. It’s one of those fast and silly games that takes a little while to get your head around, but is ultimately designed to make everyone playing it giggle.
You take your Bard, Huntress, Knight, Princess, Wizard or whatever and then you all bid your best ‘hunting tactics’ on the various unicorns on the board. They are different colours of unicorns and the games art style is both cute and cartoon like. Some of the Unicorns are in fact pigs wearing ice-cream cones, others actually are unicorns that are just too dumb to survive.
When the bidding is done, ties are cancelled out. Each player also has scheme card, which can change the outcome of the bid in some-way. There’s a lot of ‘Ha! Gotcha! type of play’ and tactical bidding, making a mix of bluffing and push your luck. It’s chaotic and the schemes make it so older more experienced players can’t simply dominate the rounds. Or in other words, it’s a very silly card game people at all levels of experience and engagement.
Once bidding is over and the unicorns have been ‘captured’, you take them to market. Unused cards get spent here and you can either try and maximise your points or colour co-ordinate your unicorns. (Which also gets you points). You then repeat the process for four rounds, total up the points scored and declared the winner.
Components wise, the game comes in a big pink robust box and the art on the cards is ridiculous fun. It’s a well-made game with a strikingly silly design and though the rampant Unicorn murder is a little grim, it’s all part of the slapstick appeal.
This is a good game to bring our mid-session to wake players up. It’s a little too involved to be an ice-breaker game and little too light to be the main game for the evening, but as a way of warming up your friends before getting into something meatier, it’s absolutely ideal. Wacky fun for kids of all ages.
