Ito

• Designer: Mitsuru Nakamura
• Publisher: Arclight Games
• Players: 2-8
• Age: 8+
• Time: 10 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

ito is a cooperative game where you and your friends will each get your own secret number you then have to try to put in order as a group based on the clues you give related to the chosen theme. At the start of the game, each player gets a secret number card that can have a value between 1 and 100. Remember, it’s a SECRET, so of course the other players can’t tell you directly what number they have, and neither can you! The trick is for everyone to understand their intentions just by hearing theme-based clues. Do you and your friends see eye to eye in how you view the world? Have fun finding out in this exciting party game!

To setup, each player gets the two cubes in their color. The deck is shuffled and each player draws a card.  The zero card is placed on the table.  Then draw the top card of the theme deck, consult the chart and decide which theme to use for the round.

Next, each player must provide an answer to the theme which hopefully hints at the number they hold.  An answer that is very thematic would correspond to a high number card and an opposite answer would be pointing to a low number.  For instance if the theme was complicated boardgames, “Weather Machine” would tell me you have a high number while “Qwirkle” would suggest a low number. There is no order to this phase, and players can give answers in any order.    Or if the theme was tasty foods, to me: “pizza” = 95, “rhubarb” = 1.

As players give their answer, they place their card facedown on the table and mark it with a cube of their color.  The group must work together to order the cards in low to high order on the table.  When the cards are all placed on the table, they are flipped over one at a time, and the order is checked.  The group wins if the cards are in correct ascending order!

If the first game is successful, the next round becomes more complicated as each player is now given 2 number cards, and therefore must give 2 answers.  With double the number of answers to put in order, the game is much more difficult!

My thoughts on the game

The rules are pretty easy as you can see from the brief explanation above; and honestly, there’s not a lot to talk about with this game because it is so simple.  Pick the theme, make up the answers, see if you’re right.  As far as I can tell, there isn’t any overriding strategy here, just come up with an answer that works.

This is one of those party games that worked pretty well in my regular group because we are very familiar with each other, we know our likes and dislikes.  As a result, some of the clues we gave were very individualized, and only having such “inside information” allowed us to translate them to the correct number. In that setting, the game was pretty interesting.  

I tried a quick game with new-ish friends, and the game was less nuanced as we had to stick to “regular” answers.  Admittedly, the game did serve as an interesting conversation starter as I ended up learning all sorts of things about my friends (and their likes/dislikes) as we discussed the answers at the end of each round. 

I think the question that will always pop up with games like this is: Is this a game or an activity?  For me, I would tend to say activity.  Which isn’t necessarily pejorative, but this is, for me, something to do as an activity after dinner or sitting around with drinks.  Of course, YMMV.  And, whether or not it’s considered a game or activity, my initial plays have been enjoyable for this sort of thing.  (FWIW, I’d put Illusion in the same category, and that’s an “activity” that remains in my permanent “game” collection for the right occasion).

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor