Speed Colors

• Designer: Erwan Morin
• Publisher: Friendly Skeleton
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 6+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Are you ready to bring the black-and-white image to life by coloring it in? Then you’d better speed up! In Speed Colors, each player has a double-sided card with a colorful picture on one side and the same picture but in black and white on the other side. All players memorize the colorful side of their pictures, flip it, then color it in as quickly as possible the same way as on the back of the card! The faster and the more accurate you are, the more points you get. Try to keep up as the caps on the markers are switched at the end of each round (adding more challenge)!  Speed Colors is a reMARKERble fast-paced game that proves that coloring is fun for everyone!

The game is composed of 55 picture cards, one side showing a simple black and white line art drawing with the reverse side having the same picture but with areas colored in – always with each of the six areas in a different color.

To start the game, all the markers are placed in the center of the table, there is one marker for each color.  Players will have to share/compete for these markers over the course of each round.  Each player also gets a score card.  The deck of cards is shuffled and splayed out around the box with the black-and-white side up. The game will be played over four rounds.

In each round, each player chooses a card from the splay and puts it in front of them. Once all players have a card, there is a count down and then the rest of the round is played in real time.  At the same time, players flip their card over to the colored side and they try to memorize the pattern of colors on the other side.  

Whenever the player feels they know the pattern, they flip the card over and can start filling in the black and white side.  All of the markers are shared by all the players, so you’ll have to be fast to get the one that you want.  You must color in the areas completely and you may not erase anything during the course of the round – if you start an area, you are committed to that color for that area.  You can only score a color once on a card, so if you color two areas in with the same color, you can only choose one of those areas for scoring.

Whenever any player is done with their card, they say “Stop”.  Everyone else is allowed to finish whatever area they are currently using to finish the zone they are currently working on.  Then, the round ends, and everyone scores their card.  Below is a 10pt effort on my part (I screwed up the middle parts of the pins)

2 points for a zone that is completely colored in, and with the correct color

1 point for a zone that is completely colored in, but with the wrong color

0 points for a zone that is incompletely colored in, or one where you went outside the lines, or that was never colored in

Thus, the max score is 12 for any given card.  Each player can mark their score by drawing a line in the appropriate place on their score card.  The player with the most points after four rounds is the winner!

Here, some of the caps have been changed

There are ways to make the game more challenging.  There is a variant where you change the caps of the markers – so that you have to rely upon your memory to know what color is under the cap – or you have to rely on the small colored bit at the base of the marker.  You can also handicap the game by limiting certain players to certain difficulty cards – the cards are rated from 1 to 3 stars on the front, and you can keep things even that way.

Finally, there is also a cooperative version where each player is given one or more markers and they will be responsible for coloring those sections on the group of communal cards.  There is time limit to finish all the coloring, and the goal is to have the group color in the cards perfectly.

This speed memory game is actually a reprint – with the original coming out in 2017, and the game actually received a recommendation for the 2018 Spiel des Jahres.  As you would expect, this game is ideal for kids and families.  

There is a nice balance here between the speed of coloring and the accuracy of memorizing the color patterns.  You can definitely score points by trying to max out the six points for a fully colored in card each round – but you also will benefit from getting the areas in the correct color.  While you are speeding to finish the card, you need to make sure you are coloring precisely because you will not score an area if you are over the lines or if you are incomplete in your filling in.

This is one of those rare speed games that doesn’t immediately turn me off as the coloring in enjoyable and the scoring system allows for players to compete on both accuracy and speed (or both).  The variant rules allow for ways to change the game up as well as ways to handicap players of different abilities.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor