Pixies

• Designer: Johannes Goupy
• Publisher: Pandasaurus / Bombyx
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20-30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by Pandasaurus

In Pixies, you move through the seasons to meet little creatures emerging from a flower or sheltering in the hollow of a tree. Choose one of the revealed cards, but be careful which ones you leave to your opponents!

Place that card in your playing area according to its number. Cards placed one on top of another are validated and earn you points at the end of the round, as do your largest color zone and your spirals. Easy…yet you’ll find that the other players won’t be short of bad advice.

To start the game, the deck of 70 cards is set shuffled into a deck. Each player reserves space on the table to be able to lay out a 3×3 array of cards.  The game is played in 3 rounds, each taking a number of turns until at least one player has a full 3×3 array of cards.

In each turn, the current start player reveals as many cards from the deck as there are players.  Then, in turn order, each player chooses one of the cards and places it into their array.

• If you do not have a face up card with the number, place the chosen card face up in the appropriate spot.  If there is a facedown card already in that slot, place the card on top of that facedown card.  The card immediately becomes “validated” – A face up card which is played on top of a face down card becomes “validated”.  This guarantees that the card will score points for the number on it.
• If you have an unvalidated face up card with this number, you must choose between the two, keeping one face up and placing the other facedown.
• If you already have a validated card with the number, the new card must be placed facedown in any empty space. 

The player who chose last in the previous round becomes the start player for the next round.  Continue this until at least one player has filled all 9 of their spaces with a card (does not matter if it is face up or face down).  Then the round is scored.

• Each validated card scores points for the number on it
• Spiral icons earn 1 point
• Xs score negative 1 point
• Special cards score based on spirals of a certain color seen in your array
• Score the largest area of a single color (2 pts per card in round 1, 3 points per card in round 2, and 4 points per card in round 3)

Collect all the cards and reshuffle them – then play two more rounds following the same method.  At the end of the game, there is no final endgame scoring. Simply tally the three rounds and see who has the most points – that player wins.  No tiebreaker.

My thoughts on the game

Well, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one based on the rules – there didn’t seem to be a lot of game there… And, as with Goupy’s most recent game, Faraway – there is actually a lot going on with just these few cards!   

At the base level, it’s a drafting game, and you’re trying to get the right cards.  Maybe cards with high innate scoring value; or maybe of the right color in order to grow your largest group.  Sometimes it’s good to get a third card of a particular value because then you get to place that card facedown in an empty space, thus guaranteeing that you can validate the next card placed in that spot.  However, this does come with some risk, as if you get stuck with a card for that slot, you’ll be forced to accept it and you won’t be able to change it later…

Each round here plays pretty quickly, 5 to 10 minutes total.  There are some turns where your decision is super easy, while others have you weighing the risks/benefits of your other options.  When you’re last, your turn is the quickest – you have no choices at all – just accept your card, and the game state tells you how to play it.   Part of me wonders whether the game wants to have N+1 cards in the draft so that the last player doesn’t simply get stuck with a card; but at the same time, it is this risk of getting stuck with a bad card that causes you to really worry about the possibilities.  

So, the gameplay itself is for sure an “I like it” bordering on “I love it”, and this is one of the rare games that the physical aspect of the game pushes it over the top.  First, it comes in the typical Bombyx tiny box – literally just large enough to hold the deck of cards.  Second, the artwork is completely gorgeous.  The cards look to be photos of the creatures; each of which look to be models made from scraps and art supplies.  Some of the creatures are extremely adorable, while others are downright disturbing – but each one captures your attention and makes you want to see more.

You can look here at the artist’s IG for more imagery: https://www.instagram.com/sylvain.trabut/

Really the only thing that I am not super excited about in the game is the scoresheet situation. They do give you a single panel in the rules that you could copy – but we’ve just taken to using poker chips to keep score.  In the end, this is a minor quibble at best, and it should not in any way detract you from wanting to try the game.

Everything about Pixies makes it a great filler game.  Easy and simple rules, small footprint, quick gameplay, a fair amount of tension despite the easy to moderate level of decision making, and that beautiful art.  I’ll definitely be telling people at Spiel to go check this one out.  This is two in a row for Mr. Goupy that have hit it out of the park for me.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:

Alison: You’re picking cards valued 1-9 from the open draft and placing them in their appropriate slots in your 3×3 grid. You score based on having a big same-coloured group, collecting VP symbols, and overlaying same-numbered cards to score their face value. The ideal card is one that does both but you’re at the mercy of the draw. Continue until someone fills their tableau and repeat this simple game several times. The decision on what to take is usually straight forward, taking what the next players want if nothing is overly helpful. It seemed that you nearly always want to take any high card though as they’re always worth it. Once we got to that point in our understanding we moved on.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it. Steph H, John P
• Neutral. Alison
• Not for me.