Fruit Fight

• Designer: Reiner Knizia
• Publisher: CMYK Games
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3QESpqm
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Fruit Fight is a social, push your luck game from Reiner Knizia, where you steal your friends and family’s fruits. If you draw fruit cards that match what other players are about to score, you get to steal them all. But be careful: if you draw a fruit you already have, you bust!

Fruit Fight  is part of the new Magenta line of games from CMYK – per their press release… CMYK is thrilled to announce the launch of Magenta: a striking new collection of card games. In a world of increasing digital distractions, Magenta is set to revive a classic way we gather and play – making face-to-face connections through card game nights with family, friends, and new faces around the table. “The idea behind Magenta is simple: to bring people together through the world’s best card games,” says Alex Hague, founder of CMYK. “To do that, we’ve created a line of games that are both fun to play and beautifully designed.”

Fruit Fight is a press-your-luck game in which you draw cards to get points — but you don’t want to draw too often because then you might lose all your gains!  I thought that I had seen a similar game in the past from the more accomplished “Gaming Doctor”, and per BGG – this is a refreshed version of a previous design.  Most recently, the game was known as No Mercy! Published by Mandoo Games.  There are also a couple of even older versions in different languages – HIT! In French, Pelusas in Spanish – each with different art.  This may also be the same as Family Inc (German, Piatnik) – but my google-fu and bgg-fu skills are not quite up to the task to know for sure.

In more detail, the 90-card deck in the game contains 11 cards each numbered 1-5 and 7 cards each numbered 6-10. This deck is shuffled and placed as a facedown pile on the table.

At the start of your turn, if you have cards in front of you, place them face down in your personal score pile, then take the rest of your turn.  Namely, you flip over a card from the deck and place it in your area (organized by rank) and then, if you want, steal all the cards of the same number that are currently face up in front of other players. You can stop after each draw, or you can draw another card.  

If you draw a number that you already have lying in front of you — and you have at least three cards TOTAL face up in front of you — then you discard all cards in front of you and your turn ends.  Otherwise your turn ends any time you decide not to draw another card.

When the draw pile is exhausted, the game immediately ends.  Each player scores any remaining cards they have in front of themselves, and then they sum up all the cards in that pile.  Whoever has the most points wins.

My thoughts on the game

No Mercy was a huge surprise when it came out a few years ago, and it is no surprise now that other companies have wanted to reprint it.  This game always has us laughing and nearly literally rolling on the floor from the unexpected busting… this game is a bonafide hit, and it definitely deserves a wider audience.

The game is as simple as you think it would be based on the rules description above.  Simply flip cards, take matches if you want, but then decide on whether or not to press your luck.  There is a bit of strategy in trying to calculate your odds of flipping up a matching card based on what you’ve already seen come out of the deck.  There are times that you might also stop flipping just to protect your lead – for instance if you have four of the 10 cards, you might stop knowing that there is only one left in the deck, and you’re pretty good trying to wait it out and bank those 40 points.

Of course, if you perceive yourself to be losing, you will definitely feel the need to press your luck, and with each successive card, there will be much excitement… and then, when John flips over the inevitable match after he’s pushed his luck one card too far, there will be incredible hilarity and laughter.

This new version is part of the Magenta line from CMYK, and it shares the same color scheme and design elements as the other games.   The bright magenta boxes are most definitely eye-catching.  It’s hard not to notice them on your table or gameshelf.  I do like the way that the game comes with the bright slip cover and then has a nicely patterned inner box that opens like a book..  The entire set of Magenta games looks great together with the interior box patterns peeking out of the cutouts in the outer sleeves.   The colors on the cards are decent, though as I often do, I have some issues picking out the yellow number on the banana card from the white background.  There are also nice little touches in the box, including a little folder pocket on the inside cover to hold the rules.

The game is clearly a filler, but man – the speed and fun of the game is perfect for when you have 10 or 15 minutes.  Teach the game with a few example turns, and you’re ready to go. I can’t remember the last time we laughed so much while playing a game – and for that reason alone, this one is definitely a staple here in the Gaming Basement. 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3QESpqm