Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman
Santa.
Cookie.
Elf.
Candy.
Snowman.
Santa. Cookie. Elf. Candy. Snowman.
Santa, Cookie, Elf, Candy, Snowman.
SantaCookieElfCandySnowman! SLAP!
That’s it. That’s the game. See y’all in the new year.
No? You’re here for more than that? Ok, grab an eggnog and settle in to chat about Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman* from Dolphin Games. (*Henceforth to be referred to as SCECS)
First off, I need to be exceedingly clear on something. I’m not a fan of speed games. I have never really been a fan, and the older I get, the slower I get. That doesn’t mean I won’t play them from time to time, or that I won’t approach them with an open heart and mind.
SCECS is a seasonal variation on Dolphin Hat Games’ previous hit: Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza (TCGCP). Unlike the Halloween Edition of TCGCP, which features the same characters, but dressed up in Halloween costumes, SCECS uses completely different characters. The gameplay, on the other hand, is almost identical.
The entire deck is shuffled and dealt out evenly between all the players. (Technically 3-8, but it can be flexible on the top end.) The first player flips over their top card into the centre of the table, and says “Santa”. The next player flips and says “Cookie”. The next player says “Elf” and so on. When a player flips a card matching whichever word they said, everyone slaps the pile in the centre of the table. The last player to slap must take all the cards in the centre and put them at the bottom of their own cards. Yes, this means everyone is going to their hand slapped at some point. Players be warned.
That’s about 90% of the game, there are just a handful of exceptions. There are three special cards that make everyone do an action before slapping as if it was a matching card. For “Silent Night” everyone puts a figure to their lips and says “shh” before slapping the centre. If “Drums” come up, everyone taps the table (like a drum) and says “rum pum pum pum” before slapping. Finally, when a “Reindeer” card is revealed, players make antlers with their fingers, then slaps.
When a player runs out of cards, they have ALMOST won. They keep playing, calling out the proper word, but without flipping a new card. A player with no cards must be the first player to correctly slap a matched card or specialty card. If any player, even a player without cards, slaps the wrong card, fails to say the proper word at the proper time, if they even flinch wrong, that player takes the stack of cards from the centre. The rules are a bit cutthroat, but they are so by design. Players have to stay present and in the moment if they want to have a chance to win.
I do have to admit that even though I’m not a fan of the game, the artwork is adorable and the gameplay is solid. This game isn’t for me, but that’s entirely a me thing. Players who enjoy this style of game, are going to love this game. I don’t like this style of game, but even I didn’t hate it or regret playing, I wouldn’t seek it out but I probably wouldn’t avoid playing it either. That opinion stands true for everyone else that I played with. The people who didn’t love it don’t like any of these games, and no one hated it or thought it was a “bad” game. Whether you get Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza or Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman the experience will be similar, but it’s nice to have thematic options. Maybe next year we’ll see a “Bad Dream Before Christmas” version.
You can find Dolphin Hat Games online at www.dolphinhat.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/dolphinhatgames.
Don’t forget you can read all of our current and past holiday reviews at TheRatHole.ca/Christmas!
No big theme here, but since Santa, Cookies, Elves, Candy, and Snowmen all make it feel like Christmas, Why not let Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton do the same…