Dale Yu: Review of Out of Sight (Mattel)

It’s not often that I review a game that you can buy at Target or Toys ‘R’ Us, but Out of Sight – a new release in the ThinkFast line by Mattel – has a lot to offer the veteran gamer that reads blogs of this sort online.  The box describes the game as a “Card and Dice game” and it is a surprise gem found in the mass market toy aisle.

The game is actually fairly complex for something to be found in the mass market.  The game has a deck of cards which have 9 suits with one card numbered each from 1 to 12.  Additionally, there is a Doubles Card which is placed on the table at the start of each turn.  The game also includes 3 standard d6.  Finally, there is a 30 second sand timer which has a plastic shield placed around most of it so that only one player can see how much sand is left.

The goal of the game is collect the most cards at the end of three scoring frames.  Each player will have three turns in each scoring frame to collect cards.  When a turn starts, there are 5 cards face up on the table from the deck.  The Doubles card is also placed face-up on the table.  When the player is ready to go, he signals the timekeeper (one of the other players) to flip over the sandtimer.  The active player then tries to collect as many cards as he can before the timer runs out.  The player rolls the 3 dice and then can use the numbers found on those dice (or sums of multiple dice) to match the numbers on the cards face up on the table.  For example, if I rolled a 5, 4, and 2 – I could collect a card with “11” on it, OR I could take a “2” and a “9”. Each die can only be used to take a single card.

You are never obligated to take any cards, even if there is a match on the table (this will become clear later when I explain the scoring).  Whenever you’re done evaluating your current roll, you can pick up the dice and roll them again.  If you had matched cards earlier, you are on your own to quickly flip up more cards so that you have 5 to choose from for possible matches.  Your turn continues on in this frenzied pace until you call stop.  You have to end your turn before the timer runs out or else you lose all the cards that you had collected in that particular turn.

There is one further twist though – as I mentioned earlier, there is a “Doubles” card which is placed out each turn.  At any point in your turn, if you roll a matching pair of numbers (out of the three dice you roll), you can take the Doubles card and choose one of two actions: “Flip” or “Swipe”.  If you choose the “Flip”, the time keeper then flips over the timer and the sand runs into the opposite end.  Obviously, the closer you are to the end of your original 30 seconds, the more benefit you get timewise from the Flip.  If you choose the “Swipe”, you can clear all 5 cards that are face-up on the table and deal yourself 5 new ones to choose from.

Why would you ever swipe?  Well, let me explain the scoring.  As I said earlier, there are 3 scoring frames in the game, and each frame is composed of three player turns.  At the end of each frame, your cards are scored – using the mnemonic “Score, Save, Subtract”.  Essentially, you sort your cards by suit and rank them by how many of each suit you have.  The three most prevalent suits are scored.  You score 1 point for each card you have in your three most popular suits and then those cards are returned to the deck.  The middle three suits (in prevalence) are saved, and they remain in your scoring pile to be re-evaluated at the next score.  The three least prevalent suits are subtracted – each card in these suits is worth negative one point.  These cards are also returned to the deck after scoring.  As an added complexity, in the final round, you only Score and Subtract.  In that final scoring, your three most popular suits are each worth positive one point and everything else is worth negative one point.

So, as you can see, early in the game you are just trying to collect as many cards as you can to build up your scoring pile.  However, as the scoring gets closer, you’ll want to manage which cards you pick up so that you don’t have too many negative points! 

The game is a hoot to play – the constant time pressure (and uncertainty of not knowing how close you are to the sand running out) makes this a very exciting game.  It’s a nice twist on the “Press your luck” genre of games.  Having a good memory definitely helps as you can often forget which colors you’re trying to collect (or avoid) in the heat of the moment.  When you’re worrying about counting time in your head while rolling dice as fast as you can and taking care of flipping over new cards to see, it’s easy to get confused about what to collect!

The scoring is admittedly a bit complex for the mass market audience, and there is an “easy version” included in the rules which essentially ignores the colors and simply scores one point for each card you collect.  This version of the game is still fun, but I’d save that version for grade-school aged kids or the most casual of gamers.  It’s still a very entertaining game with the pressure from the hidden timer, but there isn’t enough strategy there when you take out the colors from helping determine what cards you should collect.

As this game can be found in most mass market toy aisles, it’s not a bad thing to offer as a gift to non-gamers.  The last time that I saw one at Target, I believe it was at $12.99, so you’ll not break the bank buying one.

Disclaimer time: Though it’s not listed anywhere on the box or the rules, the designer of the game is my brother, Brian Yu.  I am often mistaken for him at conventions, but we’re actually different people.  He is the one who is smart enough to design games.  I’m the one who writes about them online.  I’ve also been known to develop a game or two.

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

Comments:

< Back Home