Super Mario Bros Card Game

I recently made an EBay purchase of the old 1992 card game Super Mario Bros. I've had a couple of plays with my son and here present my review as posted on Board Game Geek.

Opening Salvo!

This is not a Gamers Game. This is a Kids game.

The Objective

Be the first to collect a number of coins. the number varies according to the number of players. 45 for 2 players, 30 for 3 etc.

The Bits

This is a card game, even the rules come on the cards. In fact two of the cards in the deck contain the rules, but only on 1 face each. So with only two card faces to put them on, you can guess that the rules are simple.

The game is for 2 - 4 players and each player gets to pick 1 of the four character cards to play as. There are in fact only two characters (Mario and Luigi), but these are shown on two cards each in differn't poses.

The remaining cards in the deck come in a variety of types.

The most common card is the Mushroom card, that displays a number of coins.
The next type of card is the named character card, these display anywhere between 4 to 10 coins.

Other cards in the deck are penalty cards that have various effects.

Setting Up

The rules aside, give each player 1 of the 4 character cards, put aside any unused character cards. Deal the remaining cards into 6 face down draw piles.

Your Turn

Simply you pick one the 6 draw piles and take the top card. If is shows coins add that to your hand. If you reached the total required to win, game over, you have won. If the card does not display coins it'll be a penalty card. And you have to carry out the instruction on the card.

A sample penalty card makes you give a card from your hand to another player. Another card makes you return cards from your hand to the bottom of a draw pile. After playing a penalty card, you also return it to the bottom of a draw pile.

Tactics

Memory comes into it. As penalty cards get returned to the various draw piles you can start counting cards and avoid piles where you suspect that bad cards are coming to the top.

Summary

If you have a kid to play this with, this can be a fun game. Teenagers and adults wont get much out of it.