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The Bucket King |
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You know that
old adage “never judge a book by its cover”? Well, that also applies to
games, you know. See, when I first came across “The Bucket King” from Rio
Grande Games, I thought “well that looks bad”. However, knowing that you
need to play a game to know what it’s about, I didn’t hold the odd-looking
package against the contents inside.
Boy – am I glad that I didn’t!
The Bucket King is a card game that seems to be aimed at children, but is
absolutely, positively fun for adults as well.
See, when I get kids games for review, I usually play them with Kids
first, then with adults if I think that they may be interested – or if
they themselves have kids and would be interested in trying new
kids/family games. However, with The Bucket King, I took the opposite
approach, and quite on accident really.
I am constantly working on new games to review, and always try to have a
few on hand when I attend gaming functions at local game stores. Well,
Bucket King happened to be in the mix, and one of the gamers grabbed it
and said “hey – let’s try this!” Well, I have to admit I thought that it
may not be the best idea, especially with this crowd. However, this
person, whether being in a campy mood or being very serious was persistent
and we ended up giving it a shot. Let’s just say that it turned out to be
a grand idea.
Now, not everyone in the group took to the game, but almost everyone there
did. And for some time, The Bucket King became a standard play almost
every week. It had won the adults over – big time! Now, I had to play it
with the kids…
Kids, as you may know, can surprise us sometimes. Some games that you
think that they will adore they find “ok” and games that you think that
they will abhor they end up loving. With that in mind, I wasn’t sure where
this game would go – if the adults liked it so much, how would the kids
like it? In the end, the kids liked it as much as the adults! We have a
winner!
Gameplay
The Bucket King plays very easily. Each player receives 3 cardboard
buckets in each of the 5 colors available in the game, as well as 12
randomly dealt cards. The players then look at their cards and build a 2D
pyramid with the buckets based on the colors and the number value of the
cards in their hand. See, the cards show a farm animal, a number, and are
colored in one of the 5 colors available in the game. The idea of the
pyramid building is to put your least represented color(s) near the top,
and your more favorable colored-buckets on the bottom.
After everyone has built their bucket pyramid, select a starting player.
That player can now play from 1 to 3 cards from their hand of the same
color/animal. (Colors and animals are consistent in the game, ranging in
number-value from 1 to 8. So, your red cards are always bulls, and your
yellow cards are always chickens, etc.). So, let’s say that little Todd
plays a red (bull) 4. The next player, in clockwise order, then has to
play a card or collection of cards that match the color/animal, and are
valued higher than the total from the previous player.
So, in our first example, Todd played a red 4. Duncan, who is next in
order, has to play at least one red card with a value of 5 or higher, or
play a series of cards that are red (up to 3 cards) that will give him a
higher number. If he does this, the next player in clockwise order has to
beat the new high number, or loose a bucket off of their pyramid.
Let’s
continue the example. Duncan plays a red 6 – higher than Todd’s red 4, so
play continues clockwise. Camille, our next player, has a red 8, and she
plays it. Play then continues back to Todd. Now, Todd already has a red 4
on the table. So, he can play a red 5 or higher and add it to his card
already in play to increase his total. He plays a red 8 for a total of 12
red, so Duncan has to beat this. He has no red cards in hand, and has to
take the hit. However, since Duncan planned on red being weak for him
early in the game, he had a red bucket at the top of the pyramid, and only
looses one bucket. If his first red bucket had been buried deeper in the
pyramid, he would have to loose even more buckets as a result. (Buckets
cannot hover!)
One thing that I didn’t mention yet is that when you play a card or a
series of cards (up to 3) you have to immediately draw a card – and only
one! So, even if had to play 3 cards to beat the total, you only get to
replenish one card to your hand. So, as you can see, as the game
progresses, your hand size will decrease. If you forgot to draw a card,
too bad – you are now out one card. Of course, with the kids I let them
play one game with reminders and draws in a reasonable amount of time. But
later games I had them play with the rules as they were written – and the
remembering to draw was considerably better once the pain of loosing cards
was felt. Of course, even the adults forget from time to time.
The game ends when one or more pyramids (depending on the number of
players) are lost. The winner is determined on the number of buckets left
in their pyramids. Sometimes we’d play a “last man standing” game and go
until only one pyramid remained, but that leaves a player or players out
watching until you are done.
Overall
The Bucket King is a great family game – one of my favorites if not “the”
favorite (a toss-up between this and Bounty
from the Evil Polish Brothers). It’s easy to learn and play, and it is a
blast as well. I am still somewhat surprised how the game is so
entertaining for adults.
I’d give The Bucket King a 4.25 out of 5. It’s listed for 3-6 players aged
8 and up. Counting/math is a factor, so it is somewhat educational as well
on a low level. It takes 20-40 minutes to play, and the speed of a players
turn keeps play moving along and everyone interested throughout. If you
are looking for an entry-level game for new gamers or want a great family
game, you must give The Bucket King a whirl.
Written by Gene Vogel
(Posted 01-30-2005)
Optional Rule Alert:
One of the game store owners recommended an optional rule to give the game
even more value: whenever a player plays a series of cards from their hand
that equals '9' exactly, reverse the order of play! Give that a shot
sometime!
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