Skull King

Today's review is of the 2013 release, Skull King. For 2-8 players, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

Skull King is a trick-taking game with some twists. Like Spades, there are four suits, one is trump, and a player wins a trick if they play the highest-value card of the suit played (or played the highest trump card). But here, there are ten rounds. Each round, players are dealt the number of cards equal to the round number. Players bid on how many tricks they will win, and they must win exactly that many tricks in the round to get bonus points (otherwise, they lose points). And there are extra types of cards (see next paragraph). The round proceeds, and when it ends, tricks are tallied and points are awarded based on both the bids and bonus points certain cards grant. Then all cards are shuffled back into the main deck and the next round begins. After ten rounds, the final score is tallied. Highest score wins!

card examples; image from here

Another twist to this game is the extra types of cards. There are pirates (which defeat all cards except the skull king, and have special abilities of their own), mermaids (which defeat all numbered cards and the skull king), the mighty skull king himself (which defeats everything except mermaids), and more (see the publisher page for more cards and rules on hierarchy). Do you have what it takes to win?

Review

This is a fun, light game. I played this as a 2-player game (but failed to see or use the two-player variant rules found in the rulebook); there were some obvious drawbacks to that approach, but it was entertaining nonetheless. The 'exact guess' requirement for bidding was a huge element here; there were times losing a trick was preferred to winning. The pirate cards having unique abilities was a neat twist, too (though the ability is not listed on the card, so keep the rulebook handy). Overall, this is a winner.

Rating: A