Elevator riding for two haunted individuals

Ghost Lift was one of the hype titles of SPIEL25 - at least in our social circles. It was not easy getting a copy, as the Japanese publisher only brought with them a couple of copies. Maybe around 50 each day or so.
After giving the game a go, we decided it would be worth it to rush to stand in line.

Ghost Lift is a small box card shedding game, which might look simple at first: There are just number cards ranging in value from 1 to 10, and of course in card-shedding fashion the goal is to get rid of your cards faster than your opponents. There are however 3 key things that make it unique and fun:

1. Direction arrows
First, some cards have direction arrows on them that change whether higher or lower value cards have to follow the previous card(s). This keeps things more dynamic and makes deciding what numbers to play more interesting. There are also some ‘2’ value cards with a down arrow and some ‘9’ value cards with an up arrow, which can be really mean and hard to follow.

The game comes with a cool cardboard indicator dial you can use to show the current direction of the elevator.

2. Revealed row
Secondly, there are always 3 piles you can grab cards from after your turn. Each time someone takes cards from here, the supply is refreshed, with same value cards stacking (so you can possibly take more of the same at once).

Of course in a shedding game you don’t necessarily want to add cards to your hand, but this really helps you hand-tailor your cards in helpful ways, so you are less dependent on draw randomness each round.

Also, when playing a card you always have to play the same amount of cards or raise it by one more, so it is necessary to have multiples of the same values, so you aren’t forced to pass.

3. End game trigger
The third and probably coolest thing is the end game trigger. Every time someone plays their last card, everyone else takes ghost meeples corresponding to the values of their remaining cards. (Having more of the same number is no problem.) If you already had such a ghost before, you turn it to its green “haunted” side.

Get stuck with a card for a ghost you are already haunted by, or be haunted by 3 different ghost and you lose. Everyone else wins the game, so you only need to survive longer than the loser. Being haunted also kind of changes the game, because you really want to get rid of haunted numbers asap.

Two-player adjustments

The biggest weakness of card shedding games is that they are usually less enjoyable with two players, which is why we were glad to see that there are some small tweaks to make the game work better at 2.

Players start out with 10 cards instead of 6, this makes rounds a bit a longer, and you have more chance to have fitting cards to follow your opponent. Another small change is that there are 4 piles in the revealed row instead of 3, so again you have more chance to find what you need to keep up with the played sets.

The most important change is how you need to draw cards from the revealed row when you are forced to pass - in normal 3+ player games this is always optional. This way if you manage to corner your opponent and force them to pass, you aren’t only shedding cards, they are collecting new ones at the same time. (Luckily though, getting cards is not always the worst thing.)

One final thing I want to mention is the duration of the game. Because there are 10 different values you can collect ghosts for, you might need to play a bunch of rounds for the game to actually finish. Our 2p games can last up to 40 minutes, which is pretty crazy for such a small game - and actually this is similar with higher player counts as well. However that doesn’t necessarily mean the game overstays its welcome, or at least we do enjoy it a lot.

All in all I believe Ghost Lift is a brilliant shedding game, perhaps only bested by Odin. It will still probably excel at a higher 3-6 player count, but if there are only two of you and you are in the mood to shed some cards, I think this is a nice way to scratch that itch.