Ladder climbing with a twist
If you follow our content you might have seen us playing quite a few card shedding games lately - another gem I’d like to introduce is 🐼Panda Spin by @_moongatedesign ! As usual the goal of the game is to empty your hand as fast as possible by playing all kinds of sets of cards. Your only task is to follow the lead and play the same set-type as the lead but of higher values.
The twist is actually in the name of the game: spinning cards! 😁 Players start out with cards oriented with their white sides up. Whenever you lose a trick where you played white cards only, you have to spin the cards over to their blue side and take them back. While this is partially bad as you want to get rid of cards, it adds some tactical layer to the game as you get much more powerful and versatile cards this way. Pay attention to element cards that can instantly win a round if their special condition is met!
Whenever a player empties their hand (“shows out”), they receive points based on the amount of cards the others have, then the round goes on until everyone but one shows out. The first player to reach 15 points wins.This is the essence of Panda Spin! 🙃
There are 5 element sets in the game, however these are not like suit colors in other games. These are thematic sets and you will use 3-5 depending on player count. Every set has some special icons: 🎍 bamboo gives bonus points, 🔥 fire lets you discard additional cards, 💧 water is a wild symbol that can be any number, a 🐼 panda will let you spin a card or steal a point, and there are also double or triple-values.
The game is simple to learn and quick to play after you get used to a few unusual rules and exceptions. E.g. the number 2 is considered the highest value and it can’t be used in all kinds of sets. Seeing the correct orientation of cards once placed on the table was a bit confusing for me at first too.🤔
Once you get past all of these it is a real blast to play! 🥳 It really shines at 3-4 players, but it also works well with 2. The artwork is amazing and there is cool metal-foiling on cards! If you enjoy similar games you should put Panda Spin on your list as well!
