Bezier Games: Cat in The Box Deluxe Edition

Product Information

While the game includes 4 suits in the grid, there are 5 of each number. This is one of the ways the game tempts you with the paradox. All of the cards are dealt out, but two cards will go unplayed – one is discarded by each player at the start of a hand, and the other, ideally, is left in your hand unplayed. That all feels normal. But there is one giant twist: the cards in Cat in the Box do not have suits on them. There are simply five of each card rank in the box, even though there are only four colors in the game. Some ranks get taken out at different player counts (and the two-player rules are beyond the scope of this review), but there are always five cards of each number. With that being said, Cat in the Box is an incredible achievement. There is so much depth here. And like Schrödinger’s thought experiment, you think you have it down, and then in a blink of an eye, you don’t. When you feel you have a strategy, you observe a new possibility and hope to play again. On the off chance that your little experiment just might work. While there is the typical bidding mechanism in Cat in the Box, it by no means work in the usual fashion. Of course not! There is so much to explore – in a single game and in the next game. With the group you’re playing with today, and the one you’ll play with tomorrow. It also does it with minimal rules overhead.

My review for Cat In The Box is available here so please go and have a read if you want to know if this is the kind of game you would like (hint it definitely is).

If it becomes impossible for a player to play any of the cat cards from their hand because all of the numbers are taken then they must declare a paradox. This immediately ends the round. End Of Round

Like Schrödinger’s thought experiment, you think you have it down, and then in a blink of an eye, you don’t. When you feel you have a strategy, you observe a new possibility and hope to play again. It’s a Two-ferDan B. (7 plays): It’s a great idea, so I want to like the game more than I do… but in too many hands I don’t feel as if my decisions end up mattering very much. I think there’s the illusion of more freedom than there actually is. I don’t love the bonus scoring which can benefit people with certain hands much more than others. And the paradoxes bother me, although not as much as they bother Joe. That all being said I am still willing to play it, but I think my previous “like it” rating has devolved to “neutral.” There are four slots for each number, one for each suit, but there are five cards of each number. If it comes to your turn and you cannot play a card, either because the four other cards in that number have been played, or because the only available slot is in a suit you declared yourself out of earlier, you cause a paradox. Despite having a 1 and a 4 in their hand, with a 1, 3, and 4 available on the main board, this player can no longer observe yellow, meaning they have caused a paradox.