The Cheap-Ass Gaming Garbage Man Reviews: Rack It!
Disclaimer: Rack It! is the official game of #Saftey™,
the @TheGarbageMan safety awareness campaign.
#Saftey™: It Doesn’t Even Sound Safe!
"BEEP BEEP BEEP!"
I make the noise as loud as I can when placing the Broken Pallet! card, giving me 2 more value to my already hefty rack.
The opposing forklift operator, already annoyed with my constant beeping, sees the gap in my rack and exploits it.
Playing a Give Away and Play! card, my forklift foe doubles the weight and topples the rack that previously held my Broken Pallet!, taking all the values away into the discard pile.
This means war.
This means Rack It!
Rack It! from Llama Llama Games, is a 2 player card game that has you stacking varying pallets onto each player’s 3 racks, or rows if you will, that each hold up to 3 pallets, or cards if you still will.
Players begin by shuffling the deck and dealing out two cards each. The first player draws a card, plays a card, and then on to the next player. A very simple turn process.
Each pallet has differing abilities, such as tripling the weight capacity rack, or changing its value at the end of the game.
As you go along, you have to keep in mind that each of the 3 racks can only hold a weight value of 3. So if you go over that, and the opposing player catches it, that rack collapses and you lose all those cards and their values on that single vertical rack.
Every single card has a differing ability and size, weight, and value located at the top of that card. When you rack a card, its ability then comes into play.
The player who has the greatest value on their 3 racks after playing all their cards at the end is the winner!
Does this game sound easy to follow and even easier to play? That’s because it is! But do not let its easy set-up and playability trick into thinking that it is an easy game to win.
The abilities are where this game truly shines and becomes much more deep and complex in strategy than you would think 18 cards could be. I don’t want to use terms like “Card Chess”, but I feel that Rack It! falls into that description.
Though this is only an 18 card game, there is only 3 that are the same, the simple Bulk Value! cards that have a doubling ability.
Examples of cards in Rack It! include: Embezzlement! allows you to steal a random card from your opponent. Rack Attack! doubles an opponents chosen pallet weight, possibly causing the rack to collapse. And Heavy Duty Rack! will triple the carrying capacity of a single rack, allowing it to hold a weight value of 9.
There is just so many options and directions each game can go, and nearly always in a different way than the previous one.
That’s not to say it is an endless game. It is still quick, easy to learn and play, and keeps its appeal through multiple playthroughs.
I would also recommend heeding to its ages 12 and up suggestion. The 9 year-old could start Rack It! with no problems, but she quickly got lost in counting and recounting the pallet values. Great for her math skills, but not so great for keeping a single game under half an hour.
Rating: A well-earned 4 out of 5. Even if you think that forklift operations are boring, you still need to give Rack It! a go. This game is original, creative, charming, and, most important, fun.
The only thing keeping it from a full 5 is the limited amount of cards. A 52 card deck would transform this games into a full-fledged, 4-player war of forklifts with endless stacking options. Though that could be easily achieved by combining 2 or 3 decks, I want more options and more kinds of pallets!
As of right now, it is a surprisingly fresh and enjoyable card game that would be a welcome addition to any savvy and intelligent game player’s library. Highly recommended for fans of strategy and #Saftey.
To purchase this and other Llama Llama Games, including the newly released MAGA: The Game, head on over to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/designers/llama-llama-games
Under $50 will get you all of their original, MADE IN AMERICA games!
Another big thank you to @LlamaLlamaGames for giving everyone a downloadable version of Rack It! for Christmas. That’s how this Garbage Man was able to give this review.
Until the next game, keep thinking #Saftey and keep playing safe.
All images taken from Llama Llama Games' gamecrafter store.