Splito is a family card game perfect for family gatherings or for a quick warm up game before game night. The game is for 3-8 players and it takes 10-15 minutes to play. Players play one card at a time, trying to work with the players next to them to score the most points in each zone. The game is designed by Romaric Galonnier, and Luc Rémond and published by 25th Century Games, who are known for bringing great family games to our table.
What’s in the Box?
- 109 Cards
- 1 Score Pad
How’s it Play?
In this game, you will be teaming up with the players on both sides of you to score the most points as separate teams. Eventually, players have a group of cards on both sides of them that determine their points. The game is played over 13 rounds where you choose one card from your hand to place into the zone on either side of you. Players choose any card from their hand, which can be a number card or an objective card.
After players have chosen a card, its placed near the zone it is being played into, and then all cards in that zone get flipped over at the same time. Players then pass their hand of cards to the left and continue to play another card in one of the two zones. This pattern continues in rounds until all 13 cards have been played by everyone.
Players are trying to work together in each zone with the other player contributing cards to that zone. With time, players are trying to match objective cards with number cards played in that zone. After all cards are played, players check to see if an objective card has been achieved. Completed objectives score the number of points shown with diamonds on that card. Each player then multiplies the points from one of their zones by the points scored in the other zone they participated in. The player with the highest score wins.
The game gives you points for completed objectives, so you need objectives, and you need to complete the objectives with number cards. A nunch of objective cards in a zone will most likely not grant a lot of points. Equally, a bunch of number cards and not many objectives will not grant a high number of points either. But a focus on both zones with enough objective cards that you complete is the best way to score points.
The Verdict
This card game was an instant hit. The first thing I like is that it’s a quick game that only takes the time to play 13 cards. This can be 5-10 minutes depending on the number of players in the game. A game with 109 cards isn’t suppose to take long to play, and Splito was designed to play quick and fast.
Splito also creates team work between the players on each side of you when playing. You need to study what cards are already in each zone to know what cards to place to help that zone’s score, and eventually your own score. This teamwork isn’t straightforward either, as players will want to strengthen both sides of them to score the most points.
Splito provides just the right amount of number cards and objective cards so that you can score points through objective cards, and then achieve the objective cards with the number cards. The design also achieves this by having players pass their hand of cards to the left each turn, so players all have opportunities to more cards. Instead of a player just splitting their cards in half and putting them in the two zones, the cards are spread out and could be placed in any zone with any player.
Splito did their homework on the best way to score. Each objective card can give you 1-4 points depending on how hard it would be to achieve the card. Then, the design knows the best way to score the most points is to play evenly between the two zones, which also means not focusing on one over the other, and this in turn is more fair between your partners. You should be focusing on the lower scored zone unless you have the perfect card for the other zone, as it will score you more points, just not as well as multiplying your groups together that are more even. For example, 13×3 is 39, but 11 x 7 is 77, while 9 x 9 is 81, a huge difference.
Ultimately, Splito does so many things right, including letting you play up to 8 players. For this reason, this is my new “go to” fast playing card game that I can play with multiple players. It also will surprise new card or game players and can impress them on how modern designs are more strategic and interesting. My kids enjoy the game, my wife and I enjoy this game, and all our friends we have played it with have enjoyed the game. I’m sure you will enjoy it as well.
Images via 25th Century Games
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