YORKTON - There is a certain near charm about 18-card games.
Their small table footprint, and easy transport features coupled with generally easy to grasp rules, make them an increasingly favoured sub-genre of gaming.
That many such games are also available in print ‘n play format doesn’t hurt either as they become low cost and easy to create games.
Shallow Regrets is a new 18-card game upcoming from – yes you guessed it – Button Shy.
This one which we had a chance to experience in a pre-release print ‘n play format is a game with an interesting lineage.
It is designed by Judson Cowan, who also happens to provide the cartoony and creepy art, and is a small footprint reimplementation of his bigger game Deep Regrets from Tettix Games – a fishing game about pulling progressively more horrifying things out of the ocean.
Shallow Regrets pares things down to a quick and sort of quirky card game for two to four players.
This one is super simple and in that it falls into that brew and pretzels time filler category. Games won’t leave you in awe, nor will they tax your brains, but you'll garner enough fun that Shallow Regrets is worth having.
Players ‘fish’ cards – two per turn, selecting one and tossing the other back into the ocean. Some cards give you points, some not.
Some cards have single use powers that can help a player, or hinder an opponent, and that is a key element in selecting what to keep. Now the ‘get your neighbour’ aspect won’t set well with some game groups, but The Meeple Guild is happy to foil the plans of opponents any chance we get.
Fish all18 cards and add up the points. Yes, it’s that simple.
It’s suggested the game takes 15-minutes, and that would need to mean slow playing a few turns to extend a game that far. It’s lightning quick with only 18 cards.
Now this isn’t a game with enough going on that it would be worth playing a single game for an hour, but it does leave one wishing there was just a bit more – or at least a few more cards with maybe different effects to make the experience just a smidge more dramatic.
Given the game is from buttonshygames.com expansions are almost a sure thing. Most of their games get expansions – usually sooner than later in fact. That appears the case here too.
Two expansions; Shallow Regrets: The Fisher & the Frod and Shallow Regrets: Lingering Remorse already have been added to the database at Board Game Geek albeit with no indication has to how many cards each will be, their effect on the core game, or a release date past n expectation it will be in 2025.
Assuming the expansions are solid, they will likely boost interest in the core game a tick, making it at present at least a game to consider, and once it grows a bit, make it an easy ‘sure grab it for some fun’.
Other 18-card games just don’t quite make it as enjoyable on the table.
Take for example Adventurous, an upcoming release by designers Dustin Dobson, and Milan Zivkovic and also from Button Shy games.
The game aspires to be frankly bigger than it should be. The game states it is for one-to-four players and while true at even three players it is largely boring.
It’s cooperative in nature so added players should give you more opinions into what optimum moves to make on a turn, but with only 18 cards you as an individual player may only get two-three turns in a game which leaves you feeling like you weren’t really involved in a substantive way.
The game here is a bit unusual too. It feels very much like a puzzle – more than a game.
I know many games overlap between game and puzzle, but this one skews hard to the puzzle side. That doesn’t make it immediately bad it just means the ‘feel’ here is different. You are competing with the game – much like the classic Pandemic although the experience here of course is smaller – it’s 18 cards after all and even in the small card game format is not among the best.
Players place ‘map cards’ scoring game-end points for various things, losing in a few ways too, but it just happens so quickly the ‘grandness’ you might feel should be here is lacking.
There are ways to ‘up’ the difficulty if this one does catch your attention – so that is a positive.
Now as a solo game Adventurous ticks up a bit. You can relax over the small deck and study best move options with an eye to bettering your last score. Solitaire it shines brighter although even for one there are many better games in the solo box – A Nice Cuppa from the same publisher is a recent solo game that comes to mind here.
Art work by Fachri Maulana on the ‘marvel’ cards is quite nice, but most cards on the table are sea map grid design so thematically fine but not exactly eye-catching.
Button Shy hits far more often than it misses – but this one sadly just doesn’t quite click with The Meeple Guild.
