Hanabi

Staff Recommendation: Steve (May 2021):

"I play this with my kids aged 10 & 12, it is a simple game at heart, but there is a trick - you can't see your own cards! A co-operative game so there isn't a winner/loser, just see how you go as a team. A quick fun game, with a low entry cost."

Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for "fireworks" and consisting of the ideograms "Flower" and "Fire"—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order.

The card deck consists of five different colors of cards, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5. Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite, as in this game you hold your cards so that they're visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their cards. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of cards.

Board Game Geek Rating: 7.1

Board Game Geek Complexity: 1.7