Snatch It! Game Review

The Basics:

• For ages 8 and up
• For 3 to 6 players
• Approxmiatly 20 minutes to complete

Geek Skills:

• Counting & Math
• Logical & Critical Decision Making
• Pattern/Color Matching
• Strategy & Tactics
• Risk vs. Reward
• Hand/Resource Management

Learning Curve:

• Child – Easy
• Adult – Easy

Theme & Narrative:

• Eat as fast as you can and as much as possible before the other frogs steal your lunch!

Endorsements:

• Child Geek approved!
• Parent Geek approved!
• Gamer Geek rejected!

Overview

American writer, humorist, and essayist Mark Twain said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest first.” A valid approach to avoiding procrastination and focusing on what is critical. In this game, the critical action of the day is to eat your fill as the frog. The pond is busy but small, meaning you’ll have to be clever and quick to get your fill. Jump to the sky, flick that tongue, and hope to catch as much as possible before your opponents steal your lunch.

Snatch It!, designed by Christwart Conrad and published by HeidelBÄR Games, is comprised of 119 cards. The cards are as thick and as durable as your standard playing card. Illustrations by Gathuldis are bright and cartoonish.

Just Another Day on the Pond

To set up the game, complete the following steps.

First, shuffle all the Creature cards and place the deck face-down in the middle of the playing area. This is the draw deck for the duration of the game. Now, place the “Last Bite” card next to the deck. The “Last Bite” card shows approximately where you will insert the card into the deck. Don’t worry; we’ll get back to this critical card shortly.

Second, draw six cards per player, keeping the cards hidden in the player’s hand until played.

Third, each player takes one card from their hand, places it face-down in front of them, and then all at the table reveal their cards, placing them face-up.  All of these cards are placed in the middle of the playing area. Where these cards now lay is referred to as “the Pond.” From the draw deck, take one card at a time and play it to the Pond face-up until there are six Creature cards.

That’s it for game setup! Give the “First Leap” card to anyone randomly and get hopping!

Rules of the Pond

Players will spend most of the game playing cards in the Pond. A few rules, referred to as “protocols,” must be followed.

1. The Creature card you play on top of another Creature card must be the same number or exactly one number greater. For example, if the Creature card had a value of “3”, the player could play a Creature card with the value of “3” or “4” but not “2” or “5”.
2. The color of the cards matters. Orange cards (Crawlers) can only be played with other Orange cards. Similarly, purple cards (Flyers) can only be played with other purple cards. The one exception is the blue cards (Swarms) that can be played to either an orange or blue card but never another purple card.
3. The “Swarm” Creature cards (purple cards) can represent the value “7” or “0”.

Let’s Eat!

Snatch It! is played in rounds. Each round has two phases. During the phases, players will take turns. The first player to start is the current player with the “First Leap” card in their possession.

Each phase and a player’s turn in the phase is summarised here.

Phase One: Snatching Creatures

The Snatching phase invites the players to take one action out of five. Remember to follow the Pond protocols at all times! The objective is to create stacks and then “swallow them” for points at the end of the game.

Snatch from the Pond

The player selects one card from their hand and plays it to the Pond, face-up, on top of another Creature card. The player then takes both cards, keeping them face-up as a stack, and moves them in front of themselves. This area in front of the player is called the player’s “patch” of the Pond.

Steal From an Opponent’s Patch

The player plays a card to an opponent’s stacks located in their patch of the Pond. Then, the player takes their opponent’s stack they just played to and moves it to their patch of the Pond.

Optionally, the opponent can immediately “reclaim” their stolen stack by playing a Creature card, following Pond protocols. This moves the stack back to the opponent’s patch of the Pond with all the cards played to it. The player then draws one card from the draw deck, placing it into their hand.

Swallow One of Your Stacks

The player takes one of their stacks from their patch of the Pond and plays it on top of a Creature card in the Pond. All of the cards are now in one stack and placed face-down in front of the player. Face-down cards are considered in the player’s frog’s belly. If the player has already swallowed a previous stack, place the newly swallowed cards on top ( you do not create a new stack).

The stack in the frog’s belly is safe for the game’s duration.

Stalk a Creature

The players take a Creature card from their hand and place it face-up to the Pond. However, they can only do so if the played Creature card cannot be used to steal or snatch other cards in the Pond or the opponent’s patch of the Pond.

Toss a Creature

If the player cannot complete any of the actions per the cards in their hand per the Pond protocols, they take one Creature card in the Pond and discard it.

After the player takes one action, the next player, in turn order sequences, takes theirs. Players continue, in turn order sequence until either the Pond is empty or all the players’ hands are empty.

Phase Two: The Stork Cometh

Oh, no! The stork has arrived, and it looks hungry! But this is a lazy stork. It won’t bother to hunt for its food and would prefer to steal the tasty stacks in the players’ patches of the Pond.

Step One: Pass the First Leap

The “First Leap” card is passed to the next player in turn order sequence.

Step Two: Refill Hands

All players refill their hands, drawing from the draw deck, until they have six cards each. If the draw deck is depleted, shuffle the discard pile and place it face-down to create a new draw deck.

Step Three: Place the Bait

All players select one card from their hand and place it face-down in front of them. The player with the “First Leap” card takes these cards, shuffles them, and reveals one randomly, placing it face-up. This Creature card represents the Bait! The Stork will only eat the cards that match the Bait card’s color.

Step Four: The Stork Devours

Each player now looks at the stack in their patch of the pond. If the topmost card is the same color as the Bait card, the stork reaches down and swallows it whole, but only the largest stack. For example, if the Bait card is orange and you have two orange stacks with stack “A” holding three cards and stack “B” holding four cards, the stork will devious stack “B.” Devoured stacks are discarded.

Step Five: Refill the Pond

Reveal the remaining cards not selected for the Bait card and place them face-up to restock the Pond. Draw additional cards and set them to the Pond if needed to ensure there are a total of at least six Creature cards.

This completes the second phase and the round. Return to the first phase of the game, starting with the player with the “First Leap” card to begin a new round.

*BURP!* Too Much Food…

The gameplay continues as summarized until the “Last Bite” card is revealed. This triggers the endgame. Take the “Last Bite” card and set it aside. Game play now continues.

• If the “Last Bite” card is revealed during the first phase, continue playing until the end of the second phase. The game then comes to an end.
• If the “Last Bite” card is revealed during the second phase, then play one more round and end the game.

If playing one last round, there are two important new rules.

• There is no second phase (which means no storks!)
• Any stacks in the player’s patch will be automatically swallowed at the end of the round

When the game ends, all players discard any cards still in their hands. Then, players take the cards swallowed by their frog and reveal them.

• Each Swarm card (blue) is worth five points each
• Every Creature card (orange and purpose) is worth one point each

Each player adds up their total points. The player who has the most points wins the game.

To learn more about Snatch It!, visit the game’s webpage.

Final Word

The Child Geeks enjoyed this game and found it funny to make “gulp” and “slurp” sounds when they captured and swallowed the Creature cards. They, of course, didn’t care much for opponents stealing their stacks or the pesky stork, but this proved to be nothing more than a nuisance rather than a joy killer. According to one Child Geek, “It doesn’t feel good when someone steals your frog’s lunch, but you can turn right around and steal it back or take a better stack. Just make sure you swallow your food before the stork gets it!” Another Child Geek said, “I liked the game because it was easy to match colors and numbers. I also thought the art was cute and laughed a lot when playing it.” When the last frog smacked its lips and gave out a little burp, the Child Geeks took a vote, and all decided that Snatch It! was well worth it!

The Parent Geeks also enjoyed the game, both with their family and their peers, finding it to be a very casual game with entertaining engagement opportunities with opponents. According to one Parent Geek, “This was an easy game to teach and to get to the table. I enjoyed the speed at which the game was played and the engaging way to play cards. The game had just enough difficulty to ensure that everyone at the table had to think about their moves, but it was never so complex that I observed anyone getting lost or confused.” Another Parent Geek reported, “Great game with my family and friends. The kids, too, liked it, having no problem playing the game with older and more experienced players. They held their own.” When the last little fly buzzed away, screaming in fear, the Parent Geeks took a vote, and all decided Snatch It! was buzzworthy.

The Gamer Geeks appreciated the game’s illustrations (they chuckled immensely at how terrified some little insects looked) and its speed. They found the gameplay, however, to lack the depth they were looking to dive into. According to one Gamer Geek, “This is a solid game, but very much one I’d only play with my kids or with adults who were not into board games as much as I am. It’s very casual, and that’s great, but too casual to be a game I’d put in front of my fellow gaming elitists.” Another Gamer Geek said, “A fast card game that felt old after the very first found. Of course, you swallow stacks as soon as you can. Of course,  you steal often. The game did little to surprise me. No, thank you. No need for another game. I’m good.” When the stork arrived, the Gamer Geeks gladly gave everything they had to the big bird, hoping the game would not be seen again.

Snatch It! is most certainly a casual card game. Casual and entertaining. I’m not surprised by the Gamer Geeks’ reaction and don’t care that they dismissed the game after only once at the table. This is an entertaining game. The level of engagement and difficulty is perfectly balanced for an evening with the family or casual gamer friends. It stays on the table long enough to be enjoyed and is fast to teach.

My favorite aspect of the game is deciding when to swallow (that is, to keep safe) my collected stacks. Big stacks are not needed, but eating a stack takes your entire turn. You need to balance the number of cards collected with the risk of losing them all. While not overly challenging, the continuous threat of losing what you worked on was always on the players’ minds. Greed and speed work hand-in-hand to collect cards; both suffer when the stacks are taken. It feels terrible, but then again, perhaps I should have swallowed that stack rather than getting cocky.

I blame my frog.

Do try Snatch It! when the opportunity presents itself. Get this fun card game to your table and find out if you have what it takes to be the big frog in the pond or just another little lilypad jumper. Hop to it!

This game was given to Father Geek as a review copy. Father Geek was not paid, bribed, wined, dined, or threatened in vain hopes of influencing this review. Such is the statuesque and legendary integrity of Father Geek.