Designed by: Reiner Knizia
HIT! (also published as No Mercy and Cheeky Monkey) is a super-simple game of collecting cards and pushing your luck.
Set-up is wonderfully straightforward: shuffle the cards and choose a starting player. Then the game begins.
On each player’s turn they flip cards from the deck, one by one, placing them face-up in front of them on the table. The goal is to collect the cards (numbered 1-10) for yourself, but Hit tempts you to push your luck, with potentially bad consequences. After an initial three ‘free’ cards, if you draw a duplicate of any number you already have, you’re bust and discard all of them. On the other hand, if you draw a card that any other players have in front of them, you can steal these cards and add them to your own collection. Assuming you don’t bust, you can stop at any time: when your next turn arrives, any cards still in front of you (ie not stolen!) get banked for points.
The game ends when the last card is flipped over and players score the number value on all their claimed cards.
A fair amount from the hands of fate, but nothing anyone could take personally
Low - it's a fast-moving game
Ultimately, the critical decision here is how lucky do you feel?
There's no variety here in flavour but the randomness of the cards, aligned to each individual's penchant for luck-pushing, IS the game
2-5
Players
6+
Years
5-15
Mins
Sam says
A game so simple it almost doesn't exist, Hit! nonetheless offers a decent fifteen minutes of fun for those who like simple rules, luck-pushing decisions and the tantalising agony of risking one more flip... I don't think it's a game I'd long to play over and over, but it always raises a good measure of relieved laughs and exasperated wails.