S. Deniz Bucak
United States
Havertown
Pennsylvania
As Above, So Below
My books are forgeries. Nobody wrote them. - Philip K. Dick
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A lot of BGG users will turn up their noses when they read the title of this thread. Playing a classic game with your kids isn't cool here. Propping them up in front of a Puerto Rico set, telling them what to do and pretending they're playing is much cooler. Memory deserves more credit than that. It is one of very few mental skill based games where an ordinary kid can compete with an adult. For whatever reason, the bit of the brain we use for this game doesn't improve as we grow up. However, By Golly finds a few areas in which to improve Memory.
By Golly uses two decks of cards, a 45 card deck that is made up of 3 copies each of 15 animals and a 19 card "Chicken Run" deck with 1 copy of each animal, 2 chicken poops and 2 shovels. The Chicken Run cards are spread out face down, Memory style. The animal cards are dealt out as evenly as possible to the players. Each player then draws a hand of five cards from the cards they have been dealt. Each turn, a player displays an animal card from her hand. Then she turns over a face down Chicken Run card. If they match, she gets to discard the card from her hand and go again. If not, the player refills her hand up to five cards and the turn passes to the right. If you turn over a poop card, you have to find a shovel, or the other players will get to give you cards. The object is to get rid of all the cards you've been dealt.
The game is better than Memory in several ways. First, in Memory, when you've found a match, the cards are removed from the table. In By Golly, the cards will be used again by other players and even by yourself if you draw another copy of the animal. This cuts down on frustrating times when you don't know what any of the facedown cards are, because the ones you know about have been removed. The poop cards add some excitement to the game, and offer a catch-up mechanism. The player who turned over the poop gets to choose who she takes cards from and naturally, she's going to choose someone who's behind. Plus kids just like poop. Finally the players can only get rid of 5 cards at a time, which makes it more likely that everyone will get an equal number of turns.
The cards are sturdy and should stand up to use by kids. The illustrations (by Doris Nestel) are wonderful. I particularly like the shifty eyed goose. The box is small, sturdy and easily transportable. I had no problem learning the game from the english rules.
By Golly is a game for kids, especially younger kids (3-7), and as such will probably get a much lower rating on BGG than it deserves. I got it a couple of weeks ago and it's been requested by my 5 y.o., not particularly game loving, daughter every night since then. It'll appeal to fans of Memory, Chicken Cha Cha Cha, Sparito or other memory games.
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As Above, So Below
