It's all the Rage

The Review Crew's Take on

RAGE

# Players . . . . . .  . .  . . . . . 2-8

Game time . . . . . . . . 45 minutes

Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 minute

Luck . . . 3.5. . . . . . . . .Strategy

*Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Visual Appeal  . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Component Quality . .. . . . . 6

*Replayability . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5



*See "How we Rate" for a definition.

Remember that card game you played when you were young? Usually done with Rook cards, it had a suit and a trump and you held out fingers to predict how many hands you would take. You started with ten cards and went down to one. Sometimes that last round involved putting the card on your forehead. Do you remember it? What did you call it?  It had about a hundred different names and about that many variations.
Some smart person, one who recognizes a good game when he sees it, and who must have played that nameless game when he was young, took it, added a few twists (trump changes and such), packaged it, and gave it a name that aptly describes the emotion it sometimes evokes--RAGE.  But that's rage in a fun, I'll-get-you-next-time, kind of way.
It's about as perfect as a card game gets. It's luck-based enough that anyone can enjoy it, but with enough strategy to please the thinkers in the crowd. It's easy to learn, yet replayability is so high that we get it out just about every time we get together.
The component quality and visual appeal are a little lower because, well, it's a card game and cards wear out, especially with the use we give it. Earlier problems with the colors being too similar look to have been solved by a new edition. (We still have the old one.) Thanks for that, game makers.
If you're looking for a family card game that kids, grandparents and everyone in between will like, you can't go wrong with RAGE.