Bored? Game! Hanabi

My partner and I looked down at our gear. It was all mixed up and we had no idea what was where – how had that even happened? I sighed as I looked down at the nondescript labels in front of me. Turning to my partner, I smiled grimly. “So I guess we have to work together… Or blow our reputations to pieces.”

‘Hanabi’ is the Japanese word for ‘fireworks’. It’s a co-operative game, which makes a nice change to my usual board game sessions which involve backstabbing everyone else. In Hanabi, you have to work together with your fellow pyrotechnics to create beautiful fireworks by laying down suits of cards in number order. The catch is that you can’t see your own cards – you can only see everyone else’s. You are able to point to someone’s cards and tell them whether they have a particular number, or whether they have a particular colour. You then have to trust that your friends remember the information you tell them and use it to put down the correct cards, all the while trying to remember what they told you.

A further layer of complication is added because of time counters. You have eight time counters. Telling someone a piece of information costs one counter and you can only get time back by discarding cards. But are you discarding the right ones? Have you used your time wisely to tell your partner what they need to know? Are you even laying down the right card?

It’s a very clever way of playing a game and working together and surprisingly tense at times, probably appropriate if you’re supposed to be working with explosives and fire. The number of times I held my breath, hoping that my friend would put down that green 3 instead of discarding it, or hoping that they wouldn’t toss away that yellow 5 but would know to get rid of the useless 1 card… We would all breathe sighs of relief when someone put down the correct card that would continue a firework suit.

Of course if you do put down the wrong card, i.e. one that doesn’t start or continue a firework, you burn the fuse down a little more. The fuse is marked by little counters which progress from a long fuse to a big explosion, and the end of the game.

If you blow yourselves up or run out of cards, the game ends and you total up the highest number cards that have been placed. You then get a rating which goes from something like ‘the show is a complete damp squib’ to ‘everyone will be talking about it for the rest of time’. It’s a nice little touch and good for a laugh.

The game is easy to play, quite quick and most of all, surprisingly fun. Be aware though that it becomes instantly more difficult to remember what information your friends gave you and how you ordered your cards if you add alcohol. Why do I always seem to be playing these board and card games over drinks? Don’t drink and play with fire, kids!

Designer: Antoine Bauza
Publisher: R&R games
Mechanic: Co-operative/Set collection
Number of Players: 2-4
Length of Game: 30 mins
Complexity: Easy