Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
As I do from time to time, I enlist the help of my children to cover new games here at Meeple Mountain.
When the new family-weight card game 3, 2, 1 Piñata! arrived at the house, my eight-year-old son saw me place it on the table and immediately wanted to jump in. My wife, remembering how much fun we had with the similarly-titled light party game Piñata Blast, was game to try this one too. In a rare feat, I got a new game to the table the literal second it arrived at my home.
I’m going to take the high road where possible here and say that the initial excitement did not match our feelings about the gameplay, and that persisted during a subsequent play with both my son and their 11-year-old sibling. I think the reason for that is simple: 3, 2, 1 Piñata! ultimately wasn’t that much fun.
“For the Third Time, The Count is Six!!”
3, 2, 1 Piñata! is a 2-5 player set collection game. During setup and to start each of their turns, a player has a hand of five cards, a mix of “count” cards and “utility” cards. In a round, the game asks players to remember an imaginary starting count of five. On the active player’s turn, they must play one card to the middle of the table that increases or decreases the count, never to fall below zero or to exceed 10. So, if it’s the first turn of a round, and I play a +3 count card from my hand, the new count is eight. I announce this new total to the table, then play passes to the next player. If a player begins a turn with less than five cards, they draw up to their hand limit.
If the count ever reaches exactly zero or exactly 10, the active player draws a candy card as a reward, then the count resets back to five and a new round begins. On a turn—or, sometimes, between turns—a player can play one or more utility cards that introduce Exploding Kittens-style shenanigans to the proceedings, such as cards that allow a player to steal candy from an opponent or “nope” a card power. This gives the game some legs by throwing some chaos into the mix.
The first player to collect five candy cards instantly wins the game. There’s one other thing about candy collection that should be noted here—to begin the game, the youngest player is assigned the Piñata Stick card. The holder of this card earns double candy whenever they would get a candy card. So, the holder of the Piñata Stick might have three candy cards, zero out the count, and earn two candy and an instant victory. That means attacking that player—or playing a utility card to take possession of the Piñata Stick for yourself—ends up being crucial.
Here’s the most shocking thing about this supposedly simple party game: players constantly forget what the current count is. I’m still laughing about that first game. My wife, who was wide awake, hadn’t been drinking, and was alert and responsive before and after that game, asked for an updated count every time it was her turn. Every time.
“Sorry, tell me again…is the count six?”
Players create a discard pile each round, so that players can always go back through cards to ensure they have the count down pat. But this rule—which probably appeared simple to the game’s designer, Bill Kaiser, who likely played the game hundreds of times—really slows play for a game that should be giving me slap-happy vibes like the best games from the publisher Dolphin Hat Games, the folks who gave us Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.
The rules in 3, 2, 1 Piñata! just never stick in the way a game this light and this targeted towards family audiences should. It didn’t help that players were constantly lucking their way into winning candy. In that first game, I grabbed the fifth candy card first, and the only reason I didn’t win sooner was because my opponents kept using utility cards to force my candy back to the supply.
Getting robbed can be fun; my kids and I all enjoyed the constant back-and-forth of games like Tanuki, from Synapses Games. But in 3, 2, 1 Piñata!, I was surprised how bland an affair it was.
It is Quick
The great thing about being married for a long time is sharing a knowing look from your partner when the situation presents itself.
I looked over at my wife after that first play. “If you enjoy living here, you won’t subject me to playing that one again,” the return gaze seemed to tell me. “Feel free to try and trick the kids to do it again, though.”
I looked at my son. “Can we play something else now?” he said out loud. Worse, he asked this question while walking down the stairs to the game closet in our basement. Not only did he not care if I had an answer to his question, but he was still willing to play games and play nearly anything besides 3, 2, 1 Piñata!.
Later in the same weekend, I did trick both my son and the 11-year-old to play 3, 2, 1 Piñata again. The 11-year-old didn’t like it, and they almost won the game. There is so much competition in the 15-minute party game space; for now, our family will likely stick with other favorites.
3, 2, 1 Piñata! details
- Designer: Bill Kaiser
- Artists: N/A
- Publishers: Pineappbill Games
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 2 - 5
- Age range : 7+
- Time range : 5 - 25 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Race, Take That
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.25 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
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