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.
I consider my year a failure if I don’t watch The Emperor’s Groove at least once. Luckily, the kids have really been digging that movie until recently (shoutout Monsters Inc), so I’ve been fortunate to get my fill of llama-based hijinks for the foreseeable future. And then Allplay releases Llama Llama with gorgeous artwork by the talented Sai Beppu and I knew I had to double down and check it out. Yay, I’m a gamer again!
Llama Llama Overview
Llama Llama is designed to play best with four players, but there are rules to play with dummy hands if you only have two or three. Over the course of four rounds, players exchange cards with each other, shaping their hands to score the most points based on the soon-to-be revealed Goal cards. Once a player scores 100 points, whoever has the highest total score is the winner.
As a part of the setup, each player receives eight cards into their hand. Out of those cards, each player selects one to be one of the four Goals used during the game. These are shuffled together and placed facedown in the center of the play area, underneath the 4 Display cards.
Each turn, the next unrevealed Goal card is flipped over. Players then pass a number of cards based on the number indicated on the associated Display card—the first round is four, then three, two, and one. At the end of the four rounds, players add up the score for their assembled hand, shuffling up the cards and starting a new set of rounds if nobody has reached 100 points.
All llamas are not created equal. Every card is labeled with a letter A-G, worth an increasing number of points as you progress through the alphabet. Additionally, each letter has its own scoring condition. For example, if one of the Goal cards is an A, then all A cards in your final hand score 1 point, plus if your assembled hand contains every letter A-G you score an additional 50 points. B cards are worth 2 points, with additional points if your final hand contains two As and two Cs.
Attaining some of these goals is easier said than done, considering that each letter of the alphabet has fewer copies than the letters preceding it, ending with only a single copy for the G card. Which makes scoring the bonus 50 points from an A goal quite tricky!
Llama Llama: Pull the Lever
Llama Llama is one of the quickest games that I’ve played in recent memory. Once everything is set up, you can easily rattle through a set of four rounds in a handful of minutes, making the entire game last around 15 minutes on the high end. This made it an ideal game to cram between sessions and events at Gen Con.
The struggle in the game is borne from the idea that, to start, you only know one of the four Goal cards. The selection of this Goal is crucial because you want to select one that the rest of your starting hand might already support. As cards get passed, you’ll get a vague sense of what your neighbor might be working for, which you had better hope isn’t aligned with your own aspirations. Otherwise, you’ll both be in for a low-scoring affair.
Scarcity caused by the number of copies of each card also leads players to trend towards scoring objectives that feature cards A-C over D-G. Overall, I find that the scoring objectives are unimaginative. Three of the seven score if you have two sets of two cards. Two of them score by having one of every available card. One scores by having six A cards. And the last scores from having pairs of specific cards. Where are the three-of-a-kinds or full houses? It feels very basic.
As much as I love the artwork, the theme of the game is non-existent. For a fast-paced card game it’s not a complete deal-breaker, but I like to have at least a fraction of a passable background to be immersed in the world of the game a little.
Llama Llama isn’t trying to fool anybody by pretending to be an innovative game; it’s meant to be a game that travels easily and can be played with minimal rules overhead and time constraints. There’s not a lot of drafting strategy to be had, because you’re only shedding cards with each round instead of removing them from the collective pool.
While I wish that Llama Llama had some more meat on its bones, I guess I’ll stick to these spinach puffs.
