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 recently had the chance to pull in a review copy of the Stonemaier title Origin Story, a game I first learned about during SPIEL Essen 2025. As a bonus, Stonemaier threw in a free copy of a small card game called Smitten 2, based on the game Smitten, a title I was not aware of. When Smitten 2 arrived, I broke it out and did a couple solo plays.
The setup is quick, and the goal is simple: using a small hand of cards, players must build two matching 3×3 grids of cards, with the win condition tied to placing 17 of the 18 cards in the deck. During setup, all cards are shuffled with one being left out, unseen…in solo, the player manipulates two hands and has to play each tableau off each other, using the card powers aligned with each card and its specific playable position in the grid. (The 5 card can only be played in the middle of each tableau, while the 1 card can only be played in the upper left corner, for example.)
Across those first two plays, I didn’t win, but some interesting choices were on offer. Each card’s placement rules make for a fun puzzle, and I came close to a win on my second play. I put Smitten 2 away for a day, then did one more solo play…and lost again. Smitten 2 was never amazing, but it did have that slight tug of “one more try” that kept me coming back. (The 10-minute play time didn’t hurt, either.)
The next day, I brought Smitten 2 to a game night with my friends Beth and John…and when I arrived, Beth was finishing a work call, so John and I played Smitten 2 in its two-player format. (The game can only be played solo or with two players.) During this final review play, Smitten 2 revealed itself to be a slightly more interesting, cooperative tableau builder. The way cards require a player to play a specific card, or ask their partner to play or reveal cards from their hand, added immediate spice to the proceedings.
John and I got down to our final four empty grid spots, and lost on the next turn. John was intrigued enough about the game to play it later that week with Beth, and they played (and lost!) six more times before deciding they had seen enough.
So, across my four plays, and John’s six, we agreed on a few items:
- Smitten 2 is alright. It’s never special, but it has a nice pull.
- It is a fun activity and one that we definitely recommend as a two-player game instead of a solo experience, because playing two-handed just doesn’t have the same juice that the two-player version does.
- The Mico is the artist for the nine unique cards of Smitten 2, and every time I play a game by The Mico, I say the same thing: “damn, I love The Mico’s work!”
- For around $5, it’s hard to beat a game like Smitten 2. It’s a game that might get 3-5 plays with most people, and for that price point, the value proposition is perfect.
The next time you are shopping on Stonemaier’s site, I’d recommend adding Smitten 2 to the cart if you do a lot of two-player gaming and enjoy a quick, light puzzle. For the price, it does the job!
Smitten 2 details
- Designer: Jamey Stegmaier, Ryan S. Davis
- Artists: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
- Publishers: Stonemaier Games
- Release Date: 2025
- Player count : 1 - 2
- Age range : 14+
- Time range : 5 - 10 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Communication Limits, Cooperative Game, Deduction, Hand Management, Solo / Solitaire Game, Square Grid, Turn Order: Claim Action
- BGG Geek Rating: 6.58621 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 3.5.
- More articles about Smitten 2.
