Has a black cat crossed your path lately?

Halloween is in the air, and you never know what’s lurking around the next corner.

Actually, the Cat In The Box game doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween. (It’s just fun timing for a review.)

Instead, the game refers to Schrödinger’s cat.

Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment devised by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. If you place a cat and something that could kill the cat (a radioactive atom) in a box and seal it, you won’t know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box. Thus, until the box is opened, the cat is both “dead and alive”.

Okay, so maybe a “dead and alive” cat is pretty Halloweenish.

However, rest assured no cats are harmed in this unique and fun trick-taking, card game by Bezier Games.

 

How to play Cat In The Box

Cat In The Box is a trick-taking card game where all the cards in the deck are black. When a player plays a card from their hand, they decide what color it is. The catch is that they can’t declare a color of a card with the same number that has already been declared. Nor, can they declare a color they’ve previously indicated they’re out of.

“How does that work”, you ask?

Let’s break it down in a bit more detail.

To begin, each player takes all the tokens of their chosen color and a player board. They place 1 token on each X on their board – representing the colors red, blue, green, and yellow. The central board is setup depending on the number of players. All the numbers and colors in the game are presented on the central board.

Also depending on the number of players, some of the numbered cards are removed. For example, in a 4-player game, all the 9’s are removed.

To start a round, all the cards are dealt out to the players. After looking at their hand of cards, each player chooses 1 card to remove from play. Then, starting with the Start Player, each player designates how many tricks they think they’ll win. They place 1 of their tokens on that number on their player board.

The Start Player then starts the round by placing 1 of their cards next to their player board. The color they place the card next to declares what color the card is. For example, if they place the card next to their yellow side of their player board, they declare the card to be yellow. They then place one of their tokens on the central board to cover that number and color. If that color/number combination is already covered on the central board, they may not declare it.

The first color played determines the led color for the trick. Following players may also declare any color when they play a card, but if they choose not to declare the same color as the led color, they remove their token from their player board of that led color – thus declaring that they have no cards of the led color. For the rest of they round, they may not declare that color when they play a card.

After all players have played 1 card, the winner of the trick is determined. If a red is played, it is the trump color and the highest red number wins the trick. If no red is played, the highest number of the led color wins the trick.

The winner of the trick takes all the played cards and will lead out for the next trick.

Players continue in this manner until players are left with just 1 card in their hand or a player has created a paradox. A paradox occurs when a player is unable to legally play a card from their hand. For example, all the central board spaces are covered for the remaining cards in their hand or the only spots left are for a color that they’ve declared they’re out of.

The player who caused the paradox scores -1 point for the round. All other players score 1 point for each trick they won plus bonus points if they correctly predicted the number of tricks they won. The bonus points are equal to a player’s largest continguously adjacent tokens on the central board (connected horizontally or vertically).

After scoring, players set up for another round. The player to the left of the previous round Start Player becomes the new Start Player for the round.

Once the number of rounds played equals the number of players, the game ends. The player with the most points after the final round wins the game!

 

Can the whole family enjoy Cat In The Box?

We’ve played and reviewed a lot of trick-taking card games over the past 15 years. And Cat In The Box is one of the most unique of the bunch. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing it. But we also realize it’s not for everyone because of these unique elements.

The fact that you choose which color your played card represents is so cool. And it also requires a bit more thinking.

One thing we didn’t mention in the How To Play section is that there are 5 cards of each number. Yet there are only 4 possible colors. So it’s highly likely that a paradox may occur each round. The only saving grace is that each player discards a card at the start of each round and the last card in players hands are never played.

But if you’ve got a couple of number cards in your hand when all 4 of those numbers are filled on the central board, then you know you’re hosed. And your only hope is that another player causes the paradox before you do.

We also find it interesting that there isn’t an option to say you’re going to take zero tricks. You have to mark that you’ll at least take one trick. That catches us a bit mainly because we’re so used to playing Skull King where saying you’ll claim zero tricks can be a great way to score lots of points if you’re correct and lose a lot if you’re wrong.

But in Cat In The Box, there isn’t a penalty for guessing wrong the number of tricks you’ll take. There’s just an advantage for guessing right. And to get that bonus score higher, you’ll also need to group your tokens on the central board in a connecting pattern – which also gives you one more element to think about while planning your turns.

Like with other trick-taking card games (either competitive or cooperative), the challenge feels different depending on the number of players.

While you can play Cat In The Box with just 2 players, we haven’t enjoyed playing that way. The sweet spot for us is 4 players. Playing with 5 is more challenging and with 3, it rattles by too quickly. It’s not to say that we don’t enjoy playing with 3 or 5, but we prefer 4 if given the option.

Regardless of how many players are in the mix, the game components are designed for the necessary adjustments. The player boards are double-sided so you use the side tied to the player count. This in turn changes the options for picking how many tricks you think you’ll win.

Likewise, the central board changes depending on the number of players. Players can also choose to play with the numbers offset on the central board. It’s a fun twist.

 

How does Cat In The Box score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Cat In The Box scores high on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter. It’s also been a hit with the various groups we’ve played the game with.

We may get a few head scratches when we first explain the game, but after just a few turns it starts to click. And once they get a taste, players often call for playing more games.

If you’re looking for a trick-taking game with a unique twist, we highly recommend Cat In The Box.

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