SNAP Review – Jinxx

Play games with your kids! – Jinx! You owe me a soda!

Not that kind of jinx. A different kind of jinx. This kind of jinx!

This is a SNAP review for Jinxx from Looney Labs.

Game

Jinxx is an abstract strategy game for 2-4 players, ages 8 and up. It’s part of the Pyramid Arcade line, designed by Andrew Looney, and it plays in 15-30 minutes.

Art

So, you mentioned pyramids – Lets talk about the art here and these pyramid pieces.

All the Pyramids games use this style of piece. They come in sets of three – a small, medium, and large, and you can either nest them (like this) or you can stack them, like a pine tree.

In Jinxx, the pyramids come in black, gray, white, and clear, three sets in each color.

There’s also a die with triangles on it, and a tiny little gameboard that folds to fit in the box!

Mechanics

So how do we play Jinxx? Let’s talk about the mechanics.

Each player takes three matching sets of pyramids and sets them up in the “tree” formation on their chosen side of the board.

To win, you need to arrange your pieces so you have a three-in-a-row line – going through the middle square – at least, when seen from the top.

On your turn, roll the die, then move a piece of the size indicated. (If the die face has two sizes, you get to pick which one you want!) You move exactly one space, orthogonally only – not diagonally!

Pieces can get stacked on each other. And when you move your chosen piece, you move anything stacked on top of it, too.

Your piece can land on a piece of any color, not just on empty spaces. BUT! You cannot land on a piece smaller than the piece you’re moving.

If you land on a piece that’s the same size as the piece you’re moving, you destroy that piece – even if it belongs to you!

When you’ve made your one move, pass the die to the next player, and then it becomes their turn.

You are allowed to move other players’ pieces too, but only if you have absolutely NO legal moves from your die roll.

That’s it! Keep rolling the die, moving a piece, and passing to the next player until someone manages to get a 3-in-a-row of their pieces topmost on a line through the center.

Hijinks

There are rules for a second game in this box, called Hijinks – it is actually the older of the two games and was originally known as Pink Hijinks. It uses the same movement rules as Jinxx, but it’s only for two players and uses three sets of pyramids that are shared between both players.

Since you share the pieces, they all start in the center row, and you won’t destroy any pieces in this version of the game.

There are two ways to win Hijinks: Either by having one of each piece of the same size in your own Home row – with no other kinds of pieces in that row; or by getting all NINE pieces moved into your opponent’s Home row.

We just explained two games in one box, which is pretty incredible. That’s a lot!

Expectations

So what did we expect from this game?

I expected to like Jinxx. I find the Pyramid Arcade system really interesting, and I had previously played the games in the Ice Duo set. I’m also a sucker for 3-in-a-row and 4-in-a-row and 5-in-a-row games. I love seeing all the different ways that mechanic can be manipulated into making a more tactical game.

I’m not a huge fan of these colors, though. I’m really drawn to the translucent pyramids, like these, and the ones that are in Ice Duo. So the black, and white, and gray felt kind of boring to me.

Honestly, I held my breath on this. You like these pyramid games a lot more than I do. They’re fine, but they’re just not the kind of games I gravitate to, even for two player games. I figured these would be fine.

On the flip side, I actually like the colors more here. They feel more sophisticated to me than the colored translucent pyramids, which always kind of felt toy-like. I guess.

All right, I can see that.

Surprises

Let’s talk about what surprised us.

I was really surprised at how interesting Jinxx is when you play with three or four people. There’s a lot of blocking and jockeying for position, and usually a ton of stacking and destroying each other’s pieces.

I was also surprised at how using a die changed my feelings about this game – from round to round!

Sometimes you get die rolls that fit perfectly… And sometimes you’re completely prevented from doing anything you want to do. That just feels dumb.

But the more I play this game, the more I’ve learned to try to leave myself options for decent moves no matter what I roll.

With a game this small, it’s really difficult to make a pure strategic abstract game, which I think is why the die is here.

But that means that now there’s a “chance cube” effect that has come into play. Sometimes you just don’t get the rolls you want, like you said.

I really like my abstracts to be pure strategy kinds of games, like the Gigamic games we’ve talked about in the past, or even classic games like Go, or like Checkers, or something.

You don’t really have that here. But on the flip side, games are also really short. And there is a little bit of strategy, so I don’t feel like it’s just a tossup,

Recommended?

Jinxx is a really portable and fast game that still feels strategic. It’s especially great if you want a really portable game that more than two people can play.

It’s been a great restaurant game for our family – the kind where everyone can talk while they’re playing, and it’s so small that we don’t have to rush to get it off the table when the food comes.

But that luck factor can be really frustrating. I don’t mind, you don’t mind, but this has turned some of our kids off from playing this game sometimes.

We might still sneak it out for some two-player gaming on dates, though.

That Hijinks game is cool.

We give Jinxx 3 pyramids out of 5.

And that’s Jinxx, in a SNAP!

Find it on Amazon, direct from Looney Labs, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Jinxx from Looney Labs for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?