SNAP Review – Circus Flohcati

Do you know what a flea circus is?

Like a real one?

Yeah. They weren’t fleas doing circus ACTS. They were actually fleas tied up to teeny tiny little harnesses to pull tiny machines with their strong legs.

Cute harnesses!

Flea circuses died out with the advent of vacuum cleaners and, well, better hygiene, thankfully. But, it does make a fun idea for a game!

This is a SNAP review for Circus Flohcati!

Game

Circus Flohcati is a card game designed by Reiner Knizia. It’s intended for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up (correction: 6 and up), and it takes about 20 minutes.

This version was published by 25th Century Games.

Art

Let’s talk about the art here. There have been a lot of different versions of this game from gruesomely cartoony to eerily realistic, but I like this one by JBJ the best. It’s got a pretty minimalist, outline style.

I like it!

The fleas are just little white ovals, and the focus is on what they’re doing. There are ten different kinds of performers, and each one has a different colored background.

If you have trouble telling some of the backgrounds apart, you can always look for the title of the performer OR the watermark in the background – each of the ten performers has a different letter watermarked onto the background of the card.

The nine action cards in the game have a striped watermark and no flea – instead they have a sort of suggestion of a clown, with a bowler hat, some facial features, disembodied hands and feet – showing you what the special action does.

Frankly, I think that’s kind of perfect for this game.

Mechanics

So, let’s talk about how this one works – the mechanics.

The concept behind Circus Flohcati is really simple – you’re collecting the best performer you can from the ten different types. So let’s dive into how that actually works.

On your turn, you may either take a card from the line of face-up cards, or you may flip cards face-up from the deck, one at a time.

If you’re flipping cards out, you may stop after any flip and choose any of the face-up cards that are available…

UNLESS you flipped out a card that is the same performer type (same color) as another card that’s in the line. If that happens, discard the duplicate card you just flipped over, and your turn is immediately over. [wah wah]

If you reveal a special action card, do its action immediately, then discard it and end your turn.

At the end of your turn, you may choose to reveal a set of three identical numbers from your hand, called a Trio. You play these out in front of you. Playing a Trio gets you ten points at the end of the game, but you no longer have those cards in your hand.

The game can end in one of two ways: either the deck runs out and the current player completes their turn, or a player calls a Gala show during their turn and that immediately ends the game.

Calling a Gala means you have at least one of each of the ten performer types in your hand, and you show that to everyone at the table. If you’re the one to call the Gala, you get ten bonus points.

Either way, when the game ends, everyone scores for the cards they have in their hand. Only the highest card in each color scores points.

And that’s it!

Expectations

So Anitra, what did we expect from Circus Flohcati?

I had heard great things about this game. It’s been around since I started playing games in the early 2000s! But I never learned how to play – I was really turned off by the theme and the artwork. When I saw the new artwork in this edition, I was finally willing to give it a try.

Honestly, I didn’t actually even realize this was a game that had been around for a while when we got it in for review. I know, shame on me. But honestly, I’m kind of glad I didn’t know. I like the art in this one, which is styled after the Korean release, and it’s a lot better than some of the older releases in the States, which had a classic circus style. Which was fine, but I thought the flea heads were kind of gross. And this is just a lot better.

Surprises

And what surprised us?

I mean, basically everything. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge of this that I brought to the table, so everything was new. The name doesn’t really mean anything, “floh” is flea in German I guess.

Yeah, so it’s flea circus.

But “-cati” is… whatever. I dunno.

But I was surprised and impressed at how simple this game was while being simultaneously incredibly fun to play. This is the kind of game that you lose and then it’s pretty easy to convince yourself you can win the next go ’round.

I was shocked at just how simple this game is to learn and to teach.

But even though it’s easy to start and the turns go very fast, it makes me think, too.

Every turn, I have to balance trying to get high numbers in a variety of colors, with the possibility of pushing my luck too far and ending up with nothing. And I have the option to turn low numbers into points by putting them out as a Trio.

Recommended

So do we recommend this game?

We have really enjoyed Circus Flohcati. We recommend it for families to play together – it’s really simple to get started, and games go really fast, even though there are hard decisions of when to take a card and when to flip more of them out.

Our older son, who normally shuns overly simple games, has really enjoyed this one and I’ve even caught him teaching it to a bunch of his friends!

We’re going to rate Circus Flohcati 4½ fleas out of 5.

Find it on Amazon, direct from 25th Century Games, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Circus Flohcati from 25th Century Games 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?