SNAP Review – Combo

What is your favorite combo?

Peanut butter and jelly?

Personally, I’m partial to everything bagel with plain cream cheese.

Ooh, how about coconut and lime?

How about the birds and the bees?

How about a game where you all work together to find the best poker hand and score points based on how you contributed to that hand?

What?

Combo! That’s the combo we’re talking about.

Game

This is a SNAP review for Combo, from Happy Camper Games.

Combo is “a most tempting card game” for 2-6 players, ages 10 and up. Ikhwan Kwon originally designed the game Surforsaurus MAX with Loosey Goosey Games. But this version is published by Happy Camper Games.

Art

Let’s talk about the art in this game.

The components for Combo are pretty simple – there are cards in seven fruit-based suits, numbered 1-12.

I really like these cards. Each fruit type has a monochromatic illustration and a patterned background.

And I love that the number and the fruit is repeated on all four of the corners – so it doesn’t really matter how you hold the cards, or how you put them on the table. Basically, no matter what, anyone can read them.

There are also player mats, and a cute little pineapple to mark the first player each round.

Mechanics

That’s what Combo looks like, how do we play it? What are the mechanics?

Start by setting up the deck, removing some number of cards. Then pass out player mats and deal seven cards to each player.

The first player will play a card from their hand and draw a fresh card from the deck, then the next player does as well. Go around the table until everyone has played two cards (for four or more players), or three cards (for fewer players).

Now, look at ALL the cards that have been played this round and figure out the best possible combo that can be made, according to the chart on the player mat.

Combo Types

A combo is either four or five cards, depending on the player count. The strongest combo is a “Super Slushie”, which is a run of cards in order that are all the same color. Next strongest is a “Smoothie”, which is cards that are all the same number.

Below that is a “Slushie”, which is a combo of cards all in the same color.

Then a “Ripe Run” – which is a group of numbers that are in sequence, but in multiple colors.

If you can’t make any of those, you still have your “Sweet Scraps” – the four or five highest distinct numbers.

If there’s more than one combo available, you’re going to take the strongest. If there’s more than one combo of the same strength, take the one with the highest numbered card.

Scoring

After you’ve figured out the strongest combo that can be made, all the cards that contributed to that combo score for their players. Cards that are “tied” – which means the same number was contributed more than once – those cards score half points. But unique numbers in the combo score full points.

The full and half points amounts are here, on the top edge of the card.

For example, in this Ripe Run, two 3s are on the table. Either helps make the best hand, so they’ll both score at the end of the round. (For half points.)

Now, discard all the unscored cards from this round – but keep your hand of cards. Pass the pineapple and start the next round.

Once everyone has been the start player an equal number of times, the game ends. Everyone counts up their full and half points, and whoever has the most points, wins the game!

Expectations

So, what did we expect from Combo?

I had heard a ton about Surfosaurus MAX. Lots of people have been raving about this game. So when I heard Combo was a re-skin of that, I was immediately excited. Bundle that with the fact that it was being published by game industry veteran Jason Schneider and I was totally in on this game.

This is the second game we’ve seen from Happy Camper Games. We really liked their first published game, Trio (see our review), and I was hopeful this would have some of that same feel – a fast moving card game that’s easy to teach and has some little hook that will keep us coming back over and over.

Surprises

Well, let’s talk about some surprises. Especially compared to Trio, I was actually a little surprised at how those first couple of games were kind of weird to get your head around, right? It takes understanding the flow of the game to be able to enjoy it – at least for me. But I will absolutely say once you get how it all works, this game is fantastic. Just don’t forget to draw a new card after you play a card!

I feel like I understood how to play almost right away, but the names for the combos are awkward. We ended up just referring to them with poker terms like flush, four-of-a-kind, straight, straight flush.

This is one place where the player mats were unexpectedly helpful, though. They serve as a full player aid, giving you the relative strengths of the different combos, AND the specific set up for each player count. You could play without them, but they make the whole game a lot easier.

The game does get a little weird at the highest and lowest player counts. At two players, you have a sort of dummy player that flips cards off the deck to possibly contribute to the combo. It actually works surprisingly well!

And at six players you run out of cards to draw, well before the end of the game. You have to continue on with only what’s left in your hand – that didn’t feel great.

Recommended

With all that said, do we recommend Combo?

Combo is a great unique game for the family! It’s kind of cooperative, in the sense that you can’t create a full combo on your own. You have to work with people at least a little bit if you’re going to score any points. But it’s not REALLY cooperative, because you still want to get the most points, and win.

There are opportunities to cut a player out of a combo by playing a higher card or taking the combo in a different direction. And this is something I would say parents should keep an eye on. If one of your kiddos is being passive aggressive and continually trying to cut another one of the kids out (or another sibling), this might not be the right game, at least for now.

But, it doesn’t really impact our feelings about this game. The “co-opetition” (sort of) model forces player interaction and we love it. The poker foundation of how the combos are made makes the game instantly relatable.

We are going to give Combo 4½ fruit out of 5.

Buy it on Amazon, direct from Happy Camper Games, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Combo from Happy Camper 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?