SNAP Review – So Clover!

I love word games. I’d like to think that I’m a pretty clever clue-giver (maybe we’ll have to ask Anitra about that). And I’d like to think that if I had Just One chance – Just One chance – I could be both lucky and clever.

Game

This is a SNAP Review for So Clover, the next cooperative puzzle word game from Repos Productions, makers of the award-winning Just One. So Clover supports 3-6 players age 10+, and a game takes about 10 and 30 minutes, depending on player count.

Art

Art is an easy conversation in this game, there really isn’t much.

You have these clover boards and some square cards.

Mechanics

In So Clover, everyone takes one of these clover boards. Then, you take four of these square word cards. Put one card in each section – they hold on pretty well – and you end up with something that looks like this.

Once you’ve put your four cards in, you can see what I’ve done – it’s time for everyone to get to work. Take your dry erase marker and come up with some clues! You have to relate your words together.

In this case, I have “cup” and “fair”. I’ve got to figure out a way to make “cup” and “fair” work together, and for me, I chose the word “World”, because you have the World Cup, and, of course, World Fairs.

In this case, I didn’t really relate the words, but I came up with a word that was kind of related to both of them.

Once you’ve finished writing your four clues, flip your clover so all four cards fall out. Then, take these four cards, add another from the stack, and shuffle them together.

Once everybody has finished, everyone takes turns flipping their clover over (with no cards on it, but with four clues) and providing those five cards, face up for everyone to try to guess how all of those things go together.

If you get it right on the first try, you get six points: one point for each clue you got correct, and two points for getting it right away. If you get any of them wrong, the clue giver can’t say anything! They just take off the card(s) that you got wrong.

Everybody gets one more chance to fix those guesses, and after that, you get one point for each correct card. Remember, you’re all working together!

Expectations

What did I expect from this game? Well, It’s Repos Productions. Just One was a Spiel des Jahres winner because it’s an incredibly fun, it’s light, and it’s easy to understand. I expected more of the same in So Clover.

And the theme of the game is right on the front – link all the clues together – it says it right there! And the steps are right on the back. So I felt like I had a pretty good idea of how the game was going to go.

Surprises

So, did anything surprise me about this?

What I didn’t expect, because the back doesn’t really tell you, is that everyone is doing all of their steps at the same time. This is great, especially for a family game, because it means almost zero downtime.

There’s a lot of similarities between a game like this and, say, Codenames, because it’s all about word association. But with this game, the teach is like two minutes long. It’s super fast! It’s also really, really hard to keep a straight face while everyone is talking about your clues and trying to figure out how to put them together.

I think Just One is still probably a better restaurant game, because there’s a lot of these little cards – a lot of little cards – and it could be pretty easy to lose track of those. But in any other setting, So Clover has my vote. It’s just a perfect combination of quick teaching, simultaneous play, large group support, and just enough brain burning to still be engaging as a party game, which I love. And sometimes, you see some clues that are just genuinely clever.

But, I’d love to see a score scale. There’s nothing in this game that says “hey, if you as a group achieve a certain level, then you’re super genius” or whatever. There’s literally nothing in the box. And I kind of wish there was one in here so we had scores to achieve or push for, or something like that. But honestly? That’s my only complaint about So Clover.

I just love this game. And for all the reasons I listed before, I think we’re going to rate So Clover 4 1/2 Four-Leaf Clovers out of 5!

Find So Clover on Amazon or your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received So Clover from Asmodee for this review.

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