Viruses eh? Seems like we have only finished dealing with one and another one comes along in it’s place to take over the world. At least this one comes in a very fetching box though so it’s not all bad…
In Arlukkachase, you and your friends will battle a dark and deadly Virus (rather than those cute and fluffy viruses that you may be used to) in order to save the world. Can you find the key to vanquishing the Darkarlukka virus forever? Will you be able to overcome your friends as they turn against you one by one? And will you be able to resist playing with the shiny, magnetic box lid long enough to win the game? Nothing is for certain in the Arlukkachase, but lets give it a go, shall we?
Arlukka-what now?
Arlukkachase is a card game for 1-5 players which pits one player as the Darkarlukka trying to take over the other players before they find the key to their defeat. The good news is that, unlike immunology in the real world, there will be no slaving away in laboratories for months on end. In fact the battle against the Darkarlukka virus will generally last about 25 minutes, entails much mocking of your friends and doesn’t require the use of any test tubes or petri dishes. Although feel free to have some on hand if it makes you feel safer. The bad news is that you’ll probably lose. And you’ll definitely say the phrase “-arlukka” a lot more than you’ll feel comfortable with.
Take That – Back For Good?
So at it’s heart Arlukkachase is a game reliant on Gotcha card play or “Take that” as it’s sometimes referred. Anyone who has ever played Uno or Exploding Kittens will be familiar with the way the game works: Players are dealt a hand of cards and take turns to play one or more on their turn, each with different abilities. Most of these abilities will negatively affect another player e.g making them skip a turn, give up one of the cards from their hand or be forced to draw from the deck. In Arlukkachase, however the main difference is that instead of all players playing against each other, the aim is to defeat one, the Darkarlukka player. Players win individually, by holding the Arlukkakey card for one round, and are in competition for this, but the addition of a Dark Side changes the feel of the game subtly. While games such as Exploding Kittens can be quite chaotic, with attacks coming from all sides and balance of play shifting from one card play to the next, the flow of Arlukkachase is more measured. Players try to survive the early onslaught of the Darkarlukka long enough to gain the advantage and make their superior numbers count while vying for position to win.
This is made harder by the fact that any player who receives a Darkarlukka card and is not able to play a shield card, will be infected… and instantly turns to the dark side. It is this mechanism which makes Arlukkachase stand out from the Take That crowd. In many games with player elimination, players lose and sit out, however in Arlukkachase, defeated players simply carry on playing as one of the Darkarlukka’s helpers and can win as one of Darkarlukka’s team. It’s a nice way to minimise any resentment for players knocked out early as no one is forced to sit out and watch the rest of the game played without them. It also keeps things interesting as every time this happens the game gets much harder to win for the “good” guys.
I Got The Power!
According to the developers wesbite, Arlukka means “power”. The English dictionary might disagree but I’m not going to. The majority of the cards in the deck are power cards, which will either be attack cards, such as bomb, rob or skip cards, which pretty much speak for themselves. There are also cards which react to these, namely “reflect” or “naah” cards which will bounce back effects or simply negate them. When attack cards are played then a battle begins between the card player and the target player. Playing an attack card of the same type will reflect it back at a plus one strength ( so playing a bomb card, on another bomb card would result in the first player destroying two cards… unless they play another or a card to reflect or negate it). After a battle, players win cards from the draw deck depending on how many cards were played in the battle, which helps prevent the winning player being too depleted after a protracted battle. However, by drawing cards, players can end up taking into their hand Darkarlukka cards which can instantly turn a player to the dark side. To prevent this they have to play an Arlukkashield, one for every Darkarlukka card they receive, hence even winning a battle can lead to overall defeat. For the Dark player, there is a similar disincentive. If they pick up a shield card, they are stunned and miss a go for every one. This means that while the battles are pretty frequent, it doesn’t devolve into frenzy too often.
The final type of card available are curse cards. These are 4 cards placed in the draw deck randomly before the game begins. Each has a different one off effect which isn’t game breaking but forces whichever player receiving it to discard cards from their hand or to draw from the bonus deck (which I’ll get on to later) to put in a shield or a dark card depending on their preference. As curses go they’re not one of the really bad ones bad one, not up their with being forced to feed on human blood or recite poetry at random wedding guests but it can be pretty inconvenient nonetheless.
There’s no getting away form it, in a game like Arlukkachase, the luck of the draw is paramount. If fortune smiles on you it’s lovely to sit in the sun and snigger while everyone is sniping each other, knowing you have enough shields and nope cards to ward off their attacks. But a bad draw of a couple of dark cards and all of a suddenly you are hanging in the shadows playing with the bad boys and plotting revenge against the so-called ally who just stitched you up.
Arlukkachuckles
Make no mistake, Arlukka is a fun game with lots of opportunities for underhand shennanigans. The game could be described as semi-cooperative, as all players are against the Darkarlukka at the beginning and the longer this continues, the harder it is for Darkarlukka. If all players are infected then Darkarlukka wins. At the same time, only the player with the key will win so there is a balance between being too aggressive with other non-Dark players, as the more you knock out, the more people will be aggressively gunning for you and standing in the way of your goal; but be too passive and another player will take the prize. It means that you always have to be on your toes, but trusting other players not to attack you while at the same time keep a couple of the reflect and Naah cards in your hand in case things get tricky in the final stages of the game. This is especially the case when the Key comes out, as there is one full round to hold out while pretty much everyone will be trying to take the card from you, so preparation is important.
The Dark Side
So is this an easy recommend then? Well… not quite. Arlukkachase is a very light game to provide 30 minutes of fun between a group of friends who are less interested in thinking and more interested in laughing- preferably at each other and that is just fine. The problem is that the rules that came with the game are, to put it charitably, sparse. They simply don’t give enough information on how to play the game, what can be done on a turn and in some cases just don’t make any sense.
For example, the rules several times refers to a bonus deck of marked cards, which players can draw from. What it doesn’t make clear though is whether this is actually two separate decks (containing the shields on one hand and the Dark cards on the other) or whether both of these should be shuffled together. Either of these could be correct however it would change the game considerably. In other instances, the rules talk of inserting cards into the deck but don’t specify if this is necessarily at the bottom. Can you put it anywhere? Does that include back on top? It took me a long time to get this game to the table because frankly I wasn’t a hundred per cent sure of how it worked and the timing of effects. This is particularly the case in battles where it isn’t entirely clear what the effect of Naah cards is- do they negate all of the cards or just the last one played. In the end, battles can turn into extended periods of discussing exactly what effects are happening and to whom rather than the most raucous element of the game.
Similarly, the game felt somewhat under developed in terms of what you could actually do within the rules. While I appreciate that this may have been deliberate to allow players to play the game in their own way, I appreciate a little more structure to how game play works especially when teaching it to others. For example, I was unsure about what could be communicated to other players about their cards in hand- and whether if it was allowed, could it be done secretly to prevent the Darkarlukka player from hearing. It wasn’t a huge issue but it was just another area where some clarity or further detail could’ve helped.
The rules themselves are written on two cards and I think unfortunately the game manufacturer has favoured brevity and compact design over clarity.
Luckily for me, and for you, fellow Zatu blogger, Ross Coulbeck has developed an excellent How to Play guide which is very clear and easy to follow and helped to clear up most of the issues at least.
The other gripe I had was the two-player version of the game. It isn’t alone in this, but playing at two players is quite lacklustre and accentuates the luck element- a good card draws for one player can win the game very quickly. Arlukkachase definitely plays better with more players, leaning into the chaos that it clearly thrives on.
One final word on Arlukkachase’s production. I really liked the art work on the cards and the presentation of the box. Some people I spoke to weren’t as keen feeling the cards were too dark and looked very similar, but this wasn’t a problem while playing and I think is just personal taste. The game box is vey well made and I really appreciated that everything fitted inside a pocket sized box.
Arlukkatastic?
The main selling point for Arlukkachase is also it’s main weakness and will dictate who will want to buy this game: It is feather-light in terms of gameplay, favouring simple card play and snappy “Gotcha” moments over any strategic planning. There are elements of team play but not enough to get your teeth into as the game is usually finished before anyone can form anything other than a passing alliance. And honestly, that isn’t really my bag with card games. However given the immense and continued popularity of Uno, it is plenty of other people’s. There is definitely a niche for card games you can play in under half an hour, take on the move and whip out and put away quickly and this certainly fills it (although a link to better rules on line is a must). And on a personal level, I preferred it to my experience playing Exploding Kittens. What it lacks the cutesy art work and humour it makes up for in more inclusive gameplay by removing the knockout element. And for a family game, when you are likely playing with younger kids particularly, that is no bad thing.
