Get ready to roll the dice and crunch some numbers: Pikit is maths class with a bag of mischief and mayhem. At its core, Pikit is a speedy card-and-dice showdown for 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up. A whole game wraps in about 15 to 20 minutes. It’s easy to get into, and it gets quicker the more you play. It is also advertised as being colourblind friendly: the colour-coded cards and dice make matches quick to spot, but every card has a big printed number too, so colourblind players are never left behind when the pace accelerates.
Marketed for younger audiences, Pikit works well as a family game, but whether you'll love it really depends on who's sitting around the table. Spoiler: It's a bit of a mixed bag for us.
Roll n Match
Setup takes no time at all. Everyone begins by taking turns drawing a card face up until their hand adds up to 10 or more, then you hide it and keep your hand secret for the rest of the game. The box doubles as your dice tray, with a felt-lined base and a city skyline around the edge.
On your turn, you roll two blocky D6 and try to grab as many Kaiju (valued 1 to 11) as you can from the play area before the game ends. Match the sum for one card, the difference for one card, or use each die face separately to grab two cards. Roll a double? You can claim a Mecha instead. If nothing matches, you get nothing. Tough luck!
Some Kaiju come with discard effects, and this is where the mind games begin. After your dice are rolled, you can play one card to tip the odds in your favour or mess with your opponents: reroll the dice, steal an opponent's card, draw from the deck, cancel someone else's effect, or turn a die to whatever face you fancy. That last one is quite useful when you're a die-face away from a double and a Mecha is up for grabs.
When the deck runs out, the cards still in your hand score their value, and the highest total wins.
Maths in disguise
Here's where Pikit gets fun. Every roll is a mini math puzzle, and every card is a mini dilemma which tips the balance of the game: do you play the card and sacrifice it for its effect, or hang on to it till the end for points?
Mecha are worth 15 points each, but with no abilities, just pure score. That's a little sad for a game that sells itself on Kaiju versus Mecha, especially with a box cover pitting a Godzilla-inspired monster against a Gundam-style robot. Claiming a Mecha with a double doesn't mean it stays in your hand for long either. Since others can still steal it, let's hope no one gets the chance.
With kids, it's a sneaky little math workout. Adding and subtracting turns into a quick-fire game of spotting which cards your dice can nab. Although with grown-ups, it gets ruthless fast. Steals, blocks and perfectly timed die turns lead to plenty of grudges, and yes, we will absolutely remember who stole our Mecha five sessions ago.
Now for the downside: rebellious teens. The rules are light, which gives sharp teenagers plenty of room to find loopholes, bend what counts as a match, or ignore the rules altogether (as teens do) and still get away with it. A game this quick and competitive really needs someone willing to play referee.
To pik or not to Pikit
For younger kids and families, Pikit is a friendly, clever way to sneak in some mental arithmetic. For grown-ups, it's a cheeky, fast-moving card brawl (check out my excerpt in Kids games for Big Kids). For rebellious teens, it can fall apart without a firm hand on the rules.
Pikit could be more than a pre-game warm up. As it stands, it brings plenty entertainment and a healthy dose of banter, but the decisions are quick rather than deep, so think of it as a great icebreaker rather than the main event.
However, we were quite 50/50 on this one, as we think the Mecha could be fleshed out a bit more. It’s an overall low blow for my family of hormonal teens, and we have other games that don’t lead to pettiness among rule-benders. So unfortunately, Pikit won’t be our go-to filler for game nights.
