My cheesy title aside Incredibrawl is an awesome game of random laid back fun with a tad of chaos to spice things up. It reminds me of Rock, Paper, Scissors but more fun, more random and I have a greater chance of winning. With three ways to play listed in the rule book this game is truly a game for all ages. Even the Diva can play! Well sort of play.

The goal is to get the most Glory, which is the goal for any brawl really, but in this game you have to play your cards wisely and hope the other players don’t play better cards or that they don’t play Power-Up cards. A little strategy and a little of luck of the draw are required to be the best but of course all your careful card playing can be for nothing if another player throws out just the right Power-Up card to cause you to lose anyway….yeah that happens to me more than I’d like.

The box is your typical sturdy game box, not the flimsy kind that rip when you open them. This one opens by lifting the lid and the base has a nice insert so the cards are all snug inside. I appreciate this because then the cards don’t slide all over in a box and I don’t have to get bags for them all.

Tokens are that nice cardboard type…I say cardboard because I don’t know the actual name for it but its not REALLY cardboard. They don’t bend or anything and can withstand the awesome power of 3 year old excitement. The cards are pretty nice and have that texture that when you scratch at it sounds like a record a dj would use…I may or may not feel like a rapper when I make that noise.

The game at its core is simple enough for my 3 year old to learn and with so many options challenging enough for adults. It’s fun no matter what level you are playing at each game feels new because you literally don’t have the same game ever. I will try to cover the many ways to play as best I can but will also show you the VERY basic way I started teaching my 3 year old daughter. Yep…she LOVES this game! I mean who wouldn’t? Ok now on to the fun parts.

Objective:

Get the 10 Glory! But get to 10 before anyone else. This is the objective for all versions of the game except maybe when playing with a 3 year old. We TRIED to go to 5 but she then said No…seven. and then nine…then 11…we eventually agreed on 15 and made her quit. Before we get to the Setup and how to Play we should probably cover some terms and info on the Character Cards.

Terms:

Brawl: This is the fight in each round. Each round is a Brawl no matter how many players.

Scrap: A fight between just two players at a time. So player 1 and player 3 would Scrap and player 2 and player 4 would Scrap then the winners of those two Scraps would Scrap. Or just players 1 and 2 would Scrap.

Glory: These are the points. Those little chips that have a 1 or 5 on them. Glory = Points or Victory Points. You want these.

Ability: Each Character Card has special rules on the bottom that will be either a Win/Lose or Play action. A Win ability happens when you Win a Brawl…not a Scrap. Those Lose ability happens when you lose but after the Brawl is decided and the Play ability happens as soon as you reveal the card. If more than one player has a Character with a Play ability you use the Level of the Character. Lowest goes first and then the Brawl or Scraps begins.

Power: THIS is the important part of the card and the game. Each Character has a Power and it is located at the top Right of the card. It will show the color and symbol and a number. The Power Type is the main focus and can be Physical, Natural or Energy and the number is the Level and can range from 0-11 and is primarily use for Ties.

The cards have all kinds of stuff going on. The title is the name of the Character and in the top right is the Power Banner. This represents one of the three Power Types and each Character has a level ranging from 0-11. It also shows a color just under the Banner. This is the color of the Power type that this card beats. It’s called the Victory Bar. Other symbols are on the bottom with the Ability and are the Location Icons. They only come into play if you are using Locations. NOW on to the fun parts…

Setup: Casual Mode

First! Choose your color deck. Remove any cards you are not using and then…Surprise! Cards. Shuffle your deck. Make sure each player has a Turn Order/Power Order Card and has reviewed it so they know what Power beats other Powers. Set the Location Card, Grassy Meadow in the middle of the play area. You will not use any other Location Cards or any Power-Up Cards.

JUST the Character Cards and if you want you can remove the more complicated ones to start with those are: Adventurer, Clockwork Man, Evil Genius, Foo Dog, Kraken, Kung Fu Master, Mad Scientist, Mermaid, Monkey King, Princess, Secret Agent, Vampire and Witch

Put all the Glory in a pile and give 1 token to each player. That’s one 1 token, not one 5 token…just to be clear. Now after you have shuffled and setup the game place your deck face down and draw 5 cards. You an adjust to 3 if playing with younger kids. This is how my son plays and mostly because he is still learning to hold 5 cards at once. Now for the fun part!

Play:

Finally the how to play part! All that build up but the game is actually really easy to learn. Each round follows a series of steps in a certain order. Every time. First each player will select which Character Card they want to play but don’t show the other players. Keep it secret. Keep is safe.

Lay your chosen card face down in front of the Location Card face down. Once every player has chosen their characters everyone flip over their cards to reveal their character. Any Play abilities are triggered first then the Scraps begin. If playing a 2 player game then you should be across from each other and the Scrap is the Brawl but if playing with more you must resolve each Scrap first. When you are resolving Scraps remember that a Character’s ability can affect the entire Brawl depending on what it is.

Now if playing with 4 players then you should be sitting in order like a normal game. Player 1, then 2 then 3 then 4 all around the Location area so when you lay your Character cards down it looks like a cross. Player 1 would Scrap player 3 and Player 2 would Scrap player 4 first then the winners would Scrap each other to determine who wins the Brawl.

If playing with 3 players is different and will involve everyone taking a turn being left out of the first Scrap. At the beginning of a 3 player game you will give them the First Player Token. This will rotate each Brawl. Players 2 and 3 will Scrap first and then the winner will Scrap with player 1. The First Player Token will then be passed clockwise after each Brawl.

Physical beats Natural, Natural beats Energy and Energy beats Physical. If there is a tie on Power Type then the Level comes into play…literally. If two players play an Energy card then the higher number wins. However, if by chance two players play the same card that Tie is resolved a little differently. When this happens both players flip over the top card in their deck to determine who wins and no special abilities can be used and no Win/Lose abilities are triggered. (If you are using Power-Up cards they automatically lose to Character Cards)

 After the Brawl is over and abilities resolved everyone draws one card and you begin another Brawl. Keep doing this until one player has 10 Glory and that is the winner. Incredibrawl is fantastic because you can adjust the game for any level. I wasn’t kidding when I said my 3 year old Diva plays. She plays at it’s basic level but my son who is 5 plays Family Mode for now.

Family Mode:

Basically Casual mode. No Location Cards, No Power-Up Cards and No Special Abilities are used. Also, no one starts with Glory but the first to 10 still wins! This is how the Gentleman plays right now and has a very good chance of winning…a lot.

Gamer Mode:

This is the most challenging mode. You can add any or all components of the game in this mode. Location cards are used and during Setup you would shuffle them and put the Grassy Meadow on top face up. Characters with Location Icons that match the Location would receive a bonus which is on the Location Card. After the Brawl is over the winner can decide to keep the current Location or discard it and flip over a new one.

Power-Ups can be added and are simply shuffled into the Character Decks at the beginning. These are easy to use…just read the cards and play accordingly. They do add a challenge and chaos…and fun to the game though so we always use these when not playing with kids who can’t read.

For all the luck this game uses I cannot win…though I DO win Scraps so that’s something at least…no I’m not sulking…much. I do have fun playing though and I might get a little too excited when I win a Brawl but when playing with multiple players I think everyone does.

Diva Mode:

My made up Mode for playing with my 3 year old daughter. When playing with younger kids it is important to do a “trial” round for each color so they can learn what beats what. This is pretty much Diva Mode. Remove all Power-Up cards from the decks you are using and you can choose to leave out Locations or just put the Grassy Meadow in the middle. We left it in and said this is where we “fight”.

Shuffle your deck and your child’s deck and place them face down in front of each of you. You should try to go over the Power Order Card before getting started but make sure one is in front of her so she can see who wins what. Then both of you flip over the top card in your deck and place them in front of the Grassy Meadow  (or just in that general area) to see who wins.

I basically spend this part asking her what color our cards are and then which one wins. For the first little while we had to show her which one won and why no the Power Order card but she picked it up quickly. Except for the Princess…according to her the Princess always wins and the Zombies go “uuuhhhhh” in a deep growly voice.

You can start adding the option of choosing which of two cards to play after she gets that basic step down and then 3 then 4 up to 5 like in normal play but always include the Tie Breaker method. If the colors are the same the number that is bigger wins and if both match then flip another card.

The first to 5 Glory wins…or 10 or whatever number your child wishes really. My Diva decided she did not win at 5 but wanted to keep playing to 7…then 9. Like I said early, we agreed on 15 and then literally had to make her quit for the day. We of course will be playing this often now which is fine by me.

Check out my Geeklings playing Incredibrawl.

Keep in mind the cards can probably be eaten and the chips are small so kids that are still chewing on things should probably not use those and might be too young. Other than that, as you can see (read?), Incredibrawl is playable by 3 year olds and up and is so much fun for all.

Incredibrawl is a fantastic Game Night game, Family Game Night game, waiting for a doctor appointment game or even at a restaurant and is playable by all ages. If you want you can throw the cards in a baggy to throw in your bag, pocket or purse and then its even portable! I love portable.

“My childhood may be over, but that doesn’t mean playtime is.”
~ Ron Olson