Heartcatchers is a quick to play, two-player bluffing game, in which hearts catch other hearts and collect Secrets. It’s also extremely quick to learn!
The game starts with six face-up heart cards in two rows of three, three cards in each player’s hand, and the rest set aside as a draw pile. On a player’s turn, they may “catch” a stack in front on them – red hearts catch green, green hearts catch blue, and blue hearts catch red – by playing the correct color of heart face-up on top of it, catch an opponent’s stack and swap it for any one of their own, or play a card as a Secret, face-down at the bottom of a stack and perpendicular to those that are face-up. There are also two Uncatchable cards, which can catch any color but cannot be caught! Players draw after playing.
The game continues until all cards have been played, which doesn’t take long, seeing as there are only twenty. Then, scoring! Any face-up cards in a player’s stack are worth one point. Some cards, when played as Secrets, may add or subtract points, or swap the stack with the one directly across from it. We’ve played this game twice so far, and both times we hit a “reverse, reverse!” situation where a stack had two Change-of-Heart cards under it.
And… that’s it! Whoever has the most points wins, and if there’s a tie then the game’s so short you just play it again. Alongside being quick, pretty (look at those sparkles), and simple yet tricky, it’s also a compact game, so it’s easy to find room on your shelves for! Ours are pretty packed, so “this game is small” is a major bonus.
