Tacocat Spelled Backwards is a simple two player game that’s quick to learn and, surprisingly, has nothing to do with spelling — though you should definitely read the palindromes on the cards anyways. Along with the wild wordplay, the box actually is the board, which I think is awesome; all you have to do is empty it, leave it open, and voila! the hinge of the lid is now your starting space.
But on to the actual game! First off, Tacocat starts in the middle of the board, on the letter O. The space Tacocat is on determines how many cards you draw and who leads the discard phase; for the first round, you start with 7 cards and can discard as many as you want, drawing to replace them. For future rounds, who discards first is indicated by the arrow on Tacocat’s space, and the other player may only discard up to as many cards as their opponent did.
Who goes first each round is determined by a duel: both players choose a card and reveal them at the same time, and whoever played the higher value card attacks first. (If it’s a tie, discard those cards and duel again.) Attacking is done by playing another card from your hand, which your opponent must either defend against – play a card of equal or higher value, in which case they’ll get to attack next – or sacrifice their lowest value card, which means you get to attack again.
Once you’re each down to one card left, compare them; whoever has the lower value card wins the round. (These ties go to the arrow’s favored.) Tacocat moves one space towards the winner, the previous space is covered with a (palindrome-infused) tile, indicating that it is no longer an available space for Tacocat to move to, and the deck is reshuffled for the next round. The only exception is if Tacocat has landed on the “Wow” or “Yay” end spaces – congratulations to the player on that side, because they’ve just won!
The first time we played this, Mom mentioned of the tile mechanic that “There’s no such thing as getting an early lead, because it can go either way each round,” and personally I think that’s one of its selling features; there’s always the chance for a comeback. Additionally, there are some advanced rules that let you attack with multiple cards at once, but we haven’t actually played with those yet.
