MUFFIN TIME (2021)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2-6	20-40 mins	Thomas Ridgewell	Big Potato Games

MUFFIN TIME shares a little DNA with EXPLODING KITTENS, and that’s no bad thing. But it takes the “play cards, draw cards, screw over your opponents” gameplay and dials it up to eleven . . . thousand!

Instead of being several card types repeated a handful of times, every card in MUFFIN TIME is unique. Sure, several cards do similar things, but each has its own twist on calamity.

One of the extra weapons in a player’s arsenal other than the cards in their hands (blue to attack players and green to react and defend against anything coming your way) are the red Trap cards you have in front of you.

A player can lay up to three face down throughout the game.If someone does the action written on one of them, you spring it and cause them a penalty of some sort.

It can be almost anything, from checking their watch (even if you asked them the time), to getting up from the table, to humming along to the radio.

It’s this mechanic that shines brightest in MUFFIN TIME. Whether the players are new or seasoned, after the first few traps have gone off, everyone gets a little less relaxed and a lot more tense, wracking their brains to try and figure out what they can do other than sit there like a statue.

On the way to victory though (first person to get 10 cards in hand and keep them for another round), the journey can be long. And sometimes exhausting.

Like EXPLODING KITTENS, it will depend on the group playing, as well as how long the game goes on for.

And with a handful of the cards leading to restarts or ripping victory from nowhere at any moment, a lot of games can go long.

But when it comes in on time, it is a heck of a lot of fun.

Cute art, and a massive variety of cards make this one an immediate invite to more relaxed and non-serious gaming nights, that occasionaly causes exhaustion.