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Awards

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • Easy to teach and learn
  • Cosy winter set collection
  • Reference cards for different player counts

Might Not Like

  • Unjust distribution of winter clothing to reptiles
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Hygge Review

If, like me the closest you’ve come to anything even remotely Scandinavian is getting lost in Ikea whilst attempting to buy a chopping board, then you may be forgiven for thinking Hygge is the name of a table lamp. However if you’ve ever been fortunate(?) enough to stumble upon some wannabe influencers Instagram page, you may have seen the word Hygge banded around with the odd hashtag or thirty five. Often in the winter months, accompanied with a picturesque photo of a cosy log fire or a steaming mug of hot chocolate - because that’s kind of what Hygge means.

Hygge, pronounced ‘HOO-gah’ is a Danish concept (not Swedish like Ikea – see I’m not totally uncultured) all about cosiness, wellness, comfort, warmth and happy contentment often associated more with the colder months as that’s when we all want to be cosiest. Well Hygge the game is a cute set collection game where you’re trying to store as many home comforts for your hibernating pals before the first snowflake of winter falls.

Winter is coming…

In Hygge you’ll have a mix of cards that represent hibernating animals, bears, hedgehogs, bats, frogs (do frogs hibernate??) and cards that represent the comfy belongings they want to aid them in taking a nice long wintery nap. Each item will have a number of snowflakes on the card depicting how many points its worth at game end, but you’ll also need to have an animal with the corresponding colour to be able to successfully ‘store’ that item away for winter. The animals also have a number of paw prints on their card to let you know how many different types of items they can store away at once.

The first selection of cards will be laid out in the middle of the table in a sort of staircase pattern, the exact formation on will depend on the number of players. The round structure is super simple – well it’s cold and everyone’s about to fall asleep for a few months so it needs to be! On your turn you will select either a row or column of cards to take from the middle and put in front of you. These could be a mix of both animals and items or a few of either of them. Next you may choose to ‘store’ anything possible using one animal, but once you’ve used it to help you stash things away, they’re now well and truly hunkered down in hibernation and can’t be used again. So perhaps you want to wait to see if you can collect some more books or another woolly hat before you send that tortoise off with them?

Before the next player takes their turn you will need to ‘check the stock’ this simply means that if the cards in the centre of the table have been depleted to three or less you must draw as many cards as needed to replicate the original layout. It also means the current player takes another turn immediately. This sneaky little play means suddenly it’s not just about collecting that cosy scarf you were after, it’s more like a black Friday sale and you’re trying to stop someone else getting first dibs on the new stock that’s going to be revealed.

The grizzlies hibernate because they find winter un-bear-able…

Play continues until winter arrives and the snowflake card is drawn whilst restocking the centre cards, at this point play ends immediately. Don’t worry, winter won’t arrive too soon its only shuffled into the last 15 cards (9 in a three player game) of the draw pile. After winter arrives you will not be able to take anymore cards but you will be able to perform one more action, to either store provisions as before (provided you have the correct cards to do so) or discard one card that’s face up in front of you.

But why would you need to discard a face up card?

Well after game end you will score one points for every snowflake (which appear on item cards) you stored face down, you score nothing for the animal cards. However all cards left face up will deduct points from your score, not only the snowflakes on items, but also the paw prints on the animal cards. Much like small children, turns out those animals are great if they’ll cooperate and go to sleep, but not so much if they’re still wide awake come sleepy time!

Snow joke, I’m bear-ly awake now!

Hygge is another great little lightweight game from Helvetiq, as always pocket sized and easy to teach and learn, yet it still scratches that strategic itch. Everyone’s hands are out on show until they are stored away, so you’ll be trying to think a step or two ahead to work out whether it would be more beneficial to take the cards you want, or to take cards that will stop your opponent progressing. Should you store now or try and add to that collection of items? And as the draw pile depletes you’ll be trying to figure out if this is the last set off cards before winter or will there be one more?!

Theres not a lot to dislike here, apart from the fact the poor tortoise is so cold that there are literally icicles hanging from him, meanwhile the bear who’s covered in fur to begin with is wearing an argyle sweater, seems unjust - Poor lad!

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Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • Easy to teach and learn
  • Cosy winter set collection
  • Reference cards for different player counts

Might not like

  • Unjust distribution of winter clothing to reptiles

Zatu Blog

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