Having to get an early morning coach the other morning, I grabbed a couple of wallet games to occupy me on the journey. One of which was “Numbsters” the solo card game designed by Milan Zivkovic and published by Button Shy Games. This a game that very much fulfils the small footprint need of the lunchtime solo gamer, especially as most of the game play actually takes place in your hand.
Numbsters is game I have never actually beaten and sadly I didn’t on this occasion either, though in one game I did get very close! As with most Button Shy games, Numbsters consists of 18 cards. 17 numbers and a ‘mouth’ card.
Each ‘round’ the mouth card needs to eat one of the other cards. If it then ends up as the top card in your hand, you lose. If it manages to eat all the cards but one, and that one is on top of the mouth, then you win.
After shuffling the 17 numbers, you draw six then add the mouth to those 6 and shuffle again. This is your hand, you can’t reorder the cards in it. Each go, you draw a new number card and add it to the top of your hand.
You may then either reposition a card or swap two of them before the mouth eats. The primary eating rule is that if two sequential numbers flank the Mouth card, the smaller number eats the larger one. For example, in the sequence 7-8-9, the 7 would eat the 9. Additionally, each Numbster has a special eating rule that can be used instead.
It sounds easy but Numbsters is quite challenging, cards rarely fall into an edible sequence so balancing when to move, or use a card’s power creates a challenging puzzle; one I am yet to solve so thankfully games only last a few minutes.
Numbsters is an excellent lunchtime solo game. Fulfilling all the requirements of my small office gaming space. it’s portable so easy to carry, it’s short enough to play during a break, it has a small footprint, and yet remains challenging. It’s also the only game I can play that provides the punchline to the joke – Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 ate 9.
Lunch time solo 