Unstable Unicorns is a card game I love. It provides a unique and engaging experience for players. The game’s theme revolves around unicorns, combining fantasy and humor to create a fun/silly game.
The mechanics include a collecting cards in your field and upgrade/downgrade cards which makes the game feel like there are endless cards combinations to play. When playing this game with a friend, the excitement peaked when I played the “Unicorn Stampede” card, drastically changing the board state and leading to some banter. The game’s fun and theme are reinforced by it’s design, featuring cute unicorns and silly drawings of unicorn characters.
Unstable Unicorns addresses the potential for abuse by adding the “Neigh” card that allows players to cancel out other players’ actions (this is a mechanic my group has worked into our game). However, the game could improve by implementing additional mechanics to limit the possibility of targeting specific players excessively. For example, if 4 players suddenly decide to play all their downgrade cards onto a single person, that player has no chance of coming back. Some cards are notoriously bad because of this, for example, the card that doesn’t let you cancel out other cancel cards.
Introducing new card types would not only diversify gameplay but also offer players more strategic depth and variety. For example, incorporating cards that allow players to form alliances or trade unicorns could promote fellowship among players.
A cooperative mode could a nice addition to Unstable Unicorns, creating a more inclusive environment while lowering the chance of a single player being basically excluded from the game. Instead of competing against each other, players could work together towards a common goal, such as building a shared unicorn army to defeat an big obstacle. This new mode would require players to collaborate, share resources, and strategize collectively, enhancing the social aspects of the game (exactly what we are doing with our team-version of war game).
