So a small box arrives containing the recently released card game Odin.
That was immediately interesting as The Meeple Guild typically gravitates to Viking-themed games.
But in this case, the enthusiasm for the theme was misplaced. There is only the most scant connection to anything Norse here, the theme very thinly pasted on.
Now the art by Crocotame tries to instill a Viking flavor but doesn’t quite manage it with its stylized cartoon-infused images that at best as OK, and not enough to make you pause to enjoy each different card.
It has to be noted too the cards on this game by Helvetiq are undersized – not typically poker deck size. This didn’t bother some of our guilders, but it disappointed this writer. Smaller size takes away from the dynamics of any art, and should you love the game and want to sleeve the cards which makes it a challenge.
Next up was the rule set by designers Yohan Goh, Hope S. Hwang, and Gary Kim.
The initial read made the game sound rather obtuse and confusing – you can play for example three cards – say a 9-2-5 and they play as 952.
By now you are expecting little here – even though it is versatile playing two-to-six.
And, then we got it to the table, got into play, and found it surprisingly smooth, and just different enough to be interesting.
Odin remains a quick game – the box suggests 15 minutes – but in that quick play, there is something just different enough to raise this one above its small cards, just OK art and pasted-on theme.
This is a game that shows gameplay wins out over aesthetics if that gameplay is refreshingly different as it is here. The aesthetics do not win fans with Odin, but gameplay should.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Calvin’s Commentaries: Odin
That was immediately interesting as The Meeple Guild typically gravitates to Viking-themed games.
But in this case, the enthusiasm for the theme was misplaced. There is only the most scant connection to anything Norse here, the theme very thinly pasted on.
Now the art by Crocotame tries to instill a Viking flavor but doesn’t quite manage it with its stylized cartoon-infused images that at best as OK, and not enough to make you pause to enjoy each different card.
It has to be noted too the cards on this game by Helvetiq are undersized – not typically poker deck size. This didn’t bother some of our guilders, but it disappointed this writer. Smaller size takes away from the dynamics of any art, and should you love the game and want to sleeve the cards which makes it a challenge.
Next up was the rule set by designers Yohan Goh, Hope S. Hwang, and Gary Kim.
The initial read made the game sound rather obtuse and confusing – you can play for example three cards – say a 9-2-5 and they play as 952.
By now you are expecting little here – even though it is versatile playing two-to-six.
And, then we got it to the table, got into play, and found it surprisingly smooth, and just different enough to be interesting.
Odin remains a quick game – the box suggests 15 minutes – but in that quick play, there is something just different enough to raise this one above its small cards, just OK art and pasted-on theme.
This is a game that shows gameplay wins out over aesthetics if that gameplay is refreshingly different as it is here. The aesthetics do not win fans with Odin, but gameplay should.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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