Do You Remember These? A Review of Retro Loonacy

Remember the days of video cassettes and rotary phones? Take a trip down memory lane in this simple little card game about making matches as fast as you can. 

Gameplay

In Retro Loonacy, the deck is shuffled and each player is dealt seven cards. Then a different number of discard piles are created depending on how many players there are. The more players, the fewer discard piles.

The goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in your hand. Each card in the deck has two different items depicted on it, out of a possible thirty. In order to play a card onto a discard pile, one of the items on your card must match one of the items on the card in the discard pile. Everyone plays simultaneously — there are no turns. If you have a card you can play, you can play it at once, as long as another player doesn’t get there before you.

If no player has emptied their hand and everyone agrees that they have no eligible moves (or choose not to take an eligible move for strategic reasons) then all players draw another card from the deck.

Review

There is something that is always extremely fun about racing other players to be the fastest to play your cards, and of course, the more players the better. Retro Loonacy takes a familiar mechanic and presents it in the best, most compact, and easy to learn light.

As the sequel to Loonacy, the game doesn’t bring anything terribly new to the table. It’s all about speed and making matches — whether or not you've played the original, you’ve probably played something similar in the past. However, what it does, it does really well and makes for a great light card game. If you enjoy games that require you to move fast, you will definitely enjoy Retro Loonacy.

All the items on the cards are old, retro objects, which is quirky, and the artwork is neat, simple, and attractive. It makes for a unique theme and look for the game and a nice alternative to its predecessor.

If you’re looking for a fast, simple card game, Retro Loonacy looks attractive and plays great. It’s the kind of game you’re going to want to play more than once in one sitting. Get four or five players together and you’re in for some frenzied fun!

Pros: Fun speed game, nice theme, very light

Cons: Better with more players, not terribly unique

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.