Rock and Roll and Race in Pear Shaped

Send the pear rocking and ditch as many of your cards as you can, matching color, number, or item type, before the pear stops its roll.

Published by Blue Orange Games, designed for 2-8 players, and playable in fifteen minutes, Pear Shaped is a real-time matching game with one very eye-catching component. But how does it play?

Gameplay

The cards are shuffled and each player is dealt a set number of cards for their draw piles from which they draw a certain number of cards into their hand. The number of cards in their hand can never exceed this number. The wobbly pear is placed in the center of the table.

One player tilts the pear to one side and then lets go, so that it rocks back and forth. That player also takes a card from his draw pile and places it face-up in the center of the table: this will be the play pile.

While the pear is rocking, players will try to make matches from the cards in their hands with whichever card is currently on top of the play pile. Cards can match by the number of items shown on the card, the item type, or the card color. However, you cannot use the same element to match what was just used in the last match made.

When you make a match, you shout out what element it is you are matching and play the new card on top of the play pile. If you cannot make a match, you can instead draw from your draw pile and add the new cards to your hand. You cannot go over your hand limit, but you can swap a card from your hand back into your draw pile to draw a new one.

Whenever the pear stops rocking, all players must point to the pear and then stand up and start rocking from side to side (like the pear). The last player to point at the pair adds the play pile to his draw pile. If you ever point at the pear when it has not stopped rocking, you then take the play pile and add it to your draw pile.

When someone makes a match with a card that is identical on all three elements, any player can shout ‘pear shaped!’, and then everyone races to grab the rocking pear. Whoever grabs it first then takes the play pile, shuffles it, and divides it between the other players who add these new cards to their draw piles. The player who got the pear then sets it rocking again and uses a card from his draw pile to start a new play pile.

The first player to get rid of all the cards in his hand and draw pile wins the game.

Review

Pear Shaped is a quirky, unusual game that declares itself to be exactly that right out of the box. How many games are there with a rocking, pear-shaped timer? But it also manages to blend this novelty with easy-to-learn gameplay, making it a fun family game.

You’re playing fast, trying to look for matches, keeping an eye on the pear. It all gets silly, loud, messy, and hilarious. It can get a bit jumbled when multiple players have a match and are racing to play their card first, and that’s part of the fun of the game.

Do be careful to play on the right surface, though. We found even a tablecloth interfered with the pear’s bobbing and stopped its rocking movement far too quickly. But when it's on a hard, flat surface, the pear’s unpredictable bobbing and the sound that goes with it adds the perfect suspense to the real-time gameplay and fuels your frantic search for matches.

Unfortunately, the rulebook could be better in this game. There are a few parts of it that are either unclear or poorly written. Because it’s such an easy game with minimal rules, it’s pretty easy to figure out any issues — but the issues are there, nonetheless.

Pear Shaped is a simple concept that works really well, largely because of the one excellent component of the pear. It’s real-time gameplay at some of its lightest and silliest, which makes for a fun evening.

Pros: The pear serves as an excellent timer, easy and fun gameplay

Cons: Rulebook could be improved, the pear needs to be on the right type of surface

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