Mystery and Strategy Unite in Trick-Taker Pass Pass

In this unique trick-taking game, the winning color remains a mystery until the final card is played into the trick!

Published by Funnyfox, Pass Pass is a 25-minute card game for 3-6 players.

Gameplay

Each player is dealt eight cards. Each card is one of four colors, numbered 1-12, and shows 0-3 diamonds. The back of the cards always shows the other players what color a card is.

Pass Pass is a trick-taking game. The lead player plays a card into a trick, and everyone else plays a card into the trick, as well, in turn order. However, players are free to play any card from their hand into the trick. They do not have to play a card of the same color.

After everyone has played a card, the majority color is determined by adding up the values of all cards of each color that was played into the trick. The player who played the highest value card of the majority color then takes one card of his choice from the trick and adds it to his score pile. The person who played the second highest value card of the majority color (or if there was no second card of that color, whoever played the highest card in the next highest valued color), takes the two lowest value cards in the trick and adds them to his score pile. The player who won the two cards will lead the next trick.

At the end of the round, after players have played all of their cards, a player earns one point per card in his score pile, and one point for each diamond on any of his cards. Whenever a player has four different colors of cards in his score pile, he wins a pass pass. If, during the game, a player ever wins a third pass pass, he immediately wins the game, otherwise the player with the most points after three rounds wins the game.

There is also a team mode, where players divide into two teams. Each player on the team will count up their points as usual and any pass passes they earned, but the team can only pick one of those player’s scores to mark down for that round.

Review

Pass Pass is a unique trick-taker with some interesting concepts at its heart. Knowing what colors other players have allows people to press their luck and make gambles in attempts to set themselves up to win a trick or come in second, or it opens the doors for a low level of negotiations between players. But since numbers and diamonds aren’t public information, you can use that to your advantage in those negotiations.

Players sometimes need to balance the benefits of playing the highest card with those of playing the second highest, and the pass passes are a unique win condition that further complicates your decisions.

This is a unique trick-taker that manages to create a different experience without dialing up the complexity. The rulebook does have to go into the weeds a little while explaining all the possible outcomes for determining majority color, but it’s pretty intuitive, and it’s great that the rulebook does cover all those possibilities.

Team mode feels like it defeats part of the core gameplay a little bit, as you now have someone you’re directly working with, rather than jumping between players to try to steer a trick in a certain direction.

Pass Pass is light, fast, and feels a little different. There’s going to be some more guesswork than in other trick-takers, as not all cards in the deck are going to be used unless you’re playing with a full count of six players. But there are interesting choices in what cards you hold back and what cards you play early in the round, as well as which colors seem better to keep based on what colors other players are holding.

Pros: Unique rules for playing into and winning tricks, good scoring system

Cons: Team mode feels like it loses some of the core ideas of the game

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