Race for the Eggplant in Emoji Party

Take turns playing one card at a time and keeping an eye out for matches. See a match? Grab the eggplant.

Published by Player Ten Games, and designed for 3-12 players, Emoji Party is a match-making, race game in which you try to be the last player left with any cards.

Gameplay

The eggplant is placed in the center of the table. The cards are shuffled and dealt out as evenly as possible to all players. You do not look at your cards but form them into your own personal draw deck. On your turn, you flip the top card of your deck and place it face-up into your personal discard pile. It is now the next player’s turn.

If there are ever two matching smiley faces currently face-up on the table, you may grab the eggplant. If you manage to grab the eggplant before anyone else, you get a reward based on the icon on the matching smiley cards. If there is a tie, whoever grabs the eggplant closest to the purple end wins the reward. There are three possible rewards: add your discard pile back into your draw deck, add any one player’s discard pile into your deck, or add all the discard piles into your draw deck. Gameplay then resumes as normal. If you accidentally grab the eggplant when there is no match, you must give two of your cards to each other player.

Sometimes you will draw an action card from your deck, in which case you must follow the action listed on it. These include, for instance, allowing you to swap your deck with another player, reverse the direction that turns move in, or choose a player who will then be unable to race for the eggplant the next time there is a match.

The goal of the game is to be the last player with any cards left in his deck. If you run out of cards, you can still get back into the game by grabbing the eggplant when there is a match, in which case you choose any other player’s discard pile to become your new draw deck.

Review

Emoji Party is simple and fast. It’s a pretty basic speed game, but it does have a theme that will appeal to a certain age range, and the eggplant does make for a fun component with some table presence. There are a number of similar games, so it will really come down to theme with this one and if you enjoy this type of speed game.

The components are well-made and some of the smiley faces are similar enough that, when all geared up to race for the eggplant, it’s possible to think there is a match when there is not and grab for it, which can lead to some fun moments, especially if you try to bluff other players into racing for it as well.

There are several fun variant suggestions in the rules. Our favorite was stampede — this requires the player who won the eggplant to place it anywhere in the room, so that when there are matches players have to physically race for it. There is definitely potential for bumps and bruises, but we found it to be a lot of fun. The game also recommends which cards to remove for a smaller game of 3-4 players, which does help with scaling.

Emoji Party is really straightforward and you’ll know if it’s something you’re interested in or not from the rules. We weren’t huge fans of the emoji theme personally, but that’s going to be subjective. It does have a wide player range, which could make it good for parties or group gatherings. It’s nice that even once you’re eliminated you have a chance to get back in the game.

Pros: Components, the eggplant is fun to grab for, some of the variant suggestions are fun, player count range makes this good for gatherings

Cons: There are a lot of speed games out there and this one doesn’t bring anything too special to the table

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