Sky Towers: A Build, Block, and Bonus Card Game

Build your towers up to the exact height while blocking your opponents, dealing with card abilities, and racing to claim bonuses.

Published By Ex First Games, Sky Towers is a 25-minute card game designed for 2-4 players.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to build towers. On a player’s turn, he must take two actions, if possible. Possible actions to choose from are draw, demolish, and build. Drawing allows the player to take the top card of the deck and add it to his hand. The cards in the deck are tower cards numbered 1-10. Building allows a player to place one of his cards in front of him, either on top of a tower he is already constructing, or to start a new tower. When starting a new tower, it must always be on the far left or right of all a player’s towers, but there is no limit to the number of towers a player can have under construction at any time. However, a player may never play a card that is the same number as the top card of an opponent’s closest tower to the player’s immediate left or right.

Demolishing allows the player to take all the cards from one of his own incomplete towers and put them back into his hand. A tower is complete when the value of all the cards in it adds up to 21. A card can never be placed that would push the values past 21. When a tower is complete, the player takes all the cards in that tower and puts them in his score pile.

Each card value has its own special ability or effect, which is always triggered when that card is played. For example, the cards with a value of 10 can only be placed as the first card of a tower. Meanwhile, the cards with a value of three allow a player to secretly look at the top card of the draw deck.

There are also bonus cards that players can earn. For example, the lucky bonus is won by completing a tower using only cards with values of seven, while the tycoon bonus card is won for completing two towers in a single turn. When a player earns a bonus card, he moves it in front of himself — however, another player can steal the same bonus on a future turn if they complete the same task.

When the final card is taken from the draw deck, all players have a final turn during which they each get to take three actions, and then the game ends. Players count the kites on all the cards in their score piles (which is typically one per card) and any bonus cards they currently control, and the player with the most kites wins the game.

Photos provided by the publisher.

Review

At first glance, Sky Towers might be confused for a very light, family card game. However, that would be a false impression, as there are actually multiple levels to consider with each card played: how to add up to 21, what number will now be blocking other players, what the card’s power is, and if it will affect the control of the bonus card.

The idea of trying to build up to 21 is enjoyable in itself, with different cards being useful to you at different times during the course of the game, but the extra elements really elevate the game and make it much more challenging and introduce much more player interaction. The fact that bonus cards move around the table keeps the game unpredictable, and the ability to block someone else gives players the chance to control the chaos. There’s luck of the draw, but you also can try and defend against it.

The game does have a learning curve, and the first few games are rather slow. The abilities are not written on the cards, so you have to keep checking the effect cards that are spread out on the center of the table.

The artwork is very whimsical and colorful, almost childish, but in a pleasing way. However, this can give the wrong impression of the gameplay at first glance. While families can play it, it’s probably a little complex for younger children. The rulebook could also be just a little smoother.

We thoroughly enjoyed Sky Towers. It’s a clever, strategic card game that is a good blend of familiar and fresh ideas. There is an impressive amount going on in the game without being convoluted. We definitely recommend this one.

Pros: Lots of player interaction, card abilities

Cons: A bit of a learning curve for the card abilities, artwork can give the impression the game is simpler than it is

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