Challenge your friends. 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up.
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The memory match game Simon was introduced in 1976 and it’s been a staple ever since. It has seen a lot of variations including a travel game, a touchless one and even Bop-It. And even a card game: Simon Swipe.
In this post we’ll cover Simon Swipe game play, rules and tell you if we think you should add it to your Family Game Shelf.
First, this is one of those games that is really simple to play but hard to understand when you’re first starting. You need to play a round before the rules make sense.
If your family likes the card games Uno (and all of its variations) or RockO or Garbage, then Simon Swipe is worth a try.
The Simon Swipe Cards
There are three different type of cards in the game. First is the colour cards in red, blue, yellow and green. Next are the Swipe cards. Last are the wild cards.
Playing Simon Swipe
To start, a player is dealt nine cards. The rest of the cards are placed in the middle of the playing area as the draw pile. The top card is flipped over and is now the beginning of the pattern. When a wild or swipe card is flipped over, the deal keeps flipping over cards on top of that card until a colour card appears.
The pattern has now begun. The first player then needs to play a card on top of the first one that matches. For example if the first card is blue, then the player needs to play a blue card on top. Next, the player can add a card beside the first card to continue the pattern—this card can be blue or any other colour. For our example the player puts down a green card.
Now the second player must play a blue card and a green card. When he finishes the pattern he can place a new card beside the green card.
At the start of a player’s turn, she must play the first card of the pattern. If she doesn’t have a playable card, she must draw cards until she can play.
Next, she needs to play a card on the second card in the pattern. When she can’t play a card in the pattern, her turn is over. So if she played a blue, then a green but doesn’t have a yellow that is the next card in the pattern she can play the blue and green cards and then stop her turn.
A player can only add to the end of a pattern if they can complete the pattern to the end.
Swipe Cards
The Swipe cards are played on their matching colour. A red Swipe card plays on red colour cards. What is special about them is that when a player puts one down, he can chose a player to pick up a card off the draw pile.
Wild Cards
A wild card can be played on any stack. When you play a wild card you then play another card on top of it, changing the colour of the stack.
Ending the Round
When a player has played all of her cards, the round is over.
Scoring
At the end of the round, all players add up the number of cards left in their hands. This number is now their score for the round.
Wining Simon Swipe
The game is over when a player reaches 15 or more points. Now, the player with the lowest score is the winner.
What We Like
First, we like that it is a card game that doesn’t involve numbers. That makes is a refreshing change. Next, we like the simple game play; it makes it great for times where you don’t want to think and strategize. Next, the quality is good. And last, the play time is right on point. It takes a few minutes to play but not too long, again great for when you want a light game.
What We Don’t Like
The instructions! First, they’re printed on very a colourful background, making them hard to read. Next the font is also hard to read. Last, the instructions themselves are not very straight forward. We had to read them over several times before we understood all of them.
Should you Swipe Simon Swipe?
Simon Swipe is a simple, fun card game that I think kids younger than 8 could play. It is a good fit for a light, quick card game. If you have room, we recommend adding Simon Swipe to your Family Game Shelf.
You can shop for Simon Swipe here. Canadians can get their Simon Swipe here. It is a Hasbro game. You can also see our original card game Hay Stacks that lets you have all the fun but with regular playing cards.
Rating:
Pros: easy to play, quality
Cons: learning curve
Mom: planning
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