Colorful Review

Colorful is a ‘you know what I mean’ kind of game based on Match Me! with the careful production care that Jordan Draper brings to all of his boxes. Players take a set of cards depicting colours, and then take turns turning over category cards, the active player says a single word or phrase and everyone plays a colour face down that they think matches. At the end of five categories, you compare and see how everyone did. Each category card gets harder for the later rounds, and is carefully balanced in a way that you’ll simply appreciate.

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There are tons of games like this, but the inclusion of a category card that asks you to think of a word related to an RPG or board game (or abstract game in the last round), is a nod towards the fact this is made by someone who actually cares about games. The design is beautiful and stripped back, as you would expect, and will slip into anyone’s life – not just because it doesn’t come with ‘it’s got an elf on it’ hang-up, but because it’s a game where you get to know people.

Your choice of words to attempt to trigger a colour in the minds of those around you is one of those abstracting processes that brings you a bit closer to how others see the world. Have you got a shared knowledge you can get a grip on? Can you evoke something truly universalising between two people? Did you muck up the kind of green you put down when someone said ‘wellington’? All sorts of little leaps towards what the others around you might think make this a game that will leave you getting up from the table a little bit closer to those around you.

Christopher John Eggett

PLAY IT? YES

Designer: Ohtani Tadashi

Publisher: Jordan Draper/Colon Arc

Time: 15 minutes

Players: 2-6

Ages: 6+

Price: £20

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