Blink: The World’s Fastest Game! (Game Review)

Bobble loved UNO so much that it was all he wanted to play. I love UNO, don’t get me wrong… but it’s nice to change it up a bit. I searched around and finally came across a game called Blink. I had never heard of it, but not only did it seem to be similar to UNO, but sounded like it would always be a fast game. This was a perk for me since playing UNO can take a long time if the cards aren’t in your favour. The game is supposed to be for only 2 players, but you can play with more, it just goes more quickly. If you plan on frequently playing with 4 players or more, I would recommend purchasing two decks.

Blink is played like a cross between UNO and Speed. You deal out the cards for a pile, making certain each player has the same amount. With two players, you would deal 30 cards to each person, and that pile is placed between you on the table. Each of you place one card down in the center of the table, and draw three cards from your pile to be in your hand.

Example of a game set up with the "hand" on the table for the picture

So, unlike UNO, you have two discard piles and your draw pile is only yours, nobody shares it. You can only have 3 cards in your hand at a time. This was really helpful since Bobble has small hands and can’t hold many cards at once. When you’re ready to play, you both flip over your single card in the middle of the table and start matching. The first person to get rid of all their cards from their hand and draw pile wins.

Example of the cards (colours, shapes, numbers)

Blink cards have different shapes, numbers of shapes, and colours. There are no actual numbers shown on the cards. You can match by any of these three mediums, so if a card with 2 blue stars on it is face up, you could play a card that has stars, a card that is blue, or a card that has two of a shape on it (example below).

If the 2 blue stars card was turned up, the three cards below it in this picture would all be playable due to shape, number, or colour!

To start out, I had Grandma play a game with me and let Bobble watch. To help him understand how we could play a card when we did, we played more slowly, and would say “Shape”, “Number”, or “Colour” when we played a card. He insisted on playing right away, and he had his chance within two minutes. The game is really, really fast. It might have not taken that long had we not slowed down for him to watch and understand.

We made sure to go quite slowly the first time we played with him so he could have time to wrap his mind around the three ways to match. He didn’t seem to have a problem catching on to all three matching options, but it did take a little time to get used to seeing the number of shapes on a card versus a numerical character.

This game is great for when you have only a couple minutes to play something since it goes so quickly. Since the deck only has 60 cards total, it’s really easy to accommodate for 3 or 4 players since it can be divided evenly for them, you would just have more discard piles to play on in the center of the table. Of course, with 4 players, you’d have a super small draw pile and it might not be much fun. I’ve only played with 2 and 3 players, and I have considered buying 2 more decks to mix together so I have a deck for 2-3 players and a deck for more than 3 players.

I wanted a game a little more challenging for Bobble, and this was a great option. Not only does it bring about more options for matching, but you encourage rapid recognition as well. With younger children you definitely want to work up to the speed aspect, but it keeps it fun as they grow.

No reading is necessary to play this game.

Blink can be purchased at retail stores for around $6.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All products mentioned were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.