Whether you’re looking for dragons young or old, or dragons blue or gold, you’ll need seven connected dragons, and a win you will behold! Keep your goal hidden from your opponents so they are less likely to thwart your plans, and you might just come out on top!


What Is It?

A card game for 2-5 where players are trying to connect seven dragons of the same color, according to their secret goal, in the growing arrangement in the center of the table. Players can only place dragon cards if dragons of the same color are touching on at least one side, so they need to not only focus on their own goal, but also on trying to to help others get closer to winning.

Instead of playing a dragon card, players can play an action card in their hand to move goals around, move cards in the arrangement, or take cards from the arrangement into their hand. The action cards can have a big impact on the game and can stir the pot amongst opponents, or lead a player to victory. As soon as a player has seven connected dragons of their current goal color, they win!


Who Is It For?

  • Ages 6+ (3+ with variant rules)
  • 2 – 5 players — works well at any player count
  • Families / Fans of lighter games
  • Gamers in need of a solid filler
  • Fans of puzzley style games

Components / Quality

Just a 72 card deck and some rules – very simple components. The dragon cards are a bit thin, okay quality. Nice art, really eye-catching. All the dragon colors are distinct, but each dragon also has a unique image / pose to help you differentiate if you have trouble with colors. The action cards also have unique colors, and the images match part of the dragon cards, so you can tell them apart, which is needed for the Silver Dragon, which changes color based on the top card of the discard pile.

The rules are straightforward and easy to learn from. My one issue with them is that they are a large fold-out one-sheeter, which I always find way more inconvenient than a rulebook. Finally, the box is small, perfect fit for what’s inside, and it’s thin, simple cardboard.


Variants

Play With Your Preschooler – This variant lists modified rules to play with kids as young as 3-years-old, and gradually increases the difficulty until they are ready to play the full game. At first, the cards are used to teach them patterns / matching (ages 3+), then works up to playing the game with goals and one action card type (ages 5+), and finally they can add in more actions until the full game is played (ages 6+). I don’t happen to know any kids this young, so I can’t say how well this works, but I really like the idea and the inclusion of the rules, because it seems like a great teaching tool.


PROS

  • Aesthetically pleasing
  • Simple ruleset
  • Quick / nice game flow
  • Inexpensive
  • Offers light strategy in what to play when & where
  • Neat that you can win off others’ actions

CONS

  • Can be a bit of a table hog
  • Luck of the draw / randomness – sometimes you don’t want to play anything in your hand because it doesn’t help you, but you don’t have a choice
  • You can be close to a win only to have your goal stolen at the last second; can be very heavy take-that in that way

Final Thoughts

This is a really nice little filler game with some great art! The “draw a card, play a card” that Looney Labs often utilizes (i.e. Fluxx) works well here again, and makes for smooth gameplay throughout. There is plenty of luck with the randomness of what cards you’ll have at any given time, but there is also a little bit of strategy in where you place cards in the arrangement and when you choose to play action cards; you may try to set yourself up for a win with the goal you start with, or snatch a better goal at just the right moment to steal the victory. Cute, simple, and a great game to play with just about anyone.

My Final Ratings:
Overall Game – 6/10
Aesthetics – 7/10
Replay Value – 6/10
Difficulty – 3/10

Additional Information:
Designer – Andrew Looney
Artists – Larry Elmore, Derek Ring
Publisher – Looney Labs
MSRP – $16.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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