All Aboard the Struggle Bus as We Review 'Struggle' by Magic Bean Entertainment

Say what you will about classic and traditional games, but they were kind of all of our "foot-in-the-door" introduction to tabletop gaming. They may have not been our "gateway" game into modern gaming, but they still gave us a standard to judge others by, and admit it or not, they gave us some fun moments with family and friends. A lot of modern games build upon the foundation of games before them, but they tend to alter and add and further develop their mechanics. Some are a huge step away from the games that inspired them while others feel like a close but more refined neighbor. In this particular neighborhood, games like Uno and Phase 10 just got a new neighbor, and his name is Struggle.

Struggle is a fast-paced card game for 2-4 players. It consists of two different types of cards. There are Color cards and Action cards. The Color cards have panels on them containing one to two different colors. Colors range from red, blue, yellow or green. Some of the Color cards also contain more than one of the same color notated by an "x2" on top of the color panel. The Action cards are vastly different. They contain text that will have you perform various actions mostly consisting of taking, giving, drawing, or discarding cards.

Each player starts the game with one random Color card and one random Action card. The Color card is face up for everyone to see while the Action card goes into your hand. On your turn, you simply draw an Action card and play an Action card. Unless the card you drew specifically says "Play Now", you can choose which of the two Action cards you want to play. If you cannot perform the action on the card you played, you must draw a color card.

Struggle does include player elimination, but rounds are played so quickly, it isn't too much of a hamper to the overall fun. When a player ends up with 4 or more of one color, they are out of the game with the last player remaining winning the game, so you want to avoid getting too much of the same color while adding more colors to other players. There are some instances where the game may seem at the mercy of "Luck of the Draw". For instance, you may start the game with a two-paneled color card or, worse yet, a color card with an x2 on it pushing you closer to having too many of one color. Fortunately, with the variety of colors and actions in the game, you'll have a decent amount of time to discard troublesome cards or pass them along to someone else.

WYLD Gaming had some good, old-fashioned fun with Struggle. While the Color cards felt slightly akin to Uno and the Action cards like a watered-down and less crazy version of Fluxx, it definitely stood apart as its own game. It makes for a genuinely fun filler and a fast paced take-that card game where you are constantly trying to fix your situation and mess up everyone else's. If you enjoy either or both of the aforementioned games, you can trust me that you should add Struggle to your game shelf, for Struggle is (almost) my last name. Magic Bean Entertainment also has a 5-7 player extension adding orange and purple to the Color card mix, and they are releasing an expansion soon including black and white as colors as well as new actions and more to the game. You can purchase the game for yourself or add it to a stocking for Christmas here!

WYLD Gaming was provided this copy for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated in any manner, nor were their words, results, or review scores influenced in any way by anyone outside of the author's own opinions and perspective. If you've enjoyed this review, we encourage you to share it with others to help WYLD Gaming get similar opportunities in the future. Thank you!