The premise of Numba is very simple. You have a range of single digit numbered cards. Every player has a deck of cards that contains pictures of different numbers of fruit on them. You turn over one of the number cards to decide what everyone is looking for in the game, then players take turns playing the top card from their deck. If the total number of fruit on display matches the number card then the first player to shout ‘Numba’ gets to collect the other players cards. The winner is the person who manages to win all of the cards.
It is essentially fruit snap, but you have to keep an eye on the total number of fruit on the table. While there’s nothing much more to it then that, it offers a subtle twist on normal snap, where the game can end up being a slow race to the inevitable matching card, where this needs you to stay a bit more on alert. It’s a interesting twist, and I’m not sure I’ve seen a similar mechanic used before. It’s almost clever. There’s going to be a lot of second guessing going on and scanning the table to see if cards add up, and because of that, Numba is less of a passive affair than real snap. there is likely to be false shouts and missed claims, as players wait for that match.
I could complain about the lack of options when playing, that it would be nice to see some power cards that a player could play to alter the game slightly. Or it would be good to offer other play variants other than what the base game offers. The game box is nothing special, almost like a small travel tub. It’s designed to be thrust into and collected from the bottom of a toy box, or kept in a bag next to the other toys we take when we visit relatives. I wonder how different it would be if if it was published by the likes of Gigamic, or AEG, with a bigger box, and slightly better presented art and a rulebook that gave just that little bit more. That doesn’t cheapen what Numba does, because Edwin has taken the time, trouble and money to put something out there, it would benefit from some polish.
Numba is going to end up as a small extra birthday gift for a five or six year old. They are probably going to want to play this to death solidly for three months morning, noon and night. The art work is straightforward and understandable. The rules are on a folded piece of paper, without the need to call it a rulebook. This is a game that Granny or older siblings are going to be asked to play solidly over an afternoon while the rain thunders down outside. They’ll have fun, because its just like bigger snap, but healthier and prevents scurvy, and who doesn’t know how to play snap? More importantly, who doesn’t have memories of playing snap again and again? It’s simple and colourful and in the right situation, it is absolutely going to be fondly remembered as being part of ‘that afternoon’, where everyone had the best time playing that silly game with the fruit and shouting Numba, again and again.
You can find out more by going to https://numbagame.com/
This first impression piece is based on the retail version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid monetary compensation for this review. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned. As with most first impressions, we try to capture how we felt after playing the game a couple of times. The majority of the games that we are play are going to take a reasonable number of sessions and playthroughs to fully understand every possibility that they offer. We hope this write up gives you an idea of whether or not this game is something that you will consider playing or even add to your collection. Even if we don't like something, hopefully it helps you to decide if it is something that you should find out more about. We always suggest you check out a gameplay video to give you a better understanding of the game as it is played. If you would like to support more content on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/werenotwizards
