Preview: Crabs in a Bucket

Who doesn't love a crab boil? Well my sister-in-law Emily but that's neither here nor there, Because today we are looking at Crabs in a bucket from Blue Rondo Games. There is a rebellion brewing in the crab kingdom and you will determine who will come out victorious. This is a fun and very quick card game that's going to be fun for the whole family. Its currently active on kickstarter an funded but you going to have to be quick as its only up until March 14!

Crabs in a bucket is fast paced and fun. Its a race to empty your hand before the other players. There are suited cards that you can play multiple at a time and there are the joker cards (crabs) that have special abilities that you can invoke. Just watch out for that lobster imposter getting into the mix, they can really mess things up for you.

Crabs in a Bucket comes with a deck of 74 cards 22 are Crabs and 52 are suited cards numbered Ace -10. Each player will be dealt 7 cards to make the starting hand. Then the top card is revealed if its a crab card its placed in the joker discard pile. If a suited card is revealed put it in the discard pile (not the joker discard pile, there are two discard piles). Now the player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn. On your turn you either play a suited card that matches the suit or number top card of the discard pile or you can play a crab card. The suited cards have an interesting mechanism. When you play a suited card you may play any cards in your hand of that suit in ascending order. If you do not have a card you can or want to play then you simply draw one card and your turn is over. The first player to play their last card is the winner unless that last card you play is the lobster.... beware the lobster(I have warned you).

This game does not have a lot of rules to it and that's a good thing. This game is simple and fast but also fun. The Crab cards are funny and make the game play interesting and elevates this to the level of other light weight family friendly games like Exploding Kittens or Sushi Go. The rules are so simple you can get playing with one side of a reference card the flow chart makes it all so easy.

Players: 2-6

Year Published: 2022

Recommended Ages: 10+

Time to Play: 5-15m

Transparency Statement

A pre-production copy of Crabs in a Bucket was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes . Final products may vary from what is portrayed in this article.