The Muddles – Cards Combining Creatures

[Ad- gifted product] Every other Monday we take the time to go to our local Geek Retreat and play a little card or board game as a family. Kai normally has DnD on this day, but we come a little early to get settled and get some milk shakes for everyone. This week, we played a very quick game called The Muddles. This card game is all about combining two different creatures to create a new, silly, wild creature that can be picked up from the table.

There is a little story book that comes in the box, talking about how these creatures came to be, which is a great way to get into the spirit and mood of the card game itself. There aren’t a lot of card games that we’ve played that have a story, but this one was about one of the creatures – a Wow (Worm Cow combination) having a birthday party. Robin and Amelia both found the story to be very funny.

When it comes down to The Muddles, gameplay is easy. In the middle of the table, there is one of each combination creature layed out, along with a bunch of randomly selected ones. This means that some combinations might only end up with one of their cards while others end up with three. Each player will also get a three card hand, but of animal cards. On their turn they can either; play down two cards that make a combination that they can see on the table or discard two cards and draw two new ones. If they don’t want to discard two, and have a pair in their hand of the same animal, they can discard just one, but this works on the sort of honor system and is risky.

When it comes to making the combinations, players don’t just have to take from the middle row, but can also take from other player’s scoring pile. As you score points, you make a pile. If someone makes a combination creature of the top card of your pile, they can steal it. Amelia actually primarily took from other people’s points piles, ignoring the middle altogether, which secured her the win as nobody could hold down any cards!

The turn style itself is pretty fast, with people easily getting the hang of what’s going on. We found that the game length was also pretty quick, as once all of the middle cards are claimed, the game ends. There are points listed on the bottom of the creature cards, which correlate to how rare getting that combination is, allowing everyone to count up their points! The Muddles feels like a simple an easy to play game, and one that all three of our children really enjoyed. It’s clearly going to be a favourite for when we go on holiday next and it’s easy playtime makes it very enjoyable when between activities.

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