Jungle Speed Review

Jungle speed is a dexterity, pattern matching game that is played fast and furious. Its a huge amount of fun, but be sure that nails have been clipped and all jewelry has been removed!

So whats in the bag? The game does come in a box, but this just houses the zebra print bag full of components.

• 80 cards depicting coloured shapes and patterns

• Wooden Jungle Speed Totem

• Rule book

Not a great amount in there, but its all good and very well made. The pieces are made to last and its a good job as they will get plenty of play.

Game setup is easy, the cards are shuffled and dealt out to all of the players. The Jungle Speed totem is then played upright in the center of the table within reach of all of the players.
The first player then turn over his top card into a discard pile in front of him. It's important that the card is turned over away from the player, so in effect the other players get to see the card a split second before the dealer. Although this is going to be very quick.
Players then take it in turns to flip the top card in there stack over. If any two cards on the table have matching symbol, not colour the players with these cards must make a grab for the totem. The quickest player then hands over there discard pile to the loser who adds it his pile of cards.

This continues until someone has played there last card and wins the game.

It all sounds easy enough, but there are a few things that make the game a little tricky. Some of the cards look very similar but have subtle differences. One may have a pair of circles with a hex in the middle another will have a pair of circles with a square in the middle. During a quick game these can easily be mistaken for being the same.

There are also three types of joker cards. The first has 4 arrows pointing into the center of the card. If this is turned over then all players must make a grab for the cards in the center. Another shows 4 arrows pointing outwards. When this is played all players simultaneously flip over a card. The final special card shows 4 coloured arrows pointing into the center of the card, this changes the game from matching shapes to colours.

If anyone makes a wrong grab for the totem or knocks it over then they take every ones discard pile, so you want to make sure you only grab when there is a match. Again, this can get tricky when the game gets fast.

This game is a lot of fun, its quick to teach and play and can get a bit physical as the game speeds up. You have to be quick to grab the totem and false nails will fly. I have played it against all ages and its been well received. Maybe not for the deep thinkers of the group but most have come around to it, especially after a drink.

I have seem some extreme Jungle speed played on the web, where the totem is placed in a different room or further away from the table. This results in mad dashes for the totem instead of frantic table grabs.

Summary

A party game of matching shapes and reflexes. 8/10

Clarity of Rules Nothing to them, flip, match and grab. 9/10

Game Length Anywhere from 10 to 20 mins. 8/10

Value

Lots of re playability for a fast, quick game. 9/10

Overall A fun game of speed and reflexes . (9/10 not an average)