Publisher: Unstable Games
Age: 12+
Players: 1 – 4 players
MSRP: $20.00
Twisted Cryptids may be the most confusing, yet non-complex board game I’ve ever had to teach. The game itself isn’t complicated, but its semi-hidden information, limited scoring opportunities, and chaotic movement make it a unique tabletop experience unlike anything else on my shelf.
Read on for our review of Twisted Cryptids!
Seen, and Sometimes Heard
Twisted Cryptids puts the role of legendary monsters such as Bigfoot in the players’ hands. Their job is to secure as much Myth (victory points) as they can over five rounds.
Although each player is given a cute meeple depicting their monster, the meeple is only used to mark their spot on the score track. For the board (which features only a handful of locations), each player uses three hiding location tokens, and divides their personal Sighting cards into three stacks. Each card stack represents potential sightings at their locations as humans are drawn to them.
Human tokens come in three flavors: hunters, hikers, and researchers. Throughout the game, humans will shuffle around different spots via Event cards, as well as from player Action cards. At the end of the round, the location with the most humans will have an encounter. Anyone with hiding tokens at that location can score the top Sighting card of their stack.
It’s an interesting system that boils down to moving humans instead of the player characters. Each player tries to maximize their scoring potential by playing Action cards and moving humans around. Sighting cards provides positive points for one kind of human at the location, and negative to another. But since only one location scores every round, it’s an entirely possible, and almost likely, that at least one player won’t score any points at all for one or two rounds.
The base game (which we reviewed) includes four different Cryptids: Bigfoot, Mothman, Loveland Frog, and Jackalope. The Sighting cards are completely symmetrical (save for the name and artwork), and everyone draws from the same deck of Action cards.
The only real asymmetry lies with the Cryptid powers, which is a single ability a player can activate once per round in place of an Action card. Several expansion packs are available (which were not reviewed) that add additional Cryptids, but I can’t imagine they make much of a difference in gameplay.
Big Monsters, Tiny Box
The relatively tiny box is definitely travel-friendly, with an excellent box insert that keeps all the meeples, cards, and folding board in neat little areas.
I like the wooden Cryptid meeples, but reducing them to score markers compared to the tiny Hiding Spot tokens feels backwards.
I wasn’t terribly impressed with the board itself, either. Unstable Games usually features amazing artwork, but the board for Twisted Cryptids is tiny and flavorless, giving us just a handful of same-y, vaguely woodsy locations dappled in different colors.
The Sighting cards are the only place to see the fun, youthful artwork I expect from the publisher in full display — but we rarely get to see them! In any single game we played, a player is lucky to flip and score three of their Sighting cards over the total five rounds.
The Action cards are seen much more frequently, with players using them every round to move humans around. But instead of featuring fun, cartoonish artwork, the Action cards just show the human symbols and the important words, such as Lure or Scare. Not including fun art or at least cute iconography of the different types of actions is incredibly disappointing for a publisher who doubles down on art design.
The Rating
The recommended age for Twisted Cryptids is 12+. For a small box, family-friendly game, I found it challenging to teach the concepts of pre-arranging personalized scoring cards, using different actions to move humans, and the limited scoring opportunities. It’s the kind of game where it’s best to just sit down and run through a practice round first.
The Takeaway
Despite my complaints about teaching and components, I had fun playing Twisted Cryptids once we got the hang of it. At three and four players, the action is equally chaotic and competitive, with some light bluffing, and plenty of “take that” retribution. There’s plenty of strategy opportunities, though at times I felt helpless with the current board configuration and Action cards in my hand. It’s less enjoyable for two players, however, due to more predictable movement and actions.
If your family (or game group) doesn’t mind getting their teeth and claws a bit dirty, Twisted Cryptids packs a satisfying punch.
Twisted Cryptids is available now at Amazon, and the Unstable Games store.
