Release Date:  June 29, 2022	Download: PDF
Designers: Romain Caterdjian, Théo Rivière	Publisher: Devir
2-5 players  | 10 min  |  ages 5+  | 3 min to learn | MSRP $10

 

You and your friends are out in the desert and everything is blooming, especially the cactus. You shouldn't touch… but they have so many pretty flowers! Risking a little prick, you can’t help but pick a few.

The goal in Ouch! is to pick the most flowers. Select a card, grab it by one side, and flip it over. If the side is clear, huzzah! Add it to your collection. If you're holding onto a side with thorns... cry "OUCH!" and drop it! There are bonuses for assembling colorful bouquets and gathering dangerous red blooms, plus snakes and foxes hidden in the desert who can help you.

 

Written review continues after the break.

Ouch!    Devir  |  BGG 

The Concept 

You and your friends are out in the desert and everything is blooming, especially the cactus. You shouldn't touch… but they have so many pretty flowers! Risking a little prick, you can’t help but pick a few.

The Components

Ouch! is played with a deck of 44 cactus cards. 36 of these cards have only cactus flowers. Eight cards also feature an animal: either a helpful snake or a cute fennec fox.

The back of each card will show the whole cactus plant, as well as a number of flowers, ranging from one to three. The more flowers, the better. But be careful! The more flowers a card has, the more dangerous it is. The back of each cactus card has thorns covering one to three sides.

To set up a game of Ouch!, simply shuffle the cards and deal out six of them to the table, back side facing up. Players will now take turns going clockwise, starting with the youngest player.

The Mechanics

The goal in Ouch! is to pick the most flowers. Extra points will be added for having sets of flowers of the four different colors as well as having the most red flowers.

What you are trying to NOT do is to get pricked. Remember, cactus plants have sharp thorns! 

On your turn, you will choose one of the six cards on the table. Then pick it up by one side of the card: top, bottom, left, or right. Now turn it over quickly and see what you got.

If the side you chose shows no cactus spines, congratulations! You have picked flowers successfully. Put the card in front of you in your collection.

If you picked up the card by an edge showing the cactus, then shout “Ouch!” and drop it quickly. Discard this card. It is out of the game.

Red cactus cards carry extra risk and extra reward. If you pick a red cactus and it stings you, you must discard a card from your collection. That’s the risk. The reward is, at the end of the game, the player with the most red flowers will score five extra points

You may also encounter some helpful animals in the desert. If you collect a card with a snake, watch the next player’s turn. If they are pricked by the card they choose, you get to add that card to your collection.

If a card you collect shows a fennec fox, you may choose to take another turn picking flowers. But be very careful! If you're stuck by this card, you lose it, and the card with the fennec.

Whether you picked flowers, or got stuck by thorns, after your turn, draw another cactus card so that there are always six cards for the next player to choose from.

The game ends once someone has collected eight cards, or when there are no more cards in the draw pile. Then everyone adds up their scores.

You get one point for each flower on your cards.

You get 4 additional points for each bouquet of four different colored flowers you can make.

The player with the most red flowers gets 5 points. If tied, each player gets this bonus.

The player with the most points is the winner!

What Sets This Game Apart 

People play games for so many reasons. Some of us enjoy the thrill of competition. We get a charge out of besting our fellow players. 

Or maybe it's the challenge of building up a tabletop empire - a kingdom, or business, or farm. We revel in creating a beautiful, efficient, or productive machine. 

Others love the challenge of playing cooperatively to solve a mystery, or beat back a pandemic. It’s us-against-the- game. Surviving or solving as a team is the reward.

Whatever the game, fun should be the ultimate prize. 

Ouch! delivers fun at its most basic level. This is fun we know deep in our bones - fun we can see and hear and touch.

The fun is in the look of relief on someone’s face when they pick a card and don’t get pricked. It’s in hearing a loud “Ouch!” from a smug opponent. You see this fun in the look of real apprehension as someone fearfully flips their card.

Which is silly, really. After all, those aren’t real thorns on the cactus plants. They’re just playing cards. And yet, you will find yourself smiling, and cringing, and shouting “OUCH!” as you play! 

Here’s why.

The game is just an object. But when it becomes an object of play, it becomes something more - an invitation to a world of imagination. We invest the cards in Ouch! with a power beyond mere cardboard. The game invites us to make believe, and the more you buy into that small illusion, the more fun we make the game.

Final Thoughts

A game can invite its audience to stop the “real” world. Come play and let’s find the fun. 

Most of the time, fun is hard to describe or know. The simple genius of Ouch! is that it helps us create fun we can recognize and surrender to in the blink of an eye… or the turn of a card. 

Ouch! allows us to lose ourselves in a simple lie and be silly for a few moments. The fun it gives us permission to find is evergreen - anyone of any age or background can find it. Ouch! delivers an experience far beyond a deck of cards. If you let it, the game will drop you off in a land we call Major Fun.

Written by: Doug Richardson

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