WBG Score: 8.5
Player Count: 1-6
You’ll like this if you like: Classic card games with a twist!
Published by: CMYK,
Designed by: Fruit Fight Reiner Knizia, Duos Brian Lee (II),Fives 新澤 大樹 (Taiki Shinzawa), Figmant Wolfgang Warsch
This is a review copy. See our review policy here
This is an interesting one. Publisher CMYK, the people behind Wavelength, Daybreak, Monikers, and many, many more are on a mission to bring the fun. Classic card game fun from four older games with a new look, a new take, and a few new surprises.
"The idea behind Magenta is simple: to bring people together through the world’s best card games," says Alex Hague, founder of CMYK. "To do that, we’ve created a line of games that are both fun to play and beautifully designed."
Fruit Fight was previously known as No Mercy
Fives was previously known as The Green Fivura
But now they sit in a new range, looking spectacular, and all very collectable. You cant just get one now can you! But are they fun? Do you need them all? Well, let's get them to the table and find out. Four reviews in one. Here we go!
How To Set Up Fruit Fight
Shuffle the deck and give the full deck to one player who will act as the dealer. That's it, you are ready to play!
How To Play Fruit Fight
The dealer will now place one card face up in front of the first player. They will now stick or twist, either stopping and ending their current turn, or asking for another card. The cards are a series of fruit valued one to ten. If you ever get two cards of the same value, you are bust and lose all your cards. However, you cannot bust until you have more than three cards, so your first few turns are pretty safe. If you do not go bust and stick, then your cards stay face up in front of you until your next turn; they are not quite yours yet!
During the next player's turn, if they draw a card that matches any of the previous player's face-up cards that haven't been banked, they can collect all matching face-up cards from every player. This action does not contribute to going bust. Going bust only occurs when drawing from the dealer, not when taking cards from other players.
When the play eventually gets back to you, any face-up cards you have in front of you that have not been stolen by the other players are now safely banked, flipped upside down, and put aside into your scoring pile. You now go again.
Play continues like this until the deck is exhausted. All players then count their cards based on the points value. Most points win.
How To Set Up Fives
This is very similar to Hearts and Spades. In a four player game, give each player a five point chip and deal the cards evenly to too players. For three players, removes the 10-13 cards first. You are now ready to play!
How To Play Fives
The player who was dealt the Magenta zero will start. They can play any card from their hand. The aim of the game is to score as clos to 25 points each rounds. WO, first, look at your hand of cards and make a plan which cards you want to try and win hands with in order to best achieve this total.
The leading player will play a card from their hand. Each other player, in turn, will now play a card from their hand. You have to follow suit if you can. There are four suits. If a player does not have the same colour in their hand, they can play any card they wish. The highest played card of the lead suit wins that hand. However, if someone plays a Silver card, Silver cards are trumps, and this means the Silver card will win. If two Silver cards are played, the highest Silver card wins the trick.
After a trick is won, the player who played the winning card draws up all cards played in that trick, piles them into one pile, and places the card they played that won the trick on the top. This card will then score them that many points at the end of the round. The round ends when all players have played all cards in their hand.
The twist in this game is that every card is double-sided, and on the back of every card is a Magenta 5. So at any point, you can play a Magenta 5 if you wish. This does not mean you always have to follow Magenta if the lead player plays a Magenta card. You have to follow if you have a regular Magenta card in your hand, but the Magenta 5's will not count towards this. The Magenta 5's help you play other cards, perhaps higher value ones, that you don't want to win a trick with.
You may want to avoid winning a trick because the scoring is based on all the winning cards you won tricks with and their total. The player who scores closest to 25 without going over 25 with this total will gain a three-point scoring chip. Two points in a three player game. If anyone scores exactly 25, they gain an additional one-point chip. The second closest player gets two points, one in a two player. The third closest gets one point, and nothing for a three player. If you exceed 25 points, you score nothing and are forced to give a single point chip to the lead player that round. If their is a tie for a lead player in a round when someone goes over 25, the point chip from the bust player goes into the middle of the table and carries over for the next round.
Four rounds are played in total. The most points wins!
How To Set Up Duos
The game works best, I feel, in a four, with two teams of two. But you can play with two teams of three as well. Players will sit opposite their teammate, with a player from the other team on either side of them. Separate the two decks, and deal the first player one card, the next two, and the players after that get three cards each. Then place three face-up cards in the middle of the table and place the rest of the deck next to these in a face-down pile. Then take the goal deck, and deal each player one card face up, placing a final face-up challenge card into the middle of the table for all to see.
How To Play Duos
Players will take turns drawing two cards either from the top of the deck or from one of the three face-up cards. Players will try to complete the challenges in front of them, their teammate, and the one in the middle of the table. Challenges are completed by playing cards from your hand face-up for all to see that match the challenge's requirements. The played cards are discarded, and the completed challenge is turned face down and moved into a collective team pile of completed challenges. At the end of a player's turn, when they have drawn two cards and completed as many challenges as they want to or can, they can then, if they want, pass one or two cards to their teammate. You must then discard down to six cards if you have more in your hand, and play moves to the next player around the table.
The game continues until one team completes eight goal cards. Play continues until all players have had the same number of turns, and then the teams will count their completed challenges. Each challenge is worth a different amount of points, so it may not be the team that completed the most challenges or indeed, that completed the eight first to trigger the end game that wins. Most points wins.
How To Set Up Figment
This is a cooperative game where all players play together. Separate the two decks and shuffle the arrow cards and place them face down next to the main deck along with the five number tokens. Flip the top arrow card to reveal the coloured arrow. You are now ready to play.
How To Play Figment
Now draw the first card and place it face up in front of all players. Look at the first arrow card to see which colour it shows. Your goal is to organise five cards in order, from lowest to highest, based on the amount of one of the four colours, as chosen by the arrow card shown that round. So, if the arrow this time is silver, you need to organize the five cards in order of least to most amount of silver in percentage terms on each card.
After you have the first card, take the second and place it either to the left or right of the first card based on how much of the chosen colour you think it has in comparison to the first card. Do the same with the third, fourth, and fifth card, reordering the cards as you go as best you can. Then, when you have placed the fifth card, choose one of the five tokens based on how confident you are about your choices. If you think you have them all right, take the five token. If you are less confident, take a lower token. You can only use each token once; they mark the five rounds in the game.
Them choose a side, left or right. The side where you are most confident you have placed the cards in the right order, and flip over the leftmost or rightmost card. On the back, it will show the percentages for each colour on that card. Now reveal the card next to the one you just flipped to see if it has more or less of the chosen colour. If you are right, keep going. If you are wrong, stop there. Keep flipping until you either get one wrong or flip them all. Then place the cards you got right into one pile to score at the end, and put any cards you got wrong into a separate discard pile. If you got all five cards right, then add the token you used that round to the score pile. This will now add to your end-of-game score.
Play five rounds, then total your points. You want to aim for more than 25 for a bronze score, 30 or more for silver, and 35 or more for gold. If you score gold a few times, you can then make the game a little harder and place six cards instead of five. You now need to get 30 points for Bronze, 35 for Silver, and 40 for Gold. A pretty tricky task!
Are They Fun? Figment, Fives, Fruit Fight, and Duos : The 'Magenta' Range Cards Games Review
OK, phew! We got through it. Four separate card games. Some team-based, others cooperative, others competitive. They work from solo experiences up to six officially, but I have played a few of them with nine! But essentially, what I am saying here is that there is a lot of variety and potentially something for everyone. But which one is best for you?
Out of all of the games, Duo is my personal favourite. It has the most strategy, I feel. Although Fives is not far behind. But I think I have the most fun with Fruit Fight! And I love the originality and simplicity of Fragment. So, in summary, I love them all.
For clarity, here are my scores for each game. Highest to lowest.
Duo - 9
Fives - 8.5 Fruit Fight - 8
Fragment - 7.5
Duo has a lovely feeling about it. Like all these games, but particularly with Duo and Fives, this feels like a classic card game. The sort you played with your nan when you were a kid, but with a fresh take. They look modern. The cards are all gorgeous both in terms of the card stock, size, and art. The colours are obviously very vibrant. And all the games have one or two tweaks to make them fit in with the modern era of gaming we are living in.
The challenges in Duo are all quite interesting. I find the process of trying to work out which ones my partner(s) are going for based on the cards they are drawing, and then, of course, the ones they give to me, quite intriguing. But there are some challenges that are quite similar. And you can sometimes misinterpret their moves. It's a great team experience and one I can se becoming a firm favourite added to most game nights where I have an even four or six players.
Fives feels the most like a classic trick-taker. The Magenta 5 twist is enough to make this game stand on its own, though. It is a fascinating process to first analyse the hand you have been dealt and work out from those 11 or 13 cards (depending on player count) which ones you will try and win with to get as close to 25 as possible. Then you need to work out the cards you will lose with, and there may be some high cards you need to switch to a Magenta 5 to do this. But you will, of course, never know quite what your opponents' plans will be.
It is a brilliant little game. Full of strategy, and quick, fast, but interesting choices. Like any classic trick-taker, the game moves fast. And the end-of-round scoring is an interesting way to order the relative success for each player in the game. You can win all the tricks and lose. You can lose most of the tricks and win. This takes away the luck of the deal. Players now don't just win as they get the best hand dealt to them. Players need to work strategically with what they have been dealt and make a genuine plan for each card in their hand.
Fruit Fight is a fast-paced game that you can get to the table in a few seconds. Shuffle the deck and start playing. It feels a little like Flip 7, another recent modern take on Pontoon, but this time, even simpler. Gone are the power cards, and now you simply have ten different fruits worth a different amount of points. But the choice to take cards from other players when you draw a matching card to other players' face-up cards is enough to make this game not just about pure luck. Although this is a pure push-your-luck experience, that one choice gives each player enough agency to feel in some control of their destiny. You don't ever have to bust if you don't want to. You could always stop on three cards. But then, will that be enough to win?
I have gotten this out on so many occasions recently. Done at the pub with complete non-gamers. In a quick three-player game pre-bed. With a large group after dinner. It works for everyone, in every situation. And if you don't enjoy it, don't worry, it will be over in a few minutes. And if you do? Well, shuffle them up and go again!
I have found a common occurrence in this game is that one set of fruit starts to build up into a huge point scorer. One player will draw and keep a banana, say. And then the next player will steal that. Now, we have a pile of two bananas. Maybe the next player gets a banana of their own, and now this is a pile of three. If this starts to happen for one of the higher point scorers, you can have sets worth over 50 points flying around the table. It is a hilarious experience that I simply adore.
Fragments feels less of a game, and more of a quick bit of fun. The fact that it is coop, and that you are simply ordering five or six cards, left to right, does take away somewhat from the overall "game" feeling. But it does not make it any less fun. It is just incredibly simple.
The other game here I have played a lot more. Fragments get a fair few outings, but often just for a few quick games. In total, I would say it averages under ten minutes at the table. That would be two or three games on average, but they are so quick, it flies by. And ultimately, as fun as it is to get the cards all in order, it also does not feel like it matters that much. Sure, there is a points target to aim for, but do you care? It's coop, it won't all be on you anyway. And some cards are so close, it can be very hard to tell.
It is an interesting experience and fun to play. But it just does not feel as much of a game to me as the others. That said, for the novelty factor, and as discussed, since it is just so simple and quick to play, it will stay in my collection and rack up hundreds of plays very quickly. It's just that in total, it will still be a relatively low amount of actual time with this game, which has to bring the score down a little, I feel. But I still have fun with it.
We got through it! Four amazing little card games. All looking great. All offering something a little different. Which one is the most appealing to you?
I would recommend Duo to any group that likes to play card games, is in a regular group, and often that group is an even four or six. This could be perfect for you. I would suggest Fives to a similar group but one that plays more in a three or four. These two games feel like classic card game experiences, but with a modern look and feel. If you are looking for that type of thing and play in these group sizes, look no further.
Fruit Fight I would recommend to anyone. It is such a simple game, and perfect for so many environments. I don't like the box size for this game. I get why they did them as they are. And they all look great on the shelf next to each other. But Fruit Fight is a game I want to take with me to the pub, or to a restaurant. And this box is too big for that. I have placed mine in a baggy, and that's fine. But this is a small frustration.
Fragment is a hard one to recommend as it is less of a game and more of an experience. But I would still recommend it to anyone as it feels unique, looks gorgeous, and plays so simply. Just temper your expectations for the experience.
But overall, we have four gorgeous new card games here, all of which will sit on my shelf and get played a lot. I feel these could all end up being some of my most played games of all time.
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