This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components may change in the final game.
The link to the publishers insta is here.
Grunling: Fantastic Fruits is an adapted version of a game that was first launched on Kickstarter a few years ago under the guise of FunkiFruit. I was a big fan, but the funding was canceled. I think perhaps the art was not to everyone's taste, and maybe it was simply the wrong time.
The game is now back with a brand new look and feel. Art now coming from German artist Johanna Forster who has done a phenomenal job with the fresh new style. It's beautiful, whimsical, fresh and vibrant all at the same time. Just check out this cheeky Pear!
I very much enjoyed the previous version of this game. It had some interesting scoring options and the card play was slick, fast, and full of laughter.
This new version is pretty similar in terms of rules and game play. It just feels like it has grown up a bit. Gone to university, and learnt a few new tricks. And certainly bought an entire new classy wardrobe!
I hope this time round the Kickstarter is a success as I would love to see this game out in the wild. The game deserves that.
This is what I said last time about FunkiFruit.
Essentially this is a set collection game where you are looking to build a hand of ten cards that score you the highest possible points total but there are so many ways you can do this and your hand will change drastically and so quickly, and not always by your own design.
It’s fast, family-friendly fun that we have had a blast with. It has some take-that but it’s all fun and you always have time to sort yourself out. This is a game you can’t take too seriously but offers a lot of replayability due to the number of cards and the Swarm cards that bring rule changing moments four times per game. There will be a lot more of these Swarm cards in the final KS version too. Well worth checking out.
All of that holds up! Except the Swarm cards are now replaced by Effects cards. Similar sort of vibe, but with new name. The other main change is the setup, which used to be a little fiddly. It is now a lot simpler. You will need to add or remove certain cards based on player count. And if you have a different player count from your last game, you will need to do some minor admin. But the cards you remove all now have a very clear edge colour and style, so they are very simple to find. And it's only ever a maximum of 13 cards per set you are looking for. And you only have to do this when you increase player count. Otherwise, you are all good.
But I don't want to get into the changes too much. FunkiFruit sadly never saw the light of day. This game, I hope very much does. And I want to now focus on this new version of the game, which is great fun!
When I play this with my family, games fly by. Everyone always seems to be having fun. And win or lose, players enjoy the process as scores are always high. Scores of around 90-100 are common. Sometimes a fair bit more if everything clicks, But either way, it always feels fun.
As I said in my previous preview, this game is simply about trying to curate the best hand of ten cards that you can. You start with seven and can never have more than ten. You will often get more, but then need to discard down. There are a lot of cards in the deck, and you will cycle through them very quickly. Each turn, you get to draw two cards. There are also many Action cards that let you get more. You can take cards from other players, as well as force them to discard ones you know they have or are collecting. But ultimately, there are a lot of ways to manage your hand and turn what you start with at random into a high-scoring thing of beauty by the end. And that process is wildly satisfying.
There are so many ways to play this game. Do you go for a big Grape majority? Perhaps you want to chase berries and aim for enough to score the big bonus there. Some cards work in pairs, like, well - The Pear. And you need to find another card with the same art to score the maximum here. But you can always use the Star Fruit if you don't find the other Pear. Or there are cards like the Dragon Fruit and Orange which simply score big on their own.
There are also cards like the Lychee which offer a small bonus on their own but are more useful during the game by using their power to "Nope" your opponents when they play cards on you that you do not wish to suffer from! A very handy card to keep in reserve.
Chasing the Apples can be a bit risky. Other players will quickly cotton on to your plans, as this is a card you need multiple copies of to score well from. Six is the goal here. As you draw one card openly each turn from the deck, players will quickly realise if you are not discarding them in later turns. There are certain cards that let you affect how well people score from Apples in a way that will not make them happy when they receive it! Be warned if you are in the Apple game. But if you take the risk and it pays off, there is a huge reward coming your way.
But you can keep two cards face down in your basket. These are safe from most attacks and also hidden from the other players throughout the game. But nothing is ever fully safe in this game. Some cards allow you to take blindly from other players' baskets. Have they put something juicy there, or did they load it with a trap? Players can always change the cards in their basket, so you don't have to put the good ones there right away!
The game is full of back-and-forth like this, as all players look to slowly build up the perfect ten cards to score big at the end of the game. The game clock is controlled by the event cards. When the fourth and final event is drawn (always in one of the bottom six cards), the game immediately ends. These event cards are very clever in how they work. They all have an instant effect on the game as you play. But if the event is the fourth an final one, each card also has a specific end game effect, which can sometimes have big swings. Such as one event that now punishes all players who don't have a Darkling card. These are cards that usually you will want to get rid of in the game. But keeping one back just in case may not be a bad idea if you think this card is in the deck. They will also score you ten points if you have the most of them at the end of the game. But holding one when someone else has two can be tough!
Or do you ignore this, risking it because you think you can score bigger with other cards? The choice is yours. And this certainly is why I think this game deserves a space on anyone's shelf who enjoys fast-playing, enjoyable card games with a mix of strategies in how you can play it. There is so much choice here as to what cards you go for. Your starting hand will dictate this to some extent, of course, but you will always have enough time to see a good percentage of the deck to then try any strategy you fancy in this game. And it is this simplicity that I love. Collect some fruit. Make it the best set of ten cards you can. Go!
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