Super Kawaii Pets is a set collection game all about making sad pets happy and giving them places to stay.
Was this game sent for review or self-purchased?: Super Kawaii Pets was sent to us for review by Arcane Wonders
In two sentences, what do you do in the game: You are trying to have the most happiness points at the end of the game, which are earned from adopting pets (flipping them to their happy side) and gaining more happiness points by adding them to a location (such as a dog house or little fluffy bed). On a turn, you’ll collect two cards (resources and/or pets) and then can play cards if you’re able, paying resources to make pets happy or having the right type of pets to gain a location (and then putting the animals under that card).
Have we played any other titles by this publisher?: We have self-purchased other Arcane Wonders titles but this is our first sent for review from this company.
What was surprising about this title: This game is very simple, but we had a lot of fun playing it. The motivation to make pets happy and see what the other side of the card looked like with their changed expression was enough.
How likely is this to return to the game table?: Likely. This is a good one to bring out as a quick filler game while waiting for others, when playing with kids, when introducing games to newer gamers, or playing with people who love animals.
Game length: Extremely short, potentially 10 minutes if played quickly. 20 minutes if you’re chatting more. This short game length is perfect for this easier title though, because it would seem too repetitive if it were longer. Kind of like Capri Sun, one is just enough but if you put three Capri Suns in a glass it would be too much (from experience). If you really wanted to make it longer though you could have a house rule extending the amount of resource cards to trigger game end up from 10.
Language Barrier Playability: Perfect. The cost of the cards is entirely symbols based. Additionally, you’re just counting points on the lower left at game end for your score so nothing really requires language after you know the rules.
Artwork: Adorable. The animals have unique sad and happy expressions from one another, which makes each one fun to look at. A fun artistic touch is that the happy side of each animal card has raised designs and shiny eyes when you tilt the card. This adds to the Kawaii look of the game.
Quality: Excellent. The cards are sturdy and the raised design on the Happy animal sides are really well done.
Strategy: Medium-light. For a light game, there is some beginner level strategy to the game. You must collect the resources and sad pets in order to make those pets happy when you meet their requirements. However, at turn end you can only have five cards and sometimes the right resources don’t come up right away. To collect location cards, you have to have certain types of animals. Sometimes a card that needs two dogs might be worth 2 points whereas one needing three dogs is worth 7 points, so you may decide to take the 2 points now or hold out and try to collect one more dog for more points before someone else earns that Location card.
Instruction Manual: Good, it was very fast to learn to play. However, there is one section in the manual where they put rabbits under the Rodents category and rabbits are not rodents, they’re Lagamorpha. Otherwise we had no issues with the manual!
Organization: Simple, cards all have a spot but things fit semi-loosely in the box.
Final thoughts: We think this game is a nice addition to game night and we like that you can play it with gamers and non-gamers. The overall theme is exemplified throughout the artwork and has a total Kawaii feel. Plus it feels great to make the animals happy and flip them to their smiling side!
Sushiball Games 