Nutty Business is a light, family-friendly game for 2-5 players, designed by Alain Rivollet, published by Studio H and distributed in the UK by Hachette Boardgames. It's a game with a Prohibition theme except that it's set in a world where it's nuts rather than booze that's contraband, and players are each trying to hoard nuts whilst hindering others. The art is by Christine Alcouffe.
Each player starts with an identical deck of just eight cards consisting of various squirrel characters with unique abilities. Some cards let you smuggle nuts from the supply to your personal stash, the Thief lets you steal nuts from other players, and the Customs Officer penalises you for smuggling... The actions triggered by the eight different cards are easily understood after just a couple of practice turns.
On your turn, you play a card from your hand and activate the powers of all the cards you have showing. The twist in this game comes from the fact that you can only ever have a maximum of two face-up cards in front of you so you usually have to play a card onto one of your existing face-up cards. This simple rule forces players to think strategically whilst also being prepared for tactical maneuvers. Do you cover your Bank card, which protects you from other players? Or do you cover your high-value Contraband card, foregoing the opportunity to smuggle those nuts...
After getting over the low initial hurdle of decoding the iconography on the eight cards, the game becomes fast-paced and intuitive. Constantly, you have to be on the lookout for what the other players are doing and strategise accordingly. There are opportunities for 'take that' moments, which add a good amount of excitement to the gameplay. On many occasions, the final scoring will be closer than one anticipates, reflecting the cutthroat nature of this game.
The simplicity of having an eight-card deck does not hinder replayability. We found the game fun, just the right length, and simple enough to play with both people who regularly play modern board games and those who don’t.
(Review by Aditya Singh)