This game’s title pretty much says it all: Quickity Pickity is a speed game where the 2-5 players are flipping tiles and selecting from those revealed in order to make sets. You score for the size of set you make up of fruit matched by either shape or colour but your set mustn’t contain any fruit with a different facial expression. It’s a speed game and the tiles you pick up must immediately be placed in a set so it’s all too easy to make a mistake and accidentally add a sour face fruit to a set of otherwise sweet (happy) fruit. Do that and you pick up a hefty points penalty.
Hidden among the tiles are some showing monkeys. When the third monkey tile is flipped, the round immediately ends. Points are totted up for each set of fruit that players have picked, and the scorecard is taken by the player with the highest total. The first player to collect three scorecards is the winner.
The scorecards for each round differ. They all show a shape and colour fruit that will give a bonus for that round. Expect all the players to immediately grab those fruits when they are flipped but tho’ the expression of the bonus fruit doesn’t matter for its bonus score you still need to be careful that you don’t place it in a set with a different expression… The points distribution for set size differs quite widely between the scorecards. Some are simply linear, with -2 points for a set of one, -1 points for a set of two, rising to +4 points for a set of seven or more. There are cards tho’ with greater penalties for small sets and even some non-linear scorecards where, for example, a set of 5 scores 6 points and a set of seven or more scores 9 points but if you have a set of six, it scores -3 points. These add to the tension of play in this speed game while introducing a push-your-luck element.
Quickity Pickity is designed by Mashiu with art by Rie Komatsuzaki and Jun Sasaki. It’s a compact pocket-sized game from Oink Games, so a potentially good choice to pack for your holidays. It’s a game where adults and children of all ages can compete on almost even terms – tho’ you may well find this is one of those games where the children may be at an advantage, especially in their exuberant fruit nabbing!
Along with other Oink games, Quickity Pickity is distributed in the UK by Hachette Boardgames.