Alebrijes^*

Alebrijes is a quick shedding card game for 3 to 5 players aged 8+: empty your hand first and use special cards to wreck your opponents' combinations.

What's it about?

A game takes 15 to 25 minutes. Alebrijes are the brightly coloured fantasy creatures of Mexican folk art. Brothers Joel and Rafael Escalante turned them into a ladder-climbing card game, and Gaby Zermeño's artwork leans fully into the colour. The German edition comes from HeidelBÄR Games.

How it plays

1. On your turn, you play cards or combinations that beat what is already on the table.
2. You improve your hand during the round and time your special-effect cards carefully.
3. The first player to get rid of every card ends the round.
4. Every card still in hand counts as negative points.

After three rounds, the player with the fewest negative points wins.

Who is it for?

• Fans of climbing games like Tichu or The Great Dalmuti who want something shorter
• Families with kids around 8 and up
• Groups looking for a fast filler between bigger games

Conclusion

Alebrijes is a compact, good-looking card game with a familiar core and a few cheeky special cards. If you like shedding cards and throwing a spanner in other players' plans, it delivers. It does not work with two, though, and anyone after a long tactical session will find three rounds over quickly.