Thrift Treasure: Takeaway
Last year some of our favorite family games came from one company, Jax. We played some new ones like Link-O and Polygon, and found others for our Thrift Treasure series at our local Goodwill. In fact, Doodle Dice became one of our Top 10 favorites of the year!
This week we found another Jax title – Takeaway. Using a standard 52-card deck (included), the object is to collect as many of the cards in your stack in a round, receiving one point for each.
Each player controls the two slots in front of them (in a 2-player game you control four). You are trying to pair or find a run of two (same-suited) cards to combine. In the example above, if you were playing in your left slot, the six of spades matches up with the six of hearts. You would place the six of hearts (and any cards underneath it) on top of the six of spades, leaving your opponent with an empty slot.
The empty slot plays into the game prominently, as turns are decided by the first person with an empty slot counting clockwise. There were many cases of back-and-forth between two players without the other two getting a turn thanks to how the cards fell.
An entire game consists of three rounds with each round ending when the final card in the draw stack is played. There isn’t much strategy involved – the game is typically determined by the luck of the draw. Just because an opponent has a large stack early on, they can quickly lose the entire thing on just one card draw. Only towards the end of the game, if you’ve kept track of what has been drawn and what hasn’t, can you make some decisions that would allow your stack of cards to remain safe.
Takeaway is one of those games that can be enjoyed by all ages, even as young as 4 or 5, but definitely needs an adult to dictate the rules. Because the turn order is in a somewhat random fashion, keeping track of whose turn it is was a bit of a chore at the beginning. Once we all got the feel of how the game was played, it was no longer an issue. Just be aware that there is a little steeper-than-normal learning curve.
Our copy of Takeaway was issued in 2000, but it is still in Jax’s library today. And a nice touch, when you run out of score cards, you can print your own right from their website! You can find copies on Amazon for under $10 and it shouldn’t be quite like any other card game you have in your collection. Expect each game to last about 20 minutes, a perfect length when you’re waiting on your next hobby game to start up!
Too kewl! and fun!
You folks find the best treasures at the thrift store. It is amazing. This is another hit! This game is one my kids would love. My youngest daughter is a card shark! She loves all card games. We enjoy playing them together too.
Hi Scott,
Looks like a real fun game! Thanks for sharing your review 🙂
Aha- I think I’ve played a very similar game to this before. I’m not too sure what it was called. It looks fun, though!
This game sounds kind of awesome. Kind of like War, but with a twist. I’ll have to see about adding it to my game closet!
I haven’t heard of this game, but it looks fun for even adults. I love card games over some good drinks and snacks.
Looks like a great family game. I like that they let you print out scorecards from the website, that is convenient.
Sounds like a fun game for older kids as a family game night. I’ll have to see if I can find this local to me.
This looks like fun! I could see my family getting competitive with this game!
I do like that you can print new score cards from their website. Hubby and I would like to break this out with the kids! Sounds fun. 🙂
20 minutes is about the length of games we can handle in our house lately, so this would be perfect. I was about to mention the score of finding the tally sheets with the game, but how great you can print them off even if they’re gone!
So neat. Love good games like this.
I have never heard of it before. I like that I can play with my littlest and my oldest.
I think I remember playing this game when my sons were younger and we had a lot of fun doing so. I love games like this instead of video games.
I like the sound of this game and that it’s part luck. I’d probably play this a lot, especially since you can print the score sheets!
I’ve always been a big fan of card games. I used to play them with my grandmother and we would have loved this one.
Sounds fun, we are always looking for new and interesting card games. Thanks!