HeartSwitch
From: U.S. Games Systems Inc.
Reviewed by: Barry Lewis
We’ve all pretty much grown up with computers and we’ve played the games that come with the computer: Minesweeper, Solitaire and Hearts. I played a lot of Hearts on the computer. I learned a lot from playing Hearts as well, but the two main things I learned was that I suck at Hearts and I suck at card games in general. Well much too my chagrin, I absentmindedly requested to review a card game called HeartSwitch from U.S. Games Systems Inc. We all probably know U.S. Games Systems since they are one of the largest producers of playing cards in the world. The company, though, has over the past couple of years moved further and further into the hobby card game market and is actually doing well with such recent games as Hooyah: Navy Seals card game.
By now you’ve probably figured out from my opening paragraph that HeartSwitch is Hearts, but with a twist. Just in case you’ve never played Hearts, the object of the game is to rid yourself of as many or all of the point cards in your hand by the end of the hand, or trick. The point cards are the hearts, which are worth one point each, and the queen of spades, which is worth thirteen points. The person with the lowest total points at the end of the game wins. HeartSwitch builds on this by adding in eight new cards that changes the dynamic of the game some.
The eight cards are the Wicked Spade Witch, the Kind Club Witch, the Evil Heart Witch , the Good Diamond Witch and four cards called the Magicians. The Spade Witch counts as an additional 5 points. The Club Witch cancels either or both of the Spade Witch and Spade Queen taken by a player. The Heart Witch doubles the point value of each Heart taken, but has no point value itself. The Diamond Witch can deduct up to 5 points taken in that current hand, but does nothing if no points are taken in that same hand. As for the Magicians, it took a few hands for me to figure them out. They’re basically “wild” cards. You can play them anytime, but they have no point value, don’t belong to any suit and cannot win a hand unless all players play Magicians. If that’s the case then the person who led with the first Magician wins that hand.
Product Summary
HeartSwitch
From: U.S. Games Systems Inc.
Type of Game: Card Game
Game Design: Jodi Boginski Barbessi
Artist: Jodi Boginski Barbessi
Retail Price: $ TBD (US)
Number of Players: 3-6 players
Player Ages: 10 and up
Play time: Up to 60 minutes
Website: www.usgamesinc.com
“HEARTSWITCH” is not a ‘variation’ of “HEARTS”. It is a completely new game inspired by “Hearts”. The nuance is significant.
The 4 Magiciancards enable more strategy and the 4 Witches alter the scoring.
Although these 2 innovations are the most obvious they are not the most significant. Alone these additional 8 cards would render “Heartswitch” a mere variant of “HEARTS”. However it is the elimination of many of the restrictions inflicted on players of “Hearts” that moves “Heartswitch” into a completely different realm. Players are free to lead any card at any time and there is no waiting for “Hearts” to be ‘broken’. There are numerous subtle modifications but it is the removal of restrictions that both simplifies the rules and opens the flood gates to new strategies and innovative play.