Nobody could have
predicted the huge hit that Uno has been on Xbox Live. A good part of the card
game's success comes from the fact that you only need a handful of brain cells
working at full capacity to play it well: Online Uno has become a favorite
late-night diversion for the perpetually drunk and stoned. By contrast, there's
a clear advantage to keeping your brain closer to sea level if you want to
succeed in Lost Cities. This online adaptation of Reiner Knizia's tabletop game has a
deceptively simple mechanic. Players aim to stack cards in numerical order,
much as they would in solitaire. It's how these cards generate points that
really starts the gears humming.
Playing Lost Cities is like being Indiana
Jones' accountant. The player's five piles of color-coded cards each symbolize
an archeological dig. The goal is to reap treasures from each expedition
without taking a financial loss. Much of the danger comes when seeding the
piles with cards that multiply the numeric values of later cards. Every
multiplier symbolizes increased investment, raising the break-even point even
higher. To complicate things, the shared deck means that your opponent may be
holding the cards you need. Invest too heavily, and it may be impossible to
recoup early costs, especially if the other player has already strip-mined the
ruins you aimed to explore.
Beyond the game: Reiner Knizia is a
household name among board-game geeks, for the award-winners Lord Of The Rings, Modern Art, Tigris &
Euphrates,
and Taj Mahal.
A collection of brainteasers for the Nintendo DS called Dr. Reiner Knizia's
Brainbenders
was just released in the UK.
Worth playing for: A cogent tutorial and
enemy AI make learning the game easy. The unpredictable nature of human
opponents online keeps the challenge high.
Frustration sets in
when: Some
of the game's vital details get lost when you're playing on a small,
standard-definition TV set.
Final judgment: A sober-minded card game
that forces players to continually unearth new strategies.