Year: 2016 | Players: 2-5 | Minutes: 30 | Ages: 15+
This Rick and Morty: Total Rickall was made after playing the game four times.
What is Rick and Morty: Total Rickall?
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall is a cooperative card game designed by Matt Hyra and published by Cryptozoic Entertainment. In this game, players are attempting to figure out which characters are space parasites and which ones are real. You don’t know which are which because the aliens have manipulated your memories to make you think you know all of the different characters.
If you haven’t seen the show, here are a few clips of Rick ranting about random things:
Rules Overview
To set up a game of Rick and Morty: Total Rickall, the first thing you do is shuffle the Identity cards and place them face down on the table. You will put a number of these cards down equal to the amount of players times 2. These cards will tell you which Character cards are real and which are parasites.
Then you will put the color-coded Character cards on top of the Identity cards. The colors matter when using action cards, which we’ll get to next.
Each player will receive three Action cards at the beginning of the game. These cards can be used for a number of different actions, including shooting characters and peeking at their identities. Players will keep their Action cards secret, but they can give other players clues about what they plan on doing. Action cards are placed face down simultaneously, and then revealed simultaneously. Players will then resolve their cards in turn order.
To win, you need to decide as a group that only real characters remain on the table (this is done by voting) and being correct. If any parasites are still on the table, then the whole team loses. You’ll also instantly lose if you kill four real people/non-parasites.
Those are the rules for the cooperative/standard mode. If you want to see the semi-cooperative/advanced rules, take a look at the official Rick and Morty: Total Rickall rules (PDF).
Check out the Best Budget Board Games!
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fans of the show should like the fact that the Rick and Morty: Total Rickall episode is captured about as well as the designers could have hoped. They easily could have just copied some mechanics from others games and slapped the theme on top, but they definitely put in the extra effort to make fans happy and create a unique co-op experience.
- I also like the way that they incorporated cooperation in this game. You can’t tell other players what cards you have, but you can help everyone by playing the cards that best help the team. You can also let them know all of the clues that you’ve picked up with your action cards.
- You won’t run into the “alpha player” problem in this game since there’s only so much you can say to each other.
- Rick and Morty: Total Rickall is extremely easy to teach and learn. Even if you haven’t seen the show and don’t fully understand the theme, you should have no problem understanding how to play this game.
Cons
- My biggest issue with Rick and Morty: Total Rickall is that it just gets pretty repetitive after three or four games. Once you beat it and figure out the winning strategy, it becomes pretty easy and it feels like you’re just going through the motions. There’s very little tension after that.
- Unfortunately, there might not be enough game here for people who aren’t fans of Rick and Morty. It is a unique co-op game, for sure, but it is pretty light and relies on people to get into the theme. Non-fans probably won’t get into it as much as the fans will simply because they won’t get the references. I recommend watching at least one episode of the show before playing to get more out of the experience.
Final Thoughts
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall isn’t a must-have, but fans of Rick and Morty will get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters and playing through that popular episode. It’s not a favorite of mine, but it is ridiculous and fun, which is exactly how it should be. It’s also a surprisingly unique cooperative deduction board game, so it’s one that I think some people will keep in their collections.
Rick and Morty: Total Rickall Links
BGG | Amazon | CoolStuffInc | eBay
Thanks for taking the time to read our Rick and Morty: Total Rickall Card Game review!
To stay updated on all things cooperative board games, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or via RSS.
