Think you are fast; wait until the nuts are flying!
| Nut So Fast (2018) | |||||
| Designer(s) | Jeff Lai | Artist(s) | Chris McCoy | Publisher |
Smirk & Laughter Games |
 |
3-6 |  |
8+ |  |
15-20m |
We have owned this game for about three years now thanks to a Play to Win event at a local convention in Flatwoods, WV called CharCon Bonus Round. I have never played spoons, but I have heard people compare this game to it. All I know is this game truly brings the laughter to the table! It is super quick to pick up the rules and let the nuts fly. The game is played over three rounds and whomever has the lowest score wins the game.
Box and Components
The box is well designed and has space for each of the components in place, and the rules are very easy to understand. The game comes with Player Reference Cards that are double-sided and list the combinations of nuts you need to go after when specific triggers happen on players turns.
The NUTS!
The game comes with five wooden cashew and walnuts as well as one wooden pistachio and almond. Just look at those faces...
NUTS! Cards
The game comes with 72 NUTS! cards featuring pictures of nut combinations and some cards with numbers; these are the cards that will be dealt to players. The cards you are dealt will be placed face down on top of a Blue "Time to Score" card.
Nutty Poses Cards
There are three doubled side cards numbered 1, 2, and 3. These cards make up the Nutty Poses area; these will activate when a card is flipped and has a number on it. The card next to it, the Nutty Pose, is what you are trying to perform before everyone else (more on this in a bit).
Mechanics
Setup
This game is designed to be played over the course of three rounds. To begin the game, you will shuffle NUTS! cards and deal them evenly as you can to all players; you will then stack these cards face down on top of the "Time to Score" card. Layout 3 Nutty Poses to be used for that round. Next, set out the wooden nuts in the center of the table where all players are able to reach. Set out both the pistachio and almond; for cashews and walnuts, you will set out a number equal to the number of players minus one.
As an example: in a 4 player game you will have 3 cashews, 3 walnuts, 1 pistachio and 1 almond in the center of the table.
To begin the game, the first player is decided by flipping the top card of the "Nutty Poses" deck, and the last player to perform the pose is first player.
How to Play
Each player will go one at a time around the table revealing two cards from their NUTS! deck (one card at a time). The best way to reveal the cards is flipping it away from your body so you don't have an unfair advantage of seeing the cards before your opponents; the more you play this game, you will perfect you quick flip to avoid giving your opponents the same benefit. If you have cards in front of you from previous turn, each card drawn on your turn will cover your previous stacks; you select which of your two stacks to cover (you can't put both cards on the same stack). Each player will have their own two stacks of cards in front of them they will be using.
As cards are flipped, players will quickly count the nuts on the cards that are on top of your stacks as each card is flipped; if either card you flipped set of a triggers one of the sets from the Player Reference Card or the numbered Nutty Pose cards, you quickly do that action. These actions can be one of the following:
1. Exactly four of a kind of matching nuts (cashews, walnuts or pistachio)
Three examples of four of a kind for each nut
In this instance, you will quickly grab for that corresponding nut. If it is a four of a kind of cashew or walnut, the player that is slowest and doesn't receive one of the nuts will take all of the active player revealed cards and place them below the "Time to Score" card. Reminder that cashews and walnuts have one less that the number of players available. So you have to be quick!
However, if it is 4 of a kind of the pistachio, the player that is the fastest and grabs the pistachio gets to decide which of their opponents receives all of the active player revealed cards. Reminder, there is only one pistachio in the game, so it's a great reward to be the winner to pass those cards onto your opponents, but watch out in future turns they may return the favor.
2. Two sets of matching nuts or 7/8 matching nuts
There example combinations
In this instance, you will not grab the walnut, cashew or pistachio; go directly for the almond, which is not pictured on any NUTS! cards. The almond, if you are the fastest to grab it, will give you great power. This power will take all cards that are below your "Time to Score" card and put them directly on top of your stack face down resetting your currently round score to 0. Remember, there is only one almond in the game.
3. Numbered Nutty Pose Card
In this instance, you ignore the nuts on the cards and quickly perform the pose that corresponds with the number that was flipped. The slowest person takes all of the active players cards and places them on the bottom of their "Time to Score" card. These poses can range from covering your eye with one hand, flexing your muscles, or doing the "Fonzie" pose (my friends and I like saying "Hey" when we do that pose) among many others.
4. Wrong Nut Penalty: If at any time, you pick up the incorrect nut, you suffer a two card penalty taking two cards from the top of your deck and place them underneath to be counted against you at the end of the round.
Once one player has flipped their two cards and all required actions taken, play continues around the table to the next player. Play continues in this fashion until one player flips the last card from on top of their "Time to Score" card. In this instance, you finish the play and complete any actions that were triggered by that card and then round immediately ends. You count your cards below the "Time to Score" card. You will want to have a notepad and pencil or a cell phone available to keep track of your score.
The player that went out in the previous round goes first this round. You will reshuffle the cards, deal them out equally to all players, and set up three new Nutty Poses.
After the three rounds, whomever has the lowest combined score is the winner of Nut So Fast!
Safety Tip
It is HIGHLY recommended to remove rings prior to playing this game. Another warning, you may receive broken nails as well as the occasional bruised finger while playing this game as hands are quickly grabbing for the wooden nuts. However, don't let that scare you away from this game. The competition to not be the one stuck without a nut is exhilarating each turn. Make sure you are playing with a group of people that love to laugh and are okay with the occasional injury. Occasionally be prepared to dive to the floor when a nut flies off the table.
Poor tablecloth and fingers didn't stand a chance.
Final Thoughts
This game is so much fun. This is a must play game at our charity events, maybe because it is one of my favorite dexterity games and will keep us awake during our big 24 hour game days. Like I previously said, there will be tons of laughter and, of course, nut jokes by all that play the game. It is super easy to pick up the rules, and after a quick run down of what to do on your turn, the rounds go super fast. You can even be sneaky and catch people off guard as they are not paying attention and flip cards to get them stuck with the cards if it triggers an effect.
