I got review copies of new Marektoy releases. Torakkapokeri aka Bug Bluff aka Kakerlaken-Poker is a very simple game of bluffing. Players give cards to other players face down, claiming them to be something — the player in the receiving end can either take and believe, take and doubt or pass on. Correct guess means the giver keeps the card, otherwise the receiving player must keep it. First person to collect four identical cards loses the game (unlike the current description in Geek claims — I’ve already submitted a correction).
The game is probably pretty good fun, we’ll see, but at least it looks spectacular. The card art is amazing. It reminds me of Aquarius, actually: strong colours with heavy black borders. It’s beautiful and all the cards have unique art, which makes it even better. It’s very pretty.
I also got Koukussa aka Petri Heil! aka Gone Fishing!. It’s such a new release, I was first to comment it in the Geek. Finnish edition was published at the same time with German and English editions — it’s great to live in such a fore-running country! The game looks actually better than I expected. It’s an asymmetrical game: one player controls two fishermen, who try to catch valuable fish from the pond, while the other player controls the fish, trying to make the fisherman catch old boots and other rubbish.
There’s bluffing involved and perhaps a small dose of deduction as well. It’s a light game, but it looks like it might be an interesting one. We’ll see, I’ll try to actually play the game one of these days.
Now I’ll just wonder which name I should use of these games. It’s weary to list all three names each time I write about the games. Finnish names would be natural for me, but uncomprehensible for most readers. Should I use original German names or English names? Any opinions?