Wild Arena

Wild Arena is a card battling game where the rules change every round!

Never work with children or animals, unless they can wrestle!

Players: 2 to 4 

Duration: 15-30mins

Recommended Ages: 8+

Country of Origin: Italy

Created By: Luca Bellini

Published By: Carta Mundi

Distributed By: Raven

We came across Wild Arena at the Essen Game Fayre in 2013. Post Scriptum had taken it along with another great game by Luca Bellini - Fun Farm. Wild Arena had won the Primo Archimede Award and  as a prize Carta Mundi printed 1000 copies.

Fighting like animals!

In Wild Arena each player starts with a team of Wrestler cards numbered 1 to 12, with 4 equal teams to choose from. This means not only can you go head to head, but also have a three or even four way battle.

There are also 12 Referee cards that contain one of five different rules in the game. These are shuffled and dealt equally among the players.There are also 12 Referee cards that contain one of five different rules in the game. These are shuffled and dealt equally among the players.Each player starts with a team of Wrestler cards numbered 1 to 12, with 4 equal teams to choose from. This means not only can you go head to head, but also have a three or even four way battle.

The gameplay itself is simple with the rules stating that the most muscular player should start... that debate alone could start a fight!

The Wild Arena - so dangerous it has a cavernous crack right down the middle...

The first, or active, player plays one of his Referee cards face down in the centre of the Wild Arena (ok, table!), and then one of his wrestlers face up. Then, in a clockwise order, every other player places one of their Wrestlers face down in the arena. Once everyone has played and all wrestlers for that round are flipped face up and the winner is determined based on the rule card which is now revealed...

Referee keeps changing the rules.

Biggest - The player with the highest numbered wrestler wins

Smallest - The lowest wrestler wins.

Threes - The player with the lowest card, higher than 3 wins the round.

Sevens - The player with the highest card, but lower than 7 wins the round.

Twins - The lead player wins if anyone plays the same value wrestler as they did. Otherwise the highest wrestler wins.

As an extra "David versus Goliath" style twist, in a round where the rule is 'biggest' a '1' Wrestler beats the ' 12 '. Vice versa, when the rue is 'smallest', the ''12' beats the '1'

The winner for the round takes the rule card and places face down in their winning pile. Wrestlers used are discarded face down too. This means that players only use each Wrestler once and no-one can see what has been played.

We've played Wild Arena a few times now and think it's one of those games with more to it than at first glance. It takes a couple of goes to get the hang of and start to spot the strategies, but it is a simple game once you get going... just hard to win!

As with all the games entered in the Imagination Gaming Family and Education Game Awards 2014, you will be able to see it for yourself at this years UK Games Expo and tell us what you think in the Family Zone. We hope to see you there.