Cat in the Box Review – A Game That Exists in Two States at Once

While Cat in the Box Deluxe Edition is a new board game, its origins come from the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger.

Schrodinger posited that a cat in a box with a board game would either eat the game or read the rules and start playing. However, before opening the box we don’t know what the cat is doing. During this moment, it must exist in both of these states, eating the game and playing it at the same time. It’s only when we open the box to find our board game in tatters that we actually know what happened.

Originally concocted to prove how silly quantum physics is. Designer Muneyuki Yokouchi applied this idea to trick-taking games in Cat in the Box.

How is that even possible?

Well, surprisingly, it’s actually a pretty straightforward trick-taking game.

How to play

Start with a set of unsuited numbered cards dealt evenly between players. After examining your hand, you then bet on how many tricks you’re going to win. Once everyone’s bet, the round begins with you picking a card and playing it to the middle of the table.

Now, whenever you play a card, you must also declare the colour of the card. While in your hand, this card can be any colour you want. But the play area is an open box. Once a card is in it, then it can only be one colour.

The rest of the game follows normal trick-taking conventions. You’re only allowed to play a card if it’s the same colour as the leading card. Trump suit still wins the hand if played. Off-suit cards can only be played if you have no cards matching the same colour as the leading suit.

Given your cards are all colours at once, it’s up to you to announce when you have no more of a particular colour. When you do, remove a token from your player board, indicating you can no longer declare cards of that colour.

Additionally, once a card is played, a player token is placed on a central board. This keeps track of every card played, making sure that no colour and number combination is played twice. Because if they are, then that means a paradox has occurred. Immediately ending the round.

In scoring the round, you get one point for each trick you win. Then if you won as many tricks as you said you would, you get bonus points. That’s, of course, if you didn’t cause the paradox. Because if you did, you get negative points and a lifetime ban from the Time Travellers annual meetup.

How does that work?

Cat in the Box is another game in the same vein as The Mind. Where when someone tells you about a trick-taking game without suited cards, you have to pause and think. How does that work? Aren’t trick-taking games intrinsically linked to there being suits of cards?

You’re right of course, yet somehow Cat in the Box still works. Although it kind of boils your brain thinking about the how of it though. There’s something interesting and cool about that. A game that defies all logic, causing you to rethink board game design from the ground up. We don’t see this kind of innovation often, so when it occurs it’s important to take note.

Putting the rule of cool to one side, and after you get a few games of Cat in the Box under your belt. This amazement of how it’s all put together disappears, and like The Mind what’s left behind isn’t as interesting now that the veil has been lifted.

However, unlike The Mind, there’s still something salvageable underneath the magical veneer. Although it’s a bit basic. Without the restriction of suits, our games of Cat in the Box ended up all following a similar pattern of play each time.

There would be some mild-mannered trick-taking up until someone breaks the trump suit. Then we’d all rush the trump suit, before returning to a standard trick-taking affair.

Now, that might just be my group but it felt like there wasn’t enough freedom within Cat in the Box to make interesting moves that matter. Occasionally, you might play an off-suite early, but in doing so you’re restricting yourself further in the back half of the round by putting yourself one step closer to a paradox.

Paradoxes galore

When it comes to trick-taking games, rarely is the trick-taking the draw. It’s just a mechanism for the real game happening above the rounds of cards. One of the reasons Cat in the Box doesn’t excite me is the lack of a compelling above-board game.

With the punishment of the paradox being so severe, and no guarantee of winning as many tricks as you said you would. All of your attention focuses on avoiding paradoxes and making sure you win the required amount of tricks. Completely ignoring where you’re putting your markers on the central board.

This is how you gain bonus points. You get a point for each token in your longest connected line of tokens on the central board. Meaning it pays to play cards next to each other on this board.

Or at least it might. As long as you meet your bet.

This is something that probably becomes more prominent with further plays of Cat in the Box. However, given we struggled with just avoiding paradoxes and completing our own bets. It was never fully realised. Leaving us to focus on these original two challenges, and as such the puzzle of the game just wasn’t that compelling.

So unfortunately Cat in the Box ends up being a much better version of The Mind. A game that’s brilliant to blow the minds of new players. But after a few games, it becomes a middle-of-the-pack trick-taking game.

Note: There is a Colossal version of Cat in the Box currently on Kickstarter. This version comes with two small expansions. They seem to reduce emphasis on the two tasks you must complete, letting you focus on acquiring more bonus points. These expansions have the potential to address the issues found during my plays.