Details: Written by Josh Willhite; Category: Review; Published: 16 September 2024; Hits: 232

Space Hoppers: Singko Academy

Designer: Zachary Mortensen
Artist: Blu Studio https://blustudio.tv/
Publisher: Orbiter & rover
Year Published / Kickstarted: 2023
No. of Players: 3-6
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
Main mechanic / Theme: Card Game, Adventure, Scinece Fiction

Sinkgo Academy is a turn-based, competitive card game that throws you into a non-stop adventure around the universe!

Welcome to Singko Academy, the coolest school in the universe. You and your crew go on space hops around the galaxy to collect souvenirs. You’ll meet new people, discover new foods, hit the beach, and maybe even fend off a few pirate attacks.

Disclaimer: Publisher provided a copy or prototype of the game for this review.

Overview:

Sinkgo Academy is a turn-based, competitive card game that throws you into a non-stop adventure around the universe!

A card game for 3 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, a game takes about 15-20 minutes. Space Hoppers is fast-playing, take-that card game, well-suited to be that game you play a couple rounds of at the beginning of a game night or a quick filler for families and friends looking to play a quick game.

Game contents: rulebook, five decks of cards: souviners (x25), crew (x30), hop (x20), monkey wrench (x45), encounter (x80), x1 reference/play direction card, modifier tokens: skill (blue, x20), souviner (orange, x10). note: reviewer also recieved a playmat, offered during the Kickstarter, fun and useful, nice art and layout, but not necessary to play.

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Gameplay and mechanics:

There are five decks of cards; Hop, Encounter, Crew, Souviner, Monkey Wrench. Players start with four crew cards (they'll be using their combined stats to meet requirements to get souviners), one souviner card (you'll need five of these to win the game), and two monkey wrench cards (these are cards with special rules and abilities; stealing/moving crew and souviners, changing play order, etc). A single hop card is revealed at the start of the game, this is the location where all the players will be visiting this game, each hop has some special rules that affect everyone (e.g. "Pick one more crew member. Food & Candy souviners are worth double"). At the beginning of each player's turn they draw an encounter card, read it out loud and follows the instructions. Players may then play one of the two monkey wrench cards in their hands (after playing, place at the bottom of the monkey wrench deck and draw a new one, current rules specify that you can only play monkey wrench cards equal to the number of players, a variant has been suggested to only play two). The game ends when a player has 5 souviners stacked on their shelf.

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Theme, Artwork and Illustration, Graphic Design and Layout

I found the theme interesting, and artwork attractive. Before taking on this review I had the choice between a handful of other projects and the quality of both certainly helped me make my ultimate decision. My hat's off to the illustrator; very well-done, a nice anime, comic feel. Very clean work. Colorful but not obnoxious. Very minimal, if-any repetitious images. There's more than 200 seperate pieces within this project and going by the few bits of fluff/story hiding throughout the project, they've got an entire world going on in the background. I really enjoyed going over the entire game, taking in the art, looking for various tie-ins to other characters and events/locations; you can tell there's an underlying story going on in this game I wouldn't be suprised to find future games within the Singko Universe (maybe comics or more). At first glance the game can seem very complex, but with it's well made rulebook (including a quick play/setup, then the more comprehensive rules after) made it quickly understandable.

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Inclusivity and Accessibility:

Space Hopper's inclusivity can be found in the wild assortment of alien creatures and their different walks of life. Each crew is made up of individuals of many different alien species (their species name mentioned on their respective cards), strange shapes, colors, wings, extra arms, but no humans. Crewmembers are varied as well (e.g. techers, students, pets, ship crew, etc). They have various attributes; (I'm assuming with this first one, as I couldn't be sure from the rulebook) age, language, s.t.e.a.m., history, navigation, empathy, and bravery. All have strong and weak scores, that can also be modified by special rules found on the current hop, encounter and other cards. One hop might give a bonus to students, but the next might favor a ship's crew or a custodian. So the game has a theme that anyone can be useful and that we're all a little different from each other, but working together as a team helps reach the goal.

Concerning accessibility, I'd rate Space Hoppers fairly well. I found the rules easy to understand and interperet, the rulebook being formatted very well. The game as far as I'm aware is only available in English and you will need to read many of the cards, so it is not language-independent. There is a handy reference card as well as multiple sections in the rulebook to interperet the various ability icons on the crew cards, this can help with players that might have issues with color-blindness. For players with mobility issues, one might want to set out ground rules to give them time to decide and play monkey wrench cards after each encounter is revealed, possibly using a card holder for the monkey wrench cards (any others would be laid out in front of the player and/or be common knowledge, available for all to see). The complexity of the rules are fairly low. When I first opened the game I thought it was going to have a higher learning curve. So, as far as accesibility goes: easy rules, language-dependent, color-blind friendly, easy to accomodate those with motor-issues. With parental supervision I'd play with younger players, but I don't know if I'd leave them alone with it if they're rambunctious.

What worked:

I enjoyed the artwork (colorful and fantastic, but not obnoxious) and theme (a fun quick romp through a fanciful location). I found the rules and rulebook easy to digest. Gameplay was fast, with a fun amount of take-that (crew and souviners getting moved around, the gameplay direction changing). For me this is one of those fast-playing filler games that a group will likely play multiple rounds of. I'd play this at the beginning of a night-long gaming session, either that or a few rounds with family. There seems to be a larger story hiding in between the lines of this game and I'd like to see other games set in the Singko universe (or comics, or more). I was pleasantly suprised that the game wasn't more complex than it was, at first glance (perusing the contents before reading the rulebook) it seemed like it might be overwhleming (e.g. too many weird rules interactions, convoluted play sequences, etc). I also enjoyed the box not being overly large, I can tuck this one in my cramped game shelves.

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Final thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. Colorful, imaginative art (and lots of it), there's an entire world hiding behind this game, and I look forward to new additions to the Singko Academy universe, whatever they'll be. Easy, accessible rules and gameplay, that promote inclusivity (you never know who will be the most useful in a round). The game includes some take-that, but not so much that it feels vicious. Space Hoppers reminded me of Fluxx: all those monkey wrenches! (the designers suggested only allowing two per turn, but I rather enjoyed the chaos of no more than one per player).

As for things that could be improved, things to consider in future prints: linen finish cards (to increase durability), multiple language editions (to reach a larger audience), additional player aid cards or maybe one on the back of the rulebook, a first player marker might be fun to have, more fluff (you can tell there's a larger story hiding underneath the game, but it barely scratches the surface), I would've prefered the (Kickstarter included) playboard fit inside the game box (I'm afraid it might get lost). Ultimately these are all minor and should in no way scare you away from this one.

All in all, a quick-playing, somewhat chaotic, take-that card game, with imaginative, vibrant artwork that tells a fun interesting story. You can tell a lot of passion and effort went into this game, I look forward to potential future projects in the Singko Academy universe. For me and my play groups this will make for a fun night-opening filler, or playing a couple rounds with my kiddos on a rainy day.

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