Lambada
- Board's Eye View
- Jun 16
- 2 min read
Lambada is a Brazilian dance but this game from Outset Media isn't about Brazil or dancing. It's played using cards showing the letters in the word Lambada but this isn't a word game. Designed by Luis Dinis, Lambada is a colour matching card-shedding game for 2-6 players where you're trying to be the first to get rid of all the cards in your hand.
Aside from grey versions of the letters spelling out LAMBADA, the game is played with 56 cards, each showing one of the letters L, A, M, B or D in one of seven bright colours. The top card of the face-up draw deck is considered to be the 'Forbidden Colour'. Players each start off with a hand of seven cards and, on your turn, you play a letter card from your hand on top of any of the letters in the word LAMBADA.
Ideally you'll play a card that matches a colour already in the LAMBADA display. That lets you shed an extra card by handing it to the player on your left. If you play a card that doesn't match any already in the display, you don't get to shed that extra card. Of course, in either case you must avoid playing a card of the Forbidden Colour; do that and you have to take the penalty of drawing three cards from the draw deck. Similarly, there's three-card penalty if at the end of your turn the word LAMBADA has in it five or more letters of the same colour.
The round ends when a player has no cards left in their hand, provided that all the letters in the LAMBADA display are coloured; in the unlikely event that one or more of the letters are still grey (ie: have not been covered), you must draw another card and continue play. If you win a round you take a token, and the game is won by the first player to collect three tokens.
Tho' it's a simple game with a high luck factor, there's some strategy in deciding which cards to play, and, in particular, where best to play your letter A cards. Card counters may even try to keep track of which cards of a particular colour are still in play (the deck comprises L, M, B, D and four rather than three As in each of the seven colours). It's easy to avoid taking penalties early on in a round but as play progresses and your hand size reduces so the likelihood increases that you are forced to play a card that gives you a penalty...
This is a family game that even quite young children can play. With 4-6 players it will typically take around 25 minutes for any one player to collect three tokens. If you're playing with just two or three players you can expect to have a winner in around 15 minutes. Lambada then makes for a colourful family-friendly filler.
