Piles!

No, this isn't a game themed around hemorrhoids! The piles here are piles of clothes; this is a real-time set collection card game from Lost Boy Entertainment and Asmodee where the 2-8 players are racing to be the first to complete six sets of four matching items of clothing. The game is designed by K C Schrimpl with art from Alexandr Nikiforov.

The game comprises a thick deck of 200 cards: 50 sets of four of each clothing type, with a set comprising identical items but in four different colourways. You adjust the number of sets according to the number of players; so, for example, if you're playing with just two players you'd construct a draw deck of just 13 sets (52 cards).

Players are each dealt six face-down piles of four cards. There should be four cards left over and these are placed out face up in the middle. There are no turns; players at their own usually frenetic pace pick up one of their piles to look at it but they must place it face down again before picking up another of their piles. You can exchange a card from the face-up pile in your hand with one of the four cards in the centre but you cannot swap cards directly between your own piles; to transfer a card from one of your piles to another, you'll first have to exchange the card with one in the face-up four-card central display.

Only when you have a pile comprising a completed set do you place the pile face up, so Piles! is very much a speed-matching memory game. And with 50 different clothing types, there are bound to be some that might look fairly similar, especially in a speed game... so over-hasty players can be caught out.

Piles! is a speed game that plays speedily: you can expect a game to typically take just 10-15 minutes. It's very playable as a family game with even quite young school-age children, but be warned that all the frantic grabbing and swapping can take its toll in wear on those cards.

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