License to Krill Preview

I love a gimmick. Something out of the ordinary is right up my alley. Something else right up my alley is the opportunity to preview games in an attempt to draw attention to the game and publisher. Oh, I also like sea creatures. Bundle that all together and we have today’s preview of License to Krill. Complete with whale plushie!!

License to Krill is a set collection card game using open drafting, mild take that, and a healthy dose of flavor. In it players are sentient ocean krill attempting to collect other krill and also stave off the hungry whale. It is very lightweight and I do believe that a younger gamer can tackle this one.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to purchase a copy from the publisher directly or any of your favorite retailers. -T

To setup, sort the cards by their backs and shuffle into decks, lay out the appropriate number of Ocean Market Cards (the ones that make up the bottom of the pair in the market row shown below), and shuffle the End of Game Krilling Time card among the appropriate number of Final Krill cards at the bottom of the Whale deck. Each player receives a Kelp card to get started. The whale plushie now is placed facing the player who last ate sushi (usually me). The hunt is now ready to begin!

License to Krill is played over several rounds, and each round consists of three steps. Firstly, the active player will choose one of the face-up Ocean Market cards and draft it to their tableau. Certain cards will have an icon notating an immediate action to take place, and are only activated upon drafting said card. Secondly, the current player will activate the action printed on the Ocean Market card from which they drafted their card. This could include moving the whale to another player, revealing a Whale card and performing its action, or other actions depending on number of players in the game. Finally, the active player will reveal the top Whale card from the deck and perform its action. Typically these cards instruct the player to have the whale eat a card, eat the entire Ocean Market, move the whale to another player, or draw more Krill cards from the discard. Play then continues to the next player in clockwise order until the End of Game Krilling Time! card is revealed.

Play continues until the next Krilling Time! event card is triggered and the game ends. Players count their point values from their card tableaus and whichever player has earned the most wins! They may now take the entire game with them as a very soft trophy. Okay, that’s not really what happens, but I may play it that way… as long as I play with local people I trust.

Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of this game, but the components are already pretty decent. This game is a large deck of cards stored inside the mouth of a whale plushie the size of two of my hands. The mouth opens via a discreet zipper and it actually has an in-game purpose. Every time a card is to be discarded, the player places the discarded card inside the whale’s mouth! At times players will be retrieving cards from the whale’s mouth (which canNOT feel good, I’m sure), and they may take from the bottom or top or middle of the deck. I mean, it’s a whale mouth. You take what you can get. One thing I will mention here is to take all photos with a grain of salt as this is not a completed game, and I did find several mistypes and inconsistencies of terminology. So if you are reading this and are a little confused by some of the wording on the cards, well, I was too the first time I played it. But I then understood the intent of the cards and was able to play normally. I am sure that will all be ironed out before the final version hits the public.

Overall I would say this is an incredibly light, albeit attractive, set collection card game with a super cool gimmick. The whale is definitely unnecessary, but can’t we just have nice things ONCE in a while? The gameplay is solid, though I would think a group of mixed-ages will probably appreciate this more than hardcore gamers. My family enjoys it when we play it together, but we are aged 44, 30-something (my wife), and my 7 year old son. My little girl is 4 and just wants to be in charge of the whale – big surprise.

If there were more room inside the mouth of the whale plushie I would probably stage it on my shelves to have the Happy Salmon fish mousepad “box” sticking out of the mouth, as if to show it either escaping its doom or having the whale look freshly fed. I don’t want to ruin the whale though so I think I will pass on this notion.

If you are looking for a very light card game that could possibly teach younger players about the Take That mechanic in a less aggressive manner, you may quite enjoy License to Krill. If you need that special filler between bigger games to allow players to relieve some stress, the tactile nature of the plushie may just be what you are needing. I recommend this game to all players who are looking for something a little different and don’t mind a little nonsensical gimmick in their collection. I am looking forward to seeing how well this one is accepted into the gamer circles!