{"id":308812,"date":"2024-11-23T07:59:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T13:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/?post_type=reviews&#038;p=308812"},"modified":"2024-11-22T22:34:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T04:34:39","slug":"panda-panda","status":"publish","type":"reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/panda-panda\/","title":{"rendered":"Panda Panda Game Review"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div class=\"amzn-ad amzn-enhanced-links-small\">\n        <div>\n            <div class=\"amzn-product\">\n                <span class=\"amzn-product-image-container\">\n                    <div class=\"amzn-product-image-holder\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"amzn-product-image lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41pG2WEEIcL._SL300_.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"amzn-product-image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41pG2WEEIcL._SL300_.jpg\"><\/noscript>\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/span>\n                <div class=\"amzn-product-title-container\">\n                    <a rel=\"sponsored\" class=\"amzn-product-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CVJJRK1V?tag=meeplmount-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1\" target=\"_blank\">\n                        <span class=\"amzn-product-title-text\" title=\"Allplay Panda Panda Board Game - Tiny Box Card Game for Adults and Families - Hand Management - Fits in Your Pocket! - 15 Minutes - 2 to 4 Players\">Allplay Panda Panda Board Game - Tiny Box Card Game for Adults and Families - Hand Management - Fits in Your Pocket! - 15 Minutes - 2 to 4 Players<\/span>\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"amzn-product-price\">\n                        <span class=\"amzn-product-offer-price\">$14.00<\/span>\n                                                    <span class=\"amzn-sprite amzn-product-prime\"><\/span>\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n                <div class=\"amzn-product-buy-now-link-box\">\n                    <a rel=\"sponsored\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CVJJRK1V?tag=meeplmount-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"amzn-product-buy-now-link\">\n                        Buy Now\n                    <\/a>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n<p>When I picked up a pile of the new \u201cTiny Box\u201d game series from Allplay at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/articles\/meeple-mountain-goes-to-gen-con-2024\/\">Gen Con 2024<\/a>, I just assumed that at least one of these games would be weak. Underdeveloped, maybe. Not much meat on the bone. Certainly not replayable.<\/p>\n<p>But with my plays of <i>Panda Panda<\/i>, I\u2019m three for three on games that are at least decent, and in the case of both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/rainbow\/\"><i>Rainbow<\/i><\/a> and <i>Panda Panda<\/i>, games that not only landed with players in my groups, but were also enjoyed by my family, meaning they will reside in the game closet for at least a little while.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because <i>Panda Panda<\/i> has just enough depth to make it worth the ten minutes it takes to teach, then play with a group of up to four players. Using a small deck of just 32 cards, players aim to make a winning set of cards by mixing their starting hand with cards drawn from the top of the deck as well as the discard piles of each opponent. But here\u2019s the rub: unlike a game such as <i>Gin<\/i>, where a player has to end play with a hand of 10 cards that all fits into sets or runs, <i>Panda Panda<\/i> asks players to declare victory with a wide range of winning hand combinations, meaning the game could end at almost any time.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-308813 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-wp-pid=\"308813\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-74x55.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 74w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-111x83.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 111w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-300x225.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 300w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2.jpg?size=528x396&amp;lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 528w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-600x450.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 600w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-768x576.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 768w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-990x743.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 990w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1024x768.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1024w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1200x900-cropped.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1200w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1320x990.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1320w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1200x900-cropped.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1500w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/768;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-308813\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-wp-pid=\"308813\" srcset=\"https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-74x55.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 74w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-111x83.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 111w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-300x225.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 300w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2.jpg?size=528x396&amp;lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 528w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-600x450.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 600w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-768x576.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 768w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-990x743.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 990w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1024x768.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1024w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1200x900-cropped.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1200w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1320x990.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1320w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-2-1200x900-cropped.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>The 32 cards are broken up into letters, ranging from A to G. With a starting hand of five cards, each player uses their turn to either draw a card (top deck or discard pile) or discard to a personal discard pile. The number of cards in each letter ranges downward from A, so while there are 10 A cards in the deck, there\u2019s only one G card. (All this, along with the winning hand combinations, are neatly summarized on a player aid.)<\/p>\n<p>If a player discards an A card, that forces all players to pass one card from hand to the player on their left. Otherwise, there are no other funny rules when a player discards. If anyone begins their turn with a winning combination, they immediately win the game.<\/p>\n<p>I love that there are ways to win with just two cards. You might begin a game with an A, two Cs, a D, and an E\u2026and, as long as you can shed cards down to a C-E combo, you\u2019ll win. But it\u2019s almost never that simple. If you begin a game with a G, you have a couple of very specific options that no one else has\u2014and it might be faster, if all your other cards are unique, to just try and collect the cards you don\u2019t have by drawing other cards.<\/p>\n<p>But what happens when someone else discards an A card? Yep, you\u2019ve just messed with your own winning combination.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_308814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-308814\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-308814 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-wp-pid=\"308814\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-225x300.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 225w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1.jpg?size=528x704&amp;lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 528w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-600x800.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 600w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-768x1024.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 768w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-990x1320.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 990w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1125w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 768px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 768\/1024;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-308814\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-wp-pid=\"308814\" srcset=\"https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-225x300.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 225w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1.jpg?size=528x704&amp;lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 528w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-600x800.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 600w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-768x1024.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 768w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1-990x1320.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 990w, https:\/\/b1803394.smushcdn.com\/1803394\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Panda-Panda-1.jpg?lossy=1&amp;strip=1&amp;webp=1 1125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-308814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Panda bear not included<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>\u201cThat Wasn\u2019t Bad!\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>My wife, critical to the core (which makes married life just as interesting), was surprisingly happy with <i>Panda Panda<\/i> after our first play. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t bad!\u201d she started. \u201cI didn\u2019t think there would be much there because the box is so small, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s been the beef with other players, both with <i>Panda Panda<\/i> as well as other \u201cTiny Box\u201d games from Allplay. Insert whatever cliche you want here, but the reality is that the small box and card size makes people think that there won\u2019t be much game in the box. Then the game starts, and people are casually surprised by the amount of depth available for one of these 10-minute games. (My games ranged from four turns in five minutes, to about 15 minutes on the high end.)<\/p>\n<p>Now, that said, 3-4 plays in, I don\u2019t know how often I\u2019m reaching for this over other classics here in the house. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/articles\/back-in-the-day-uno\/\"><i>UNO<\/i><\/a> has surprisingly good staying power.) But the game plays just as well at two players as it does at four players, and it is a first to two victories win condition. With four players, you could face a worst-case scenario where each player wins one round, then everyone is in the running for the fifth-and-final round to win their second hand and take the victory overall.<\/p>\n<p><i>Panda Panda<\/i> was good. The artwork isn\u2019t bad. You can teach it in 60 seconds. It knows its place in the tabletop canon, and as a light filler we enjoyed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin continues to run through the Allplay \u201cTiny Box\u201d series with his review of Panda Panda, designed by Kaya Miyano!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":308816,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":true,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"coauthors":[6089],"class_list":["post-308812","reviews","type-reviews","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-card-games","designers---kaya-miyano","mechanisms-hand-management","publishers-allplay","publishers-mob-mob-plus","artists--sai-beppu","release_year-6543"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Panda Panda Game Review &#8212; Meeple Mountain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Justin continues to run through the Allplay \u201cTiny Box\u201d series with his review of Panda Panda, designed by Kaya Miyano!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/panda-panda\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/panda-panda\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Board Game Reviews\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Panda Panda Game Review\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Panda Panda Game Review &#8212; Meeple Mountain","description":"Justin continues to run through the Allplay \u201cTiny Box\u201d series with his review of Panda Panda, designed by Kaya Miyano!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/panda-panda\/","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/panda-panda\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Board Game Reviews","item":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/reviews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Panda Panda Game Review"}]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reviews\/308812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reviews"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reviews"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reviews\/308812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308812"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meeplemountain.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=308812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}