Ever sat down with friends and wanted a game that’s simple, quick, and occasionally makes you call your buddy a visionary genius or a total troll? Well, you’re in the right place! This is my review of Colorado, a game I’ve wrangled my friends into playing more times than they’d like to admit. I’ll talk rules, sneaky player moves, luck vs. strategy, artwork, and whether it’s worth repeat showdowns with your game night crew. Grab your snacks and let’s get into it—spoiler, it’s not just about colors.
How It Plays
Setting Up
Open the box, shuffle the deck of cards, and deal everyone a hand. Place the cards you don’t need back in the box, not your coffee mug. Players get scoring markers if your version includes them—mine did, and one is still missing under my couch.
Gameplay
On your turn, draw a card and add it to one of the open rows. Rows grow until someone bravely says, “I’ll take that!”—then they grab all the cards and sit out until the next round. The tension of who takes what grows faster than my urge to eat snacks.
Winning the Game
Once all cards are gone, everyone adds up their points. You score for three colors, but any extra colors lose you points. The person who has the highest score (and probably gloats the most) wins! Unless my friend Dave plays—you’ll hear about that for weeks.
Want to know more? Read our extensive strategy guide for Colorado.
How to Play Colorado and Why Your Friends Will Love (or Hate) You
Let me say it right off the bat: Colorado is the kind of game you learn in five minutes. I had the rules explained to me quicker than I can explain why pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza (it just doesn’t, okay?). Each player wants to collect cards in one to three different colors. Here’s the twist: every extra color you collect turns into negative points. That’s right—no rainbow collectors here, or you’ll regret it at scoring time. On your turn, you take a card from the deck and choose to either add it to one of the available open groups or take a whole group for yourself. But once you take a group, you’re out of the round. This means you sit there and watch chaos unfold while everyone else pretends to be calm and sensible, but really they’re plotting your demise with every card they place.
Player interaction is sneaky in Colorado. It’s not cutthroat, but you can see who’s collecting certain colors and purposely add a pesky card to ruin their set. My friend Dave got so salty when I placed another yellow in his pile that he still brings it up months later. The best part? You can play Colorado with three to five players and it doesn’t drag. Turns are quick and the tension ramps up as the piles get juicier (or filled with junk nobody wants). It’s simple, yet every choice stings in a fun way.
Next up, I’ll let you in on whether Colorado is a game of brains or pure dumb luck—so get ready, because this part might surprise you!
Luck vs. Strategy in Colorado: Who’s Really in Control?
Let me set the scene for you: picture four adults hunched around my sticky old kitchen table, each one pretending to be a tactical genius, but secretly hoping luck saves their bacon. That’s how my games of Colorado usually go. This game promises a shifty blend of luck and strategy, but how much does that random draw really mess with your brilliant plans? Well, let me tell you!
Colorado thrives on drawing cards and making quick, tough choices. The pile you build for others can sometimes help you, or totally blow up in your face. I love bluffing and watching my friends squirm, but at the end of the day, that card draw can make or break you. I once watched my friend Maggie build an epic color collection and then—bam—her last card stuck her with all the wrong colors. She swore the game was out to get her, and honestly, I couldn’t argue.
This isn’t chess. Your fate in Colorado isn’t completely in your hands. If you’re allergic to randomness, or if losing to sheer dumb luck makes you want to flip the table, you’ll find yourself grumbling now and then. Don’t get me wrong, there’s just enough room for clever planning to keep you feeling smart, but you’ll never escape the clutch of the card gods. If luck’s not your jam, this one might cap out at three stars for you.
Alright, now let’s move on to something that always matters—how this game looks and feels in your hands. Buckle up for some cardboard gossip in the next section about Component quality and artwork!
How Does Colorado Look and Feel on Your Table?
Let’s talk about the real star of the show: How Colorado actually looks and feels in your hands. When I first opened the box, I half-expected confetti to tumble out, but no luck. Still, the cards themselves made up for it with their bold, vibrant colors. Each color almost dares you to collect too many—if you’ve played, you know that pain! The card stock feels sturdy, not flimsy like last week’s pizza coupons, so even my snack-loving friends didn’t manage to ruin them with greasy fingers in our late-night game session.
The artwork is simple but to the point. Colorado doesn’t mess around with distracting pictures or wild graphic designs. You’ll see big, clear color splashes and numbers—nothing more, nothing less. Some of my friends thought it looked a bit basic, but honestly, I appreciate a game that doesn’t try to win me over with dragons and sparkles when all I really need to see is, “That’s red, and it’s worth three points.”
As for the box, it holds everything neatly. No fiddly insert nonsense, just a practical, small box that fits in your bag without needing Tetris skills. I do wish it had a bit more flair—Colorado won’t win any beauty contests on my shelf. But it gets the job done, and after several plays, the wear and tear looks minimal. That’s way more than I can say for some other games that look like they lost a sword fight after one evening.
Curious about how Colorado holds up when you try it with your grandma, your neighbor, or your most competitive friend? Get ready, because next up, I’ll share my wild adventures with Colorado’s replay value and mixing up player groups!
How Colorado Holds Up With Different Groups: Fun or Fizzle?
One thing I always look for in a board game is if it stays fresh each time I haul it off the shelf. Colorado, with its sneaky set collection and player blocking, seems like it should be a good fit for lots of outings. And you know what? It mostly is—though with a few caveats!
Playing Colorado with my competitive gaming group was a blast. These friends strategize their pizza toppings, so naturally, there were glares and groans each time someone forced an unlucky card pick. Our games were tense, with actual table talk (“Are you SERIOUS, Becky?”) and evil grins. No one here was fooled by the simple rules—these folks sussed out every angle, and the replay value was sky high.
Next, I tried it with my family—folks who love games but wouldn’t know a Eurogame from a euro sandwich. Colorado worked well here, too. My niece (who’s only played Candyland before) picked up the rules in one go, and my dad (who cheats at Monopoly) liked the short play time. The mood was lighter, more jokes and less plotting, but everyone had fun, and rounds were quick enough for rematches.
With casual friends, the game’s simplicity helped, but sometimes the luck of the draw made things less exciting for people who wanted more control. If you’ve got sore losers or folks who demand deep strategy, the replay value might dip.
So, do I recommend Colorado? For most groups—absolutely! Bring it out for laid-back evenings, game nights, or as a family icebreaker. Just don’t expect it to replace your heavy thinky games.
Conclusion
So that’s a wrap on my Colorado review. The game is easy to learn, good fun with family or non-gamers, and has decent replay value. The artwork is nothing fancy, but the cards hold up well after many rounds (and coffee spills, in my case). If you’re allergic to luck, beware: the card draws sometimes leave you yelling at your own hand. Still, if you enjoy a light game with sneaky choices and quick rounds, Colorado will fit in nicely on your shelf. Just don’t expect to always outsmart your Aunt Linda. This concludes my review—now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find where my friends stashed the wild cards…
