Welcome to my review of Colorado! After many wild rounds with my friends—plus some questionable snacks—I’m ready to share all the good, the bad, and the weird from this game. If you’re curious about the game’s ease of learning, its play time, how much luck is involved, and if you’ll want to play it again (I sure did… at least twice), you’re in the right place. Let’s see if this colorful card game deserves a spot on your shelf—or if it should be tossed in the lava pit with Monopoly money.
How It Plays
Setting up
Shuffle the deck and deal cards into a face-down draw pile. Hand out point chips to everyone. Each person gets a reference card, unless you want to test your memory (not recommended after two cups of coffee).
Gameplay
On your turn, draw a card and choose: add it to any row, or take a row and all its cards. Once you take a row, you’re out for the round. Deciding when to grab a row is the whole trick. Make it too soon and you might miss out. Wait too long and you might get stuck with a bunch of cacti no one wanted.
Winning the game
When all cards are taken, tally your points. Only your three best colors score positive points. All the others? Negative points. The player with the highest score at the end wins. Usually this is the person who avoided the most cactus cards and didn’t get greedy. But hey, anything can happen!
Want to know more? Read our extensive strategy guide for Colorado.
How Easy is it to Learn and Teach Colorado?
I still remember the first time I brought Colorado over to my buddy Tom’s house. He looked at the box, saw a bunch of cards with snakes on them, and said, “Is this one of those games where I’ll need to take notes?” I smirked, shuffled the deck, and promised he’d be up and playing before his microwave popcorn finished. Good news: I was right. Colorado is one of those magical games where you can read the rules out loud, shuffle as you go, and everyone still gets it. If you can count to three and know your colors, you’re halfway there.
Teaching Colorado feels a bit like teaching someone to tie their shoes. At first, they squint and frown, then that lightbulb goes off. I’ve taught this game to my seven-year-old niece and my sixty-year-old neighbor, neither of whom are exactly board game pros. They both picked it up in under five minutes. The hardest thing is convincing people the rules are really that simple. Each turn, you draw a card and decide to add it to a row or take a row. That’s it. The real trick lies in convincing your opponents *you’re* not about to take all the shiny yellow cards and doom yourself later.
Colorado shines as a game for families, mixed-age groups, and anyone who owns a kitchen table. There’s very little setup, and teaching takes less time than explaining why you shouldn’t microwave a burrito for fifteen minutes (yes, Tom, this means you). You can even explain it as you play, which makes it a dream for game nights with, let’s say, less focused friends.
Next up, I’ll answer the age-old question: Is Colorado a one-hit wonder or a game-night staple? Let’s talk game length and replay value!
Fast Rounds, Many Laughs: Game Length and Replay Value in Colorado
Let me tell you about the game length in Colorado. If you’re tired of games that eat up your entire evening, you’ll find Colorado refreshing. Most games I played clocked in between 20 to 30 minutes, even with folks who like to overthink whether to pick a blue or a yellow card. The short play time makes it great for “just one more round” situations. Beware: that one more round is a lie. It might be two, or seven. We ended up playing until my friend declared, “If I get one more green card, I’m moving to the forest.”
As for replay value, Colorado punches above its weight. The rules are simple, but the card combinations and choices keep changing. I’ve played this about a dozen times now (no, I don’t need an intervention), and each game felt a little different. You’ll find yourself thinking, maybe this round I shouldn’t go wild for pink cards… then you do, and you regret it. Every player at my table had a moment where they went from confident to “why did I do that?” and that’s a sign of a replayable game.
The game also works with any group, from people who think strategy is a type of cheese to folks who plan out every move. But it’s not a game where your fifth playthrough makes you a champ. The fun is in making snap decisions and seeing what happens.
So, Colorado gives you quick sessions with solid replay power—pretty important if you like board games as much as I do. Up next, I’ll tackle the age-old debate: how much of Colorado is brains and how much is pure, hope-the-next-card-isn’t-yellow luck?
How Much Does Luck Matter in Colorado?
Alright, let’s get honest about what kind of gamer Colorado is for. If you’re the type of board game fan who likes to plan six turns ahead, Colorado might make you sweat a little. Why? Because luck is not just in the back seat, it’s sometimes driving the car. As much as I wish my clever moves would always win the day, I’ve seen my little cousin draw the perfect cards and wipe the floor with us like she was born holding a deck.
Here’s the scoop: Colorado hands you some decisions, but often it’s about making the best of what you get. You draw cards, and that’s where things go off the rails. Sometimes you get exactly what you need, sometimes you end up with a rainbow mess that would make a unicorn cry. I remember one game where I tried to stick to two colors and play it safe. Halfway through, my hand looked like someone dropped a paint set.
Is there skill? Yes, in picking cards at the right time, bluffing your friends, and bailing out before you collect too many colors. But don’t expect to outwit everyone if the deck hates you that night. The luck factor is big, and that’s the charm or curse, depending on how much you like yelling at cardboard.
In the end, Colorado is fun but sometimes unfair. If you lose, blame the cards, not your brain. Next, I’ll spill the beans on how much you can mess with your friends in Colorado and whether it’s worth trash-talking your grandma over a pile of colored cards!
Player Interaction and Competitiveness in Colorado
I swear, with every game of Colorado I play, friendships get tested almost as much as our math skills. This is not your grandma’s quiet, solitaire-style game. Player interaction in Colorado is spicy! Every single turn, you watch what cards others collect, and you bet your snack bowl that someone will try to block you from that one color you so desperately need. If I had a dime for every time my pal Rachel gave me the evil eye for denying her a set, I could buy a second copy of Colorado. (But I won’t. One is more than enough.)
The competitive juices seriously flow. You don’t just play your own hand in a vacuum; nope, you have to keep your eyes peeled on everyone’s piles. My friend Mark keeps a notebook for notes, like he’s playing chess! Is that excessive for a card game? Maybe. But it shows how cutthroat things can get if your group likes to win.
It’s not an all-or-nothing, winner-takes-it-all brawl, but there’s a lot of sly maneuvering, friendly sabotage, and just enough smack-talk to make the table lively. I’ve had evenings where we played three rounds because someone (not me) demanded a rematch after a not-so-subtle backstab. While it can get heated, it never feels mean-spirited—more like neighborly ribbing with a side of revenge plotting.
So, do I recommend Colorado for fans of interactive games? Absolutely! If you like your games with a healthy dose of competition and table talk, you’ll love it. Just don’t expect anyone to let you win without a fight. Consider yourself warned—and entertained!
Conclusion
So that’s Colorado in all its colorful glory! It’s easy to set up, quick to teach, and perfect when you need a filler game between longer ones. I had a blast pushing my luck and watching my friends squirm when I left a nasty row for them. Sure, luck plays a big role—sometimes I felt like I could have let my cat make the choices for me with the same result—but there’s just enough room for sneaky tactics to keep things spicy. If you want a game that gets everyone talking and glaring across the table without lasting forever, Colorado delivers. If you want deep strategy and no random messiness, look elsewhere. That’s it for my review—now go annoy your friends with surprise color combos!
