Trying to fly a kite can be a frustrating feeling. Sometimes it floats on the perfect breeze, but often ends up more like Charlie Brown’s efforts, hopelessly entangled in a tree. The Kites game can often get in a mess as you and your fellow players race against the hourglasses, but you’ll probably laugh in between the screams instead of complaining about the mess.
The concept of Kites is simple: play cards to flip the brightly colored hourglasses and race against the falling sand to play all the cards in the deck. The cards are marked with one or two colors that correspond to the hourglasses. On your turn, you play a card and spin the appropriate timer(s). If you manage to keep all the hourglasses spinning and play all the cards, congratulations! You win!
The colored hourglasses from the Kites game along with some cards
While that may sound simple, Kites isn’t easy. Managing up to six hourglasses, all with different durations, is tricky. If you really want to increase the difficulty, the game features 12 challenge cards, divided into three types, that will make you wish you had to deal with Charlie Brown’s kite-eating tree alone.
The Storm card causes whoever played it to turn over all the hourglasses. The Crossed Lines card forces you to swap a card with both the player to your left and right. If you get stuck with the airplane card, no one can talk until you play your next card. What makes the challenge cards even more interesting is that when you take the Storm card from the deck, you announce that you have it and will play it the next turn.
The other two challenge cards are not announced, but you must still play them on your next turn. The Airplane card can be the most devastating card, as much of playing Aircraft is based on communicating with your fellow players. Playing the right card versus the wrong card can make all the difference when the timer runs out.
The other spin involves the white timer. It is the only timer that does not have a specific card. At the top of the white timer you can see all the other colors running over it. This is because you can choose to flip the white timer by playing a card with only one color symbol on it.
However, if the draw pile(s) are exhausted, the white timer cannot be turned over unless the storm card comes out. The last card drawn activates the endgame. How much time is left on the white timer is how much you and your fellow players must play each last card.
If the challenge cards sound too difficult, the rulebook is also marked “Warm up Mode”. This will remove the orange and purple hourglasses, as well as any card with one of these colors on it. It removes about half of the cards, making it easier to get through.
Kite instructions for the Warm-up and Challenge variations
This mode was perfect for introducing my nine year old to Kites. Managing four timers is easier than trying to manage six while still experiencing the thrill of trying to beat the falling sand.
Kites is a very different experience from two players to five or six. Playing with two players feels more methodical during the first phase of the game, allowing for a higher degree of control. However, once the last card from the draw pile is drawn, the endgame can be a bit chaotic as both players try to play all five cards in their respective hands.
With five or six players, each player has only three cards in their hand. It can feel quite chaotic and any player can feel a little helpless as they yell about which timer is running out but not be able to play at that exact moment. However, the endgame feels much faster as players simply toss the card they have in a race against that white timer that is ticking away.
Kites is a brightly colored game that is easy to learn and pick up. It’s a fast game, but I found that even with the higher number of players, we kept coming back to it in an effort to get better. The difficulty levels for scaling make the game really replayable. It would be easy to get discouraged if the highest difficulty was the only way to play the game, while the game would be too easy and lose replayability if it was just the ‘warm up mode’.
Beth Sobel’s artwork on the cards is beautiful, ranging from the simple one-color cards to the multi-colored cards with intricately designed kites. The hourglasses are not only colored but have their own signature symbol on both the cards and the ends of the timers. This can certainly help distinguish what each hourglass is for people who can’t distinguish certain colors.
Kites is a fantastic game that works for all player counts with customizable rules for experience and age. Kids and adults alike will enjoy playing, and the desire to improve and chase that elusive victory will keep players coming back for more.
PROS
- Beautiful artwork on the cards
- Scalable difficulty levels to keep the excitement high
- Lots of fun for younger players and adults
CONS
- With two players, the first part of the game can feel a bit long
- All cards come sealed together in a single deck and not in the same direction, making separating the challenge cards and the orange and purple cards time consuming
Jeremy is a freelance writer who covers multiple topics from board games to sports to barbecuing. He lives outside of Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife and their three children. They enjoy playing board games together, ranging from Qwixx and Azul and Splendor to Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth.
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