Once upon a time…
Princesses were sweet, sparkly and strong. Now it is dark and something is wrong. Knights roam the night, seeking someone to save, but Miss Sparkle*Kitty aims to misbehave. Corrupting your heart, and mind, and body… Time to get ready, it’s about to get Naughty. The princesses are gone, but now you find yourself locked in their towers!
Take matters into your own hands, carefully search every inch for clues, and inspect every nook & cranny for the secrets to your sweet release… and don’t forget to help your friends come too.
The first team to escape, wins!
SET UP
Depending on the play count, follow the below rules:
- 4-5 – remove the GREEN backed spell cards
- 6-8 – use ALL the spell cards
TEAMS
Each Knight is marked as Naughty or Nice. Pick equal teams of nice and naughty Knights to deal out to each player. If there is an odd number of players; place an even number of Knight cards and add the Dragon Card. For Example: 5 players = 2 Nice Knights + 2 Naughty Knights + 1 Dragon
Shuffle and Deal each player a Knight card, face down. You may peek at your own Knight, but don’t expose your Knight to everyone else.
Deal 8 spell cards face down to each player. Without looking at the spell cards, each player places any 3 cards in a row with the knight (face down) on top so your tower and the remaining 5 cards are your hand, you may now look at them.
Place the Keyhole in the centre of the table and the remaining spell cards next to it as the DRAW pile. You may use 2 draw piles for larger groups.
The Player that went to bed the latest last night, goes first. Next game, the last player that escaped goes first.
HOW TO PLAY
The goal of the game is to get rid of cards, first from your hand, but more importantly, from your TOWER!
Each player takes a turn in a clockwise rotation. On your turn you can do ONE of the following:
- Play one card into the Keyhole – To play a card into the Keyhole you must match the color or the symbol of either card already in play. The starting Keyhole has no color, so players must match one of the two icons on either page. YOU MUST SAY THE SPELLS YOU CREATE, OUT LOUD… Example: play BOOTY and say “BOOTY CREAM!” or “CREAM BOOTY!”
- Play an Enchantment card next to your Knight – Dark Magic and Mirror-Mirror cards are powerful enchantments that are played next to your Knight, instead of the Keyhole. Place over any current enchantment cards you already have in play.
- DARK MAGIC CARDS – When played, say ALL the magic words, first the Dark Magic word and then the Keyhole words. Example: “SLIPPERY BOOTY CREAM!” When played, say the words in the Keyhole forwards and then backwards. Then you add a card from your hand to a player’s tower
- MIRROR-MIRROR CARDS – When played, say the words in the Keyhole forwards and then backwards Example: “BOOTY CREAM, CREAM BOOTY!” Then you can PEEK at another player’s Knight.
Until the game ends you are affected by the last enchantment you have in play (the top of the stack). Dark Magic, you must say the word before the spell Mirror-Mirror, you must say spell forwards & backwards If you do not and another player calls you out, you must add a card from the draw pile to your tower!
3. Pass on your turn and draw one card – If you can’t play any cards, you must draw a card and end your turn… life is hard.
To escape your tower, you only need to remove the face down spell cards that form your tower. Once you take the LAST one, by whatever means, your Knight is free!
Whenever you can remove a tower card, it can be from your own tower, or another player’s. There are three ways to remove tower cards:
- EMPTY YOUR HAND – At the end of your turn, if you have no cards in your hand you first draw a card off of any tower into your hand, then draw from the deck back up to a max hand size of five.
- DOUBLE PLAYS – At any time, if you have a match for either WORD in the Keyhole, yell out “DOUBLE” plus the word, and play it on top.
Then draw a card from any tower to your hand.
To Double a Doubled word say “DOUBLE-DOUBLE” instead. Then draw TWO cards from any tower(s) to your hand. (the max cards one player can draw in this way is two). These are FREE actions that occur outside a player’s turn (even your own). Play then resumes where it left off.
- NIGHT & KNIGHT CARDS – Play one of these cards into the Keyhole by matching COLOR only (or the word itself as a Double play). When played on a matching color, Night & Knight cards let you draw a card from any tower into your hand.
Flip over your Knight and reveal your team to everyone. A Knight (or Dragon) that has been revealed can no longer have cards added to their tower unless they are being punished for their own mistakes!
NOTE ON COMBOS – If you empty your hand & also earn a card off of a tower in the same play, first DRAW ALL the cards earned off of any tower(s) (max 2) & then draw from the deck to a max hand size of 5.
DRAGON RULES
The dragon only comes out to play when there are an odd number of players. You do not need to reveal if you are the Dragon.
- SPECIAL ABILITY – At any time a dragon may reveal themselves, even during another player’s turn. A Dragon (or Knight) that has been revealed can no longer have cards added to their tower, unless they are being punished for their own mistakes!
- WIN CONDITIONS – The Dragon must still free themselves from their own tower. If there are no cards on their tower and they remove the LAST card from a knight’s tower, they immediately SWALLOW THE KNIGHT and win the game!
END OF Game
ALL Knights on a team escape their towers once all tower cards are removed the team wins!
OR
The entire draw deck(s) run out. The team with the most knights out of their Tower wins. In the case of a tie, the team with the fewest tower cards wins, then the least amount of Enchantment cards in play.
Sparkle Kitty Nights is as the name hints at, is a more grown up version of Sparkle Kitty (original review #ShamlessPlug). Sparkle Kitty Nights has more strategy, require more skill and yet still has the cheeky fun of the original.
Before I realized the above, I had planned on playing Sparkle Kitty with my nieces, “the Angels”. As we were so excited when I told them there was going to be a new one released. I had organised to play it with them at my next babysitting night. I’m going to say, that has since been cancelled. I have already taught them too many new words, and I think hearing them yell out ‘Booty Squirt’ might get me banned from ever seeing them again.
Sparkle Kitty Nights isn’t just a reskin of the original game which I like. It could have quite easily just been a few extra princesses, a few extra words and call it quits. But the team at Breaking Games have added hidden team co-op element to the game and a more adult fell to the game. Which the people I played it with really liked.
There is also a lot more strategy than the original, we found that blazing ahead and finishing first wasn’t always a good thing. During one of the games, the Naughty team had 3 of their 4 Knights out and just need one more to finish, but the Nice team had worked out who that player was and made his Castle look more like Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings. I believe they got him to 9 cards before they all finished. It was insane
This game is such a silly amount of fun, some of the combinations you need to call out is insane and yet not vulgar or horrific like some games. I like the cheekiness of Sparkle Kitty Nights without over stepping the line. Which is nice in this day and age, as too many games go for that shock value.
The art in this game is great, but I must say, I prefer the original. That is taking nothing against the art for this game by no means, as I love the detail and realism put into the Knights. The Naughty Knights have the grittiness and evil strength to them and the Nice Knights have an almost angelic feel to them. But my favourite character is the Dragon. It has a more oriental styling to it with what looks like a head of a lion. It has a such a unique feel to it, that I actually got excited to see it as my Knight during one game.
If you loved the original, you need this game. It has all the fun and silliness of the original and ramped it up for a more mature audience. If you thought the original game was too simple; then Sparkle Kitty Nights has more strategy, more replay value and like the theme is for a more mature gamer.
Sparkle Kitty Nights Launches on Wednesday Morning Australia time and you can be notified the moment the Kickstarter goes live by signing up here
