Wink is a great game for age groups that are a bit older than some of the games I have featured in the past from Blue Orange. This game is recommended for those 8 and above with needing 4-8 players to play.
Wink includes 2 decks of 36 numbered face cards, 32 accuse cards, 8 player cards, 8 wood player tokens, and illustrated instructions. The object of the game is to score the most points by secretly winking at your partners without getting caught in the act.
The face cards are sorted according to their backs into two decks. One is black on white and the other is white on black.
Then lay out one of the decks randomly face up in a 6×6 grid. The second deck of face cards will be dealt to the players and distributed based on the number playing. Not all of the second deck will be used so the remainder just gets set aside. Due to the fact that not all of the face cards are used, it is possible that a face card will not be in any player’s hand to match a similar face card on the playing grid. If you have less than 8 players, you can deal out one more face card to each player at the start of the game to increase the likelihood of a match being present.
Each player then chooses a player card and corresponding player token. This gets placed in front of him or her.
Each player will also receive 4 accuse cards to challenge players if they catch them winking.
The first player places his or her player token on any face up card that does NOT match a card in his hand. Then he or she says the number out loud that they placed their token on, like if I placed my token on card 13 in the player grid, I would say that I am looking for number 13. Players can not place their tokens on the same card.
The player to the left continues the game and places his or her player token on any other card and announces the number on that card and the game continues clockwise until all players have completed round one. During this time, the player with the matching twin card in hand has until the start of his partner’s next turn to wink at him or her and let them secretly know. Be careful because you don’t want to be caught and have someone use the accuse card. They can then steal your points! The accuse cards can be played at any time during the game.
After the first round, players take turns guessing the identity of their partner. The current player takes a stab at who he thinks is his/her partner and then announces the number that is believed to be in his or her hand. If the current player has no idea who their partner is, they still take a guess. The random guessing happens for sure when you name out a card that your token is on and none of the other players have the matching card in their hand.
If the player is correct in naming his/her partner, then the current player takes back his player token and removes the face card that his token was on top of from the playing field. He or she then places the face card under their play card and it equals a point. His or her partner take the matching card from his or her hand, shows it to all the players to verify a match and places it underneath his/her own player card. The partner also gets a point.
In the likelihood that the player is wrong in naming his partner, he/she then takes back the player token and turns the face card that they were on top of face down. That face card can not be matched for the rest of the game and scores no points. The named player does nothing. If another player has the matching twin face card in hand, he/she also does nothing.
Then the game continues as normal. The current player selects a new face card to place his token on, calls out the new number and begins searching for his/her potential partner winking.
The game ends when a player is out of face cards in his/her hand or all 36 face cards from the playing field have been scored or turned face down. Each player then counts the face cards (one point each) under his/her player card with an additional value of one point for each unused accuse card left in his/her hand. Face cards left in your hand at the end of the game do not count against or in favor of your score.
Wink is fun and challenging. You have to keep your eyes on the playing grid, the cards in your hand, and also looking at the other players for a secretive wink. It takes on average 30 minutes to complete a game. Wink has a suggested retail of $15.99.
Disclosure: I received the game Wink for this review. No other compensation was received for this post.
