Tarantula Tango: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Party, Speed, Pattern Recognition, Real-Time
Player Age: 7+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 20 Minutes
Game Designer: Jacques Zeimet
Player Age: 7+
Game Designer: Jacques Zeimet
Introduction:
Drei Magier Spiele has a series of animal/insect themed party games that play quick and come in an easy portable case. Tarantula Tango, otherwise known as Tarantel Tango, is a speed game where the beautiful female tarantula is looking for a dance partner. Each turn a player will respond to the last card played and then flip and place their top card. Any mistakes will see that player picking up all the played cards. Once a player has no cards left they are the ultimate dance partner and win the game.
Game Anatomy:
Tarantula Board:
In the centre of play will be a five-sided tarantula board and players will play cards clockwise around the five edges.
Cards:
Each card will have an illustration of one of six animals; dog, cat, donkey, parrot, cow, and goat. There will also be either zero, one or two tarantulas on each animal card, or instead there may be two of the same animal. This is relevant to the action the next player does before they may play a card.
Tarantula Cards:
When a tarantula card appears everyone must slap the table to scare the spider away. The last person to do this has made a mistake by failing the action and must now gain all played cards.
How to Play:
Player turns in this game are rapid as is expected for real time games. To start, shuffle and deal out the deck between all players. Next, each turn the player will respond to the last card played then play a card of their own clockwise around the tarantula board. The response players have to give to the previously played card is an animal sound matching the animal depicted. One sound if there is one tarantula present on the card and two sounds if there are two tarantulas.
If there is no tarantula, the player will make no sound and place their card one space further away along the board. This will be two spaces further away if there are two animals on the card instead.
This all occurs instantly when your turn starts, otherwise you will have made a mistake and you gain all the played cards. The first player to rid their hand of cards is the winner.
Variants:
There are several variants of changing difficulties that players can add in to make the game more challenging.
Donkey:
If the last card played is a donkey, the current player must place their card on top of it rather than playing in a clockwise space. This is still the case if the donkey card has no tarantulas on it.
Dog:
A dog will change the direction of play from clockwise to anti-clockwise until another dog is played.
Parrot:
Instead of having players squawk, they must make the noise of the last animal played (previous to the parrot).
Cow:
Whenever a cow is revealed the player who just had a turn will go again.
Final Thoughts:
- Fast and tricky to respond correctly.
- Interesting variants that keep the game challenging.
- Works best between 2 and 5 players.
- Since players keep picking up all the cards, the game can go on a bit long.
The others I have played in this family of games are made for more of a party atmosphere, meaning that it can be harder to get to the table. With Tarantula Tango being a real time game it brings the party atmosphere to as little as two players. This changes the feel from party to possible filler-weight game. It is a challenging game to perform well at as not only must you respond with the correct verbalisation, there also is a spatial component to be remembered. This card placement factor becomes more challenging when the donkey and dog varaint are used. Tarantula Tango is a great game that will get your mind speeding as you try to keep up with the chaos on the board. If you like speed games, you better not think too long about on one and do the tango today.
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