The Game
Mint Cooperative is one of these tiny tin pocket games. The concept was simple enough. Larger cards are placed to be cities, each player plays as a Meeple with a special ability. In a 2 player game, each person has 2 meeples. Turn order is 3 players and then villain “turn” and it is a cooperative game. The idea is to keep all towns at the freshest (mintiest) and avoid panic. During the villain “turn” trouble cards are revealed based on the roll for the next round. Then resolved by removing mints and adding panic to the overall panic meter based on the showing panic symbols on towns.
The Review
The first thing was there was a bit of confusion on the set up within the rules. We quickly resolved it but some clarification regarding mayhem actions still would have been helpful. At least show us where it should be on the villain card since our villain didn’t have one. As long as you’re getting single or maybe some double troubles and have a way to deal with both panic and mints, it should be doable. But if you hit a triple threat, forget it. At least in our experience. In one round, we had our panic all the way at 1 at the start of the trouble phase and because of triple trouble, lost in that turn. Triple trouble seemed to be a death sentence and often double was too.
As a 2 player game, we each played 2 heroes. I don’t know if that was part of it or if Dan rolling was just the death of us or what, but we struggled with this game. We couldn’t seem to get the balance down no matter what we entered the trouble phase with.
I do usually prefer cooperative games and this seemed simple enough that I was excited for it, but overall I found myself disappointed.
The Result
We played 3 rounds and lost all 3. We even swapped around a few characters trying to get a better balance of starting location and heroic feats. It didn’t matter. All 3 rounds were a loss!
The Challenge
“new to us” games challenge: 4
Total Plays: 8
Additional Note:
Check out the 2 additional blog posts for updated reviews and opinions on this game!
