Eleminis

The designers of Eleminis, the first release from U.S. publisher Smileypop, want us to believe that all the components of the world consist of five elements: earth, air, fire, water and plant. That "plant" one is new to me, and probably you, but let's give it to the designers and get on to figuring out how to play the game. Your goal in Eleminis is to collect one of each of these five elements in your row on the table. Players each have five slots available to them, and each slot can hold one card. On a turn, you draw a card from the deck then either play it in a row (if it's a element card) or use it (if it's an action). Each element outranks two other elements, similar to rock/paper/scissors/Spock/lizard. You can play an element card you draw in any empty space or replace a weaker element with the new one; you can play in your row or an opponent's. A star element is wild and can represent any element you need; a trash card can replace any element and can be displaced only by a star or an action card. The actions let you discard cards in play, move cards, swap them, lose your turn, or reverse the order of play. Play continues until someone collects one element of each type in his row. A scoring system is included for those who want to play multiple games.