“Will you maintain balance or give in to darkness in the battle of Hyde and Jekyll?”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297129/jekyll-vs-hyde
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Weight: Light
Genre: Trick Taking
Designer: Geonil
Players: 2
Each player takes the role of one of two halves of one man’s split personality, with each player trying to take full control. The way that they’ll do so is with a trick-taking game, where Jekyll is attempting to pursue balance and moderation, whereas Hyde is trying to push things to the extreme.
How they get trick-taking to work in a two-person duel is quite ingenious. The game is played across three hands, and in each, Hyde earns points based on the difference between the number of tricks taken by the players. Thus, if both players take an equal number of tricks, it’s a good round for Jekyll, whereas if Jekyll takes every single trick, it’s actually a good round for Hyde. This simple twist turns all of your normal trick-taking strategy on its head.
There are several other gameplay tweaks that keeps the game fresh. This includes having only three suits, and having a constantly shifting priority order for which suit trumps which that you can manipulate. It also includes giving each suit a superpower that can be activated by playing a potion instead of a suited card. Overall, what you’re left with is a devilishly interesting two-player game that fits a lot of quirks in a little tiny box.
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