LogFAQs > #933694742

53. Dr. Eureka (2015)

Category: Player vs Player
Genres: Pattern recognition, dexterity/real-time, separate hands
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 0
Game length: 1 minute per hand
Experience: 30+ hands over 2 sessions with 2, 3 players (2017, 2019)
Previous ranks: NR (2016), NR (2018)

Summary - Each player has six small, colored balls (of three colors) that sit in three graduated cylinders. A card is revealed with some configuration of balls in cylinders on them, and all players then rush manipulate their balls into that configuration. First player to make the shape wins the card.

Design - Dr. Eureka is beautifully simplistic. If you've ever played with logic puzzles before like "You have a container that can hold five liters and a container that can hold three liters; how do you get four liters," you'll understand the patterns at work in Dr. Eureka.

The components are simple and clear and attractive (red, green, and purple) and wonderfully tactile. (In particular, the little plastic "atoms" clink when they hit each other). Being spherical and mostly frictionless, they also make it very difficult for a panicking player to pour the correct number of balls out of their cylinder, leading to that fun frustration that happens in real-time games.

Experience - I've only played Dr. Eureka at two separate occasions, and it's been incredibly fun both times. We wound up playing dozens of cards each time. The shine could come off it in future plays, of course, but it really helps that the most recent play was with the likely primary gaming partner, and you can play it with two players and enjoy it.

Future - Because it plays well with two and my primary gaming partner liked it, Dr. Eureka could find itself on my shelf. A few more plays could persuade me more in this direction, but they also might reveal a relative lack of staying power.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness