Rick and Morty: Total Rickall is a card game based on the Rick and Morty episode of the same name. The premise is that the Smith family has found themselves surrounded by parasitic alien creatures that inhabit memories and take on the form of imagined companions. Rick has put the house on lockdown, and won’t rescind it until all the parasite are destroyed, otherwise the planet will be overrun.
The card game has two different modes of play. In the first, players cooperate to try and figure out which of the characters on the board are parasites and which are real.
The board is made of a grid of characters, each with a hidden identity card placed underneath. At the end of each turn, another character is added. Each player has a hand of three cards, which they may not discuss. During each turn, all players play a card face down simultaneously, then flip them over and take the action in order. This way, you may find yourself accidentally shooting a character you know is real because you have no choice, or you may find yourself shuffling up characters that someone else just investigated. At any point, if a player thinks that there are only real characters left on the board, he or she may call for a vote. If the majority of players agree, the game ends. All the characters on the board are flipped over, and if there are no parasites, the players win. Seems easy, right? To complicate matters, if four real characters are shot, the humans lose. If the character stack runs out, the game also ends with whatever is in play. The cooperative mode is quite fun, and just challenging enough that my group played a few rounds and didn’t feel frustrated. As the character deck thins out, there’s a real sense of urgency in play, and it may force players to make some mistakes.
Overall, this is a solid game for the price, which is around $20. For 2-5 players, it offers a short, repeatable game that’s easy to transport. I don’t think I’d play it all night, but it’s a good game for a couple quick rounds before or between other games. If you’re a fan of the show, definitely go for it. The cards are funny and well-made, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they made an add-on in the near future.