Paper Safari Pikachu & Friends is a set collection game.

Title: Paper Safari Pikachu & Friends (Pokémon Safari)

Year Published: 2022

Designer: Kevin Kim

Publisher: Mandoo Games

Players: 2-5

Game Time: ~30 minutes

Set-up Time: ~1 minute

Ages: 6+

Theme: Pokémon

Mechanisms: Set collection is the way you score.

How to win: Score the fewest points over 3 rounds.

Game Description

Each player tries to get the lowest sum possible with their six cards in play, swapping and replacing them according to the rules of play.

How to play Paper Safari Pikachu & Friends

Learn how to play Pokémon Safari in a quick and concise way.

Main Mechanisms

You draw a card into your tableau in order to try and collect the lowest scores and collect pairs to reduce their total to zero. So set collection is the only real mechanism.

USP

I said this for Pokémon Chips, but ‘good’ hobby games with a Pokémon theme are few and far between. It’s just the two I think!

Theme

Collecting Pokémon… Feels right!

Setup & Rulebook

Shuffle and deal, that’s it!

The rulebook is in Korean so again, like Pokémon Chips, thank you to the translators.

Components & Artwork

Pokémon art on the cards and a nice metal coin. It looks good.

Image Source

Ease of Teaching

The game as a whole is easy to teach, there are a few caveats. The character abilities are not always intuitive and where things go and are taken from when activating them isn’t that clear on the card.

Similar Games

I already mentioned Pokémon Chips as a similar game as it’s a decent game themed with Pokémon.

Pixies is a similar game where you have a simple tableau and you’re trying to put it to good use.

Paper Safari Pikachu & Friends Review

Positives

A fun Pokémon themed game

The Pokémon actions are thematic, for the most part.

You can be mean to other players, but not on purpose so it doesn’t feel targeted.

Negatives

A bit simple with luck of the draw taking some part.

Paper Safari Pikachu & Friends Round-Up

A very fun Pokémon themed game that hobby gamers will like.

Rating: I give it 6/10