We wager you can stomach more than a round or two of this card game.
Hello Gaming Library Family!
Card games are a dime a dozen these days.
Well, not really, because for some trading card games, one card can be sold for enough money to raise a family. But for every monster card game you hear of, there’s probably 10 more that haven’t exploded yet globally that can be found in other countries. For every fantasy role play card game, there’s more that haven’t caught as much traction, but have a small, formidable cult-following. There’s card games based on existing media franchises, card games that cross over said media franchises (and more), card games that built original IPs that have expanded into their own kind of media giants… And then there’s Organ Attack.
Organ Attack, which describes itself as a ‘family-friendly card game of organ harvesting’ was the brainchild of Nick Seluk, the artist behind the ongoing gag-a-day comic known as The Awkward Yeti. His other more familiar work is a webcomic series called Heart and Brain, which figuratively illustrates the daily tug-of-war between our emotions (Heart) and rationality (Brain). The comic also includes other characters based on human organs, such as the hedonistic and manipulative Tongue, and the sensitive Stomach.
Source: The Awkward Yeti (Nick Seluk)/Twitter
It makes sense then, that a delightful—if a bit morbid—sense of humor based on the body and internal organs would give way to the card game Organ Attack, which began as a Kickstarter project in November 2016. Initially needing only $12,000 in backing since the page’s inception, the campaign met and then overshot its goal, racking up to $280,000 in its first week and earning more than $526,000 total before closing donations in July of the following year.
What ensued in its release exactly one year after was a massive success for the game, which pits players against each other in a cutesy, somewhat gory fight to the death. Each game begins with players being dealt a set of organs, with their goal being to eliminate one another, inflicting different diseases, building immunity, and using different tactical cards to protect their organs while destroying those of other players. The final player with at least one remaining functional organ wins.
Lauren Orsini for Forbes wrote that while very easy to play and very tongue-in-cheek, the game had them contemplating the fragile nature of humanity; with mechanics for cards like Cancer which would inflict an ‘instant kill’ effect on players. It’s an effective game to irreverently teach children about the human body and how illnesses affect us, but may be a tad sensitive for players who may have dealt with life-threatening illnesses.
Regardless, the biggest takeaway from a game of Organ Attack is that life is short and unpredictable, so we encourage players to take advantage of the gameplay, and maybe use what we can learn from the game to take care of ourselves the best we can, yeah?
And be sure to check out Organ Attack, available offline at any of our GL stores and at any All aBoard XP branches, and online at https://www.gaminglib.com!
About Gaming Library
Gaming Library aims to be the go-to resource for board games, providing not only titles that can be enjoyed by families, but also to be enjoyed by friends both newcomers and veterans alike. By pulling from different resources from all over the world, we at Gaming Library curate an impressive collection of games for consumers to choose from, suitable for anybody from casual players to hardcore hobbyists. In doing so, we hope to provide the best means to foster activities that strengthen family ties and friendships, while teaching relevant skills and practical critical thinking that can be applied to your everyday life.
