So Clover! - *Insert funny wordplay*
- Reuben Levine
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
So Clover! by François Romain and published by Repos Production is a fantastic cooperative word association game for three to six players. Each player is going to get four pairs of words on cards that each have four words on them. They then must find a single word that links the top two words together. Taking it in turns, the rest of the table must figure out which words go with which connections. This is made harder by an extra card added into the mix. The image (see Fig 2) makes this much easier to understand. After everyone else at the table guesses the position of the cards, you remove any that are incorrect and grant them one more guess. One point is achieved for each correct guess, and a bonus of two points if all four are guessed right in the first round.
The Good
The strongest sense that So Clover! evokes is that of teamwork. Working together to figure out what strange connections your friends have come up with is exciting and always thought-provoking. Trying to put yourself in the head of the person that you are playing with is a rightfully difficult challenge, and figuring out if you're right or wrong is always fun. Whether it’s exasperation at trying to understand how on earth somebody could draw a conclusion or the satisfaction of being correct, it is amazing.
In the stage where you are coming up with your clues, there is also plenty of room for fun. Doing your best to guess who is going to draw what conclusions leads you to incredibly funny choices that only you and your friends/family would understand. Trying to link to impossible words is definitely a challenge but an incredibly fun and engaging one.
The best moments of playing So Clover! is the satisfaction of watching other people guess your clues correctly. Getting all of those amazing points, even getting the coveted six points, is exciting and rewarding. You feel a sense of instant gratification as your mental gymnastics are rewarded with a solid score. Even when you don’t do so well, you can still feel the pride in coming up with some ludicrous connections. Deciphering these connections is also a major sense of gratification as you puzzle over what could be and what might not. The challenging addition of the 5th card makes for the perfect twist, as it might apply perfectly and throw you off the scent or be completely useless.
Actually, playing So Clover! makes you feel like a psychiatrist or a spy as you try and dutifully analyze your playing mates' thought processes. Attempting to gather what connections they are going to make, if they are going to understand the difficult connection, and deciphering their own suggestions is an impossibly outstanding game of mental exercise. Coming up with your own clues will absolutely be the stand-out part of your gameplay as you struggle with something seemingly impossible, only to have it click in your head. Constantly, you will find yourself wishing that you had just one extra word to make the connection, but you're forced to find some kind of interesting and obscure connection that is inevitably more fun.
This game will inevitably have you saying, “Oh, that’s so clever” (it’s aptly named) and will always be an absolute riot. The intellectual play is innate, and the game is simple without any problems. Teaching this game to new players takes under a minute, which spurs instant fun.
The Bad
One of my biggest gripes with this game is the unadjustable level of difficulty. When you are given two words, for example, toothpaste and castle, that have no correlation whatsoever, the majority of the fun comes from trying to connect them in a meaningful way. The limitation of just one word to perform this task is what makes this game exciting. Regardless, for those with a limited vocabulary or even those who just get unlucky on the draw, the game can be incredibly challenging. There is no way to adjust this game to make it easier. However, there easily could be. Including the option to rotate one of your cards after it has been randomly placed would allow for a difficulty slider however, this is not present in the rules.
In order to get the perfect score, every player must have their clover completely guessed correctly on the first try. If you fail this, which is very easy to do early into the game, then there is a sense of defeat that ominously hangs over the rest of your guesses. In my own play, I did not find this to be too much of an issue as the innate fun from playing the game was more important than the score; however, to a more competitive group, this near-impossible perfect score might be frustrating.
The player count of this game is one that left me asking questions. Six players seems to be the awkward middle ground. It’s just too many to have a quick and easy game however, it’s also too few for a slight rules change and a longer, more competitive setting. In addition, the lack of a difficulty slider can make this game too challenging and difficult to enjoy on certain rounds. Thankfully, I was lucky enough not to have four bad combinations, which might speak to the quality of the cards, but it would require thousands of playthroughs to know for sure.
The Other Stuff
The clovers and dry-erase pens are solid and work better than most dry-erase that I have seen packaged with games. The pens draw well and don’t leave much of a trace once they have been taken off. In addition, the thick player boards are tactical and friendly and give the game a great sense of theme. The cards themselves are small and flimsy, which can be quite frustrating. They are designed to have a hole in the middle, which works great with the player board; however, it makes them difficult to shuffle. In addition, I found the cards to pop off the board on almost random occasions, which was incredibly frustrating.
I think that almost everyone would be able to enjoy a game of So Clover!. This statement does come with a few caveats. For anyone who does not speak the language of the rest of the players as a first language or anyone who struggles with their vocabulary, this may be a real challenge. This problem is not specific to So Clover! and instead is an issue in all wordplay games. This box is absolutely perfect for any family gathering or a fun night with friends as you ponder how on earth somebody made that ‘allegedly’ clever connection. If you want to learn more about how it might suit your family, check out "Fun For the Family" below.
So Clover! from François Romain and published by Repos Production will get a Gold rating as we believe it is simple, good, and fun no matter the crowd. It is absolutely worth a spot on your shelf and a game you should try at least once, even if wordplay isn't your thing. If you want to learn more about what this rating means, click the button below.
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Reuben Levine
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