My brother always brings the most interesting games that I have never heard of to our family board game nights. Some of the games he brings may not be my cup of tea, but I still like them because it exposes me to board games I wouldn’t have thought to play. One of the games that he brought was GoodCritters. GoodCritters is a game that I could see myself bringing to a friend’s board game night. It’s easy to learn and it can be played with up to 8 people, which is the exact size of our group.

The premise of GoodCritters is pretty simple. The object of the game is to collect the most money from the heist compared to other players. The characters are a variety of different animals hence the name of the game being GoodCritters. One person plays the mob boss who decides how they want to split the money in the heist. After the boss splits the money, the crew places a card that represents an action after the round. They can either approve of the boss, meaning they like how they split the money. They can reject the boss, meaning they don’t agree with how the money is split. There’s an action to skim, where a player can pull the next money card off the deck and add it to their pile. However, if one player skims before the other player, the player who was second to reveal their skim card gets no money. Players can rob each other or be on guard to prevent being robbed. Once a certain card is revealed, the round ends, and players add up their money.

I think the fun of GoodCritters was to figure out what the strategy is. When I was the boss, I tried to split the money evenly while giving myself $100 or so more than everyone else. Additionally, I tried to skim when it was closer to my turn to reveal my card to increase the likelihood of a payout. I ended up guarding myself anytime someone tried to rob me to protect my money stash. In the end, I ended up winning by only a $100 difference.

I like that GoodCritters is an easy game to learn. As my brother explained the premise to us, I found it easy to pick up. I liked the bluffing aspect of the game. Whenever a player wants to rob another player, they take their animal token and place it near the player they want to rob. However, that doesn’t mean that the player has to rob. They can place it there to force the player to guard their stash while the player ends up doing another action instead. I also liked how the rounds don’t take a long time. I don’t mind games that take several hours to complete, but sometimes that’s exhausting.

GoodCritters was a fun game that I would definitely play again. I’m not sure if I would purchase my own copy since my brother has his. I do think if you’re looking for a game to play with friends or a game to bring to a brewery, GoodCritters is a good option.