Tabletop Game Review: Bunny Party At Maple Valley

Bunny Party

Evan’s Games

Playtime: 20-30 Minutes

3-4 Bunnies (Players)

It’s a special time at Maple Valley. The Night Sky Party is coming soon, and the bunnies are working hard to put together the perfect party. Bunny Party At Maple Valley is a semi-competitive card game for three to four players. Each player is a bunny who wants to get all the pieces needed for a great party and stop the other players from doing so first. This race is a bit unique though because two players will always win, adding a bit of a cooperative element to Bunny Party.

How To Play

Bunny Party At Maple Valley is a pretty easy game to pick up. Each player gets to choose a bunny to play before the game starts. These bunnies each come with a special power that bends the game’s rules in their favor. The main deck then gets shuffled and placed in the middle of the play area. Trade tokens and villager cards are also placed in this area. After this, the game can start.

Bunny Party is a game of phases. The first phase marks the start of a turn. It involves each player drawing two cards and gaining one trade token. The villager cards get shuffled, with one villager being randomly set aside and removed for the turn. The remaining five villagers are laid out face up for a future phase. The next phase requires each player to tidy a card, where they effectively either discard a card from their hand or give one to another player (At the cost of a trade token).

After cards are tidied, the villagers will visit. Each player gets to take a villager card and enjoy the perks that they bring. Finally, players can then play their cards from their hand one at a time until there are no cards remaining. Played cards either have an instant effect or a lingering one. Cards with persistent effects stay in front of the player, face up. After every card is played, players can trade their face-up cards if they desire, at the expense of a trade token for each player.

Some of the cards that players place in front of them will be Star and Moon decorations. If a player has at least 5 of these cards they win the game. These decoration cards also have arrows that will point to the players to either the left or the right of the winning player. Whichever player has more decorations pointing to them will also win the game, resulting in two winners. If a player doesn’t have five decorations, the gameplay loop will reset with the first phase until someone wins the game.

Pacing and Interactivity

Like Robo Junkyard (Another game by Evan’s Games) Bunny Party doesn’t take long to play. It has a nice flow with defined phases that makes the game easy to follow. It’s a fairly light game with more going on than you would expect. Players will need to manage their hands during the tidy phase. Draft the best villagers when it’s time for them to visit. Use their own abilities wisely and negotiate well. All of these pieces make a simple game like Bunny Party worth much more than the sum of its parts. Despite all of these elements, it still has an easy to understand flow that makes the game compelling to play.

Bunny Party is also highly interactive. The tidy phase allows players to give cards to other players. These cards can have positive or negative effects. The tidy and trade phases together allow for a bit of negotiation as players try to either help themselves or an adjacent player with a few decorations pointing their way. Meanwhile, players might want to hurt others’ chances of winning.  This is especially so if another’s victory points to another player winning without them. The ability to choose between friendly and harmful interactions makes Bunny Party much more than just a mean spirited game, which is good because the game is too cute to be too mean!

At three players, there is less decision making on who to ally with and who to attack. Each player will likely choose an ally to work with midway through the game and unless there is a big swing somewhere, that won’t change. Bunny Party is still enjoyable with three players, but it feels like a watered-down version of the experience. If possible, this game is best with four players.

Theme and Components

Bunny Party has a wonderful aesthetic, with cute little animals living together and throwing a party. Holly Fowler’s art is perfect for this game. The characters are simple little anthropomorphic animals, with human clothes and all. They are complemented with bright colors filling the setting and objects around them. Each card is full of personality, with little laughs scattered among the item cards that players will use. Each item or event that players play comes with quite a bit of player. The effect matches the card, which is a nice touch to pull the player into the theme.

Bunny Party Is Great For Fans Of…

Bunny Party is a nice game for those who like card drafting and hand management. It’s a lighter game compared to other games that utilize the same mechanisms, making it great for younger or less experienced players.

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