Slide Five, it may be Ugly, but it's Fun

The Review Crew's Take on
SLIDE FIVE
# Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10
Game time . . . . . . . . 15-20 minutes
Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 minute
Luck . . . 3 . . . . . . . . .Strategy
*Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5
Visual Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Component Quality . .. . . . . 4
*Replayability . . . . . . . . . . . 9

*See "How we Rate" for a definition.

Slide Five is a recent find for us, as of Christmas 2011, thanks to a family friend.  And actually, it's a good thing it came to us as a gift, because we probably wouldn't have picked it up in a store otherwise. It's a bit homely, don't you think?
There's that old saying, though, the one about judging a game by its . . . oh, wait, that's a book by its cover. Well, there's the one about appearances being deceiving, which seems to fit here. Just by looking at the box--or the cards themselves--you'd never guess the fun that awaits.
The game's description on the back of the box sums it up nicely: Players arrange their cards on the playing surface building "hills." Once a hill gets 5 cards high, the 6th card will cause an "avalanche" and that player must take all of the cards in that row, leaving the 6th card to start a new hill.
Since players reveal their cards at once, game play moves along quickly, which adds to replayabilty. Luck seems to be a bigger factor than strategy because of the game's unpredictable nature, but it's that unpredictability that makes this game a hoot. We don't take cards out, as the instructions suggest, which might skew the luck/strategy scale a bit, but set up is fast and easy that way. 
Up to ten people can play Slide Five, which is a huge plus for us when we all get together. Rated for 8 and up, it's easy enough that all but the youngest of the young can play.

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