SKYJO is a quick card game for family game night that blends strategy, luck, and just the right amount of guessing to keep everyone interested. It’s perfect for a quick round of game play with kids while dinner is burning on the stove and interesting enough for a casual game party with friends without a lot of yelling.
Why You Need To Play SKYJO ASAP
OK, so it’s family game night and you’re ready for an evening of laughter and friendly competition that’s usually ruined by a little too much trash talk from Uncle Dave to the 4 year old.
But, whatever.
SKYJO is kinda a math game and everyone already knows Uncle Dave can’t add better than the four year old, so you’re already winning.
That’s right, Dave, another math game…
Yeah. Don’t let that scare you because math isn’t my strong suit either and I love this game.
I mean, fair.
This card game is quick and it holds your interest by challenging you to keep your score as low as possible, sometimes without knowing exactly what cards are in your face-down pile.
Plus, since it’s math you can totally count this as the kids getting their math homework done before dinner. Win-win.
(You can tell their teachers I said so.)
GPG Game At A Glance
LISTED GAME AGE: 8 and Up
LISTED TIME: 30 minutes* (see our house rules mods below)
PLAYERS: 2-8
WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS GAME:
- Quick setup
- Easy rules / easy to learn
- Family-friendly fun for kids and adults
- Educational (but not in a boring way) – you’re actually practicing adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers (which is way more fun than that sentence makes it sound)
- Fun, even with 2 players
- Quick game play for busy nights or when you only have time for a few minutes of game play
YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS GAME IF YOU LIKE:
GET THE GAME
How To Play SKYJO
Goal:
Keep your score as low as possible by revealing, exchanging, and collecting cards.
Setup:
Lay out 12 cards in front of each player, face down. (No peeking!)
Gameplay:
On your turn, draw a card, decide whether to swap it with one of yours, or discard it to keep the lowest possible game total you can.
Sometimes you’re swapping with a face down card, which means you may cry if it’s a bad trade. That’s not allowed. There’s no crying in game play.
The Catch:
Once someone reveals all their cards, the round ends even if you haven’t turned over all your cards yet. (So, yep, you’re stuck with whatever is on those cards.)
Everyone tallies their points, and the lowest score wins. *SEE OUR MODIFICATION BELOW.
GPG Game Tip: Keep one eye on your cards and the other on your opponent's. How they're playing will let you know if you need to make risky moves or can play it safe. Remember, you want to get the lowest score before you or someone else goes out.
GPG House Rules & Gaming Mods
Traditional Game Rules
The game is played in rounds until a player’s total score reaches 100 points, which in this game means they lose.
Therefore, the player with the lowest total score at that point wins the game.
Our Modified Rules For Faster Game Plays
We adapted this to just play rounds (“hands”) and not keep score.
We play hands as the first person to turn over their all their cards ends the hand.
Then, all players must turn over all their cards and tally (adding and subtracting) their score.
Person with lowest score wins.
We found playing hands instead of an entire game to 100 is better because it’s faster and we can play as few or as many hands as we want (based on time limitations) or stop whenever we want.
If you have more time, feel free to play to 100. Ain’t nobody the boss of you. Not even us.
Our Owen Game Rating: 4 Owen Paws
OK, I first have to say my husband says my daughter and I give too many four star ratings to games.
He would probably give this a 3 paws, while my daughter and I give it a strong 4 paws because we love quick moving games you can play in short amounts of time.
In our defense, my daughter and I just really enjoy playing games and almost always make most things fun.
Maybe we’re just more fun than my husband?
(Hi honey!)
GET THE SKYJO CARD GAMEALSO TRY OUR FAVORITE CARD GAME RIGHT NOW!
Shuffle up that SKYJO card game and let me know how it goes!
