Squid Plays: Solo

Solo is a card game produced by AMIGO, a German company.  It's been described as "UNO on steroids."  It's basically the same concept: play a card, next player matches number or color, lots of other cards you can play to mess with your opponents.  Solo has some additional fun cards which involve swapping hands with another player, gifting two cards, everyone passing cards to the left (or right), etc.  The biggest change, and the most fun, is that you can play a matching card - color AND number - anytime, effectively stealing the turn.  So, you've gotta pay attention all the time.

Left to right: Protection, Gift, All Swap Cards, Swap Cards with Another Player

Our game group fell in love with Solo during COVID as it was one of several games we discovered on Board Game Arena during social distancing times.  We've since played a few times in person and it loses none of its appeal offline.  I might even go so far as to describe it as addictive.  Simple, well-designed games often are.

How does AMIGO produce what appears to be an UNO knock-off without getting sued?  Well, the more famous game itself is simply a marketed version of the much older, public domain game of Crazy Eights.  You can't really sue someone for stealing the same thing you did.  And it's not technically stealing if it's public domain.