Bicycle Take The Train Card Game

Great game to play with friends that doesn't require a lot of attention to the game which allows for conversation.

Excellent product. It arrived in good condition. I would recommend it to anyone.

I have played this with my 8 year old twins and my 11 year old, and they wanted to play it multiple times over several days already.To us, it seemed like a cross between gin/rummy and dominoes.There are 4 colors, and (ignoring the advanced rules for the 2 transfer cards) you play a station first, and then up one side (7,8,9...12) and down the other (6,5,4...1).There are 'free ride' cards (which let you substitute for any numbered card (1-12) of any color, and 'end of line' cards, which affect how a single color gets played out.For us (played as a 3 player game and as a 4 player game) length of time varied. As soon as one player is out of cards, the game is over...and if one person is lucky, that can happen fast... If not, you can go through most of the deck before someone plays out.There is more strategy than meets the eye. For example, you can play more than one card if they are in a row. For example, if I am holding the blue 6, blue 5, and blue 4, and someone else has played the blue station already, then on my turn I can play all three in order(6,5,4) or I can play just one card (the 6). Why? Well, on any turn where you cannot play at least one card you have to draw a card and lose one of your tokens. By playing only one card, you can 'save' a card for later and hope someone else's turn allows you to play a different card (besides those 3 blue ones) that is in your hand.This isn't a deep card game for adults to play, and it's better with 3 or more than with 2 players, but it is a nice game with some strategy and math for kids to play, and is much much better than games like CandyLand, GoFish, etc....

We picked up this game last night and I played it with my two sons (9 and 13) and it was quite boring and we couldn't wait for the game to end. Some of the rules were a bit confusing (like the end-of-the-line card).The box states one thing that is wrong and one thing that is difficult to believe:1 - "Fast Moving Fun" this game is slow as you generally only get to play one card per turn.2 - Winner of the 2007 Seal of Excellence -- how did this lame game ever win that award?The scoring is quite bad also. Theoretically, the first player to take his turn could play all his cards and go out and actually lose.This would be possible if he used a "specialty" card paying two tokens and then another player had all number cards and paid only 1 token apiece. Although the 1st player played all his cards he would lose. That's a bad rule.I would send the game back for a refund if I could.I was hoping for something like Mille BornesMille Borne is much more fun. Mille Bornes Card Game Another great card game is Split by Parker Brothers Split Or you could try Shoot The Moon Shoot the Moon Card Game

I rarely feel occasion to review a product, but I am surprised this product won any kind of award. The biggest problem for me is that the rules of "advanced" play leave a lot of questions and logical problems, rendering cards unplayable. Using "transfer" cards to build a new train line, and using an "end of the line" card on a line of the same color simply doesn't work. A game without clearly defined rules, and with logical flaws in the rules that are set forth causes a lot of headaches.The concept is very simple. You begin with a station card and build up from it with cards 7-12 and down on the other side with cards 6-1. There are also two "wild" cards, two "end of the line" cards, and two "transfer" cards. Playing without the transfer cards was DREADFULLY slow, and adding them in (which rules call "advanced play") did significantly speed game play up. The "end of the line" card stops the train line at the number it is played next to, and makes the cards that would've been played there "wrap" to the other side of the sequence. Example: 9-8-7-STA-6-5-4-3-2-1-12-11-10. Simple enough.But HERE IS THE PROBLEM. Throw the transfer cards in, and (1) the rules are very vague, and (2) you now have a logical quandry when you mix transfer cards and end of the line cards, which renders cards unplayable. The rules state you use a transfer to create a line off of a number of a different color and build it in the same direction as it would normally go, with the ability to "wrap" cards on transferred lines as well. So, let's say you play an orange 10-11-12 on a tranfer line off of a green 10, and build the normal orange line 1-2-3-4-5-6-STA-7-8-END OF LINE. Where does the orange 9 go now? It doesn't play. This came up on the very first game we played with transfer cards, by the way, and consulting the rules did not clarify anything. Change the '10' to an '11', now you have two unplayable cards. The '11' is on a transfer line and has to be built up...so they cant play there, the '8' is the end on the normal train line. Of course, there are ways to make this work, but the rules are of no help whatsoever, and that is crucial for a game to be fair and fun for children. And this is definitely a children's game, by the way, adults will not be entertained by this game.For a similar game that does have clear and concise rules, and is fun for kids and adults to play together, try Milles Bornes. Instead of a train, it's a race with cars, and it's great fun for the family. As for this game, it's a neat concept, but the designer put absolutely no thought into the rules, which is not conducive to family fun at all.

Take the Train is most similar to UNO, but instead of putting cards down in one pile, you build a track of cards that must be placed in the right sequential & color order. The game ends when somebody loses all their cards.On one hand it's very simple and has a mildly cute theme, but UNO is a MUCH better game. Some things that bothered me:1. It's very difficult to get rid of all your cards until the track is nearly complete, so all players will likely be equally close to victory at the end of the game no matter how far ahead you were.2. It's not fast paced as it says on the box, but instead rather tedious, and I wonder if that award on the box is real.3. There is almost no strategy at all, and little way to affect other players.I think this one is going to be donated to charity.