Designer: Susumu Kawasaki

Artist: TANSAN Inc.

Publisher: Hobby Japan

R-Eco is the card game that turned Susumu Kawasaki into a household name – well, perhaps in a hobby gamer’s household. When the card game first appeared, the recycling theme felt unique and hip. For better or for worse, 23 years after the initial game was released, the new anniversary edition of the game by Hobby Japan, R-Eco+ still feels unique. Not many games directly touched upon recycling and I think the game cleverly ties the topic of recycling with the main mechanism. In addition to the original R-Eco, the game also includes R-Eco Recycling which uses a new card board components and a subset of the cards from the original game. This initial impression is for the base game, R-Eco. R-Eco Recycling will be added to this write up much later.

Recycling enough garbage to specific plants to score points

I barely remember the original R-Eco but looking back at my comments, I did not enjoy the game with five players. The game likely dragged. The anniversary edition wisely reduced it to a maximum of four players and I felt this was just right. For those familiar with Wolfgang Kramer’s 11 Nimnt, R-Eco share a few elements from the classic design. Players have a hand of “garbage card” and must play them into the appropriate recycling centers, of which there are four types. Players can play multiple cards so long as they are placed in the same recycling center (i.e. playing cards of the same color). Most of the cards have a single unit of garbage while a handful will have have two. As soon as one recycling center collects four units of garbage, they will sent for processing and players will get to collect a voucher worth points. Vouchers are available from each recycling center and players must collect at least two from any individual center before points can be tallied. A single voucher is worth nothing. Vouchers from each facility are stacked up in an ascending order with one of the vouchers snuggled right in the middle of the deck worth negative points.

Winning points must be weighed against accrual of penalty points

When garbage cards are played to recycling facilities, new cards are also picked up and added to the hand from the collection center linked to each facility. The amount of garbage cards to replenish each recycling facility depends on the number of cards in the recycling center. The more cards there are in the facility, the more cards are added to the collection center for pick up after placement. In other words, as the recycling center accumulates cards en route to its goal of accumulating four items for processing, players will simultaneously have to pick up more and more cards from the collection center to replenish their hand. This matters because there is a five card limit to each hand and every thing must be discarded for a penalty point per card. Thus, the push-pull for players in the game comes from weighing the benefits of getting a voucher while minimizing negative points from picking up more garbage cards that exceeds the hand limit. Easier said than done. Because points are premium, final scores with negative values are not uncommon. Sometimes, it is not worth scoring vouchers if one must discard multiple cards to get to it. This is the main source of tension, and fun, for R-Eco.

Shaping hand size and card type for future plays outweigh short term gains

In looking back at my older comments, I mentioned actions being rather obvious and it was clear which vouchers to go for based on cards at hand. This is still somewhat true, but shaping the hand of cards is certainly one of the major decisions for each turn. It is often the case that one wants to collect similar types of cards such that multiple of the same type can be played in one shot to grab the vouchers, but also to deplete the hand size to avoid penalties for picking up more cards from the collection area. Obviously, deciding which cards to collect is a direct results of cards played that round. I suppose in a way, the game is just as much about shaping the hand to avoid penalties and for future plays than it is in playing them for scoring points alone.

In summary

The game works well with four and possibly three. I have yet to try a lower player count. The production values are great and the game from Hobby Japan comes in a much smaller -sized box than the Z-man original. Most importantly, players will also get to try R-Eco Recycle with this anniversary edition. I am intrigued by the new game within the game and will write more about it in the future. For now, my opinions of R-Eco, the main game, is rejuvenated. While parts of the game can feel derivative because it shares some DNA with the countless Amigo cards games , R-Eco remains a polished product with a still-fresh theme from a respected designer.

Initial impression: Good