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Blink (1995)
players 2–3 players (best at 2)
playing time 10 min
ages 7+
weight 1.07 / 5
BGG rank 6149
BGG rating 5.98
designers Reinhard Staupe
artists Oliver Freudenreich John Kovalic Ariel Laden Jürgen Martens
publishers Adlung-Spiele Out of the Box Publishing Cactus Game Design Educa Korea FoxMind FoxMind Israel
categories Action / Dexterity Card Game Children's Game Real-time Sports
mechanics Hand Management Pattern Recognition Speed Matching
The two-minute-long, two-player card game Blink — which was originally published as Speed — bills itself as the fastest game in the world.
Without taking turns, players race to empty their hands by matching the color, shape, or number of symbols on a card in their hand to the top card of either of two discard piles in the center of the table. As soon as a player lays down one card, they can draw another, up to the hand size of three cards. If both players can't play, they each simultaneously draw a card from their deck directly onto a discard pile, then continue play. The first player to empty their hand and draw pile wins.
Blink includes a variant for three-player games: Deal each player a third of the deck, start a discard pile in front of each player, and discard only onto the discard piles in front of other players. (The rules also claim a four-player variant, but this is a tournament format, not for four players competing at the same time.)