"Kings go in the corners. Play your cards solitaire fashion and extend your turn as long as you can. Can't make a single play? Pay the pot. First to empty your hand? You win the pot...plus your opponents' point chips for their unplayed cards! Reach 100 points? You win the game."
—description from the publisher
Each round, the players shuffle a regular card deck (included), deal out hands of 7 cards and divide up 80 chips among themselves. The shared central playing field is seeded with 4 cards. In turns, each player places cards from their hand into the central field using typical solitaire rules of alternating suit colors and strictly sequential cards in declining value order. Any kings cards in the initial deal or drawn later are placed in the "corner" slots at the player's first opportunity. Solitaire card chains are placed in descending order on the kings.
In the retail version the central playing field is a plastic hub which has four "king" slots and four "tabbed" slots for the available places to build the chains of cards.
"After one player wins the hand by being the first to get rid of all his/her cards, the other players put one chip in the pot for each of the cards remaining in their hand. The winner of the hand receives all the chips in the pot and records the number of chips for his/her score. Each chip is worth one point. All the chips are then collected to be redistributed for the next hand to be played. The first player to accumulate 100 points is the winner of the game."
—description from the publisher
The game length can vary quite a bit to get to 100 points for one player.
- evokes strong nostalgia and memories of childhood games
- simple, accessible family play
- compact components and approachable rules
- some production oddities noted (jokers in deck not used, box lid design quirks)
- potential quality issues with glue/parts and aging components
- card management with corner placement
- family/card game session, casual play at home
- nostalgic, retro
- Original Kings in the Corner (1986 version)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card placement — players place kings in the corner spaces and play other cards in non-corner areas
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is a haunted game and it's going to live in a place of honor in this studio for the rest of eternity.
- If Rush is involved, I'm walking out.
- This version came out just like 4 years ago.
- The game of 49 remade with a theme.
- Rush even signed the inside of the box.