When Swish arrived on my doorstep to check out, because of its name, I assumed it was a basketball game. For those that don’t know, you are legally obligated to say “Swish!” when you make a basket without the ball touching the rim.
Little did I know that this game had nothing to do with sports at all. Instead, it’s a spatial reasoning and pattern-matching game. Was I disappointed? No, actually, as I enjoy spatial puzzles more than basketball. So that’s already a win in my book.
Gameplay Overview:
Swish is made up of 60 transparent cards, each of which has a colored dot and a colored ring (a ball and a hoop, if you will). The cards are dealt out into a 4×4 grid and then each player tries to find a match.
A match occurs when you can layer two cards over each other so every ball perfectly lines up into a matching color hoop. Do that and you score the cards. If you are good, you can even make Swishes of 3, 4, or 5 cards as long as everything lines up. The grid is then refilled, and play continues
The game ends when all cards have been matched up, and whoever collected the most wins.
Game Overview:
Games like Swish are my jam. I love spatial puzzles and Swish definitely has the ability to challenge me. One of the ways it can do that is by trying to find matches on more than two cards. The game is actually fairly easy when you are only looking for a 2 card match, so it’s something I can play with my kids or any non-gamers. People get the concept pretty quickly, whether they are good at it or not is another story.
This is a game where skilled players will have a substantial edge. Either you are good at visualizing the card overlays in your head, or you are not. Some people just don’t have that “mind’s eye”, and they might be at a bit of a disadvantage here. However, the game actually has rules for that, and you can play where younger (or less skilled) players can just find 2-card matches, while others need to find 3 or 4. This was a nice leveler as those extra cards definitely add to the challenge.
As a parent, this is also a great game to play with my kids as I like the skills it teaches them. Rather than many of the memory or dexterity games we play, Swish forces them to think in their heads how things will look. Spatial awareness, pattern matching, and even real time thinking on their feat are all skills they’ll use while playing Swish.
Speaking of kids, mine really enjoy Swish. They’ve asked to play it many times (unprompted by me), which is one of the benchmarks I use on family games. My daughter has even played it solo, just laying out cards and trying to find matches. So this one seems to be a keeper for them
Final Thoughts:
Swish was a hit both with my kids and us parents as well. It’s quick playing, the transparent cards are really durable, and it all fits into a small little pouch. For those that like spatial puzzles, or even just looking to flex those mental muscles, Swish is a great option. It’s small enough to fit on your shelf or in a bag if you are the go, and you can play a game in under 20 minutes.
