When I first played Doomlings two or three years ago (it was before my newly two-year-old was born, but we can’t remember if I was pregnant when we played), I played three rounds of the first game, stared into my partner’s soul, and told him we needed this game. I received it as a gift the following Christmas, but we have rarely had the opportunity to break out board games. Turns out, infants and toddlers are not the most conducive to board gaming.

Last night, I had the opportunity to play it again. The rules were easy to pick back up–it is largely a game of “reading the card explains the card,” in which you do your best to earn as many points as you can. There’s a timer system for ending the game; there are three sets of rounds, each with three general global effects cards and one round-set ender. The individual card mechanics and general global effects were quite clear. I’ve played plenty of games with complex rules that need to be checked repeatedly. The timer system is the only thing that gave us trouble; it is a little unclear how the round-set end trigger works, and we had a small dispute over whether to move directly from round-set end into the next set or if we were supposed to complete a round at the round-set end. All of that is to say, the rules are clearer than most but in their simplicity might have missed identifying occasional issues. Hence the nine stars instead of ten.

This science fiction-ish game is light, quick, and easy to learn. It’s just as fun with larger group (I first played with a group of five or six) and with smaller (last night was a group of three). The box is small, which is nice for portability, and the cards are easy to differentiate and sort (reset for a second game took less than five minutes). I’d venture to say that this game could be played by just about any child capable of reading and understanding moderately complex words–say around age seven or eight, maybe younger if they’ve been playing complex board games and are strong readers.