

There is one rule that appears to be different (or at least up for interpretation) in this iOS game versus when Brett and I would play Skip-Bo with our Nana. Without any way to remind players to take their turns, odds are you may end up having to drop out of these matches, without ever completing the game. If you have an unresponsive player in your “Quick Match” it will last indefinitely until the player whose turn it is finally makes his or her move.

However, in actuality it doesn’t always work out this way. While games involving friends have no time limit and support nudging your friends to take their turn, the latter Quick Match must be played in one session, to ensure speedy gameplay. Skip-Bo also supports multi-player games of 2-4 players, allowing for inviting specific friends, or via a Quick Match. For these, you can select between Normal & Hard difficulty, but I have found that even on Normal level there is a good balance of gameplay. I have primarily been playing 2-player Solo vs. And since you can only play cards from the tops of your discard piles, you need to be sure you don’t bury a card you will need later. So you need to figure out which cards you should or shouldn’t play to not only help yourself, but also to prevent your opponent(s) from being able to pare down their own Stock piles. You can only see the card at the top of your opponents’ Stock piles, and what is in their Discard piles. While the game itself is quite simple, there is a lot of strategy involved.
SKIP BO RULES PLUS
You receive 25 points for winning the game, plus another 5 points for each card left in your opponents’ Stock piles. On the other hand, in Tournament Mode, the winner is the first to 500 points–or highest score after 4 games–whichever comes first. In Single Game Mode, the winner is the first to deplete his Stock pile–it doesn’t matter what’s left in your hand or in your Discard piles. Skip-Bo features two distinct modes of play, Single Game and Tournament. At the end of your turn you must discard one card to one of your Discard piles. If you run out of cards in your hand, you draw five more and continue. On your turn, you play cards from your hand, Stock pile and Discard piles to the four common Building piles. Cards are played in numerical order until the Building pile is built up to the number 12, and then it is reset. Each of these must be started with either a 1 or a wild Skip-Bo card (which is equivalent to any number). There are four common Building piles in the center of the game. However, these piles are last in, first out–cards can only be played from the tops of the piles. Cards played to a Discard pile do not need to be in any particular order.

These are built up as the game progresses. Each player also has 4 Discard piles, which are for his own use only. The goal is to be the first player to deplete his stock pile of cards by building piles of cards in numerical order.Įach player starts with a hand of 5 cards plus a face-down Stock pile of cards–with the top card turned up. If you’ve never played Skip-Bo before, here’s a quick overview: Now Onestepmobile brings this classic numerical Mattel card game to your iOS devices. My grandmother first introduced me to the Skip-Bo card game 25+ years ago, and growing up, my twin brother (and AppAddict founder) Brett, and I would play every week with her.
