Take It Easy casts a shockingly big shadow. For such an honestly light and quick little game, its core mechanic of Bingo with strategy has been used in what has to be hundreds of designs at this point. And while many of those designs haven't made it to the formal publication stage (I look at a lot of design contests and free PnP files and other prototypes), there is no denying its influence.
While the term multiplayer solitaire gets used as a pejorative for games that have minimal or only indirect interaction, Take It Easy is an example of a true multiplayer solitaire. Nothing anyone else is doing has any effect on you. Everyone has their own board and there is no difference between a solitaire game and an auditorium where the moves are being shouted out to everyone over a loudspeaker. More than that, play is simultaneous, which makes playing with a big group actually viable.
There have a been a couple of waves of Bingo With Strategy games, with the first ones being from creators who clearly grew up with Take It Easy. Reiner Knizia's Take It Higher is a clear example of that. I think Karuba is a particularly creative use of the core mechanic. And the increase in Roll and Writes led to dice-based uses of the mechanic because that seriously cuts back on the amount of components. However, 2020 with the need for games that you could play while social distancing made the mechanic explode.
And, let's be honest. Multiplayer solitaires can be played as flat out solitaires without changing anything. Which is honestly what drew me to them. I could have the actual experience of playing the game without feeling like I was playing a lesser version. And, again, what with the explosion of interest in Bingo With Strategy games, I am sure I am not alone.
And some of these games can be surprisingly complex, using dice pools and economic systems. I am pretty sure there are some war games that use Bingo With Strategy as a core mechanic, even if that's not where my interests really lie. Creators have done a lot with the idea and I'm sure some of them haven't even heard of Take It Easy. Which makes me ask, how does Take it Easy, which just consists of trying to make colored lines cross a hexagon, hold up?
The answer is surprisingly well.
Personally, in addition to being a game I routinely go back to for solitaire play, Take It Easy is one of the most successful games I've found to introduce to non-gamers and I've even had it requested. In fact, while when I first tried to get a copy, it was hard to find, it seems to have been in print and easy to find for many years.
And I think the key to what makes Take It Easy work and what has always made it work is not that it is simple (And to be fair, it is very simple) It is that Take It Easy is unforgiving. Once a line is broken, there is no mitigating factors. That line is done. Since the tiles are a known factor, there is room to make educated guesses. However, its still always a gamble. The 'wrong' tile can bring your plans down like a house of cards in a hurricane. That means that there is tension and getting a good score is actually meaningful.
Take It Easy took a while to become influential. From what I can tell, literally a generation. Some ideas take time to catch on. However, it’s always been a good game.
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