Day 179 – Played Mikado

I’d only heard of Mikado in relation to long thin biscuit sticks, coated in chocolate, based on the Japanese Pocky – I’d no idea it was a game until I came upon a cheap set in a local shop. Intrigued, I decided to pick it up and try it out for today’s new thing.

I had thought, given that Mikado is the name of a Japanese emporer, that the game would have originated in Japan, but I was surprised to learn that according to Wikipedia, it was actually created in Hungary.

The aim of the game is simple – pick up one stick at a time, without moving any others. Each stick is worth a set amount of points, and the aim is to get the most points possible. Helpful for this, is picking up the Mikado, the only stick of it’s type that is not only worth the most points, but also allows the user to special abilities such as moving for a better angle, and being able to use it in assisting move another stick. For a simple concept I thought the game would be quite easy. Nope!

Mikado requires a steady hand and nerves of steel – so it wasn’t such a great idea to have a drink whilst we played! There were a few arguments over whether the other sticks wobbled or not, but I generally conceded as, well, I was drinking wine.

We spent a good half an hour on one game, and it got so tense that neither of us dare speak. To say this was a bit of a spontaneous purchase, I was really surprised by how much we enjoyed it. I could imagine it being so much fun with more people, but I’m not sure you’d all be on speaking terms by the end! I’ll definitely be bringing this out again for a games night