The Looney’s have good ideas.
They’re also great at franchising those good ideas.
But holy god, they are exceedingly mediocre at turning good ideas into good games.
Usually their development process is just good enough if you embrace the game on its terms (Aquarius, Nanofictionary). It’s telling that Zendo is the only great game to go with their brilliant concept of the Icehouse pyramids (and you could argue that Zendo barely a game).
When you make a habit of inhabiting the “good enough” zone, you’re bound to drop a deuce and this was a stinker. I have no idea what is the appeal of Loonacy, much less how it has managed to be published in its multitude of iterations.
I don’t regret the purchase, the game was on sale at steep discount and the pictures are pretty enough. I’ll keep the game around so maybe I’ll find out what I’m missing one day.
We haven’t played this game since the initial plays a couple months ago. I should get my wife and mother in law to play a four player game with my daughter to find out what I might be overlooking. Or maybe not. Odds are pretty high that this will be yet another inhabitant in my big box of small un-played card games.