2 – 5 players.
Play time: ~20 minutes.
BGG LinkLogged plays: 2

So PAX Unplugged was a lot of fun! As I mentioned in my Newsboys review, Saashi & Saashi was at the show and I got to buy a lot of their games! I usually have to import them and that’s a whole thing. Would love to see them come back to subsequent shows! They have a lot of great games. It’s a short game this time, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

In 1 A.M. Jailbreak, it’s time to get out! You’ve got a crew and you need to get everyone out before it’s too late! The tunnel isn’t … particularly stable, but you trust your team and that will hopefully be enough. Naturally, not all of you are probably going to make it out, but that’s not a huge problem as long as you’re not the ones who get stuck (or collapsed on!). So get folks together and plan and diagram: it’s time for a jailbreak!

Contents

Setup

Shuffle the cards and make a deck, based on player count:

  • 2 players: Five sets of 1 – 8 / two Leader Cards
  • 3 players: Seven sets of 1 – 8 / three Leader Cards
  • 4 players: Nine sets of 1 – 8 / four Leader Cards
  • 5 players: Eleven sets of 1 – 8 / five Leader Cards

Shuffle the cards together and deal each player twelve. Place five more face-up to form the jail cell. Place the Daybreak card on the bottom of the deck, and you should be ready to start!

Gameplay

Lots to do! This one’s not too hard. Your goal is to escape prison and get your group out! Just be careful; the tunnel isn’t very stable.

Each turn, you either play a group of cards or pass. Before you play a group of cards, you can choose to Shoot Ahead by adding one card to the previously-played group that’s still valid. A group is valid if it is either:

  • A run of cards (1 2 3 4 5, for instance, but they can be any length)
  • A set of cards (7 7 7 7, for instance, but they can be any length)

So if you were to add to a set of 3s, you would Shoot Ahead with a 3, and if you were to add to a run (2 3 4, for instance), you’d have to Shoot Ahead with a 1 or a 5. Either way, then you play a group! A group is either a run or a set that is one larger, one smaller, or the same size as the previous group. So Shooting Ahead lets you potentially extend the size of the group you can play next!

If you Pass, you discard all the cards currently in the Tunnel.

Either way, you can draw one or two cards at the end of your turn. You must draw at least one, and if you passed, you must draw two. Then it’s the next player’s turn.

Once a player runs out of cards in their hand, they’re out! They’ve broken free! At two players, that ends the round; with more players, continue playing until a second player has broken out. Out players no longer play in the round. If the Daybreak card on the bottom of the deck is drawn, the round ends!

At the end of the round, any player who went out gets 0, and otherwise players score -1 point for each card left in their hand. Start a new round, and then after three rounds, the player with the highest (closest to 0, I suppose) score wins!

Player Count Differences

There are pretty significant differences at various player counts, with this one. The most glaring difference is in setup, just because you have to separate out the various sets of cards for your player count. The cards aren’t really marked in any particular way, so your best bet is mostly making sets of cards as needed. During play, the game is pretty straightforward at higher player counts: it always takes two players dropping out for the round to end. At two players, however, the round can’t end with two players dropping out; who would be left? So only one player needs to go out for the round to end and the other player to get negative points. I feel like that’s a bit abrupt, but what can you do? I’d like the rounds to go a bit longer, so I tend towards 1 A.M. Jailbreak with more players. Really enjoyed it at five, for instance!

Strategy

  • Generally, try to keep a decent set of cards in your hand. Just have options between sets or runs! You want to be able to play four or five cards at once on your turn.
  • There may be nothing you can do, if you get hit with a player dropping a large set or run. You can’t really expect to win a round if you always keep every possible option in your hand, and that sometimes means you have three 3s and the player before you plays six 4s. You can’t play past that, so you have to collapse the tunnel and try again. Just make sure you draw cards that will help you.
  • Sometimes it’s not bad to draw two cards instead of one at the end of your turn. If the size of the group has been consistently pretty large, it may not be a bad idea to grab two cards so you can go out and play a larger group of cards on your turn. It’s risky, since you’re losing an extra point if the round ends before your next turn, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose?
  • Shooting ahead is a great way to extend a previous player’s run so you can play an even larger set of cards. If that’s what you need to do, Shoot Ahead! Since the previous run is now larger, your group size options have increased by one, which is pretty great.
  • You can also Shoot Ahead to get rid of singletons from your hand that are otherwise tough to play. If you’re stuck with a single card, sometimes you can get lucky and Shoot Ahead to place it in a run or a set of cards. You don’t even have to play a bigger group after! You can play one of the same size or smaller if that works better for you, but getting rid of singletons is always a good idea.
  • If you can play more cards than the next player has, you may be able to force them to collapse the tunnel instead of playing. Just try to see how many cards they have! It could work out.
  • Leader Cards are pretty handy! You can use them to be any number, which can help you make sets or runs without much issue. I usually try to keep one until I need to make a big play, just so I have the option.

Pros, Mehs, and Cons

Pros

  • I love the art in this game. It’s very whimsical. It’s got a bit of the Paddington 2 pink prisoner uniforms but also the classic Saashi & Saashi vibe to it. Probably the most fun and charm you can get out of a game themed around prison, I suppose.
  • Plays pretty quickly! The three rounds here are purposeful, since they change who the start player is (and that does feel like it matters a bit), but even then, you can definitely get the game down to 20 minutes if you have a division of labor around shuffling and dealing cards.
  • I like the up-and-down effect for this ladder-climbing-style game. I’m glad you don’t have to do the complicated “always play a better hand” ladder-climbing thing. Here, you just need to play a group of cards that’s one larger than, one smaller than, or the same size as the previous group, so the required number of cards is always shifting, which is pretty cool.
  • Collapsing the tunnel is a lot of fun, just because you get to clump up all the cards. You’re clumping them into the discard pile, which narratively definitely feels like they all died, but we don’t have time to unpack that in this particular review. Clumping a bunch of cards is fun, though, at least.
  • Shooting ahead is a great move! Really elevates the game. The move lets you add a card to the previous group, which is cool! You can remove a card that wasn’t benefiting you or take a risk to potentially expand the group of cards you can play on your turn. It’s a particular flourish to Shoot ahead and then immediately go out, but I’ve seen it. I respect it.
  • Pretty portable, which is always nice. Love a small box card game! They’re usually the perfect size to fit a ton in my carry-on, which I love.

Mehs

  • Separating the cards for various player counts can be a bit of a drag. It would be nice if there were icons on the cards you needed to remove to make this a bit faster, rather than the most expedient option just being making sets of 8 cards and then taking the correct number of sets for your player count.

Cons

  • At two players, the round can be kind of erratic since only one player has to go out. It’s abrupt when someone dropping out just sticks the other player with a bunch of negative points, and it kind of takes the wind out of a player’s sails. Sometimes you’re setting up for a big play and having the round end before you can drop it feels bad.
  • The rulebook makes the game feel more complicated than it is. It’s got a certain flow to it that didn’t immediately make sense to us, but rulebook writing is as much art as it is science. We were fairly confused, initially, though.

Overall: 8.25 / 10

Overall, I think 1 A.M. Jailbreak is a blast! I particularly like it at higher player counts, as the volatility tends to work out as you see players increase and decrease the overall size of the group of cards that needs to be played to advance. It’s a nice game for card game fans, though the rulebook made us fear it was more complicated than it actually ended up being. The art is impeccable, as Saashi & Saashi games tends to be, mixing the silliness of a massive multicolored prison escape with the whimsical character art the publisher’s games are known for. Big fan. Beyond the art, however, my favorite aspect is the strategic move of Shooting Ahead. Here, you can add a card to the previous group, where valid, to give yourself a larger group to build off of next turn. That opens so many interesting options and allows for a nice bit of player flexibility. Couldn’t tell you the number of games like this where I get stuck with a useless card in my hand, and here, rather than having a bad turn, I can potentially use it to enhance my next play. It’s great! When it works. I wasn’t as keen on this at two players, just because it feels like the rounds can come down to luck more intensely than at higher player counts. You only need one person to break out to end the round, and so your hand’s composition matters a lot. That feels less impactful at 3+, since you need a second person to drop out and the hand quality tends to amortize across the group. That said, this is a nice and portable card game that plays well with more people, so hopefully I can take it with me to more events and conventions to play with folks. It’s nicely portable, so it’s possible. If you’re looking for a ladder-climbing-style card game, you enjoy Saashi & Saashi, or you’re just strategizing on how to break your fave out of jail, 1 A.M. Jailbreak is a solid game to try out! I’d recommend it.

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