How to play Crazy Eights
Crazy Eights is the shedding game the whole family of colour-and-number card games grew out of. You are dealt seven cards, one is turned up to start the pile, and you take turns playing a card that matches the top one by suit or by rank. Eights are wild: play one on anything and name the suit that follows. First player to empty their hand wins. Play against the computer at three difficulties, or against a friend online.
How to play
- Play a card that matches the top of the pile by suit or by rank.
- An eight can be played on anything. When you play one you name the suit that is in play next, and that suit is no longer the eight’s own — it is whatever you called.
- If you cannot play, draw a card from the pile and your turn continues.
- If the draw pile is empty and you still cannot play, you pass.
- Go out by playing your last card. If both players are stuck and the pile is gone, the smaller hand wins — an eight left in your hand costs fifty.
Tips & strategy
- Save at least one eight for when you are genuinely stuck. Spending one early to escape a suit you could have drawn out of is usually a waste.
- An eight in your hand at the end costs fifty points, so if the hand is heading for a block, get rid of it.
- Watch which suit they draw on. A player who draws instead of playing has just told you they hold nothing in that suit and no eight at all.
- When you play an eight, call the suit you hold most of — not the one you think they lack, unless you have actually watched them fail to play it.
Accessibility
The suit in play is always written out in words, not just shown as a symbol, because after an eight it is a declaration rather than a property of the card on the pile. A card you cannot play is disabled and says "not playable" — dimming is only a convenience on top. Playing an eight opens a separate suit chooser whose four buttons carry the suit word as well as the glyph.