Wouter & Ymke 
There’s something slightly uncomfortable about sitting at a table where everybody can see your numbers except you. That’s basically the whole idea behind Got Five!, and it works better than I expected.
Every player has five hidden numbered tiles in front of them, but the numbers face outward, so only the other players can see them. You spend the game slowly trying to figure out what’s sitting right in front of your nose by using clues, visible tiles, and a bit of logic.
👥 2-4 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 15 minutes
📝 Designer: Yoann Levet
🎨 Artwork: Mathieu Clauss & Simon Douchy
🏢 Publisher: Blue Orange Games (Dutch/French version review copy provided by Geronimo Games)
Gameplay Overview
At the start of the game, every player gets five hidden tiles, one in each colour, arranged in ascending order on a stand. Everybody else can see your numbers, but you can’t see your own. Five extra tiles are placed face up near the supply, and those become the shared information everyone uses during the game.
On your turn, you first reveal a new tile from the supply and add it to the visible pool. After that, you choose one of those tiles and ask a neighbouring player for a clue. One clue type is about placement. Your neighbour places the chosen tile somewhere relative to your hidden row, showing roughly where it belongs compared to your five hidden numbers. Early in the game, these clues are usually the most useful because they help narrow the possible ranges quite quickly.
The second clue type compares the chosen visible tile with one of your hidden tiles to see whether they share the same number of dots. It sounds small, but later in the game those yes-or-no answers become surprisingly important because they start confirming or eliminating very specific possibilities.
At any point, even when it’s not your turn, you can announce “Got Five!” and guess your five hidden numbers in order. If you’re right, you win immediately. If you’re wrong, you’re out of the game. Those final guesses ended up being one of my favourite parts. There’s always that moment where you think: “Okay… I’m probably right.” And then your brain immediately answers: “Yes, but what if you’re completely wrong?”
Artwork, Components, and Visual Design
The production is simple, but it works really well for this type of game. Inside the box you get colourful numbered tiles, four stands, deduction boards, screens, and dry-erase markers. Nothing excessive, because the game doesn’t really need anything more. Most of the experience comes from reading information clearly and quickly, and the components support that well.
The deduction boards work nicely. You spend a lot of the game crossing things out, rewriting guesses, doubting yourself, rubbing things away, then writing almost the same thing down again five minutes later. Maybe that says more about us than the game. Still, the erasable boards fit the experience perfectly because they let players adjust their thinking without feeling punished for making a wrong assumption earlier in the game.
Visually, Got Five! goes for bright colours and oversized numbers. The little faces and expressions on the tiles also give the game more personality than it would otherwise have. Some of the tiles honestly looked as confused as we felt halfway through the game. I also liked that the game stays visually clean. There’s enough colour to keep things lively, but not so much that the table becomes messy or difficult to read.
People looking for a strong theme or story probably won’t find much here. The artwork is playful, but at the end of the day you are still mostly staring at numbers and trying to out-think your friends.
Our Experience
Early turns are mostly about creating rough ranges and trying to understand where your numbers could sit. The placement clues feel very important at that stage because they give structure to the puzzle. Later on, once more tiles and clues are visible, the comparison clues become much more useful because you start confirming very specific possibilities instead of broad ranges.
At the beginning, everybody is surrounded by possibilities. Later, the number space becomes smaller and smaller until several players suddenly feel close to solving everything at the same time. Those final rounds created some of our favourite moments because everybody starts second-guessing themselves while trying not to reveal it to the table.
The moment somebody thinks they know the answer, the whole table suddenly pays attention. Since you can declare “Got Five!” at almost any moment, the game becomes a balancing act between confidence and risk. Wait too long and somebody else may solve their puzzle first. Guess too early and you can remove yourself from the game completely. We had one moment where somebody was absolutely convinced they had the right answer, only to immediately realise they mixed up two numbers. The table reaction to that was priceless.
At the same time, I can also see why this game won’t work for everybody. The game is very abstract. If you need strong themes, storytelling, negotiation, or lots of direct interaction, this may feel a little dry after a few plays. The puzzle itself is enjoyable, but it stays a puzzle from start to finish.
I also think the game works better with three or four players than with two. More players means more clues entering between turns, and that makes the puzzle feel more alive. With only two players, the game still works perfectly fine, but it loses a little bit of that shared table energy.
Our Thoughts
I think Got Five! works best when you approach it with the right expectations. This feels much more like a game you bring out because the table wants a shared puzzle for twenty minutes, not because you’re planning the entire evening around it. That worked well at our table because the game never wastes time trying to become something bigger or more complicated than it actually is.
Most people around our table understood the idea almost immediately. After one or two turns, everybody already knew what kind of information they should pay attention to. That makes it very easy to bring to mixed groups or casual players who normally panic the second a rule explanation starts sounding complicated.
Even though the game is simple, we still found ourselves debating which clue would actually help the most instead of just picking randomly. A couple of turns looked straightforward at first, until somebody pointed out a clue we completely ignored three rounds earlier. Those little moments made us pay much closer attention than we expected at first.
I also liked that the game gives you just enough information to keep doubting yourself. A few times we felt convinced we had solved everything, only to realise one small assumption ruined the whole chain of deductions. If you already enjoy sitting there crossing out possibilities and slowly narrowing things down, I can see this staying enjoyable for quite a while.
At the same time, the game depends heavily on the audience. If your group mainly enjoys story-heavy games or direct player conflict, this may simply not scratch the same itch. The fun here comes almost entirely from deduction, observation, and slowly piecing information together.
I also don’t know if I’d personally play it five times in a row in one evening. The structure stays fairly similar between games, even if the exact puzzle changes every time. But the game doesn’t really need that kind of marathon session anyway. It felt much better as something to bring out once or twice between heavier titles or at the start of a game night.
I came away liking Got Five! more than I expected. What surprised me most is how often everybody stayed focused on the table, even during somebody else’s turn. For a small deduction game, that alone says a lot. It’s approachable, easy to bring to mixed groups, and gives players enough little victories and mistakes to keep the whole thing fun from beginning to end.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Geronimo Games.
