AIEOU

The Game

AIEOU is a local Malaysian design, by Nicholas Hing. At first I kept thinking the game is called AEIOU (E before I). It took me a while to realise I had it wrong. The name of the game is pronounced as "Aiyo!" and not letter by letter: "A-I-E-O-U". 

AIEOU looks like an educational game, but it isn't really one. There is an educational element, but this is primarily a speed game. It works as a party game, as a casual game, and it works for children too. The game comes with four sets of rules, so it is four games in one box, a little like Spot It. The games are more different than those in Spot It though. 

The top row is the card backs. They come in different colours, with different vowels, and the vowels can be either black or white. There are three card types in the game - bronze, silver and gold - corresponding to different difficulty levels. However you can't tell the type from the card back. You can only tell it by looking at the front. The bottom row are the vowel pieces. 

These are the bronze cards. All of them have simple words missing just one vowel. The pictures on the cards are necessary, so that there is no ambiguity what the missing vowels are. C_P is missing an A and not a U. It's CAP, not CUP. The colour of the card edge indicates that these are the bronze cards. 

The silver cards are missing two or more letters. 

The gold cards are missing even more letters. Some are missing consonants in addition to vowels. TOOTHBRUSH is not only missing O and U, it is also missing B and H. The choice of card type affects the difficulty of the game. Some game modes allow using more than one card type. 

Let's look at the four game modes one by one, starting with Grab It. You set up a game by shuffling the deck and putting it face-down in the middle of the table. Put all five vowel pieces around it, leaving space for a face-up card. Your objective is to claim as many cards as possible. When a round starts, draw one card from the deck and place it face-up next to the deck. Everyone tries to identify the missing letter as quickly as possible, and grab the corresponding vowel piece. Whoever grabs the right vowel piece first wins the card. 

That's the basic idea. Now here are some complications. In the photo above, there are actually two missing letters, A and I. You need to look at the colour of the vowel of the draw deck. If it is white, you refer to the first missing letter of the word. If it is black, the last. So in this example, you should be looking at A, the first missing letter. The next complication is this. You need to consider the vowel on the card deck too, in this case an E. If the missing vowel and the vowel on the draw deck are the same, you don't race to grab the vowel piece. Instead you have to shout AIEOU (Aiyo). 

The next complication is the mistakes. If you make any mistake, i.e. grabbing the wrong vowel piece, grabbing a vowel piece when you should be shouting Aiyo, or shouting Aiyo when you should be grabbing a vowel piece, you will be penalised. You not only don't get to claim the card of the round, you also have to give up one of your cards to the winner of the round. So you have to be careful. 

In this situation above, instead of grabbing the A piece, you have to shout Aiyo to win the card. 

You play until only one card remains in the draw deck. Whoever has the most cards at that point wins the game.  

Let's look at the second game mode - Speed Spells. This is the opposite of Grab It - you want as few cards as possible. Every round one card is revealed, and everyone must identify the missing vowels as quickly as possible. Whoever is slowest is penalised. He must claim the card of the round. 

Before playing this mode, a hand of five cards - A, I, E, O, U - must be prepared for each player, assembled from unused cards. For example if you are playing with gold cards, you can use silver cards for these. The hand cards are turned face-down and shuffled. They will only be turned face-up once a round starts. Once a round concludes, they are turned face-down and shuffled again before the next round starts. 

To set up a game, a number of vowel pieces are placed on the table - one fewer than the number of players. When a round starts, a card is flipped open and placed at the centre of the table. Everyone races to identify the missing vowels. You pick them from your hand, lay them down, then grab a vowel piece (any one will do). Whoever is slowest will not have a vowel piece to grab and will thus be penalised. 

In the photo above, the word WATERMELON is missing A, E, E and O. The word is missing R too, but that's a consonant so you ignore that. E is missing twice so you ignore the second occurrence. The right way to lay out your cards is A-E-O. The player at the top left has the wrong combination and will be penalised. The player at the bottom right has the right combination but the wrong order, and will also be penalised. Here the penalty is taking extra cards, not giving away cards. 

In this photo, the word DUMBBELL is missing U, B, E and L. Ignore the consonants, so the correct combination is U-E. The player at the top left has the wrong order and will be penalised. 

The third game mode is Match'em. As preparation, you deal all cards in play equally to all players to each form a face-down deck. Place one vowel piece at the centre of the table. When a round starts, everyone flips open one card from his deck and places it in front of him, possibly covering any cards left over from previous rounds. Now you try to find a pair of cards among those just flipped over which have the exact same combination of missing vowels. If you can find such a pair, grab the vowel, then point out the pair of cards. If you are right, you claim both cards and any cards stacked below them. If you are wrong, you will be penalised. The game ends when everyone's card deck runs out. The player with the most cards wins. The face-up stacks in front of players sometimes can become quite thick, which makes the game very exciting. Everyone will be eyeing and trying to win the thick stacks. 

The fourth mode is Memory Buzz. This is a memory game instead of a speed game. You need to memorise a sequence of numbers and objects, which keeps growing. Players take turns memorising the sequence and extending the sequence. At any time, anyone may challenge the active player if he believes the active player has made a mistake. The sequence is checked, and if a mistake was indeed made, the active player is penalised and must take all face-up cards. If it turns out to be a false accusation, the challenger is penalised instead. When the deck runs out, whoever has the fewest cards wins. 

For Memory Buzz, the letters A, I, E, O, U represent the numbers 1 to 5 respectively. 

When a round starts, you flip over the top card of the deck. Using the example above, the card being flipped over is the DUMBBELL. At this time the draw deck shows an A, which represents 1. The active player must say, "One dumbbell". 

The next player now flips over another card. It is WATERMELON. The draw deck now shows A. The active player must say, "One dumbbell, one watermelon". The previous card is fully covered and you can no longer see what it is. 

The next player must say, "One dumbbell, one watermelon, four butterflies".  O is 4. 

The following player should say, "One dumbbell, one watermelon, four butterflies, four teapots". Let say he makes a mistake and says something else. Someone else challenges him. Now all the cards in the face-up stack will be examined to see whether a mistake was indeed made. Once confirmed, the active player is forced to take all these cards. 

The Play

I played the first three modes with my family. My children are secondary school students now. When I first saw the game components, I was concerned whether this was a game meant to teach primary school students English words. If so, my children would not be in the right age group. Only after reading the rules I understood that this is not a game to teach English. It is a speed game (and one memory game) and not an educational game.  It is a game of quick thinking and fast reactions, and not a game of English competency. 

Since it is a speed game, it naturally demands full attention and tends to be exciting. The penalty aspect is a key element. That is what makes you hesitate. It torments you. You can't just randomly grab a vowel piece or scream Aiyo. Due to this tension of needing to tread carefully and wanting to be fast, sometimes you hesitate for just one split second and someone else grabs that vowel piece from under your nose. You know you are right. You have the answer in your mind. But you just want to double check to make sure you are not making a mistake. It's quite funny to see people agonise over this. 

The game forces you to consider many things at once - e.g. whether the draw deck is showing a black or a white vowel, whether the missing vowel is the same one as on the draw deck. None of these elements are difficult. It is the concurrent thinking and the race element which make the game exciting. A number of variant rules are provided if you want to adjust the difficulty level.

The Thoughts

AIEOU is the type of game you'll find at boardgame cafes. It is easy to learn. It works for casual players. It is noisy and absorbing. It works well as a family game too. 

The game is easy to expand. There are only 36 each of bronze, silver and gold cards. Play a few games and you will have seen all of them. 36 is not a lot, but due to the combination of factors you need to consider when you play, it is sufficient to keep the game varied. You can't just memorize the missing vowels of each card. Still, I wish there were more. When expanding the game, the trickier aspect to consider is the balance for the Match'em mode. There needs to be a balance in the combinations of missing vowels. E.g. if only one card in the deck has the combination of A-E-U then it becomes a meaningless card because it will never match with any other card. Also there can't be too many combinations, otherwise there will be too few matches when the game is played.