Go Go Go Play Go! Go! Go!

Why should you play Go! Go! Go!? Critics are raving:

"Even more fun than destroying pets in the Battledome!" - Grarrg

"Me likey when Uggsul take pile. Ha ha ha" - Sargug

"Ugga uggh ugg ugga ug ugga!" - Bacheek

How can you resist?!

GAMEPLAY

So now that you've been enticed into playing, let's go over how the game works. I recommend you actually read this part before just jumping into the game because some parts can be somewhat confusing.

There are four players - you and three CPUs. Each person is dealt an initial hand consisting of three faceup cards, three facedown cards, and three cards in your hand. Play rotates in a clockwise direction and players each take turn playing cards and then taking cards from the Deck. The person who gets rid of all their cards first wins! The objective is simple, but gameplay gets a little more complicated.

You first have to get rid of all the cards in your hand, then all of your faceup cards, and then finally all of your facedown cards. But before we discuss this, let's talk about how you get rid of your cards in the first place - that's the most important part of the game!

The Stack is where you play your cards, and the Deck is where you draw cards from. On your turn, you play a legal card on top of the Stack, and then pick up a card from the Deck. Eventually, the Deck will run out of cards. Here are the rules about which cards to play:

- In general, you must play a card that is equal to or greater than the card that is on the Stack. So for example, if a 5 is on top of the stack, you have to play a 5 or higher. If you have multiples of the same card, you can play them at the same time (so if a 5 is on top of the Stack, you can play two 6s).

- If a 3 is on top of the stack, you can only play an odd card (3, 5, 7, 9, Jack, King).

- If a 4 is on top of the stack, you can only play an even card (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Queen, Ace).

- 2s are wild and can be played on top of every card (except a 3 because 2 is even).

- 10s clear the pile - all the cards in the Stack pile are discarded and you get to play another card! You can also clear the pile if you play the fourth card in a set. For example, if Myncha plays one 4, Tekeli-Li plays two 4s, and you play the last 4--you clear the pile and get to make another move!

If you cannot make a legal play, you have to pick up all the cards in the Stack Pile. (If you can't remember all of these rules, don't worry - the game will tell you if you're trying to make an illegal play. You'll also come to remember them over time.) The Stack Pile then has 0 cards and the next person gets to play any card. While you have more than 3 cards in your hand, you do not have to draw a card from the Deck. You only draw from the Deck if you have less than 3 cards in your hand.

Gameplay continues in this fashion until all the cards in the Deck are gone. Then things get a little bit interesting. Once there are no cards in the deck, you don't have to draw any cards. You keep playing until all the cards in your hand are gone. This can be harder than it sounds - if you get stuck with a low card, like a 4, as your last card you may have to pick up the Stack several times before you finally get rid of your entire hand.

Now all of the cards in your hand are gone. Hooray! You've won the game! Wait a second, what are those six cards sitting at the bottom of your screen? Can't forget about those; you're not quite done yet.

You can only access your faceup cards when you have no more cards in your hand. Play each faceup card like you would with the cards in your hand. The catch is, if you cannot make a legal play with any of the cards in your faceup section, you are forced to play one of those cards and then take the entire stack (including the card you tried to play). These cards now all go to your hand, and you're essentially back to square one. You cannot play the other cards left in your faceup section until you get rid of all the newly added cards in your hand.

Now you're seriously frustrated at your terrible luck; you keep going through the game and finally get rid of all the cards in your hand and get lucky enough to get rid of all of your faceup cards. You're in the final stretch! Don't give up! Now you just have to get rid of your three face down cards and--oh wait, you have no idea what those cards are!

This part of the game is mostly luck. The facedown cards can be anything, and you don't know what they are until you play them. You are very likely to make an illegal play and have to pick up all the cards in the stack. Then it's the same scenario as with the faceup cards--get rid of all the cards in your hand again until you can use the other facedown cards. Eventually you will get lucky, though, and if you're the first of the four to get rid of all your cards, you win!

Go! Go! Go! may sound frustrating, and trust me--it is, but there are some ways to guarantee victory a little more often. Also if it makes you feel better, the computers don't usually have better luck than you do (at least at the earlier levels).

STRATEGY

Here are some important pointers to use in order to make sure you get rid of your cards as quickly as possible.

- Always play the lowest card allowed. If you can play any card, always play a 3 or a 4 if possible. If not, play your next lowest card (DON'T count 2s! Remember that 2s are wild.) I'm going to contradict this later on, but this is the default strategy you should always use.

- Save your 2s and 10s until they're absolutely needed. Remember that using a 10 will give you an extra play after you clear the pile. If you have a 10 as a faceup card, use that one last unless you have to pick up a stack with more than 10 cards. If you save your 10 for last, you guarantee you can legally play a facedown card.

- If you get off to a bad start at the beginning of a round, don't worry about it--it's hard for any player to get an advantage over another in the beginning because each player still has to draw cards. This won't become a problem until you're out of Deck cards.

- Try to always leave one odd and one even card in your hand so you don't have to pick up the pile because of a 3 or a 4. Do this even if it means playing a high card!

- Even if in the end you know you're going to lose the round, stick it out - you'll earn more neopoints than it cost you to play the game in the first place.

- Pay attention to how many cards your opponents have - you can visibly see the amount of faceup and facedown cards they have left, and the number of cards in their hand is listed underneath their picture.

- If the player after you is getting close to winning, play your highest card and try to stop him. For example, if Bacheek will play after you, and his faceup cards are a 5 and an 8, playing a 9 will force him to pick up the pile and will lessen his chance of winning. If the player after you has only faceup cards, just play your highest card and hopefully he won't beat it.

ROUNDS

This game is just too much fun to only play once! Like with Cheat! and Snow Wars, there are different rounds that consist of different opponents. There are eight rounds in total. You can only advance to the next round once you in first place in your current round. If you get any other place, you'll have to repeat the round you're currently on. Hey, it could be worse. How would you like to lose on Round 5 and start all the way back at Round 1?

PRIZES

It costs 50 NP to play, but you'll win a varying amount of NP each round depending on what you placed and which round you're in. The only time you won’t win NP is when you come in dead last. It's also pretty easy to win a trophy!

• Winning Round 2 will earn you a bronze trophy
• Winning Round 5 will earn you a silver trophy
• Winning Round 8 will earn you a gold trophy and the rights to call yourself a Go! Go! Go! CHAMPION!!

I have to warn you, though, Round 8 is very hard, and very frustrating. If you do want to go for the gold, I would try to spread out gameplay over several days. Or a week. Or maybe a few months. It took me a while to get gold because I get frustrated very easily and never wanted to play again. But in the end it's worth having the shiny trophy on your user lookup!

Now that you know exactly how to win, go go go play Go! Go! Go!