Sync or Swim, the frenetic and nervous game that immerses us in synchronized swimming

What is a board game? Sync or Swim ?

Sync or Swim is a nervous and cooperative party game, which simulates a synchronized swimming competition. It’s above all a game with hysterical parts, from which you come out completely exhausted!

Accessible from 10 years old, for 3 to 6 players and games lasting between 30 and 60 minutes, it requires application and a group of friends ready to give their all.

Edited by Iello, Sync or Swim is a game by Divya and Lucas Hedgren, illustrated by Alanna Kelsey, and sold at the price of €24.50 at Philibert.

How do you play it?

Sync or Swim is a cooperative game played in a campaign of fifteen routines. Each routine corresponds to a game and takes place over several rounds. The difficulty increases: each round and each routine is more difficult than the previous one. And above all it is a game that is played in limited time!

An app is essential to play it. In addition to the timer, it is she who guides you through each routine, telling you precisely how to do the setup and the specific rules for each round.

Indeed, each round introduces a new constraint, which must be respected by all the players before the end of the allotted time. The first round of the first game, for example, requires players to all play a card of the same color.

To do this, two cards are randomly distributed to each person. These cards have different characteristics: color, number, etc.

Once the timer starts, the group can discuss, you can pass cards to your teammates, you can even discard cards to draw new ones. But at the end of the round, everyone must have respected the constraints.

Each round, a new constraint is added to the previous ones, making the challenge more and more complicated. Fortunately, we have a few extra seconds each time.

We move on to the next round if all the constraints are respected by everyone. Otherwise we start it again, with a few bonus seconds.

At the end of the game, the application rewards us with a score (in execution, synchronization and difficulty)… like in a real synchronized swimming competition.

Each successful routine unlocks the next one. We progress from routine to routine, where we let the application offer us one randomly. If the first ones are doable (after a few training sessions), the difficulty increases very quickly.

Why play Sync or Swim ?

Let’s be honest: Sync or Swimis a slightly stupid game, rather naughty… but devilishly effective. In the category of party, cooperative and limited-time games, it is undoubtedly one of the most effective.

The atmosphere around the table is crazy. The games are intense, nervous, even hysterical. It’s impossible to stay calm or focused, it’s a total mess because of this damn timer that’s ticking way too fast.

We come away exhausted from a game, both physically and mentally. It’s not easy to start another one immediately, a break is necessary.

There is inevitably a little tension, a few arguments, because of this or that player who only makes mistakes or passes bad cards. But it doesn’t matter, since everyone is laughing, and that’s the goal of this kind of game. It’s a bit like the tabletop and cardboard counterpart of the excellent video game Overcooked . We find the same feeling of panic that overtakes the group in the middle of the game.

The most resistant will obviously complain about the obligation to use an application to play. But we must admit that it is really well done: it explains the setup for each game, precisely details the instructions to follow, serves as a stopwatch, keeps the history of the results, etc. We simply regret a few design elements which are a bit amateurish (text areas that are too tight, etc.) and above all a voice in French that is quite annoying. The voice in the original version, although very shifted, sounds much better.

It also has some surprises and twists in store for you that you wouldn’t expect, but that we won’t reveal here to let you discover them for yourselves. A great idea again.

In short, if you are looking for a party game to set your evenings with friends on fire, Sync or Swimis the perfect candidate. Perhaps avoid playing it with a friend who is a little too soft on the bulb, you will end up hating him by the end of the game. The rules are simple, the application takes you by the hand, everyone can play it. But to succeed in the different routines, you need a coordinated group and a lot of training.

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