20 Questions is a great game to play when you have some time to kill. Check out this video and learn the basic rules of the game. 20 Questions is perfect whether you are in the car, a waiting room or anywhere else and feeling a bit bored. You Will Need. Two or more players. Step 1: Think of an object.
When you’re feeling bored or craving some fun, two-player games can come to your rescue. These let you connect and play with friends online or over the same WiFi network, and sometimes even on the same device. Moreover, there are many options to choose from, such as sports, arcade-style action, adventure quests, word puzzles, quizzes, and more. Try out these best two-player games for iPhone and iPad.
1. 8 Ball Pool
With over a million ratings on the App Store, this is one of the best two-player sports games for iPhone and Android. It’s highly competitive and lets you play one-on-one with friends or compete in eight-player tournaments.
You can build your skills in the practice arena and win trophies, unique cues, and pool coins. You can use the coins to buy new items from the Shop or to enter exclusive matches with higher stakes. Further, you can customize your cue and table.
Category: Sports
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
2. Bowmasters
Beat the stress with this aim-and-shoot game that will keep you hooked. It features over 60 crazy characters and weapons to play with. Duel with your friends or shoоt down birds or fruits to earn rewards!
The interface is incredibly colorful and fun, with amazing graphics and sound effects. Moreover, it’s earned millions of excellent reviews and is ranked among the best action games for two players or more.
Category: Action/Arcade
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
3. Clash Royale
This real-time multiplayer game comes from the creators of Clash of Clans. It features all your favorite characters, including the Royales, Princes, Knights, Baby Dragons, and more. Compete and win trophies by knocking the enemy king and princesses from their towers
Further, you can create a clan to share cards and build your battle community. Then, you can challenge your friends to private online duels or play side-by-side in epic 2×2 battles. With over a million ratings, this is one of the most popular two-player fighting games out there.
Category: Card game
Game Pigeon More Than 2 Players Win
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
4. Crossy Road
Super fun, entertaining & addictive. These are the three words to describe this game best. You have lots of funny characters to help navigate through obstacles and traffic in different cities and environments.
The gameplay is simplistic yet engaging. Further, you can compete against your friends and family on the same device. Cross and hop over roads, train tracks, and rivers, testing your reflexes and speed to avoid getting hit.
Category: Reflex game
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
5. Heads Up!
If you’re a fan of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, then you’ll recognize and love this card game. You have to guess the word on the card before the timer runs out. From singing, naming celebrities or silly accents, it’s got plenty to keep you entertained.
You can play this fascinating game with one friend or one hundred friends at one go. You can save the video of your gameplay to watch it later. Featuring more than 40 themed decks available, Heads Up is one of the best online two-player games you can play.
Category: Card game
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $1.99)
6. Soul Knight
Explore a dungeon, find and collect weapons, and shoot your way to a high score in this addictive game. It features randomly generated worlds, which gives you a new experience each time you play.
Simultaneously, there are over 120 weapons to try out and amazing heroes with unique abilities. The auto-aim mechanism ensures highly intuitive control that makes the gameplay easy and smooth.
Category: Shooter
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
7. Terraria
Fight for survival and earn fortune and glory as you make your way through this fascinating world. You can explore cavernous expanses, battle foes, and even build your city in this action-packed game.
You can play with up to seven friends, and there are more than 300 enemies to fight, defeat, and plunder for loot. Further, there’s also a new Expert Mode designed to provide fresh challenges for even the most seasoned players.
Category: Adventure
Price: $4.99
8. QuizUp
This trivia game stands out from the rest because you can post about your interests, make your own quizzes, and connect with millions of like-minded users worldwide. It’s almost like a social network combined with a brain teaser game.
You can challenge friends and other players online on the topics that you’re best at. Along the way, you’ll earn badges that prove your capabilities in areas such as general knowledge, sports, and popular culture.
Category: Trivia
Price: Free (In-app purchases start from $0.99)
9. Hangman
You might remember this classic two-player word game from your childhood days. While it was initially played with pen and paper, this app makes it a lot more fun. It supports both one player and two-player gameplay and is ideal for improving your vocabulary.
You can either play it with your friend or let your device be your invisible opponent. The game’s design is based on the classroom board-chalk style that makes it more fascinating. Choose your level and word list for throwing challenges from easy, standard, hard, animals, food, geography, holidays, etc.
Category: Word game
Price: Free
10. Dots and boxes
Here’s another old classic with a twist. The objective is to link the dots and form more squares than your opponent. Along the way, you can collect exciting rewards and enjoy colorful themes.
With thousands of players worldwide, things get quite competitive, and you can see your ranking in the Global High Scores. Moreover, there are three different levels so you can play according to your abilities.
Category: Strategy Board Game
Price: Free (Dots and Boxes Premium – $1.99)
11. Red Hands
So you think that you are lightning-fast and have got better reflexes? Try out this two-player fun game to find out where you stand in the battle of speed. As the game begins, one player is the attacker, and the other is the defender. And if the latter chickens out three times, it would be a perfect free hit.
The one who gets 10 points first will be declared the winner. You can customize your hand type by choosing from multiple available options. As funny as it can ever get, you can even select the massive Hulk’s hand or go for a tattooed one.
Category: Arcade
Price: Free (Remove Ads – $1.99)
12. Spaceteam
All geared up to step into a legendary science-fiction game! Spaceteam is designed to be an engaging cooperative party game that you can play with 2 to 8 players. You get a random control panel featuring switches, dials, and buttons to let you easily maneuver the gameplay.
As the ship is just about to fall apart, you must coordinate with your team to save it. All of your teammates get instructions, and they have to work on them before the time run-outs quickly. Unless you work perfectly with your team, you won’t be able to crack it.
Category: Word game
Price: Free (Unlock All Upgrades – $2.99)
13. Cats Carnival
Cats Carnival offers ten intriguing iPhone games for two people. It tests how quickly you can react. Agility and quick finger movements will help you win. You can choose to go head-to-head with a friend or play against an AI opponent.
There are quite a few challenging levels and many exciting characters to unlock, so you will never get bored of it. It’s an excellent choice for both children and adults to test your reflexes and have oodles of quick fun.
Category: Reflex games
Price: Free (Unlock All Games And Roles – $1.99)
14. BADLAND
This is one of the best adventure games that supports up to four players on one device. It’s set in a beautiful forest that’s full of interesting inhabitants. Players get to control one of the dwellers on a quest to discover and overcoming many imaginative traps and obstacles.
There are more than thirty levels in the multiplayer mode and over a hundred for the single-player mode. The controls are simple, but the gameplay keeps getting more interesting as you progress.
Category: Adventure
Price: $0.99
15. 2 Player Games: the Challenge
Here’s a pack of fun two-player games you can play with friends and family. Two people can play on the same device, but there’s also an online multiplayer mode. The graphics are minimal yet beautiful to help you focus on the match.
The mini-games included are ping pong, air hockey, pool, Snakes, Tic Tac Toe, Sumo, car racing, chess, and more. It also saves your scores between matches so that you can keep continually competing.
Category: Arcade
Price: Free (Remove Ads – $1.99)
Signing Off…
So have you tried any of these fantastic two-player games yet? Tell us all about your favorites in the comments below!
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I have been writing about tech for over 10 years now. I am passionate about helping people solve their tech problems with easy and practical solutions. At iGeeksBlog, I write and edit how-to guides and accessory reviews for all things Apple. My work has previously appeared in Live IT and Woman’s Era magazines. When not working, I love reading and traveling.
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Contents
Introduction and Alternative Names
Crazy Eights is a game for two or more players, in which the object is to get rid of the cards in your hand onto a discard pile by matching the number or suit of the previous discard.
There is a huge number of variations of this game, and many alternative names. Itis sometimes called Crates, Switch, Swedish Rummy, Last One or Rockaway. In Germany it is Mau-Mau; in Switzerland it is Tschausepp; in the Netherlands it is Pesten. Some British players call it Black Jack, which is unfortunate as it can lead to confusion with the well-known American banking card game Blackjack.
Basic Game
The basic game of Crazy Eights uses a standard 52 card pack, or two such packs shuffled together if there are a lot of players. The dealer deals (singly) five cards to each player (seven each if there are only two players). The remainder of the pack is stacked face down on the table as a stock from which cards will be drawn. The top card of the stock is turned face up and placed beside the stock to start the discard pile.
Starting with the player to dealer's left, and continuing clockwise, each player in turn must either play a legal card face up on top of the discard pile, or draw a card from the undealt stock. The following plays are legal.
- If the top card of the discard pile is not an Eight, you may play any card which matches the rank or suit of the previous card (for example if the top card was the king of hearts you could play any king or any heart).
- An Eight may be played on any card, and the player of the Eight must nominate a suit.
- If an Eight is on top of the pile, you must play either another Eight or any card of the suit nominated by the person who played the Eight.
If an Eight is turned up by the dealer as the first card of the play pile, it is treated as though the dealer had played it. The dealer looks at his or her hand and nominates a suit, and the first player must play a card of that suit or another Eight.
A player who has only one card left in their hand must alert the other players by saying 'last card'. A player who fails to do this before the next player takes their turn must draw two cards from the top of the stock as a penalty.
The first player who gets rid of all their cards wins, and the other players score penalty points according to the cards they have left in their hands - 50 for an eight, 10 for a picture, and spot cards at face value (one point for an ace, two for a two and so on).
If the stock pile is exhausted, the played cards, except for the last card, are shuffled and stacked face down to make a new stock and the game continues.
Special Cards
Apart from the Eights, usually there are other cards that have special effects when played. Typical rules are as follows.
Game Pigeon More Than 2 Players Drafted
- Skip
- When a Queen is played, the next player in rotation misses a turn, and the turn passes to the following player. In a two-player game the opponent is skipped and the same player plays again.
- Reverse direction
- When an Ace is played, the direction of play reverses, becoming anticlockwise if it had been clockwise, or vice versa. In a two-player game an Ace has no effect.
- Draw cards
- When a Two is played the next player must either draw two cards or play another Two (an Eight cannot be played in this case). If several Twos have been played by consecutive players, the next player must either play another Two or draw two cards for each two in the sequence. The penalty cards cannot be played in the same turn - after the penalty cards have been drawn, the turn passes to the following player, who can continue with any card of the same suit as the last Two, or another Two or an Eight to change suit.
If one of these special cards is turned up as the first card of the play pile, it is treated as though the dealer had played it. If the turned up card is an Ace, play begins anticlockwise and the player to dealer's right has the first turn. If the turned up card is a Two the first player must play another Two or draw two cards. If the first card is a Queen, the first player is the the player two places to the left of the dealer.
If the last card played by the winner happens to be a special card, the special effect is ignored. For example the card on top of the play pile is the 10 and the next player's only remaining card is the 2. The player plays the 2 and immediately wins. The hands are scored as they are - no one has to draw cards as a result of the 2.
Variations
Crazy Eights is one of the easiest games to modify by adding variations. In particular the roles of the special cards are often changed, for example using a different card, such Jack instead of Queen to cause the next player to skip a turn, or Four instead of Ace to reverse direction. Sometimes there will be additional special cards with other effects - for example it may be agreed that the Queen of Spades requires the next player to draw 5 cards. The result is that almost every group of players has their own house rules, and it would be rare to find two groups that play exactly the same way.
Deal
The number of cards dealt to each player initially may vary. For example some begin with eight cards each.
Drawing Cards
In the normal game, you may always use your turn to draw a card. However, some people play that you may only draw if you are unable to play - if you can play you must.
Some allow the drawn card to be played immediately if it is a legal play.
Some allow more than one card to be drawn - either up to a fixed number of cards, after which if you still cannot (or will not) play the turn passes to the next player. Others require you to continue drawing until either you can play or the deck is exhausted.
Changing Suit
The special card that changes suit is nearly always the Eight, at least in places where the game is called Crazy Eights. In many countries and regions the equivalent game goes by other names and a different card may be used to change suit - for example in the British game Switch it is often the Ace, and some other variants use the Jack or the Seven.
Some play that you can only play an Eight that matches the previous card's suit or rank.
Some play that you can play an Eight at any time but when playing an Eight you do not nominate a suit. The next player must simply match the suit of the Eight you played or play another eight.
One correspondent (Szu Kay Wong) gives the rule an Eight can be played on any card, but the player can only nominate a different suit if the Eight matches the rank or suit of the previous card. Some players use jacks or aces rather than eights as the cards which have the power to change suit.
Multiple Equal Cards
Some allow a player holding two or more equal ranked cards to play them all at once, provided that the first of them is a legal play. If they are special cards all the special effects take place. For example if the top card of the play pile is the 5, the next player could play 9, 9 and 9 in that order, and the next player would have to play a 9 or a heart. If the equal cards are special cards all the special effects take place. For example if an Ace reverses direction, playing two Aces together will reverse it twice, leaving the direction of play unchanged. If a Queen skips the next player, a pair of Queens will skip two players (in a two-player game that would be your opponent's turn and your own next turn, leaving your opponent to play next). If a Two requires the next player to pick up twos cards, a pair of Twos will require the next player to pick up 4 cards (or play another Two).
Last Card
Some groups have a special word that must be said by a player when they have just one card left. On the other hand, some groups do not require a player with one card to warn the other players.
End of Stock Pile
When the stock pile is exhausted, the rules given in most books to not envisage shuffling the play pile to make a new stock. Instead they specify that play continues without drawing. A player who cannot or does not wish to play just passes. If all pass, the game is blocked. Play stops and everyone scores for the cards remaining in their hands. I think that in practice this version of the game is rarely played.
Crazy Eights Countdown
This variant has become popular in North America. Each player begins the game with a score of 8, and eight cards are dealt to each player. When a player gets rid of all their cards, this does not end the play. Instead, the player subtracts 1 from their score, and is immediately dealt a new hand of cards equal in size to their new score. The other players keep the cards that they have and the play continues. The winner of the game is the first player who reduces their score to zero.
Each player's current score determines the rank of the card that is wild for them. So at the start of the game everyone has Eight as their wild card, and the game is like normal Crazy Eights. But later in the game it is possible for each player to have their own, different rank of wild card, which can be played on any card and allows the player to nominate the suit to be played next. Each time a player runs out of cards, their wild card changes, first from Eight to Seven, then Six and so on down to Ace. When a player with a score of 1 and Ace as wild card runs out of cards, their score becomes 0 and they win the game.
The changing wild card introduces several new situations and players need to agree how to resolve these. The following rules are suggested.
- When a wild card is played, the player nominates a suit. The next card played must either be a card of that suit or the player's own wild card.
- Example. My score is 6. I play the 6 and nominate hearts. If the next player's score is 7 that player must either play a heart, or play a wild 7 to nominate a suit, or draw a card. The next player is not allowed to play (for example) the 6 even though the rank is the same as my wild Six.
- When a player's wild card rank also has a special effect, the player nominates a suit and the card also acts as a special effect card as follows.
- Wild / Skip. The next player is skipped and the following player must play the nominated suit or a wild card. For example, suppose that our house rule is that 4 skips the next player, 4 is my wild card, and I play the 4 nominating diamonds. The next player is skipped and the player after that must play a diamond or one of their own wild cards.
- Wild / Reverse. The direction is reversed and the next player in the new direction must play the nominated suit or a wild card. For example, suppose that Aces reverse direction. We are playing clockwise and I play the A nominating spades. The direction reverses to anticlockwise and the player to my right must play a spade or one of their own wild cards.
- Wild / Draw Two. The next player must either draw two cards or play a Two of the nominated suit. For example, the players in order and their scores are A(2), B(5), C(6). Player A plays the 2 nominating clubs. Now B must either play the 2 or draw two cards. If B plays the 2, C must either draw four cards or play any Two (since the 2 was not wild). If B draws 2 cards, C must play a club or a wild 6 or draw a card, since clubs was the suit nominated by A. Another example: player A plays the wild 2 and nominates diamonds. Assuming that we are playing with a single deck, player B is forced to draw two cards, and C will then have to play a diamond or a wild card. Playing with a double deck, B's only legal play to avoid drawing two cards would be the other 2.
Here is a blog post and discussion about Crazy-8-Countdown describing a version in which Jacks skip the next player, Twos make the next player draw two cards or play another Two as usual, and the Queen of Spades makes the next player draw five cards. Multiple cards of equal rank can be played together. No 'reverse direction' card is mentioned. As in normal Crazy Eights, when multiple cards are played in one turn and some or all of them are special cards, the special effects apply even for cards that are covered, but it is the last card played that has to be followed by the next player.
Variant: Some groups allow a card of equal rank to be played on a wild card even if it is not in the called suit. For example a wild 5 is played calling 'diamonds' but the next player plays 5 instead of a diamond, even though 5 is not wild for them. This rule is the most frequent cause of arguments in this game so it is a good idea to agree in advance whether your house rules allow this play or not.
Gordon Lancop's Crazy Eights Countdown app for Android features special cards for Skip, Reverse, Draw Two and Draw Five which can be configured according to the player's preference.
Other variants described on this and other websites
See the following pages on this site:
- Crates, described by Richard Hussong.
- Spoons, described by Bruce McCosar.
- Last One, contributed by Mark Alexander.
- Bartok, in which the rules are modified during the game.
- Mao, in which the rules may not be discussed.
More pages with rules of Crazy Eights variants:
- Jose M. Carrillo-Muniz describes Ocho Locos, a version of Crazy Eights played in Puerto Rico.
- Justin Tuijl's description of Jack Change, another variation (archive copy).
- Jean-François Bustarret's site has rules of Huit Américain in French.
- The site Cribbage.ca has a description of a French Canadian variation known simply as Huit (eight).
- Crazy Eights rules are available on the Card Game Heaven site.
Several Crazy Eights variants contributed by readers are listed in the Invented Games section of this site.
There have been many commercial versions of eights, designed to be played with specially produced packs of cards. Probably the best known of these is Uno, for which there are also many invented variations.
Crazy Eights software and online games
The collection HOYLE Card Games for Windows or Mac OS X includes a Crazy Eights program, along with many other popular card games.
TrapApps offer online versions of many slightly different Crazy Eights variants: Crazy Eights, Crazy Eights Zimbabwean, Irish Switch, Jacks, Twos and Eights, Last Card, Macao, Macau London, One-Card, Pesten, Puskiyon, Switch, Switch Black Jack and Take Two. Also Crazy Eights Countdown.
At GameDuell, you can play Crazy Eights online.
Malcolm Bain's shareware Agony for Windows, which plays a Greek variation of Crazy Eights, is available from Card Games Galore.
You can play Crazy Eights online at CardzMania.com
At Solitaire.com you can play Crazy Eights or the corresponding Dutch game Pesten or German game Mau Mau online against the server.
You can download Laurent Pellenc's Crazy Eights Program for Windows from his page.
Mike's Cards includes a Crazy Eights program for Macintosh and Windows computers.
Games4All have published a Crazy Eights game for Android.
The Crazy Eights Deluxe program is available from Unique Games
PlayOK (formerly known as Kurnik) offers the similar Polish game known as Makao (which is listed at PlayOK/Kurnik as Switch).
Game Pigeon More Than 2 Players Declaring
Gameslush.com offers an online Crazy Eights game against live opponents or computer players.
At DKM Crazy Eights from the CardSharp suite you can play two-player Crazy Eights online against a computer opponent.
Einar Egilsson has published a free Java Crazy Eights program with which you can play online against one computer opponent.