Review: dnup

Introduction & Overview

Get rid of all your cards before anyone else. Play sets of cards in front of you and hope your opponents don’t play a better set before your next turn!

This is the pitch for dnup, designed by Kei Kajino (Scout). First published in 2025 by One More Game! in a Japanese version, it was re-released in 2026 by Asmodee. The artwork for this second edition is by Gilles-Romain Fonteny, marking his first foray into the world of board games.

It is published in Spanish by Asmodee (the game is completely language-independent). It accommodates 2 to 5 players, with a minimum suggested age of 8 and an approximate duration of 15 to 20 minutes. The MSRP is €12.99. For this review, we used a copy of the Spanish version from Asmodee, which the publisher kindly provided as a review copy.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 12.8×7.4×3.2 cm (a small rectangular box similar to Allplay games, though slightly longer and wider), we find the following components:

45 Cards (65×100 mm.):
- 36 Numbered Cards
- 4 2-Player Mode Cards
- 5 Player Aids
16 Letter Tokens (cardboard)
Rulebook

How to Play

dnup is a fast-paced, dynamic card game where the goal is to empty your hand before the other participants by managing the value of your cards via 180-degree rotations. At the start of each round, the entire deck is dealt out among the players, who must maintain the original orientation of their cards and alternate turns clockwise. Each turn begins with the mandatory discard of the card set that the active player had played in front of them on their previous turn. Next, one of four possible actions must be resolved: play a new set in front of yourself (which must beat the value of any set of the same size already on the table, penalizing the opponent by forcing them to take back and rotate their cards), add a card to a rival’s set while respecting size and value rules, steal an opponent’s set to add it to your hand by rotating the cards, or rotate your entire hand to swap the active and inactive values of all your cards. The round continues until a first player runs out of cards, earning two letter tokens, and ends immediately when a second participant does the same to earn one letter token. The first player to accumulate four or more letter tokens is declared the winner of the game.

Key Concepts

On one hand, we have the Numbered Cards, which are the central component of the game. These feature a reversible design with two numerical values printed in opposite 180-degree positions: the active value, located at the top, and the inactive value, located at the bottom, which also features a small reminder circle in the center area to see it without turning the card. Additionally, some include specific symbols in the corners for the initial setup based on player count. Players must organize these cards into sets of the same numerical value to be played in front of them with the goal of running out of cards in hand, with the twist that when they are stolen or returned to the hand, they must be rotated to swap their active and inactive values.

On the other hand, we have the Letter Tokens. These display characters that serve as rewards at the end of each round, awarding two units to the first player to empty their hand and one unit to the second to do so. They act directly as the game’s overall progress tracker, as the first player to accumulate four of these tokens will be declared the winner immediately.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

Cards are removed from the deck based on the player count, following the indicators shown in the central side areas of some cards.
Each player takes a Player Aid.
Before starting each round, the deck is shuffled and all cards are dealt out equally among the participants.
Once the deal is complete, each participant picks up their cards without letting the other players see them.
Players are allowed to rearrange the cards in their hand freely at any point during the game, but rotating them is strictly forbidden, so they must maintain the orientation in which they were received during the deal.
The starting player will be the one holding the card with the values 1/5 and the star symbol.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of dnup is played over an indefinite number of rounds. Each round is set up the same way. Starting with the first player, players alternate turns clockwise.

On their turn, the active player proceeds as follows:

If the player has a set of cards in front of them, they must discard it, removing the cards from the round.
The player must choose and execute one of the following four available actions:
- Play a set of cards. The player plays a set of 1 or more cards of the same active value from their hand and places it in front of them. If another participant already has a set with the same number of cards on the table, the cards of the new set being played must have a strictly higher value. If it beats it, the other participant must immediately retrieve all the cards from their set, return them to their hand, and rotate each of them 180 degrees while doing so. It is not mandatory to play all cards of the same value held in hand.
- Add 1 card to a set in front of an opponent. The player places exactly 1 card from their hand and adds it to a rival’s set. This card must show the same value as those in the set it is joining. If increasing the size of the set causes it to tie in size with another set present on the table, the value of the expanded set must be strictly higher than that of the conflicting set. If it is higher, the owner of the lower-value set must retrieve their cards, return them to their hand, and rotate them individually.
- Steal the set of cards in front of an opponent. The player takes a full set from a rival and adds it directly to their own hand. In doing so, the player must rotate each of the stolen cards 180 degrees when adding them to their hand.
- Rotate all the cards in your hand. The player does not play or interact with any cards on the table; instead, they turn all the cards they hold in their hand 180 degrees at once.

After this, the turn passes to the player on the left.

When a player runs out of cards in their hand, they immediately win 2 letter tokens. Their cards remain in play, but they will no longer draw cards or take any more turns. The round continues normally among the remaining participants until a second player manages to get rid of their cards. This second player gets 1 letter token, and the round concludes immediately. If the game has not ended, a new round is set up.

Game End

The game ends immediately the moment a participant manages to obtain 4 or more Letter tokens, thereby being proclaimed the winner. In case of a tie, the victory is shared.

Variants

2-Player Mode. In addition to removing all cards for higher player counts, each player manages two distinct play areas (with two player aids) using a single hand of shared cards. Each participant plays two consecutive turns: the first in their play area 1 and the second in their play area 2. In each of these independent turns, the standard structure applies (discarding the previous set from that specific area and performing one of the four available actions). Since there can be up to four simultaneous sets on the table, size and value restrictions apply globally, meaning your own sets can conflict with and overwrite each other. As an initial exception, whoever holds the starting card begins the round by playing a single turn in their play area 2. Finally, the round ends immediately when someone runs out of cards, and the first to win two rounds claims overall victory.

Personal Opinion

“Ladder-climbing games” are a type of filler with quite a pedigree. One must be careful not to confuse them with trick-taking games, although it is true that certain dynamics are similar between both genres.

To help you detect them correctly, ladder-climbing games are those in which the objective is to try to be the first player to empty your hand, and to do so, players must play cards following certain rules. Usually, cards must be played in a specific combination, and in some designs, there are multiple options where the player who leads the play determines the combination that all players must follow. Hence the confusion with trick-taking games regarding “following suit” or matching the combination type.

One of the ladder-climbing games that has achieved the most impact in recent years is Scout, to the point of being nominated for the Spiel des Jahres. Now we get dnup, a new ladder-climbing game by the same designer, Kei Kajino. Will it repeat that success? Let’s find out, but not before thanking Asmodee for providing the review copy that makes this long post possible.

In dnup, the players’ goal is, as mentioned, to try to get rid of their cards before their opponents. In each round, the first player to do so will score two points, while the second will score one, ending the current round. If, after a round, at least one player reaches or exceeds four points, the player or players with the most accumulated points will be crowned winners.

When it comes to playing cards, there will only be one type of combination possible: sets of cards of the same value. When playing a combination of one or more cards of the same value, the only restriction is that there cannot already be a combination of that same number of cards with a higher value than the one the player wants to place in their play area.

Thus, if nobody has another combination with that same number of cards, the player will place it in their play area and the turn passes to the opponent. But if there is a combination of the same number of cards with a lower value, the player who had that combination in their area must take those cards back into their hand.

And here is where the core concept of dnup comes in, because just like in Scout, the cards show two values, one on each half. As a general rule, whenever a player gains cards through any of the available options, they must always add them to their hand by rotating them—that is, switching them to the alternative value from the one they were played with.

For example, if a player has a pair of fives in their play area, whose alternative values are a two and a three, and another player plays another pair of cards with a value of six or higher before it’s their turn again, the player with the pair of fives will have to take those cards back, but converted into a two and a three.

Thus, players won’t just have to think about getting rid of cards any old way; they will have to know how to manage timing to play cards at the right moment and, above all, foresee what might happen to the cards in their play area, thinking about future combinations they could form if those cards return to them.

In any case, playing a card combination is not the only option a player has on their turn; they have three alternatives. The first of these three is to expand another player’s combination by adding a card of the same value, as long as there isn’t already a combination in play with one more card and equal or higher values than the combination being expanded. This option is a safe bet because by playing it in someone else’s area, we can be certain that this card will not return to our hand, no matter what happens to that combination.

The second is a strategic but risky option. It consists of stealing a rival’s combination to add it to your hand, obviously obeying the golden rule of the game: rotating those cards 180 degrees. But of course, if those alternative values fit perfectly with cards we already have, it will allow us to have powerful combinations for upcoming turns to counter our opponents’ moves.

The third and final option is to rotate all the cards in our hand 180 degrees, which can untangle a mess and group cards into values that showed scattered values before resolving a turn with this action. Players will generally tend to avoid this and the previous option, though in many cases they will have no choice but to resort to them.

And that’s all there is to the game. A ladder-climbing game like many others, but one whose main characteristic is versatility. One of the problems that this type of game usually suffers from is the narrow margin of maneuver for players, often leading to automatic pilot mode in many of them.

There are few titles where this doesn’t happen. Leaving aside the masterpiece that is Tichu (here is its tocho-review), for me, the benchmark in this type of game is Abluxxen (here is its tocho-review). In fact, you could say that this dnup is an Abluxxen that has borrowed the concept of cards with two options that must rotate when returning to the hand, seen previously in games like Panda Spin.

But everything regarding keeping a play in your play area and having a rival beat it, forcing you to retrieve the cards, generates an identical dynamic to the design by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. In fact, this dnup would fall slightly short if it weren’t for how interesting the common market is and the ability to decide what to do when you beat a rival’s combination—whether to steal it or let the rival decide, who in turn, if it’s their choice, can discard it to draw new cards or take it back as is.

dnup is more direct, simpler, more… filler. And that’s why I think it can work wonderfully as a casual beach/poolside game. Furthermore, where it does beat Abluxxen is in its player count scaling. While Abluxxen is best at four or five, dnup works very well in all its configurations by scaling the deck. Especially at two, with a variant where each player takes two consecutive turns playing in two play areas, giving rise to very flashy combos—such as playing a card into the opponent’s combination on your first turn, only to immediately play a combination with the same number of cards but a higher value on your second turn, forcing the rival to take back more cards than they originally played (you are allowed to laugh malevolently when pulling off this move).

Regarding replayability, it is one of those fillers that can settle into a collection and hit the table very frequently. Not only because it is snappy and simple to explain, but also because its duration is very well calibrated. The game will last at least two rounds, but depending on the player count, it might stretch a bit more. Specifically, one more round than the number of players in the game, which is ideal for this type of game.

Let’s move on to production. We find a small box containing a deck of cards with a very peculiar format, where the corners of each diagonal have a different rounding radius (one much more pronounced than the other). Setting aside this aesthetic detail, the quality of the cards is more than interesting, with a very good cardstock weight, linen texture, and magnificent snap. The scoring tokens allow you to form the game’s title (which, if you haven’t noticed, is an ambigram—meaning it reads the same if rotated 180 degrees) and are made of a cardboard with just-about-adequate thickness and punching, but they serve their purpose. The rulebook is well-structured and leaves no room for doubt.

Visually, we are met with a vibrant and minimalist style, where typography and numbers become the central focus. With a flat design of modern and abstract aesthetics, the game uses a palette of bright, high-contrast colors over clean or deep black backgrounds, guaranteeing excellent readability and visual dynamism. Its visual identity stands out: both the logo and the interlocking numbers play with symmetry and bidirectionality (ambigrams and inverted inscriptions like “up – down”). A clean and functional visual proposal without losing freshness or aesthetic appeal.

And let’s wrap this up. dnup proves to be a ladder-climbing game with the classic goal of emptying your hand as quickly as possible, in this case by playing sets of the same value. The subtle timing management when calculating the potential return of your own cards—which are forced to rotate 180 degrees, changing their values when this happens—is highly engaging. This mechanic generates gameplay feelings that are tremendously tactical and fun, breaking away from the automatic pilot so common in this genre and gifting moments of harmless malice between turns. Although this dependence on the return of combinations and the constant reading of the rival’s hand might occasionally overwhelm those looking for a flatter, more predictable flow, its ability to force strategic, risky decisions without losing a single drop of fluidity makes it an incredibly convenient filler that hooks you from the very first game. A proposal with a delicious touch of spice, ideal for keeping players engaged in a constant back-and-forth. For all these reasons, I give it a…