Durian

Browsing through a selection of Oink Games’ offerings whilst I was at UKGE 2024, my eye was caught by a bright-eyed gorilla lurking within the box art for a short and sweetly named game, Durian. This wasn’t one I’d heard of before, but the box’s promise of “Ring the Bell… Angry Gorilla!” had me intrigued immediately. The playful description of the game gives a clear idea of the theme, and a very simple summary of the rules – which, like most Oink games I’ve played, come in a few languages and are very easy to understand. The last two things that swayed me to Durian were its “2-7 players”, and “20 min” game time labels – perfect for a couple quick games with a few mates.

What’s In The Box?!

One thing I’ve always appreciated about most of Oink’s games is their compactness. They’re the perfect sorts of games to take away whilst travelling, either on a trip somewhere, or even just round to your friend’s place one night. As such, the components often come nicely packed inside a colourful little box and are often very minimalistic in nature. I was quite surprised at the quality of the components for Durian – though I think in my excitement at the theme, and the player count and playtime, I hadn’t yet looked at what was included. Perhaps this is why I was very much excited to find a small handbell as part of the game’s components – not something you find in most, if any, other board games.

As well as the little bell, you’re provided with seven wooden standees on which each player places their inventory card, an order board, seven “bad” point chips/tokens, and then a veritable basket of fruit cards – with three gorilla sibling cards within. With a quick shuffle of these cards, and easy placing of the other components, the game is easily set up and ready to begin.

Monkeying Around

Durian is at its core a game of deduction and deception. Players have a personal inventory card each, and the collection of player cards make up the inventory of the jungle fruit shop. Each individual inventory card (ignoring the three gorilla siblings for now) is split like a domino with a varying amount of two different fruits on either side. One of the sides will always show one of one type of fruit, and the other will show two to three of a different type of fruit. In this way you can begin to vaguely deduce certain things as the game progresses.

There are four kinds of fruit: strawberries, bananas, grapes and the titular durian. These vary in popularity, in the same order I have listed, with strawberries being the most common fruit to appear on the cards. As such, Durian interestingly takes its name from its least common feature.

So how is the game played? Each turn, the active player takes a card from the top of the deck and places it below the order board. This board has two halves also – one to designate what will not be ordered, and the other the opposite. The active player decides this based on the fruits on the card they have picked up from the deck. The aim is to ensure that the number of items ordered in total for the shop do not exceed the inventory of items that the shop possesses.

If one of the gorilla siblings is drawn from this pile of orders, it is placed next to a previous order that you must then swap round so that the opposite kind of fruit is ordered instead. Alternatively, if in the inventory, i.e. a player has a gorilla sibling card in front of them, then the effects differ depending on the sibling. One gorilla removes all bananas when counting ordered items, another removes all groups of three fruits when counting ordered items, and the last does nothing.

When a player – any player – wants to call over the manager then they simply must ring the handbell.

Bells And Whistles

When a player calls the manager over by ringing the bell, the players all reveal their inventory cards and then compare the total inventory and the total orders. This is where the anger of the manager is then unleashed! If the orders at this moment in time now exceed the total inventory, the manager is furious at the most recent player, and they must pick up an Angry Manager Chip.

These chips are numbered 1 to 7 and are stacked in a pile in the same way. The game continues until the total value on a player’s Angry Manager Chips is greater than or equal to seven. At this point, everyone compares their total values in order to determine the final standings. As such, the longer the game goes on (especially when playing with a lower player count) the easier it becomes to lose.

Conversely, if the total orders do not exceed the total inventory, the manager will become furious at the player who rang the bell – so players must be confident in their deduction and observation skills when trying to determine what could be on their own inventory card, lest they face the manager’s wrath.

After the manager has been called, the cards are all collected, reshuffled, and then play continues.

One Banana Two Banana

I initially played Durian with two others, but later played it again with an additional player. Even the increase of one did make a notable difference to the level of strategy though – and as such I’d love to try and get a full game of seven going at some point.

In our first few games we realised that, even if you yourself don’t specifically contribute to the over ordering of fruit, you will still face the manager’s anger if they find out that the orders are in excess. As such, it becomes a bit more vital to try and ring the bell as soon as your suspicions as to your own inventory card begin to gain clarity.

One thing that I was able to enjoy as part of playing Durian was an element of deception. By virtue of the other players not knowing the values on their own cards as well, I was able to trick one player into believing I was counting more fruit on their card than they had – causing them to prematurely ring the bell.

Furthermore, the addition of the mischievous gorilla siblings added a lot of fun, as well as an element of surprise to the game. Having to take care when swapping around orders and making sure to plan around the loss of bananas, or groups of three fruits, allowed for some strategic moves.

The few rounds that we did play each time were quite quick, with the total amount of orders by the time the bell was rung usually only totalling the player count plus a few more. This would seem to make sense though, given the nature of the game.

Final Thoughts

Durian is a game that I’ll definitely be adding to my list of games that only takes up a short period of time but provides a very fun little competitive experience – either as a precursor before playing some more complex games, or to finish off a long gaming session.

I think the 20-minute game length is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but equally I can see how this would increase with more players, as it becomes less likely for the game to end just by taking another Angry Manager Chip. I don’t think this is necessarily an issue though, as the even shorter time just means you’re more likely to want to play again immediately. I do perhaps wish there were more chips, but in theory you could keep going to an even larger limit if you wished. The end condition is only as restrictive as you let it be I suppose.

Additionally, the art is charming and what drew me to purchasing the game in the first place, and the theme perfectly harmonises with the gameplay as well. The little handbell is fun to play with, and the rules are extremely simple and allow for rapidly quick resetting between rounds. Therefore, I think, unfortunately only hindered by the very small pieces, someone of any age could quickly learn and enjoy this game.

If you enjoy Durian, I would also highly recommend Troika. It is another brilliant Oink Games production in which you must manage collecting gems, while also ensuring you have enough fuel to then get your gems back to Earth. It’s also very quick and replayable, but a little more complex – where you need to try and strategize getting the correct sets of numbers to not only get a high score but ensure you don’t lose out on points by failing to get off the planet.