Disclaimer: This review is both a modified version and an expanded upon revisit to a Kickstarter preview I originally wrote for The Geek Girl Project titled “Big Easy Busking: A Nightly Battle of the Bands.” It has been edited to include new photographs of the finished product, my thoughts after owning it for several years and updated for clarity.

The streets of New Orleans thrum with energy and life that is all their own. How do I know? I’ve been there! Though it has been a while now, the sights, sounds, and even smells are often in the back of my mind, teasing at my thoughts to be brought to the forefront. One of the things I miss the most — other than the hot, fresh, late-night beignets! — is finding myself being whisked away by a random melody on almost every street corner by a different musician and dancing with the crowd. You see, music in New Orleans isn’t just contained in concert halls, clubs, bars, festivals, or other venues. The streets themselves are full of it and, while I’ve come across street musicians and other buskers before in numerous other cities that I’ve visited, none of them can hold a candle to the lively, talented performers of New Orleans! Though things are certainly going to be a bit different again this year for Mardi Gras, we here at The Cardboard Cantina are pulling out all of the stops with a day full of beignets, chicory coffee, shrimp gumbo, muffuletta sandwiches, and King Cake from our local bakery. To further set the mood, we will also be listening to some of the jazz recordings that I picked up during my Crescent City visit while playing one of my all-time favorite games: Big Easy Busking from Weird Giraffe Games! As they say in New Orleans, Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Back in May of 2019, I had the pleasure of previewing Big Easy Busking for its Kickstarter campaign. For that preview, we were using a prototype copy, but have since received our Kickstarter rewards (yes, I backed it!). This review uses our copy of the deluxe edition, which includes custom card sleeves, a mini-expansion, and upgraded meeples. Big Easy Busking was designed primarily by Joshua J. Mills with solo rules developed by Carla Kopp. Andrew Thompson and Katy Grierson provided the illustrations while Adrienne Ezell and Nick Kopp did the graphic design work. This 1-5 player card game focuses on resource management and area control with players taking on the roles of an entire band of street musicians competing to sway the crowds in their favor. The resource? The band’s energy. The area? The various crowds scattered on the city streets. Is your band one that goes all out in the beginning and wears themselves out quickly for one big score or are you prepared to be in it for the long haul and hope to reap the rewards from multiple, smaller gigs?

When preparing to hit the streets, players first need to get their band together by grabbing the necessary components that match their chosen color. Players also receive a player aid and three $1 tokens. Each band member starts with four energy. To denote this, players take their energy tokens and divvy them up between the three band members pictured on their player card. The remaining three tokens are set aside as a reserve in their play area. To play music on the streets and try to woo the crowds, obviously, a street is needed. In New Orleans, this means the thirteen blocks of Royal Street (a.k.a. Rue Royale) that passes through the French Quarter and then another three blocks to Frenchman Street. Though Bourbon Street is only a block away, the constant throng of drunken tourists and noisy bars make street performances all but impossible. On Royal Street, however, music, art, dance, and many other performances reign. In Big Easy Busking, Royal Street is represented by three tarot-sized crowd cards dealt into a horizontal row. A randomly selected mood token is then placed on each crowd. The remaining mood tokens are set aside for later rounds. Once the scene is set, bands will need to know what music is on the night’s playlist. In addition to each band’s signature songs, they all have a collection of standard songs that they know with more available through what is called the “Melody Market.” All of this is set up per the rulebook and can change depending on the game variant.

Big Easy Busking is designed to allude to musicians playing various gigs over 3 nights (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) with the crowds and potential earnings growing each night. Each round of the game represents a different evening of performances and players will take alternating turns each round until everyone has passed. On a player’s turn, they will complete three steps. First, they will finish any song they may have played during the previous round by moving the energy spent in one of two ways. If the mood of the crowd does not match that of the played song, the player will move their energy tokens from the song card to the crowd. However, if the song did match the crowd’s mood, the player can choose to earn an extra dollar with the same transfer or they can pull back some energy to their band members as long as they leave at least one energy token behind with the crowd. A song that was played from a player’s hand is discarded once played, but if it was one of the three standard songs, it goes back to its original location and its token is set to “2.” During their next step, players have the option to distribute tips to their band members. For each dollar spent in this manner, players may take one energy from their reserve and place it on any band member. At the end of their turn, a player may perform one of three actions. They can either learn a song, play a song, or pass. When learning a song, each member of the band contributes one energy back into the reserve and a new song is selected from either the Melody Market or the top of the song deck to add to a player’s hand. A band plays a song by paying the required energy costs and placing the card at the location of their target crowd. Players choosing to pass flip over their player card for the remainder of the round. Once all players have passed, the round ends. At the end of each round, crowd cards are paid out and the board is set up for the next round. There are two different payouts possible with each crowd card. As the game focuses on area majority, a player with the most energy tokens on a crowd wins the first-place payout. The second payout is called “threshold payout” and is only receivable if players have enough energy on a crowd to equal or surpass the threshold shown on the card. The game ends after the third night and the player with the most money is crowned “King/Queen of the Buskers.”

Big Easy Busking quickly took a spot on my list of top five favorite games. Though I’ve played hundreds of different games since originally writing my preview, Big Easy Busking has held its place on that list. The theme is so unique and well-executed that I couldn’t wait to be a backer and have continued to support this game since before its arrival on my doorstep. The colors and artwork just scream New Orleans to me and the iconography is perfect! The Mardi Gras beads, the masks, and the Fleurs-di-Lis are well utilized and well placed in the graphics. As someone who not only tends to lose area control games but comes in at the very bottom of the scoreboard, I was surprised to find that Big Easy Busking really clicks for me and I can be an actual contender! As there is very little reading involved, the game is almost language-independent and therefore a great one to use to teach mechanics with and one that can be played with the kids in the group. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, are someone who loves music, or someone looking for a unique theme with familiar mechanics, I honestly cannot recommend Big Easy Busking enough!

All photos of Weird Giraffe Games products were taken and edited by Krista.