BANG! (La Pallottola!) The Bullet!

BANG! Is an Italian game. When you get your game, you’ll notice that everything is written in two languages: Italian and English (there are two sets of rules in the respective languages). My friends and I have found this to be quite an addicting game, and has been known to be our game of choice for months on end (some got a little burnt out on it, so we had to switch it up). As someone who speaks a little bit of Italian, I really enjoy having the Italian printed on the cards. I use it as a tiny bit of practice (as well as a tool to annoy my friends from time to time).This is an incredibly fun game that’s best played in a larger group, though not necessarily best learned in a large group. There’s a lot of information thrown at you the first time you sit down to play, which can be overwhelming to a first-time player. I think that the best approach to teaching a new player is to just play and explain what cards mean as you play. Some things that also make it easier include: (1) playing with the base, instead of some of the extras (like green cards) and (2) playing with role cards face up. If you have a group of people who have played before and have one or two new people, taking a person or two who has played before and pairing them with a new person can sometimes help too (as long as the experienced player isn’t doing all of the playing). Despite all of the new stuff to learn, it’s a pretty easy game to pick up.Many players feel that the elimination element is the biggest drawback of the game. Included in The Bullet are the High Noon cards, on of which allows eliminated players to come back for one turn. If that’s not enough of a solution for you (which is definitely understandable), my friends also found the Death Mesa expansion. If it’s something you’re interested in, I’d encourage you to look it up… just know that playing with ghost players all the time can/will extend your game play and definitely adds an extra element to the game.As for what’s included, at least one other reviewer mentioned the lack of mats in the bullet version. As someone who has played with just the original base game, The Bullet does lack the mats and bullet tokens. However, the mats and tokens don’t actually add anything to the game. My friends and I found them to be rather useless and never used them anyway. For what The Bullet offers, you have everything you need (though know that it does not include every expansion available). Additionally, The Bullet will give you 5 ready to play and 2 blank extra cards you wouldn’t get through buying the base high noon, dodge city, and a fistful of cards expansions.It’s an excellent starter set for players looking to get into the game. Plus, how can you resist that shiny sheriff badge?!.