Description

In the memory game The Marching Cats (??????), you start the game by playing out the cards face down on the table. The deck consists of black, green, and gray cats (six each), blue and red cats (three each), golden cats (four), and eight music notes.

On a turn, you reveal a card, then stop and collect that card or reveal another card. If you reveal a type of card that's already been shown, then your turn ends, you collect nothing, and all revealed cards are laid face-down again. If you stop before this, you collect the revealed cards except for a revealed note card, which is turned face down again. If you collect a blue and red cat, thereby reuniting the lovecats, you score 2 points; if you collect a pair of matching cats, you score 1 point. Golden cats are wild and can be paired with any color. You cannot use the same blue cat to score for both lovecats and a pair.

The first player to score 8 points wins. You can do this solely by collecting cats, but another possibility is to start your turn by saying "Note atsume" ("Collecting notes), then reveal only note cards — which are worth 1 point each — until you have a total of 8 points between cats and notes, thereby winning the game; if you flip anything other than a music note (i.e., a cat), your turn ends and you must hide those notes once again, while giving the cat card to the player on your left. Hope you didn't make them win!