Some games are all about learning rules. This one is about gleefully breaking them.

Wrong Chemistry drops you right into the cluttered corner of a lab run by the kind of scientists who probably should not have access to real chemicals. When you open the box, it is clear this game is not interested in scientific accuracy. It is here for the chaos, the creativity, and the giggles. Notice the cards with the art on the card matches the “new spelling” of an actual element. Can you guess the real name?

Inside the box, you will find a colorful deck of cards, a handful of tiles, and a sense of mischief. Each card features bizarre combinations of elements and compounds, the kind your high school science teacher would absolutely not approve of. Here are some more cards.

Gameplay is light and silly. You start our with cards in the below configuration. The goal? Build these imaginary creations from the cards in your lab space using tile patterns that follow only one rule: if the card says it works, then it works.

On your turn, you draw a card and try to rearrange the shared tiles to match the pattern shown. If you succeed, you score points. If someone else messes with your plan before you complete it, well, that is all part of the fun. There is a little strategy, a little sabotage, and a lot of laughter. I was able to get the highdrawgen pretty quickly, giving me one point.

What makes Wrong Chemistry such a treat is how fully it commits to its theme. The art is bold and silly, like a comic book version of a science lab gone off the rails. The turns move quickly, and the rules are simple enough to teach in under five minutes. It is one of those games that becomes more fun the more players embrace the absurdity.

On one of my turns I was able to switch the hydrawgen for an extramovium card. This gave me 3 extra turns. I did have to trade away 1 point, but I had big plans in mind. On my next turn, I used the extramovium card to get 3 extra points and I could create to create gold, giving me 3 points!

You might win, or you might accidentally knock over someone else’s experiment and then lose because of it. But either way, you will leave the table smiling. If you have ever wondered what would happen if you mixed science, silliness, and just a pinch of controlled chaos, this game might be your perfect concoction. I left our last play session slightly confused, a little proud, and deeply sure that I should never be left alone in a real laboratory.