Back to the boardgame café.
They'd got in the other new chaotic race game Magical
Athlete so we gave that a
go. Quite fun; I enjoyed it more than Hot Streak because there was
actually something to do during the roll-and-move race phase rather
than just waiting for the slot machine to stop spinning. But clearly
it would be better with more people (the interaction between powers
was the most enjoyable bit) and probably with drunker or more excited
people.
(The Mouth wins. The Mouth always wins.)
Then on to what turned out to be another chaotic race game, DC
Breakout: Arkham Asylum.
The theme of "escape from the asylum" is almost entirely ignored: you
take two DC universe villains (they may have made some up, but I'm not
going to look up whether "Clock King" and "Condiment King" are
canonical). (Yes I am. They are.) Then you put their two standees on
the same base, and you have their two special powers to use in the
subsequent roll-and-move race.
So in fact it's very like Magical Athlete, though the track is quite
dull: just circles, triangles and squares (from a shuffled set of ten
tiles), so that specific powers can say things like "skip all circles
this move" or "if you land on a triangle, move two further". There are
also gadget spots; you can cut short your move to land on one, and
then get a random one-use power. After the first phase of the race,
you get to the "Armoury": receive more gadgets depending on finishing
order, and choose two more of your villains to team up for the second
phase.
It makes no sense at all as an actual escape from an actual asylum
(except perhaps that everyone is doing what the voices in their head
tell them) and I'd love to see a bit more theming of the setting, but
considered purely as an abstract game it's probably my favourite of
the three chaotic race games I've tried recently.
On to party game Red or
Yellow of which the rules
go to very great lengths to tell you how wild and wacky it is, which
didn't sit well with cynical old us. The actual game: draw a card with
two things on it (e.g. a snake with a knife in its jaws, and a snake
with a knife in its tail). Secretly choose one of these things (I
assumed "which you think is better", but it's not stated). Then place
your betting token: in front of you if you think you'll be the only
person to have chosen your option, in the middle of the table if you
think it'll be unanimous, or in front of another player if you think
you'll agree with them but it won't be unanimous. 1 point for a
correct guess, 2 if unanimous, then go on to the next card, first to
ten points wins.
Which again is fine in a party setting but to me a good party game is
exemplified by something like Flip 7 which is also fun in a small
group of sober people.
Finally for the night old favourite Tiny Epic
Galaxies. We don't play
this often enough to remember the rules from game to game, and I don't
think any of us likes it enough actually to buy it, but we always
have a good time, and so we did this time. (Just one more turn and I'd
have had it…)
