Review: The Great Escape Publisher: Ideal Year: 1967 Tagline: A CAPTIVATING GAME
how we met
I found The Great Escape recently at thrift. I picked it up because it’s a giant box and made by Ideal, so it was probably going to be great. When I realized that the happy kiddos on the cover are handcuffed to the game board, nothing could have persuaded me to put it down again.
how it plays
In The Great Escape, players have one hand handcuffed to the weights in the corners of the board. The weight is really a plastic piece that is meant to fit to the corner of the board to make you feel trapped. You can remove the weight in case of emergency, but the handcuffs really don’t come off without breaking or the key.
This is Keri’s lovely hand, trapped
The game board has multiple cards that are face down and different spaces have arrows pointing to the cards. Players must roll the die and land on an arrow by exact count and then they can flip up the card indicated by the arrow. This will be a piece of a key in one of four different colors. Then players may look at any other card on (or off, see next paragraph) the board. If the color matches, they get to keep both cards face down in front of them.
Once players have cards face down in front of them, their cards can also be chosen to pair with a face-up card from the board.
This is what a complete key will look like. This will let you choose and try a handcuff key
Players may only have three cards in front of them, so if you end up with a pair that is not the same color as your existing pair then you must choose one card to place back on the board face down, in any spot that you like.
If you do collect all four pieces of a key in a single color, you get to reach into the jailhouse and choose one of the six handcuff keys (without looking!). Then insert the key into your handcuff. The same key will unlock all four handcuffs. If the key does not work, set it aside, re-hide your four key cards on the board, and play continues. If the key works, you win the game!
Simply press the key into the lock. If you have to force it, it’s the wrong key
how it went
The Great Escape is one of the many games we played during the July 4th holiday, and the only one that required handcuffs. Bill immediately flexed and broke his handcuff, so he was able to fetch us drinks and other sustenance while we played.
A closer look at the four goofy pawns
It’s important to remember that you can pair with other player’s cards in order to make matches. Some players might be hoarding three different colors which will prevent matches and slow down gameplay, so go after them. But this weird 3 card limit does cause problems. I was holding onto a single yellow card for most of the game, so unless everyone remembers that then they are prevented from getting an entire yellow key.
The rules seem fairly explicit that you can only turn up opponent’s cards, but if you mess up early and end up with only 3 matching cards in front of you – say you had three cards in front of you, found a matching pair, then threw away a mismatched pair at some point – then the only way to capture the fourth card is to match it with one of your own. We allowed that.
A better look at one of our Keystone cops
We were not particularly lucky during play, either in landing by exact count or choosing the right key. As we got toward the end of play, there was a certain amount of double tapping to land on the space desired, and even peeking at cards on the board before choosing one for the match. But we were pretty ready to look the other way at that point. In fact I am convinced now that the young man on the cover is exclaiming, “Why don’t you just act like you landed there, Ricky?! I need to take a piss.”
This is a shot of our early play. As long as John keeps handcuffing himself to game boards, he can flip off the camera all he wants
We were on our fifth key choice when John blatantly cheated to finish his key card matches and unlock his handcuff. And John won The Great Escape! Kind of. You could also argue that we all lost.
play or pass
Pass. As much as I enjoyed being literally tethered to the game board, the necessity to land by exact count became too much for my enthusiasm to overcome. The Great Escape is captivating for sure, just not in all the ways I had hoped.
I have a sister, and she is lovely. My lovely sister gifted this game to me. She bought it somewhere that was not thrift, but more like a home goods store or something. If I remember correctly it was around $7 or $8, so more than a typical thrift purchase but brand new and sealed. She bought Up the…… Corporation for me not too long after I started this blog because she thought it would be a good fit. And boy, was she right!
how it plays
In Up the…… Corporation you have a singular goal, which is to climb the corporate ladder and beat all of your hideous coworkers to the top. Then you win!
NOTE: Presumably the game is called Up the…… Corporation because they were not allowed to use the term corporate ladder?
Players choose their characters randomly by choosing a card out of an envelope that says, “No Peeking!” Each character card has a brief description of that character, and each has a matching pawn. Once you have your character then you adopt it completely, including gender. If cards refer to gender, they mean your character, regardless of the player. This comes up a lot, so it’s important to mention.
I played B.S. in our group’s play. Check out my sweet sandals, ladies.
Once players have characters, they draw a random SALARY card and a random EDUCATION card. The SALARY card will represent which rung is your starting position in the corporate ladder. Those cards are then returned to the SALARY deck. The EDUCATION card sits in front of you and may come into play by rewarding or punishing you based on how much education you have. They do not change starting play.
Random SALARY cardsRandom EDUCATION cards
Players also begin the game with 5 STRATEGY cards that they should keep secret from other players. These cards say things like Vacation, Complete Goals, Avoid the next Demotion, and things like that. They can potentially protect you from negative things happening.
Random STRATEGY cards
The player whose pawn is on the lowest salary gets to go first. On their turn a player draws from any of the three decks: ETHICS, POLITICS, or HARD WORK. Players read the chosen card aloud and resolve it. Some of the ETHICS cards, in particular, will let you keep them and use at an opportune time later in the game.
Random ETHICS cardsRandom POLITICS cardsRandom HARD WORK cards
Generally all the cards you draw will punish you, celebrate you, punish all of the workers, celebrate all of the workers, focus on a particular gender, focus on a particular character, or be neutral. Anything can happen, really.
Your pawn will move up and down the corporate ladder as these cards are played. If you end up all the way at the bottom rung and need to go further down, just lay your pawn down in the mailroom and wait for better luck. The first pawn to reach the top is the winner! Choose 3 rewards!
how it went
Up the…… Corporation is so photogenic, but it had a few flaws. So let’s tackle these things one by one.
First and foremost, the components are sublime. I don’t like to sound too dramatic, but there are no nicer components in this big, wide world than the ones in Up the…… Corporation. The game board has a ladder going up out of it, so your pawns move (hopefully) ever upwards. And the game board spins! It spins, effortlessly! And so each of the six different decks has its own place and each deck is easily within reach of every single player. Sublime.
The pawns are lovely, and they sit on bases that can fit onto the ladder rungs either full on or sideways. Two pawns can’t fit nicely on a single rung full on, but they can move sideways and fit fine.
The illustrations for the card backs are not spectacular to me. In fact, they are reminiscent of clip art, or just a cut above it. But the character illustrations are very nice. And the bottom of the game board is a mail room, and it looks like a mail room.
This shot shows you a view of the spinning board, the decks, and the ladder. I think at this point we teased Bill that he could smell the stamps from the mail room.
Now let’s talk about the gameplay. Up the…… Corporation seems to be going for shock value, which is not something I tend to appreciate. The game is taking the inequality of corporate America, a real thing, and overly characterizing the characters, minimizing the struggles involved, and generally painting with a brush as wide as corporate America itself.
And that’s my problem. I will show you some of the cards we saw and laughed at. We are used to laughing at cards that should not exist, but that’s because we play so many vintage games. Up the…… Corporation is from 2004, so that’s still quite a long time ago, but it’s a bit close for comfort.
I actually did take a typing test once, not as a female but as a temp, but I am probably on the outer cusp of this phenomenonThere were one or two of these, without context. But who am I to ask? I am just a lady corporate citizen.Becky the Backstabber is clearly the most powerful character and we didn’t even get to play with her 🙁
Up the…… Corporation introduced an interesting struggle for me. I am pretty tolerant of very old games and their shocking cards and characters and play. But I was there in corporate America in 2004. So should I give a break to old games where I was not there, but then judge so critically where I feel like I lived it too? That’s not really fair. But this is my blog, so on I go.
In our first play of this game, AnnaLee Airhead won
I have another bias worth mentioning, where I tend to get frustrated with anything that is too black and white. I live in a grey world, and so many of the fundamental truths expressed in this game can be (and especially were) true. But exaggerated this way, even I reject the points as absurd humor. The nuances were lost, and it’s too bad.
This was on the outside of the box. The shaming was relentless.
Now looking at the game on BGG, the two designer names appear to be female. Good for them for making a game to express their frustrations (and with those amazing components!). But the gameplay feels like a vent, and I think that is a disservice to the fundamental issues at hand.
Bill won as Suzy Do Right! And true to Suzy Do Right’s lot in life, even I cut her off in the photo. Not intentionally, but it never is.Bill’s rewards were Trophy Wife, Dream House, and Getting Indicted for Fraud. Hopefully he put the house in her name!
This game is about being heard, but it is not about being listened to. Up the…… Corporation is a cry into the darkness. The characters are straight out of central casting. And I think that was interesting to me because I play with role biases in my own game, Panic Mode. And it’s one of the things I ask players to discuss: what biases are used and are they fair? Why or why not?
Up the…… Corporation doesn’t need your answer to that question, because it probably already knows. I imagine there’s a lot of righteous anger in being a competent individual that is constantly overlooked or taken advantage of. But maybe Suzy Do Right just wants the same thing you do, and AnnaLee Airhead maybe hasn’t gotten child support in 2 years, and B.S. Artista probably knows what you call him but he doesn’t get paid if he doesn’t sell, and Jack the Jock maybe hasn’t gotten child support in 2 years, and etc.
You don’t get to complain about a lack of empathy while you are actively demonstrating a lack of empathy. That’s my rule, I just made it up. It’s going to change the world.
play or pass
Pass. This game is incredibly interesting (at least to me) as something that happened, with characters locked in time. Kind of anthropologically speaking. I think it can be a good starter conversation for how these designers felt at this time, what has changed, and what has not changed.
It is clear from reading the rules that Up the…… Corporation is trying to achieve the same experience that happens in corporate America. And I have to say, it succeeds at this. It doesn’t matter where you start in the company, and it doesn’t matter what your education is. You sometimes get rewarded out of left field, and sometimes your entire gender gets a perk (perhaps from a recent lawsuit?). You may get benefits if you are a hit at parties, and you get punished if you don’t take credit for your own work. It’s a long, back and forth slog.
While Up the…… Corporation is not a play, the game is special. And did I mention that it spins? It spins effortlessly.
Review: Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur Publisher: Pressman Year: 1987 Tagline: Don’t get caught in the path of this zany dinosaur! Be the first to get your pieces into the cave… and win!
how we met
Bill found Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur for $2.99 one afternoon when I was not able to tag along. This game was a great find. A lot of people have strong memories of it, and Dizzy happens to still work after all these years! That’s not always the case with wind-up toys, so I was happy to have a nice copy.
how it plays
Your object in Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur is to get all 5 of your pawns to the cave first. Then you win!
On their turn, a player rolls both dice and moves accordingly. They are able to move one pawn the total of both dice, or they can move a single pawn one die number, and another pawn the other die number.
The dice, sometimes your friend and sometimes really not. Sometimes in focus and sometimes really not. Like any game.
Each player has their own colored path that winds toward the cave in the middle. The goal is to get their pawns into that cave as quickly as possible, but it’s a bit of a trek. Once pawns land at the cave they are safe forever and can be removed from the board.
The long and winding road to the cave. Each corner is a starting space for each color.
If a player rolls one dinosaur on their roll, they move the number of spaces required by the other die and then wind up Dizzy, place him in the cave area facing any direction, and let him go. When Dizzy moves off the board, he is out of play and done. But in the meantime any pawns that are moved completely off the paw print they were on or are knocked over entirely are moved back to start. Then the player rerolls the dinosaur die and moves that number of spaces.
If a player rolls two dinosaurs, they set Dizzy going after their enemies twice in a row and then take another turn.
Meet Dizzy
Here’s where it can get interesting. Once a player has all five of their pawns on the board, they are able to stack their movers and move them as one piece – but the stack can only be three high. So there’s a couple of different strategies to the game. Either run like the wind with single pieces until they land in the cave or try to stack pieces and make a run for it, a bigger risk with a potentially greater return.
Yes, they are kind of gross. They are from 1987.
As mentioned, the first player to land all of their pawns safely into the cave wins!
how it went
You know me by now, don’t you? I stacked my pawns as high as I could. I did it over and over. From a game strategy perspective, it is probably wisest to take single pawns and make a run for it on each turn. But no, I could have a 3-high, precariously-balanced, mega pawn. I want that every time!
What is that saying about giants and standing on their shoulders?
We enjoy “take that” games, and this was no exception. The tricky thing is that you can point Dizzy wherever you like, but he goes where he will. You can’t accurately target your enemies, so Dizzy becomes a crapshoot. I enjoy that aspect of gameplay, but I can see why other players might not.
Most of the time Dizzy will just kind of turn a little and then beeline for the edge of the board. Every so often, though, he would cover whole giant sections of the board and upset almost everything! It was actually a pretty decent balance, if random.
Sometimes this happens
And sometimes this happens
I can see Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur getting tired as you keep getting reset and start to feel like the gameplay is endless. We had a little bit of that. It is difficult to target specific player pawns with Dizzy… except when they are super close to the cave entrance, then you can pretty easily wipe them out. So you can really wipe out progress at times. And other times he just runs right off the board.
When I am my best self, I try to take notes about our gameplay for later reference – whether they are jokes or noteworthy events or issues or whatever. The only thing I had written down for Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur is that Keri looks into my eyes as she winds up the dinosaur. And yeah, we developed an early rivalry that probably helped Bill to ultimately win with his make-a-run-for-it strategy. Way to go, Bill!
play or pass
Pass. We had a good time, but gameplay can be long and repetitive. If you find Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur at thrift, pick it up because it’s worth a couple of bucks. It has a high nostalgia rating. And I definitely enjoyed our play through… I just don’t want to keep it or play again.
Review: Hide ‘n’ Thief Publisher: Whitman Year: 1965 Tagline: SURPRISE GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK
how we met
There’s this thrift shop somewhat nearby that is getting a lot of donations from someone getting rid of their entire toy and games collection. Thrifting Minion Josh originally found this shop and sent the rest of us pictures. The poor guy also stood there taking inventory and price checking items for the rest of us, it was great! The place was like an Idle Remorse graveyard, so I was pretty excited about it.
Anyway we check back at this place every so often, and I have purchased very few items there because they price off eBay and don’t take shipping into account and don’t inventory the games (even though they claim that they do). They also use the worst possible price stickers that often damage the covers, which stinks because I partially fund this terrible habit of mine with resale. BUT Hide ’n’ Thief is one of the few I decided I needed or may not find again. I can’t remember what it cost, but it was around $7 or $8, which is a lot more than I usually pay.
FUN FACT: if you are trying to price something or sell it, checking eBay is a good way to do so. But there are a few things that you need to know. You should only take into account items that have sold – in other words, you need to know what something actually sells for and not just what someone is asking for it. You also need to understand that eBay prices either include or add shipping to the cost, and that shipping should not be charged to me at a thrift shop or a flea market or a toy show. And finally, eBay charges the seller a percentage of the sale, so they are in reality selling the item for even less!
Tl;dr: If you offer eBay prices for in-person items, your prices are terrible.
how it plays
Hide ’n’ Thief is a children’s pick up and deliver / memory game, so gameplay is simple but fun. Each player chooses a color and takes the pieces in that color. This includes 5 houses, two little cash bags, one little thief (looks like a gravestone to me), and their pawn which is a truck.
This is what a complete set of yellow colored components will look like; you also need red, blue, and green
The houses sit on their corresponding colored spaces on the game board. Then each player takes turns hiding their cash bags and thief under three of their own houses at random, while the other players look away or leave the room.
This is what the board looks like prior to house placement
The goal of Hide ’n’ Thief is to collect at least two money bags in a color other than your own and get to the bank. Then you win!
This is what the game set up for play looks like. All of the money bags and thieves are hidden in those houses!
You can peek under houses by landing in front of them. On a player’s turn they roll both dice. Then they can choose to move the total amount or just use one of the die. This should help them land strategically in front of houses for the big reveals.
If you look under a house and find a money bag, great! Place it into your truck. If you find the thief instead, that’s a bummer. You have to return any money bags you had in your truck to their players, return the thief to its player, and go back to start. All of those items get rehidden by their players.
Once you have two money bags you race for the bank, but it’s not all smooth sailing. If you land in front of a house you are required to look inside of it. This could cause you to lose everything on the home stretch!
A poor close up of the thief, but it’s a person in a long coat, a hat, and pointing a gun
You must land on the bank by exact count and it can only be using one of the die (so roll both as normal but you can only use one to enter). So just dance around the street, avoiding houses, until you can make that happen. Then you win!
how it went
We took Hide ’n’ Thief very, very seriously, going so far as to leave the room when one of us was hiding our items. Gameplay is a bit of a crap shoot and very luck-driven, but the thrill of finding a money bag is real!
At one point when I looked away for a moment, I looked back to see that Bill had one of his own money bags in his truck. To be very clear, this is not allowed. Keep your eyes on any loophole lovers in your group.
I got pretty lucky during our play. I was not the first to find money bags, but I found my two back to back and was lucky to only hit one empty house on my trip to the bank. And I won Hide ’n’ Thief!
My blue truck making a deposit at the bank and claiming victory!
Make sure you pay attention to other people’s turns so you can avoid empty houses. Even with my goldfish-caliber memory, I was able to avoid a couple of worthless stops.
The sun foretold my victory
play or pass
Pass. This game is super simple, super luck-driven and therefore not very gamely. I think kids would likely enjoy it a lot, and I can’t think of any other games that do hide and seek quite like Hide ‘n’ Thief does. The game is rare and the resale value on the 1965 version is pretty decent. So if you see it at thrift, consider picking it up! Even if you decide to skip gameplay.
Review: Judge for Yourself Publisher: Pressman Year: 1998 Tagline: The Game of Real Life Courtroom Dramas
how we met
I found Judge for Yourself only recently at thrift. There are a number of law-themed games, and some of them get really high ratings and love. This one gets mediocre love, but I was looking forward to play. I have seen every episode of Law and Order a bazillion times, so I basically have an honorary Juris Doctor degree. Right?
how it plays
Note: I think there may be other instructions out there that I was not able to find, so grain of salt and all that.
Judge for Yourself can be played in teams or as individuals. Each team / player is represented by a pawn on the board. The object of each team / player is to be the first one to the finish space, then you win!
This is your hunter green battleground. I’m pretty sure the board was modeled after those dark green desk lamps with gold chains that must come with law degrees
In a game with two teams, the first team (we will call them Team A) would roll the die to determine how much pawn movement is at stake. Then Team A would draw a CASE CARD and read it aloud to Team B. Be sure to cover the back of the card so that Team B can’t see the VERDICT!
Then Team A reads the VERDICT side of the card, while Team B deliberates on what they think the answer was. Team A is allowed to introduce arguments to try and sway Team B. But ultimately Team B submits a FOR or AGAINST verdict.
These double sided mini cards are how you don’t cheat
If Team B guesses correctly then their pawn moves that number of spaces. If they guess incorrectly then Team A moves that number of spaces.
The first team to the finish space wins!
how it went
My copy is missing instructions, and I actually think that is for the best. Since the VERDICT is on the other side of each CASE CARD, we just all played together and whichever team was correct got to move forward and if any teams were incorrect, then they did not.
There may be more nuances to ways to play this game (I believe there is something about teams / players having to sync up together if they are on the same color on the board), but if so I couldn’t find them. I think even the rules we used the night of play are no longer findable for me.
Anyway, the game was okay. Some of the conversation was interesting as to why one thing or why the other. But many of the scenarios were actually in a foreign jurisdiction, which gives you very little context to fall back on when basing your judgment. And that’s fine. But it does tend to feel like much of the case law chosen for the game is for shock value and often your best bet is to defy logic.
One thing Judge for Yourself has going for it is the sheer number of cards in the deck. I’m not sure how many, but my copy has been through thrift at least three times based on the number of price tags on it, and one half of the deck still remains sealed! Since showing you just a few of the cases will not ruin any material percentage of the game, enjoy some examples that came up in our play:
I think a lot of us pull our Double Jeopardy knowledge from movies, and while things are definitely not that simple, sometimes they areThis one seemed pretty obvious to me, so the biggest challenge was that I did not know if it was trying to trick me or notI thought this one was obvious too. There’s definitely rules that protect you around police entering your home, but I think if they already have a warrant they already demonstrated the need… Reasonable efforts to avoid accidents go a long way
Many of the comments from players that enjoy this game on BGG even recommend you just take the cards and read them during a walk or a road trip. The cards are interesting for passing the time and conversation, and considering legal angles, but the gameplay does not bring a lot to the table outside of the cards.
Another common complaint of Judge for Yourself on BGG is that critical facts are left out of these cases. I believe that, not only because doing these cases justice would not fit onto the card space but also because the game is trying to make the cases difficult to predict. You never know when some jerk who watched a lot of Law and Order will come along and be like, “I got this.” Those people need to be humbled.
We played as teams, Bill and me vs John and Keri. We probably played incorrectly, but we played consistently. And Bill and I won Judge for Yourself!
play or pass
Pass. The cases might interest you or prompt discussion outside of gameplay, but Judge for Yourself is ungamely. And be wary that you are not getting all of the facts by reading a tiny card about a case. If this type of case law interests you, I feel that there must be more thorough and interesting options out there.
