Idle Remorse

Review: AdVersity

By On December 12, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: AdVersity
Publisher: Fundex games
Year: 2003
Tagline: The Game of Crazy Mixed-Up Ads

Cover just says Adversity with Max Madison holding a banner saying, "The game of crazy mixed-up ads"

how we met

Bill picked this up on one of his outings because it was a couple bucks and not played; everything was still in plastic. Our group tends to have fun with party games, even if it’s just a play or two, so it seemed like a safe bet. It sat on the shelf for awhile and then joined us for Thanksgiving!

how it plays

The object of the game is to earn money by successfully guessing which ad slogans your fellow players will match to products. Ultimately players are trying to get enough money to first purchase a SpokesAnimal followed by a SpokesPerson followed by the one and only Max Madison. The first player to purchase Max Madison wins! 

Max Madison pawn
The man himself, but slightly out of focus from the neck up #mybad

Players are called agencies in this game, and they start with 1 VOTER card, 5 AD SLOGAN cards and $100k cash. The agency to go first flips over a PRODUCT card. These cards have four different, numbered products on them. 

Product card shows 1. Preparation H 2. Turtle Wax 3. handcuffs 4. gasoline
This shows a sample PRODUCT card

Each agency then flips over, face down in front of them, one of the AD SLOGAN cards in their hands to represent one of the products on the PRODUCT card. This starts off a round of sorts, where the first agency – the one flipping the PRODUCT card – becomes the first Advertiser and flips over their AD SLOGAN card, face up, and reads it out loud. They then adjust their VOTER card to represent the product their slogan is meant for. Other agencies adjust their own VOTER cards to represent which product they think the first agency is advertising with their slogan. 

Once all agencies are ready, the Advertiser reveals their intended product by presenting it as though it were an ad, like, “Cover Girl. Why should your face get all the attention?” All other agencies boo and hiss or celebrate and rejoice depending on whether their own choices match. The Advertiser receives $100k for each fellow agency they match with, and each agency receives $100k for their correct guess. If no agencies matched their product it is called a BIG FLOP and the Advertiser must pay $200k to the bank for being sucky. 

Sample slogans are "Feel free to act on impulse," "Just how mad is she?," "He knows how to give goose bumps"
A sampling of ad slogans picked at random

The next player then becomes the Advertiser on the same PRODUCT card (remember, they put their own AD SLOGAN card down too). Rinse and repeat for all players. 

After each round where all agencies have had the opportunity to be Advertisers, they are allowed the opportunity to purchase SpokesCelebrities, which are winning conditions in the game. They also get their AD SLOGAN card replaced. 

Cartoons of a dog, toads, a fat man eating ice cream and a man wearing a smokey bear outfit
A random sampling of SpokesCelebrities. I have another photo showing the toads in perfect condition so remember, kids, always be careful when putting your games away

You can choose not to purchase SpokesCelebrities if you do not have ample money. The problem is that if you have a BIG FLOP and not enough cash to pay in, you must sell one of your SpokesCelebrities for much less than you purchased it for. 

SpokesAnimals cost agencies $500k to purchase. SpokesPersons are $800k. Max Madison costs $1 million dollars! There are several animals and persons to choose from but only one Max Madison, so these SpokesCelebrities need to be purchased in order. 

The first player to be so rich they can purchase Max Madison wins! 

how it went

I am so bad at this game, it should be studied. But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

The components are fine. I liked the VOTER cards, and there are a lot of AD SLOGAN cards in the box. It’s also nice that you can choose your SpokesCelebrities. Silly and unnecessary but much appreciated (when I finally bought one). 

Vote card where a spinner on the sides changes the number in the front window
The VOTER cards are chunky and work well

Silly and unnecessary but less appreciated was the style of the rules. We play a lot of games, and silly flavor comments in game rules could not be less appreciated. If you make a game and insist on dumb, cutesy flavor text please make it simple for my eyes to pass over and not read. Please? 

We played this during a longer game day. It was a nice break in the sense that it was simple and had the potential for party game humor – which is our humor inserted into card combinations. Simple, fun, quick. 

But AdVersity has a major, major flaw to it. As an Advertiser, you do best when the most players agree with you. There is no punishment if your ad is so obvious that all agencies can pick it out every time. Many party games in this vein do punish you for making obvious choices. But not AdVersity! There is zero incentive to be odd, unique, funny in a strange way, thoughtful. You succeed by not being yourself or thinking really. Just match your best card with the best product. So dull. It was so dull! 

Products include Slim Jim and laxatives
A picture of our play that really doesn’t show much of anything. Enjoy!

I get that in advertising this is probably the ultimate goal. Know your audience and get the most eyeballs and clicks. But that does not a game make. 

I admire the fact that AdVersity uses actual ad slogans and products, just like my beloved Ad Liners which is a better game but also grittier and – prepare yourselves – with more obvious sexual innuendo. A lot of people in BGG comments still criticize the amount of sexual innuendo introduced with no effort into AdVersity, because those people still don’t realize the level of sexual innuendo in advertising every day. 

The sub-tagline of the game says a lot: Guaranteed to be the most hilarious game you’re holding right now!

In the end John laid his money down the quickest and bought Max Madison and won AdVersity! And we packed that thing up and moved on. 

play or pass

Pass! I have a weakness for party games and this is still a big pass, all in lights. This game introduces you to your blandest self, or you lose, or you don’t play in the first place. I like that last one best. 

Review: Clay to Win

By On December 9, 2018 With 4 Comments

Review: Clay to Win
Publisher: Coleco Industries
Year: 1988
Tagline: The Only Game You’ll Ever Knead!

Cover has Clay to Win written in clay in blue

HOW WE MET

This is one that Bill brought home from a day out. So even though I was not the one to make the important decision to spend $2 on it, I certainly would have. The cover is weird and dated, and the tagline has to be amongst my favorites. 

It’s clear from the back of the box that this game is like Pictionary but with sculpting clay instead of drawing – something most of us have done if we have played Cranium. I wondered if there is enough fun there to carry the entire premise for a game, but I was hopeful because I enjoy that type of game. I only recently got rid of my childhood copy of Pictionary, and I still happily own Morphology. We used to play Win, Lose or Draw on the regular for game night. 

HOW IT PLAYS

Important note: I have to claim some creative freedom here. My copy of Clay to Win is missing the instructions (as well as the mats and knives). I did some frantic googling for instructions as we sat down to play, but it was difficult. The best I could find within a few minutes was someone that sold it on eBay several weeks ago and included a photo of the first page of instructions. But not the second page. 

Since I did not know what the winning condition was, we decided to just play to 10. With a four player game that went pretty evenly throughout, this ended up being a good game length and good call. 

I have since learned that the object of Clay to Win is to play until one team’s clay is all gone; then the other team wins! 

In Clay to Win players divide up into two different teams. One player rolls the die, which corresponds to a specific theme such as Anything Goes, People & Places, Sayings, Actions, Things or Choice. That player acts as the sculptor for their team and draws a card, then reads to themselves the item corresponding to the number that was rolled. They then pass the card to the sculptor on the opposite team. Once both sculptors know what they are trying to sculpt then they begin! 

A poorly sculpted iron
You may need to sculpt an iron, for example

The first team to guess the correct thing (or saying or action etc) being sculpted gets one point. That team also gets to take the Clay to Win mold and take a piece of their opposing team’s clay. So the more you lose, the less clay you have. 

Small white mold that is shaped like a small circle and says Clay to Win
This is the mold that you use to steal clay from the other team
The Clay to Win circle clay stolen
An early steal because you can still see some colors

Play continues in this way, with teams taking turns rolling the die but sculpting simultaneously, until one team reaches 10 points (in our case). That team wins!

HOW IT WENT

Since we were missing sculpting knives, Keri fetched us fondue utensils. 

The clay was included in this used version, but it was old and hard and dry. John and Keri picked up Play-Doh for us to use instead. It was a mix-pack of several colors in small containers, so we each chose two colors for our clay to start. We eventually joined all of our clay into a single one for our team, but it was fun to start with two colors and start to mix them then combine with another two colors and start to mix those together for a team color. We knew we would always end up with a brown of some kind but it was fun to watch the progress. 

I wish I had taken more photos of our play because we had some interesting sculpts. It’s all about how the sculptor interprets breaking down the thing, and how the guesser interprets the sculpt. But guessers can see both team sculpts which can bring them a long way towards the right guess. 

A sculpt of a face
Some kind of face, I think?

The game was challenging, but it was not as impossible as I had assumed it would be. Here are a few of the examples I remember from our play:

  • GRAVEYARD SHIFT: Both John and I created graveyards so that part was done. I created a clock to try and indicate the shift, and we both made little dudes that did an actual job and got paid by someone else for it. Finally John made a gear shift and Keri was able to guess correctly. 
  • IRAN: This one probably included the most frustration and the most laughter. Bill sculpted a nice little world and I was able to determine that he wanted me to say a country in maybe eastern Europe? He pointed at it 500 times but I was not sure which region it really was. He probably did a great job, but geography is as dumb as I get. Meanwhile Keri sculpted a little man and started to make him move. This all went on for a couple of minutes until a light bulb went off and I guessed Iran. This is a good example of one I would not have been able to guess without both sculpts as clues. 
  • JOHNNY CASH: I started by sculpting money and then drew a dude with a guitar. John had a dude too, but he also made a ring of fire. Touché. Keri guessed it.

Our teams were pretty evenly matched and a lot of the time we were trading points. Eventually Bill and I established a lead of a few points and maintained that until we won. 

Sample cards showing Mississippi River, Love at first sight, add, scissors and more
Here is a random sampling of possible cards

Clay to Win was thoroughly enjoyable. I think one of the things the game has going for it is that I enjoyed guessing a sculpt and I enjoyed sculpting a sculpt. So each and every turn I was excited for what is happening next. And even though the stealing clay after scoring a point did not really affect much of anything, it was fun and we did it. 

A larger clay ball on the left and smaller clay ball on the right
The darker brown ball is slowly eating the lighter brown ball

It may be worth noting that we played without mats using Play-Doh on a wood table. The table was pretty disgusting after the game, but it cleaned up very easily with a quick spray down and wipe up. 

PLAY OR PASS

Play. I like this type of game, so I say play. Clay to Win is challenging by asking you to sculpt things that are sometimes un-sculptable, but if you break the thing down it is often very possible. Similar to Win, Lose or Draw or some other variant, there is a lot of laughter, frustration, confusion, pointing, nodding, encouraging, shaking of heads and going back to the drawing board. And I definitely enjoyed the punitive nature of stealing the other team’s clay. 

The game is not magic; if you do not enjoy this type of drawing or sculpting and guessing game then this will not change your mind. But we had a ball. A big, multi-colored brownish one. 

Review: Critter in the Candy!

By On December 3, 2018 With 3 Comments

Review: Critter in the Candy!
Publisher: Gabriel
Year: 1978
Tagline: Collect the most MAKE-BELIEVE CHOCOLATES to win – but don’t get the Critter in the Candy!

Critter in the Candy! cover showing brown chocolates against pink background, very 70's

HOW WE MET

Bill found this thrifting and was foolish enough to send me a photo asking whether I want it. I couldn’t look it up at the time, so my yes was based on that yummy pink cover. No regrets!

HOW IT PLAYS

Critter in the Candy! is a simple memory game for children. The chocolates have images on their bottom and roughly half are peanuts and half are cherries. They go face down on the table. Players take turns popping the Pop-O-Matic to see what chocolate they are looking for. You may pop a cherry or you may pop a peanut. 

The pop o matic showing die with cherry up
The gross, old Pop-O-Matic (it works great!)

You choose one of the chocolates and look at the bottom. If it matches your die then you keep it and the next player goes. One of the chocolates has a Critter on its bottom, though, so watch out! If you draw the Critter you must return one of your chocolates to the pile along with the Critter. 

The critter on the bottom of a chocolate
That pesky critter!

HOW IT WENT

We played this briefly during one longer game night. Sure it’s a kid’s game but it’s simple and I think it is kind of fun. It appeals to the gambler in me. Bill won our game but we used the honor system, which I do not recommend for adults. Or kids for that matter. 

Our play showing a hand reaching toward one of many plastic chocolates
Tell me that doesn’t look fun

PLAY OR PASS

Pass. I mostly wanted to share this game on the blog in case anyone out there has little ones and hadn’t heard of it. It’s a cute little memory game for young ones, but I’m about 35 years too old for it. 

Review: The Rainbow Gayme

By On December 1, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: The Rainbow Gayme
Publisher: People Like Us
Year: 1992
Tagline: The Most Fun You’ll Have With Your Clothes On!

Cover looks like a package with purple yarn and the title The Rainbow Gayme

HOW WE MET

I did a little something kind of silly earlier this year, something I do not recommend. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to review the list of board games on Board Game Geek by year. I got through 3.5 years so far (1988, 1989, 1992 and half of 1993 I think). I judged the games by their names and covers, opened those that looked interesting and added several to my wish list. One of those was the Rainbow Gayme. 

I find very obscure games at thrift sometimes, but I think smaller independent vintage games rarely make it far from their origins. I actually hunted down a cheap copy of The Rainbow Gayme on eBay to fulfill my wishlist item. 

It has sat on my shelf for awhile, but we finally broke it out this past Thanksgiving in a fun gaming evening where we played four vintage games in addition to another chapter in Betrayal Legacy (which is awesome). 

HOW IT PLAYS

The Rainbow Gayme is a roll and move game where your goal is to land by exact count on the end of the rainbow. Then you win! The starting space is even a closet. 

The board has spaces showing colors of the rainbow and many illustrations
The colorful board

During the game, players must successfully complete the category of the space they are on. Once successful the player may roll a 10 sided die and move that many spaces. If you are unlucky enough to roll 0 then you must move backwards two spaces and lose your turn. 

The components including pawns, timer and small purple pencils
Yes the die is purple. Even the pencils are purple!

The spaces on the board are colored differently indicating different categories that must be completed within the 2 minute timer:

  • Orange – She Said : He Said: In this category another player will read you a quote and two people that may have said it. You choose which you think said the quote. 
  • Purple – A Matter of Choice: This is a multiple choice question about gay culture.
  • Blue – Group Grope: This category is kind of party game-ish where another player will read the card to you out loud, you write down how you would answer it and then each other player also guesses how they think the player would answer. If players match your answer, they may move ahead one space. If one or more players matched your answer then you may roll to continue moving. 
  • Red – Picture This: This category is a Pictionary-like drawing challenge where you must draw the term, article or symbol on the card. Similar to above, the person that guesses correctly may move ahead one space and you may roll. 
  • Yellow – Act Out: This is the charades category where you will be pantomiming terms, titles, and things related to the gay community. The game mercifully comes with a couple of cheat sheets for common charades movements to indicate things like “add an S” or “song title.” This cheat sheet was a huge help to me. 
  • Rainbow – Player’s Choice: choose your poison from the above categories.
The card box where cards are Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue and Purple
Because The Rainbow Gayme is so inclusive elsewhere, I will forgive it for excluding green here

When you near the end of the rainbow and start aiming for that last space on the board, play is normal except that if you roll higher than the number you need, you must move backward that amount. Yep. 

The first player to the end of the rainbow by exact count is the winner!

HOW IT WENT

(Note: we played so that players roll and move at the beginning of their turns, which caused our play to go a bit more quickly than normal play would)

I am not sure how well I understood what this game would be like when I tracked it down. I was honestly a little disappointed when I got it in the mail and saw that it is a combination of trivia, drawing and charades, kind of like a gay-themed Cranium. But I actually had a lot more fun playing it than I thought I would. The Rainbow Gayme borrows heavily from well-established and competent games, so while its approach might come off as a little clumsy the gameplay itself is approachable and fine. We had fun. 

I didn’t feel like our play was overly short or overly long, so I am happy we changed the rules to regular roll and move so none of us got stuck in categories that we struggled with, like trivia. I was rolling very well, so I was really trucking around the board. Bill managed to move one space out of the closet and then roll a 0, placing him firmly back in the closet at the beginning of play and causing him to pretend to flip the table. He generally rolled poorly and was in the back for most of the game, but the requirement of rolling by exact count to end the game meant that we all kind of stacked up at the end there. 

The board has many illustrations, as you have seen by now. But what is harder to notice from photos is that the four sides of the board each state one of these themes: oppression, freedom, challenge and unity. The illustrations represent these themes. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

A dance club showing dancers having a good time
Loving this representation of Freedom
Showing arrests and military discharges
The Oppression sections are troubling, as they should be
A car of people yelling "Dykes" at two people walking their dogs
Another in the Oppression section
Illustration of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington
The AIDS Memorial Quilt makes an appearance in the Challenge section
Large motorcycle group and large parade
The Unity section is appropriately large groups of people
Two people hiking, one in a wheelchair
See? Inclusive
A picture of women on an island with sign Isle of Lesbos
Rounding it out with another Freedom illustration

One of the common criticisms of The Rainbow Gayme that you are likely to encounter, fairly, is that it is dated. Oh is it dated. I would be curious how many people in the gay community know much of the trivia or terms or movies or books or references, particularly from a 2018 perspective. 

For some reason a lot of us were landing on the same categories multiple times. I had to pantomime several times, and as mentioned earlier that cheat sheet was a lifesaver for me. I had to get my fellow players to guess the play As Is. That was difficult but I managed it with all the little shorthand. And I did look up the play later to learn more about it. 

The shorthand sheets for charades
If you ever need to do charades, keep this image handy

I enjoyed teasing Keri when she was trying to draw out the term “sex club.” She was clearly drawing sex but I kept guessing things like being intimate, making love, coupling, knowing biblically. Super fun. A game within a game.

We did find one factual error in the cards related to the period Amelia Earhart was alive. Not a huge deal, but it contributed to the player missing that question so we had to re-do their play. 

One card from each category
A sample card from each category for your eyes

The goal of the Rainbow Gayme is to teach people about the gay community in a fun and light-hearted way. I guess it accomplishes this, but also feels very narrow and focused. It’s a niche game. You would be able to learn about contributions from the gay community, which is nice. But it also feels like minutiae because it is so dry at times and seems to focus on a very specific time period. And the takeaway is trivia. 

Generally the focused trivia board games (typically related to a TV show more often than a topic) are enjoyed by those that already have an appreciation and knowledge of the subject matter. Their goal is not to teach but just to test your knowledge. If the goal of The Rainbow Gayme is to teach, I think it could have been approached differently. Like even just giving the cards more context that can be read, so I not only know As Is is a 1985 play by William Hoffman but also the subject matter instead of trying to remember it to look it up later. 

In the end I managed to roll the magic number I needed to get to the end and I won the Rainbow Gayme! 

PLAY OR PASS

Pass. The game has a noble goal, and it probably fulfilled that goal to a certain extent for a certain time period to a very specific audience after it was released. But it just doesn’t stand the test of time for a casual gamer. 

Review: Mansions & Money

By On November 25, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: Mansions & Money
Publisher: Masco Corporation
Year: 1992
Tagline: The Home Building Game For Every Family From Masco!

Cover showing a giant white house

HOW WE MET

It just so happens that John and Keri are building a house right now. I felt sure that they needed to play this Masco game prior to locking down all the details, just in case it changed their minds on anything. I plucked it off eBay as my humble contribution to their home-building journey. I’m a good friend.

HOW IT PLAYS

Mansions & Money is a roll and move game where your goal is to be the wealthiest homeowner when the game ends. 

Pawns start on the inner track starting space. On their turn, players roll two dice but only choose one of them for their movement. This definitely allows you to be more strategic about which spaces on the board you land on. If a player rolls doubles then they shout out, “Mansions and Money!” to get $10,000 from the bank. If another player shouts it first, the roller needs to pay the shouter $10,000 from their own supply of money. 

The board with four decks in the middle and plain pawns
A shot of our play to show you the board

The first several spaces on the board allow players to collect money and choose house plans based on the space they land on. For example a space may allow you to choose a house design from plan numbers 1 or 2. House plans go up to 7 and each tier between 1 and 7 has three different house design choices. If you are able to upgrade by landing on a space that lets you choose from a higher plan, you should go for it. You can simply replace whatever plan you have; players can only have one house plan design. 

A stack of house plans with The Gettysburg house plan card on top
The house plans, from Tier 1 to Tier 7 and three plans per Tier

The board also has spaces indicating YOUR PROPERTY IS UP or YOUR PROPERTY IS DOWN. When landing here, draw a card from the appropriate deck. As you can probably guess YOUR PROPERTY IS UP cards are positive and allow you to collect money and have the option of purchasing a LOT, a BUILDER or an ARCHITECT. You are required to have both a LOT and a BUILDER (or in lieu of BUILDER to get a YOU ARE THE BUILDER card, cheaper but less professional) before you exit the inner track or you will pay a fine to purchase them. The ARCHITECT is optional. 

Subcontractor cards showing silly people with props like paint brushes
If you decide to build without a BUILDER you get these jackasses

YOUR PROPERTY IS DOWN cards are negative and cause you to pay minor fees for last minute changes or mistakes. By choosing which die you use to move you are unlikely to land on one of these spaces unless you roll doubles and are forced onto it. We never landed on one. 

All cards in the game have cheaper options and more expensive options. The cheaper options cost less at the time of purchase but are consequently worth less at the end of the game. The BUILDER and ARCHITECT cards also have more expensive options, and the more expensive ones will protect you from more CONSTRUCTION PROBLEM cards near the end of play. 

The inner track is all about collecting money, choosing a house plan, choosing a LOT, choosing a BUILDER and possibly hiring an ARCHITECT. The inner track ends for each player when they reach the red arrow leading pawns into the outer track. Again, if you do not have either a LOT or BUILDER at this point then you still purchase one now but pay an additional $10,000. And money is important to make the best house you can and have the best return at the end of the game. 

A female architect and male builder card
My ARCHITECT and BUILDER from our game. I wanted them to fall in love.

The outer track is full of self-explanatory spaces that might get you a car, might allow you add rooms to your house, collect or pay money, etc. If a space says buy then you must buy, but if it says may buy then you have the option. If you go broke, you temporarily go back into the inner track and collect double money (this is where your colored chip will come into play). 

The outer track has three special spaces that are colored red and have STOP signs on them. You are required to STOP at each of these red spaces. What happens on these spaces is indicated on the back of your particular house plan, plus they require a room purchase. For example the first of these spaces requires choosing a KITCHEN to purchase. Money goes quickly on the outer track.

Back of house plan showing floorplan and the cost for each stop area
House plans look like this on back, note the 3 stop areas

The last several spaces of the game are littered with CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMs that cause you to draw a card from the CONSTRUCTION PROBLEM deck. Your die roll, your BUILDER or your ARCHITECT may protect you from these nasty problems, but if not they do get nasty. Watch out. 

Sample cards showing fines or money collection or construction issue like a waiver was missed
Sample cards

The game ends for all players once any player hits the MOVE IN space. This player also gets a $200,000 bonus! The player with the most money (add up cash, home value, builder, rooms, everything together) wins! 

HOW IT WENT

Mansions & Money was everything I had hoped it would be. It is everything you would think a game created by a company using actual branded products and designs over 25 years old would be. Since Masco probably had a genuine interest in selling things from this game, they did not skimp on the choices. We had 21 house designs, 20 outside amenities, 6 kitchens, 6 bathrooms, 5 cars, 5 architects, 5 builders, 8 lots and 28 interior rooms to choose from! 

The interior rooms are as delightful as you might imagine for the time period: lots of bright brass faucets, lots of hunter green, lots of lace and flower prints, lots of dark wood. 

Sample interior cards, a Dodge Stealth car, bathroom, kitchen etc
A small sampling of the cards we chose from

My own house plan was The Villanova, which is a level 4. I just didn’t land on a space to upgrade. We also didn’t know what to expect in terms of how good it is to have a middle-of-the-road design vs a super-fancy one. (Spoiler alert: the rich get richer in Mansions & Money, just like always). Keri was the only one of us that got a level 7 house plan, and it definitely contributed to her ultimate win. 

My play showing Villanova house design and my lot
The Villanova

There are other things that can pay off a lot. Taking your time in the inner track will get you more money. You can make a strategic decision to go broke in order to collect a bunch of money, but it will cost you a few turns. Landing on the CEO space and getting a free car is just free money, and a free interior room can really pay off in the end of the game. 

Keri's room cards including a Hot Tub and Library
Keri’s mansion had so many amenities and rooms compared to the rest of us!

The $200,000 bonus ended up being huge, at least in our play. The three of us losers had between $308,000 and $338,000 and Keri won with $517,000. So she would not have won without that bonus. It’s possible that first to the end will always win – it certainly seems so based on our one play. But how fun is that? I’ll take my time and go for a hot tub. 

I frequently could not afford the nicest anything, which was probably very appropriate for my level 4 house plan. Some of us played with the strategy of purchasing the most expensive thing available while others went for a certain look. And we all kind of ended up similarly. 

Hide the Pain Harold meme next to an ARCHITECT card where the guy looks like he could be the same
Bill chose this ARCHITECT and said it reminded him of the Hide the Pain Harold meme, and I’ll be damned if that might not be him

I think our enjoyment of the game was heightened by the fact that half of us were kind of going through the whole process in real life. I imagine that also caused a heightened angst with some of the negative cards, like the one where the framework of a house went up in flames. 

The game stayed on theme well with scary-but-probably-realistic CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMs and a kind of you-get-what-you-pay-for feeling. I think a lot of people might not enjoy the dated look of the game, but to me that was a lot of the charm. Although, Masco, if you are listening… if you decide to release a new game I will happily pay money for it. 

PLAY OR PASS

Pass. While I grant you that the gameplay here is nothing real special, we all had tons of fun building our 1992 houses with our 1992 workers and their 1992 clothing and hair. Most cash grab games are happy once you have paid for the game; that is their point. This is the first game I remember playing that wants me to buy stuff after playing the game. I’m into it. 

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