Idle Remorse

Review: Fantasy Forest

By On September 27, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: Fantasy Forest
Publisher: TSR
Year: 1980
Tagline: A Child’s First Fantasy Adventure

Children walking along a path in a forest with a wizard on the left

how we met

I found Fantasy Forest at a thrift shop where we often get lucky, but they also tend to price a lot of board games crazy high – so it’s a crap shoot. Bill spotted Fantasy Forest with one of the pawns sticking out through a hole in the top of the box, and the price was only $1.99. Sold.

TSR was based out of Lake Geneva, WI, very near where I live. I feel like we see more TSR items around here as a result, but that is purely anecdotal and based on no facts. But we have found a number of old D&D copies, and even though it’s a children’s game I considered Fantasy Forest a great find. Especially when I got it home and it’s complete.

how it plays

In Fantasy Forest, players play cards from their hands to move ahead on the board trying to make their way to Morley’s castle. The first play to the castle wins!

The board shows a mess of a track and children running around and monsters chasing them

The big, colorful board

Each player starts the game with 3 cards in hand. The rest are in the deck to draw. The cards consist of different monsters that all correspond to numbers. On their turn, a player draws one card and chooses one of the cards from their hand to play and move that number of spaces.

A hand showing a monster worth 3, a monster worth 2 and a mummy worth 5

Sadly, this is the only photo I have of our play

Instead of moving this way, a player can choose to DUEL another player. Each player then chooses a card from their hand to play, and if the player that initiated the DUEL wins they move to the space in front of the challenged player. If they lose, no harm done and end of turn.

FUN FACT: When a game allows a player to get into the lead and there is not much anyone can do, it is called the “Runaway Leader” problem. When a game tries to address this, it is often called a “Catch-up” mechanic. The DUEL in Fantasy Forest is an example of a “Catch-up” mechanic. You are never hopelessly behind, no matter where you are on the board.

Monster card examples

This is a sampling of monsters. They are adorbs

If a player lands on, passes or ends on a spot with a shortcut and happens to have the card matching that space, they may pay the card to take the shortcut and continue moving for however many spaces they had left; BUT the card that paid the shortcut just buys the shortcut and does not also allow numbered movement. Shortcuts can be taken if a player begins, passes through or ends at the space on their turn, provided they have the correct card to pay the toll.

Starting space has a pink star with pink spaces leading across a bridge to a new landing space

Example shortcut that you can cross if you can pay the toll

If a player lands on a red space, they are AMBUSHed. This player chooses a card from their hand to play face up, then draws the top card from the deck face up. If they win the AMBUSH by having played an equal or higher number card, they get to move ahead that number of spaces. But if they lost, they move backwards the number of spaces of the card drawn.

When playing an extra card on their turn, like in an AMBUSH or after being challenged to a DUEL, players should also draw a card at the end of turn. Players should always have three cards in hand. Which I love because it is so simple.

Players can share a space. But if you end your turn on the same space as another player then you take that player’s three cards into your own hand, then return any three cards of your choice back to that player.

Play continues until one lucky elf finds themselves at Morley’s castle and is the winner!

Morley the wizard

This is what the end looks like

NOTE: There are versions of Fantasy Forest that also include Hero Cards and accompanying figures. From what I can tell they are special powers that change hands. This is not part of the original version and not part of our copy.

how it went

For a clearly marketed children’s game, I think Fantasy Forest has a lot to offer. Play is simple but cut-throat. Players can make choices to save high cards for DUELs or the occasional AMBUSH, or they can try to move as far as possible each turn. If they get too far behind, they have very practical options to catch up. And although it is not devastating, there are still punishments for another player landing on your space.

This actually plays a bit like Goosebumps: The Board Game. Except when I asked Keri about Fantasy Forest a few weeks after our play she said, “Is that the one where you go up the guy’s robe?” And it’s difficult to argue with that description. I didn’t realize it until writing this review and looking closer at BGG photos, but this part of the board changed in the later version.

Our play went okay, except I am pretty sure Bill was lucky enough to draw all the Dragons. A lot of us had good forward momentum. We did see a few DUELs. We saw an AMBUSH or four. We shared spaces and sent back the lowest cards. Two players even took shortcuts! We did it all.

Pawns at start

Our pawns at the beginning. So young, so happy

Fantasy Forest felt less tense than Goosebumps: The Board Game, which is probably fitting. The highs were not quite as high, but the lows were not nearly as low. It was a nice break from roll and move, and the cards really do introduce more strategy into play. One of the interesting parts of the game is wondering whether the elf children or the monsters are more horrific.

A young girl making a teasing face at a giant

Yeah, tease the big guy

A goblin chasing a smiling girl

So much teasing fun

More chasing and a girl sticking her tongue out at a goblin

If you are having Lord of the Rings flashbacks by now, that’s normal

Child sticking tongue out with dragon overhead

Even at the foot of the dragon it’s hands on knees, sticking tongue out

Keri was transparent the entire game that she had no intention of being the first to Morley. But there was rarely big margins of space between any of us, so it didn’t matter much. Bill was fairly consistently in front, even though we would DUEL him and jump ahead throughout play.

In the end Bill was the first to Morley and won!

play or pass

Pass. This is a “Child’s First Fantasy Adventure.” It’s not for you. But if you say you are buying it for your kids I will believe you. And truly, it introduces decisions and acceptance and luck and catching up. If you are looking to make your young child a gamer, this is not a bad start.

Review: NSYNC Backstage Pass Game

By On September 20, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: NSYNC Backstage Pass Game
Publisher: Patch Products
Year: 2000
Tagline: LOADED with JUICY personal facts you won’t find anywhere else!

cover shows the boys

how we met

The sun was shining the day I found NSYNC Backstage Pass Game. It was shining over the whole flea market, and shining over me as I handed over $5 and walked away.

how it plays

NSYNC Backstage Pass Game is a spin and move game where the object is twofold. First, you must collect each of the five boys by visiting their fan club areas and successfully answering a trivia question about them. Then you must make your way to the stage and get past a bodyguard. The first player to do this wins!

Players start the game with a pawn of their choice and a white bar that holds the boys as you collect them. Players also each get a secret chip with a password on it. The bodyguards have matching passwords at the base of them that is covered by the mover. Place the bodyguards in their movers and mix them up so you don’t know which bodyguard is which. Then place the bodyguards in their areas near the stage.

The pawns are young girls on cardboard

A sampling of pawns

On their turn, a player spins the spinner and moves that number of spaces. You do not need to land in the fan club areas (or the bodyguards) by exact count, but other than this circumstance you must always move and complete your full movement.

Colorful spinner with small pics of the boy faces

If you land on the star you get to jump around the board to star spaces!

When you reach a boy’s fan club area, another player draws a card and asks you a multiple choice question corresponding to that boy. If you get the answer right, you get to review all the remaining boy pawns for that character, choose your favorite and place it in your white bar. You only collect one of each character, no matter how much you like Justin.

Overview of the board where the tracks make a stadium shape

The stadium

The poster has all five boys on it

This is the other side of the board. It really is.

The first player to get all five boys places their white bar in the stage area to start the concert. This doesn’t mean anything. They don’t get anything special, and other players can still catch up and win. But it’s a micro-win and those are always fun, especially if your band has a goth look like mine did.

Four boys collected

My boys mid-play showing Justin looking positively vampiric

Players with all their boys then approach a bodyguard and look at its base without revealing it to other players. If the bodyguard’s password matches the player’s password, that player gets the backstage pass and wins!

Bodyguard and chip showing saying

If you look closely you can see this bodyguard has a matching “I want you back” at his base which would be hidden

how it went

We played this game in public at the local Meadery on their first ever Game Night. They were probably hoping to see a variety of games, not necessarily Scrabble or Monopoly, and I think we delivered.

Five boys in the stage area foreground

Those are my boys on stage!

I don’t like trivia games, as you know, and that extends to trivia about boy bands from the turn of the millennium. I was a little nervous about playing this game for that reason, but it worked out really well. Keri read most of our questions and it turns out she has this weird tick that causes one of her eyes to wink when she reads a right answer. We capitalized on this strange quirk and probably shaved half an hour off our game play.

Example trivia card

Justin’s favorite game at this time was TriBond

We were generally able to collect the band members quickly, and the biggest variable was how well we spun. Once we approached the stage it was all luck. Bill was the first one tapping the shoulders of the bodyguards, but he visited two that did not match. I was able to get lucky by choosing the right bodyguard right away!

So I actually won this game, and John pointed out that it’s the best kind of win because we will never play again. And I think that did make me appreciate my win a bit more. And I recorded my win on the lanyard dutifully, albeit with some shame since I did not quite use my actual name.

Front and back of lanyard with two names listed

The two sides of the lanyard. Jamie had not recorded the year so not sure how old that win is

play or pass

Pass. If you are an NSYNC superfan then this might be very enjoyable. If this same game was reskinned for ABBA I would keep it forever and never let it go, and eat up the trivia. Can you imagine the outfits? But alas I never caught onto NSYNC. So I was left with spin and move trivia with a touch of luck at the end. Meh.

This is not the worst boy band game I have ever played. But I’m going to keep buying them, because I feel like there’s gotta be a better boy band game out there. We just haven’t met yet.

Review: Count Your Blessings

By On September 12, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: Count Your Blessings
Publisher: Family Games Inc.
Year: 2009
Tagline: The Game with an Attitude of Gratitude!

Cover showing a cartoon town with a night sky over it

how we met

I found Count Your Blessings at my local town thrift shop. I bought a few other games that day; they seemed to have had someone drop off an abundance of light party games that I was happy to pick up. I have not gone in for a Chicken Soup for the Soul game before, but given the raging hellscape the world is these days we could probably stand to learn any skills that help us to count our blessings. Maybe it will be life changing. One way to find out.

how it plays

The goal of Count Your Blessings is to go from mad to glad, from tired to inspired, from stressed to blessed and from frazzled to dazzled. Players do this by spinning the spinner on their turn, drawing a card from the corresponding deck and doing as it says.

Players start with four tokens in front of them showing mad, tired, stressed and frazzled. For every two cards they collect – any type, just two cards – they can turn over one of these tokens to their more cheery sides. Once all four tokens are flipped for a player, they win!

Tokens showing mad on one side, glad on the other, etc

The tokens in their cheery and not so cheery states

The spinner has six spaces:

  • ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE: in this deck the player reads the card aloud and all players, including the active player, suggest a silver lining outlook on it. Then all players vote on which answer they liked best. The player with the winning answer gets the card.
  • COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: this category has questions that the player answers from their own life experiences. It has the possibility of getting personal in this category. This category is also noted for including inspirational quotes from famous writers and celebrities on each card. If the player tries to answer the card then they win it; no judgment. This time.
  • THANK TANK: not to be mistaken for a think tank, the player reads the card aloud and all other players offer ways to see the situation as a blessing in disguise. The player then chooses their favorite answer and awards the card to them.
  • LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: this is a very fun category because it requires you to wear the bright side glasses that come with the game. You also read a card aloud, answer it and collect the card. But not just that, you must wear the bright side glasses until your next turn. This empowers you to, “comment, make positive suggestions or assist with any other players’ response.”
  • SOUL FOOD: this category is straight up trivia about inspirational figures. You only collect this card if you answer correctly.
  • YOUR CHOICE: as described, you choose the category you want to tackle.

    • Spinner showing big sun in the middle

    The outside of the spinner comes into play in certain cards. The part that is hard to read is the every-turn part

    If you like, you can slow the game down more than it already is by using the HEADS OR TAILS coin. You do this by challenging a player (but only once per player per game) and doing a coin toss with the HEADS OR TAILS coin. The player challenged calls heads or tails and wins or loses accordingly. If they lose, they must turn over one of the tokens they already won.

    Two sets of two cards with one positive token above each

    Getting there, two cards equals one positive token

    The first player to have all of their tokens flipped to the positive side wins!

    how it went

    As I mentioned, I don’t usually go in for this type of game. The version I found was unpunched, presumably for a very good reason. But my game group is the best ever, and we have fun in emergency rooms when we have to. We were going to show this dumb game a good time, even if it was not capable of showing us one.

    This is not the type of game that pulled us out of our shells. It did not lead to much sharing or new information. For whatever reason, it just didn’t pull that aspect of the game off, where games like The Ungame and Loser! occasionally taught us more about each other.

    Sample cards including THANK TANK where it says gas prices have risen again

    In THANK TANK your fellow players have to name silver linings

    We had some laughs. We try to mess with each other during play of all games at times, but it requires quick thinking and a straight face. One of us had gotten a SOUL FOOD trivia question related to Michael J. Fox, who is very inspirational. Then the next SOUL FOOD card that came up, the reader tried to make it sound like the answer was also Michael J. Fox. The timing was perfect, because we immediately hypothesized that all the SOUL FOOD questions were based on Michael J. Fox. This is absurd, of course, but we enjoyed imagining that world for a brief moment.

    Example cards with questions like "Have you ever moved past a fear where it felt amazing?"

    Umm Michael J. Fox?

    FUN FACT: Count Your Blessings was one of four games we played this particular game night. Our play included tackling House of Danger, the choose your own adventure game. In Chapter 2 (no spoiler because this is what we did and not the wrong or right thing to do) we marched upstairs because of the reasoning “you gotta get up to get down.” Like perfect idiots.

    The other situation that gave us a good laugh was when we realized that some cards are automatic losses. Starting the game, we assumed Keri would win because Keri went first and the cards were gentle enough that they are almost automatic wins. A couple of things happened to dispel this myth for us.

    The first was the THANK TANK category. Speaking strictly as an asshole, THANK TANK is the worst category because you have no chance of winning the card. It only benefits your fellow players.

    Overview of our play showing spinner and decks

    A terrible photo of our play

    And then some cards in every category are automatic losses. They just say that some negative thing happened and you must put the card back in the pile, so you are not given the opportunity to win a card. Not funny on its own, but this happened once, and then happened three more times in a row in different categories (probably because we didn’t shuffle and just used the cards straight from their plastic). Trust me, it was hilarious.

    Sample LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE cards asking you to share about difficult times

    Sample LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE cards, ick

    I think we enjoyed the glasses and have plenty of pictures from wearing them. The two different eye frames are too close to each other, and they impede your vision while wearing them. But they look amazing.

    A snapchat picture of Keri with the glasses on

    Keri is majestic

    Snapchat pic of me with the glasses

    I was trying to look angry but I got those dang glasses, didn’t quite pull it off

    The designer of Balderdash contributed to the making of this Count Your Blessings game. She wrote a 3 page afterward that I would love to comment on, but I didn’t read it. I put enough time into Count Your Blessings as it is. I’m sure it’s lovely and well thought out, outlining the best of intentions that go into a game like this. But the next day I was still in this raging hellscape.

    play or pass

    Big time pass on this one. The bright side glasses did not seem to contain any special powers, the cards did not really push us to be vulnerable, the trivia was trivia and the only enjoyment was infused by our enjoyment of each other. That would be an opportunity to count my blessings, but I already knew that one. It happens even when we play decent games.

    Review: Chicks battle the Dudes

    By On September 8, 2018 With No Comments

    Review: Chicks battle the Dudes
    Publisher: University Games
    Year: 2005
    Tagline: A Face-off to see who is the smarter sex!

    The cover shows a man and woman wearing boxing gloves. She is smiling but he looks serious

    how we met

    To my surprise, Bill brought this game home from a thrifting trip. We don’t play trivia games like this very often so we are generally all open to giving them a go as a nice light game. This one has a nice novelty in that it is a tug of war with shoelace ropes and everything. That’s worth a play through. Right?

    how it plays

    The game is boys against girls. Chicks sit on the chicks side of the board and dudes are on the dude side. The Chicks battle the Dudes token sits in the middle of the board to start, which puts the DUDES token and the CHICKS token in their respective START spaces.

    Overview of the board showing pieces in place

    Start your engines

    From here teams take turns asking each other questions. Dudes draw from the chicks pile to ask the girls questions and Chicks draw from the dudes deck to ask the boys questions.

    Example Chicks cards including question what is a stud finder

    What is this stud finder you speak of? Derp

    Example Dudes questions like which TV network has the tagline "Television for women" (it's Lifetime)

    One easy card, one impossible card

    If a team answers correctly they give their rope a tug and move the token towards their side of the board. When a team starts on the final space on their side of the board then the opposing team draws from the CHALLENGE deck to ask the team a question.

    CHALLENGE cards can include:

      Who Makes Me? where the team reads a product name and the opposing team must give the brand or manufacturer from the card
      Spell it where the opposing team spells a word
      Finish the Phrase where the opposing team finishes an incomplete phrase
      and Thumb Wrestling where each team chooses a champion

    The first team to correctly make it to the end and pass a CHALLENGE question wins! And on behalf of their entire gender, presumably.

    Example Challenge questions like who made the pizza from Wayne's World?

    Example CHALLENGE questions

    how it went

    We played this at the end of a random game night. It was pretty much what you’d expect. Questions range from really simple to impossible. Many of them had multiple choice options and some inexplicably did not.

    This is not the first gender-focused game that we have played. Certainly there are questions where the other team knew the answer clearly while one team struggled, and you could argue that most of these are more common knowledge for one gender than the other. Speaking in large brush strokes here, which I don’t usually do.

    I don’t quite understand the illustrations on the board. I mean, I get that if we are more towards our end then we are relaxed and in a bubble bath because everything is going well. And I guess it kind of makes sense that it’s time to sweat and we get pushed to the wrong side of our START space, and that this stress could be represented by having to change a flat tire. But then why is the stressful picture on the boy side fixing a roof in the rain?

    Shows woman in bubble bath and woman fixing tire looking stressed

    A close up of the Chicks side of the board

    Close up of Dudes side of board showing guy grilling and guy fixing roof in the rain

    It’s funny that the happy place for the Dudes is cooking

    Putting people in boxing gloves on the cover was a weird move. How do you play tug of war in boxing gloves?

    The tug of war component made of cardboard and shoestrings

    A close up of the tug of war rope

    Bill was so convinced that the CHICKS deck had more multiple choice cards than the DUDES deck that he encouraged me to count them. Both decks have 90 cards, and it turns out he’s not wrong. The CHICKS deck had 76 cards with multiple choice questions on them while the DUDES deck had only 68. I probably have a margin of error of 5 or so – it wasn’t my most thorough work. But I still think that is relatively even. It is worth noting that the cards have three questions on them and we always read the top question, so that could have introduced additional imbalance.

    For awhile it looked like the boys had the game in the bag, but we were able to turn it around. Ultimately Keri and I won! Although I think if the boys had chosen thumb wrestling for our challenge each time we might never have won.

    play or pass

    Pass. Nothing special here, this is just another boys vs girls game with a little added novelty component acknowledging that those games are basically a tug of war. We had fun, but this one is going back into the thrift cycle to light up another hour for someone sometime. The gift that keeps being given.

    Review: Casino Yahtzee

    By On September 6, 2018 With No Comments

    Review: Casino Yahtzee
    Publisher: Milton Bradley
    Year: 1986
    Tagline: The High-Rolling Dice Game

    Cover of casino yahtzee showing large plastic playing area

    My cover is damaged

    how we met

    There are so many Yahtzee variants out there in this wide world. I like Yahtzee, but for some reason I don’t go in for the variants. The boxes are lovely and I do enjoy the game, so I’m not sure what it is. I am just grateful for any ounce of me that shies away from a new game purchase. But then I saw Casino Yahtzee on the bottom shelf of a thrift shop – probably because the box is so giant – and I was sold. Just look at it.

    how it plays

    Casino Yahtzee is commonly described as a cross between Yahtzee and Bingo, and that is pretty spot on. The object of Casino Yahtzee is to score points by being the first one to “close” certain score rows and columns. The player with the most points once all score rows and columns are complete wins!

    Example board mid-play showing markers covering numbers and some scores

    Example play using all black markers. The white numbers are scores and colored numbers are what you need to fill

    There are five dice in Casino Yahtzee, each corresponding to a different color. Players fill their areas of the board by rolling five dice on their turn – any five dice they choose. In the beginning you will probably roll all five colors to start filling your open spots. As scoring opportunities become evident you may choose to roll the orange die five times, or the blue die twice and the red die three times. It’s up to you. Just roll five dice on your turn.

    When you roll a color/number die combo then you mark it on your board, like Bingo. You are trying to close those scoring rows and columns before other players do.

    Dice in the dice tray, each a different color face

    My dice are old and tired and hard to read

    The scoring sheet in Casino Yahtzee allows for only one player to score each row. So as your fellow players score different numbers you can block them on your own board to know that they are out of play. NOTE: there are two 25’s and two 30’s so we term them top and bottom for tracking.

    The biggest trick to the game is calling your row when you’ve scored it; you only get the points when you call it, and only on your turn. It is surprisingly easy to overlook points so demand your time at the end of your turn until you are comfortable you are not missing any points.

    An empty board before play starts

    A regular board at start of play, the same for all players

    There are a couple of possible bonus point opportunities available during your turn. You can forego a regular turn and announce you are going for bonus points. Then roll each of the dice. If you roll all different numbers then you are awarded a bonus, the sum of the dice you rolled. These dice do not affect your board.

    There is also an elusive Rainbow Bonus, which happens if all the dice you roll are in sequential order. In this case the numbers of the dice are added together and doubled to make your bonus, and you still get to cover the numbers you rolled on your board.

    Score sheet showing the possible scores in column on the left and only one player captures each of them

    Score sheet of our first play. Note the lack of bonus points

    The game ends when all of the possible rows and columns have been scored. Then the player with the most points wins! Want to play again? It’s so easy. Just pull your Casino Yahtzee card cover out toward your empty tray and, voila, the markers crash to the tray and you are ready for a new game! It is so satisfying.

    how it went

    We played Casino Yahtzee at the end of a long game night. Its simplicity makes it a great fit for the end of the night. It’s possible some of us had been drinking at that point, and others not.

    When we first got out our big plastic boards and started connecting them, there was talk of what the tray on the side is for. Bill had the best theory when he said, “This is from, what, the 70s? You are thinking about this all wrong. That’s an ashtray.”

    We poured all of the markers into the dice tray and all drew our markers from there. In this game, two of us used all white markers while two of us used all black markers. The instructions say to use black to cover your numbers and white to cover the score rows. But whatever. I actually prefer not using white markers for the score rows because they are white circles to begin with; they feel more closed with black markers and help my eyes skip over them when I need to.

    An overview of our play showing the giant plastic pieces together

    Our first play: markers everywhere, even in the ashtrays

    FUN FACT: Keri and I were constantly being accused of cheating during this game so Bill came up with the phrase Hottie or Naughty, which is now permanently in our vocabulary. We are about that age, you see.

    In our first play of Casino Yahtzee I noticed we mostly rolled all five different dice each time, a circumstance of the hour as much as the strategy perhaps. But here’s the thing about Casino Yahtzee: it’s kind of fun. So we have played a few times now and our strategy has gotten more cut-throat and focused in later play (though I am not convinced that rolling all five dice is not the best strategy most of the time). A few days after playing for the first time the power went out at our house for hours, and Bill and I played Casino Yahtzee with headlamps instead of doing electronic, online things. And it was kind of perfect.

    Overview of play with board unevenly lit by headlamp

    Playing by headlamp

    Keri won our first game during our first play. And it was the start of a beautiful game friendship. And the start of a paper crown documenting the winner henceforth. (More on that later)

    play or pass

    Play. We have pulled out Casino Yahtzee on multiple occasions, which is very high praise in this house. It is simple and fun, a nice filler as they say. And we usually play more than one time in a row. I can see this being the kind of game you grow up on that never gets old. I always knew there was a Yahtzee variant out there for me!

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