Idle Remorse

Review: Laser Attack

By jen On July 11, 2018 With 1 Comment

Review: Laser Attack
Publisher: Milton Bradley
Year: 1978
Tagline: Attack & Destroy the Dreaded Enemy Laser

Laser Attack cover all black background and neon letters

how we met

This is still more evidence that my local thrift shop is magic. No one that visits this small-town shop buys the same games that I do, so it is not important that I go frequently, which is downright luxurious. What can happen then is I go one random day and find an old electronic game from 1978 for half off $1.99 because its color tag is on sale that day. I mean…

how it plays

In Laser Attack each player is a different colored ship and your goal is to shut down the monster space station in the middle shining nasty lights at you. Here’s how it works.

4 ships, 5 energy pods each

Each ship has five energy pods placed at specific areas across the board. The goal of each ship is to collect their energy pods and then move towards the center to the space station. They can then turn by turn plug empty spots of the space station with energy pods. If the spinner’s light shines on a plugged spot then that energy pod owner wins the game!

Overview of the board with ships and pods in place

The game set up, where your energy pods are so far from your ship

The game board is web-like with vertical white lines and horizontal green lines. On their turn, a player can move one space along the white line (so up or down) or any number of spaces around the green line. When a space ship lands on a space with one of their energy pods they add it to the top of their ship.

Spaceship with 5 pods stacked on top that looks a little phallic

This is what a full spaceship looks like #nofilter

Ships can’t pass over any piece, not ships or energy pods, and sometimes get blocked in. Them’s the breaks.

The board also has three different rungs representing various levels of danger. The closer a piece is to the space station, the more danger they are in. If an energy pod is in the DESTRUCTION ZONE and the light shines on it then it is destroyed and removed from game. If a ship with pods is in this zone it loses one of its pods.

The end of each vertical line includes instructions saying that either you or all ships starting with you need to do a specific thing, like move your ship one space, move an enemy ship one space, move one of your pods one space, etc.

Text shows Space control moves one opponent's spaceship one space

SPACE CONTROL means the player whose turn it is

Text showing All Captains move their spaceship one space

All captains is all captains, starting with SPACE CONTROL

A player’s turn has four phases. In turn they:

1. move their ship

2. spin the space station spinner and note which white line the light shines on, which is an actual light shining down in a line along the space it lands

3. move any ships or energy pods in that line forward towards the space station or destroy them per instructions

4. follow the instructions at the end of that line

That’s about it. Track down those energy pods and plug them holes and cross them fingers.

how it went

Laser Attack is photogenic and beautiful. The game play is fairly interesting for a kids game. I also think the mix between cooperative (the space station is the enemy of all of us) and competition (take THAT!) introduces kids to interesting nuances in gameplay. It’s not really cooperative in play but it is in theory. We enjoyed starting to collect our energy pods and work towards taking that space station down.

With four on the board things can get a bit crowded. John’s suggestion was that someone retheme the whole game as LAX. The crowding does put your ship in some painful spots, often painful spots that your enemies have placed you into. As with most of these vintage games, luck was a big variable at the table. And being ahead at the beginning is no indication of how the game will end.

My energy pods had a terrible game. They were doing serious time in the DESTRUCTION ZONE and I ended up having two thrown into oblivion. At the time, I shed an internal tear for those lost energy pods. But towards the end of the game it was clear that it is crazy difficult to get all of your energy pods. And you can’t try to attack the space station if you have any energy pods left on the board. I think near the end both John and Keri would have thrown their own pods into oblivion if they could have. So the moral of the story is it’s not the worst thing to lose your energy pods to greater space. It hurts at the time, but one day you will thank me.

Because Laser Attack becomes a grind. We are not forgiving and even when we are waiting for a game to be over, we make the smart decisions when being allowed a “take that” opportunity. That extends the game for us.

Bill was the first one to get all of his energy pods. I was second, and I had fewer. John and Keri were still working on a couple of their own. Since each player spins the spinner on their turn, whoever is first to plug any of the SPACE STATION holes has the best chance for a win. And Bill won.

The very moment of the win, showing the light shining through the blue energy pod

Bill pointed out that Laser Attack seems very inspired by Star Wars. I am no expert on Star Wars, but I can see the argument. The concept of attacking a space station is odd, unless you think of that space station as an enemy, like the Death Star. There are lead ships based on different colors. They are gathering their energy shots, and only the shot in the exact right spot will end the space station. Bill could explain at length how hugely Star Wars shifted and transformed the entire toy landscape almost immediately from 1977. I can see this as an example.

play or pass

Pass. There’s a lot of novelty to be had here, but in the end the game is a grind. Where original content was possible, Laser Attack chose to duplicate content. For such a futuristic-themed game, it’s like they didn’t plan for a review 40 years later.

Review: Whosit?

By jen On July 7, 2018 With 2 Comments

Review: Whosit?
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Year: 1976
Tagline: The star-studded guessing game by Parker Brothers

Whosit? cover showing people in outfits like gangster, starlet, judge, cowboy

how we met

I found Whosit? only last weekend at a thrift shop near Milwaukee. It was such a good stop – the kind Bill hates and I love. I only bought games for play, and we didn’t find any for resell. I picked up Whosit? (which I had never heard of) in addition to Downton Abbey, Discretion, TV Scrabble and Can’t Stop all in one glorious location! I was on top of the world.

I do love a dated cover, and show me a dated cover more interesting than this one. Would you not pick this up to look at it? And if not, why are you reading this garble??

FUN FACT: since writing this review I have seen no less than four copies of Whosit? at thrift after going all these years seeing none.

how it plays

Whosit? predates Guess Who? but is commonly described as Guess Who? for adults. This is spot on. Each player is given a character from the deck while the rest are set aside. Your objective is to ask questions to try and determine which character your fellow players are. But they are also trying to figure out who you are.

Example character cards showing a spy, musical star and hero

Are you cartoonish? Yes

Each player is given seven cards for their hand, and each card is a question that you can ask one other player on your turn.

Generally the questions fall into the same categories, with questions that offer you a yes/no answer. Questions are trying to determine:

what color room you are in

what ethnicity you are

whether or not you are smoking

whether you are an adult

whether you have a hat or helmet

etc

When you ask someone a question and their answer is yes then two things happen: that card is placed in front of that player face up indicating that it is true of their character and you may draw another card and continue play by choosing either that same player or a different one and asking another question.

Question cards like Are you black and do you smoke

A few question cards

With a no answer your question card is discarded, another card is drawn and your turn is over.

Every so often you might get a question card that allows you to choose from many questions to ask. These cards go in front of the player as usual if their answer is yes, but there is no indication of which question was asked. As another player you must pay close attention so you can remember what was asked and add it to the rest of your information.

Ask any question card showing many options

AMA. As long as it’s one of these dated things

Where Whosit? really gets interesting is with four special characters that your group may or may not have chosen. The CENSOR always answers no to every question. The SPY and the GANGSTER both always lie to every question. The DIRECTOR says yes or no to any question, but try not to exclude all other characters or it will be clear who you are. Be tricky.

Once you think you have figured out the possible identity of all other players you can choose to accuse them. This takes place on your turn but can happen after you ask a question and receive a yes, receive a no or without asking a question at all – it’s totally up to you. Each player has a small yellow chip. Once you challenge the players, they discretely place their yellow chip into either the Yes or No slots of the blue challenge box to indicate that the guessing player is right or wrong (note: players must be honest with their chips, even if they are a special character). Ideally this chip placement is done under the table so that no other players see where you place your chip. That way, if the accuser is wrong, no harm done and play continues.

A clever approach to guessing

The accuser opens the box to determine how many chips fall into the Yes or No areas of the box. If one or more yellow chips are in the No section then that many guesses are incorrect and play continues. The outcome should not be shared with other players unless all the guesses were correct and the game is over. The first player to identify the character of each of their fellow players in a single guess wins!

how it went

I am a sucker for deduction games, but we don’t get them to the table as often as we should given how many I own. We ended up playing Whosit? the same day I picked it up, since it was sitting in the to-be-inventoried pile before heading down to the basement for storage in the ever-growing pile of deduction games.

The game is super simple. But you still have to be guarded, like in any deduction game. When you are asked a question in Whosit?, you have to be careful not to look at the board – or if you do, look at all of the board (an annoying thing Bill does) and be deliberate where your glance starts and ends. You can easily give away which character you are by letting your eyes stray to your character before answering a question instead of just looking at your face-down card.

The board showing all characters around the edges and place for cards in the middle

The board that you will study throughout play

There are some limitations to only being able to ask questions that are in your hand. If you are unlucky or far enough along in the deduction process that you are getting questions that you already know the answers to for each player, then you can ask someone that you know will answer yes to ensure you can draw another card and continue with your turn.

One thing that you have heard me gush about is my appreciation for moment-in-time games or games that would not be made today (not necessarily the same thing). Whosit? not only looks dated in its style but uses some dated terminology that is not politically correct when it classifies the ethnicity of characters as either white, black or oriental. This becomes even more shocking when you realize the instructions include a “cheat sheet” on the back that players can reference to understand which characters fall into which ethnicity.

Snippet of instructions called The Cast that lists which character is black, white and oriental

They don’t call it a cheat sheet, but it is no less ridiculous

While this is a big turn off to many players, it is also worth noting that Whosit? has much more diversity in the character representation than many games of the time, and for years to come. So even though some of the aspects of how the characters are differentiated is troubling, it’s an issue that is unusual because this much diversity was unusual in 1976. It’s a step forward. I give props to Whosit? for diversity in its characters. Particularly when I look at Guess Who? which was published in 1979 and included only one nonwhite character, who was then turned white in a later edition.

play or pass

Play. Whosit? as a game is simple and fun and very replayable. If the gameplay sounds appealing but some of the drawbacks do not, check out the game Dinosaur Tea Party which appears similar but not exact to Whosit? and is being released by Restoration Games in 2018.

Review: Dark Cults

By jen On June 30, 2018 With 4 Comments

Review: Dark Cults
Publisher: Dark House
Year: 1983
Tagline: The horror story game

Dark Cults cover which is really a deck of cards and instructions in a clear plastic bag

how we met

This one might be my all-time best score in terms of unlikelihood because of the scene, the rarity of the game, me stumbling onto a special game I had never heard of (increasingly more rare) and the price I paid.

We had stopped at a thrift shop in Madison, WI where you pay by the pound. If you have not been to one of these thrift shops before, they generally consist of giant bins of random things. They tend to be junkier because you are not buying a specific thing, you are digging in a bin of a bunch of things, taking what you want and paying based on how much it weighs.

As you can imagine, this is the worst place to find a game. If they have any games at all, the box is open and pieces are scattered every which way, occasionally amongst sharp objects and even broken glass. But here I was, looking across one of the bins, and I see a ziplock bag with what seems like a game in it! I’ll grab that. Oh and it looks strange. Awesome.

It probably cost ten or twenty cents, if that. I only found out later that Dark Cults is an (or the?) original storytelling game. And it is out of print, from 1983 and originally packaged with a magazine offering variants to play. I sure do love you, Wisconsin thrift.

how it plays

Dark Cults is a two player storytelling game where one player takes on the role of LIFE and the other player takes on the role of DEATH. Players score points by playing cards from their hand and adding to the narrative of the story using the cards and their own creativity. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

The only damage to my copy is rubber band marks on LIFE and DEATH score cards. Not bad

FUN FACT: Reviews I read encourage you to play two games back to back, switching roles in between. The player with the most points at the end of two games wins! This is because it is much more difficult to win as LIFE than as DEATH. I could not find this in the rules, but it could be there somewhere.

The game begins with a START card in place, showing our protagonist heading out of the apartment building for some to-be-defined purpose. LIFE goes first and sets the narrative for the protagonist.

START card indicating the protagonist leaving the building

There are five START cards in total but they are all the same

The general deck consists of LOCATION, CHARACTER (neutral or evil), THREAT, DANGER, ESCAPE and ATMOSPHERE cards – in addition to the two different story-ending cards death and SAVE. Then each player has a scoring card that is different from each other. LIFE does not get the same points for playing cards as DEATH and vice versa. For example, LIFE is looking to play neutral characters, help the protagonist escape, things like that. Meanwhile DEATH wants to introduce nasty characters, general threats and the death of the protagonist. ATMOSPHERE cards do not award either player points but do help flavor the story. Points are collected as cards are played, by the player that played them (with one exception that if LIFE plays the END card representing death then points go to DEATH instead of LIFE).

Example location of the bad part of town and evil character of old hag

Example LOCATION and CHARACTER (C1 is evil) cards

Each player starts with one card in their hand and draws one at the beginning of their turn. Only one card is played per turn.

Cards have codes in the upper left corner to indicate what type they are. Most cards, including the START card, also have codes in the upper right corner to indicate what card types are allowed to follow them. For example the START card has A D L T in the corner, meaning only ATMOSPHERE, DANGER, LOCATION or THREAT can be the next card played.

If a player can’t or chooses not to play a card after they draw, they simply pass. For example if my only play would give my opponent points and me none then I might choose to pass and hope I draw something better or can play off a different card next turn. This works fine as long as I am under the hand limit.

Danger of hideous manifestations and character of a terrible old man

Example DANGER and CHARACTER (C2 is neutral) cards

The hand limit is five cards. When you have five cards in hand at the start of your turn, your draw at that point in time is called the LIFE OR DEATH DRAW. After this draw you are required to play a card if you can, even if it does not work in your favor. If you still can’t play then the card you just drew is discarded, any other cards you wish are discarded and you take a penalty of three points.

The same codes that indicate the card types and subsequent allowed cards also indicate how many points you receive when you play that card. Remember, the points are different by role so refer to your own scoring card or the instructions when deciding what to play and when scoring. This is particularly important if you are LIFE and you have the E1 END card in hand, which scores your opponent 5 points!

It is clear that E1 and S end the story since they do not show subsequent cards in the upper right corners

Some cards have a dot before the codes. If your opponent plays a card with this dot then you are required to play a card from your hand before drawing. Then you can draw a card as normal. If you can’t play a card then you must play the top card of the PACE deck, which includes words like “Then” or “Suddenly” or “Unexpectedly.”

Atmosphere of dark memories and old wrongs and threat of echoing footsteps

Example ATMOSPHERE and THREAT cards. Note the dot on the ATMOSPHERE card

PACE cards such as Later, But Soon and Before Long

Example PACE cards

Games will include multiple story segments. These segments only end with the death or saving of the protagonist. When a story segment is reset, players may discard as many cards as they wish to from their hands. Then LIFE gets the first option to play a START card and score those points. If they do not have one then DEATH gets a go. If neither has one, then just keep the one you were going to put in the discard pile and no one gets those points.

Play continues in turns until the main deck is gone and no one can play a card from their hand.

how it went

Bill and I are creative enough to enjoy a storytelling game, but not clever enough for the protagonists to not all be based on people we know. Including ourselves. We all died, and we were all taken out in darkly spectacular ways. So that was fun.

We got better at play as we went along. It is so critical in this game to keep your role in mind. LIFE should always be working towards saving a character and bringing about a cheery conclusion, and avoid playing cards that introduce an E1 END card as much as you can since your opponent may have one in hand and they are worth 10 points to DEATH.

LIFE gets a few perks during play but they are largely a measure of chance. It is harder for LIFE to win than DEATH, so the encouragement to play twice in a row switching roles in between makes sense. Then the winner would be the most points after both games. Bill and I played twice in a row because we were enjoying ourselves, but we did not switch (I didn’t see that suggestion at that point). I was LIFE and lost both times, although I lost by less in the second game when I was more aware of how to play. And it was Bill who pointed out during our first game how fucked I was as LIFE.

Short four card story from start to a mist to a cosmic gateway to death

This would be a very short story but shows possible card play

It is important to take advantage of the optional discard between story segments. For example, in our second game I was lucky enough to draw most of the E1 death cards. Those are not good for my own play as LIFE, but they score DEATH the most points so keeping them out of his hands is great. But that is only safe once I discard them and my LIFE OR DEATH DRAW does not force me to play one of them, which did happen once.

We had a lot of variation in the length of our stories, which I would think is normal. But it was not until we introduced a certain common acquaintance into the dark world that we went epic; that story segment must have had over 30 cards in play before this person met their untimely end. I kept waving my wand to help our protagonist escape, and they kept stumbling into more trouble.

Our epic play showing 33 cards in that story segment

Our epic story, still in progress. That is one heck of a night

I have never been a huge fan of Lovecraft’s work in general. I can appreciate the work as hugely influential and truly horrific, but the writing style was never my favorite. Some people love Lovecraft for the implied horror that he is famous for while others love him for the fantastical monsters he is famous for. The game is a good homage to both. And asks you to draw the bridge between them just like the writing does. Encountering oozing blobs when I can direct the story was a ton of fun. And I would be remiss not to mention that the simplicity of the black and white art suits the game, and the theme, perfectly.

I read quite a lot of feedback complaining that the Dark Cults rules need work. I mean, yeah, they probably do. But they all make sense and they all lead to a real game. The rules could maybe be more organized or bring more emphasis to important parts, but they are not broken.

Many of the Dark Cults ratings talk about emphasizing storytelling over card play while others emphasize the card play over storytelling. I feel like we approached it as both pretty equally, so we let our creative juices flow in the story but appreciated the direction and strategy demanded by the cards and the ol’ luck of the draw.

play or pass

Play for sure. Dark Cults is a special game, for many more reasons than its rarity and throwback feel with a nod to old RPG games. It approaches storytelling in a simple but directed way. That direction leads you to create dark, usually short vignettes based on the cards in play. Like anything, you get out of it what you put into it.

If you are interested in trying out Dark Cults but having difficulty finding a copy, you are not alone. Check out the BGG forums for the game to see what your options are. There is also a solo variant that seems to be quite popular.

Review: Goosebumps: The Board Game

By jen On June 24, 2018 With No Comments

Review: Goosebumps: The Board Game
Publisher: Outset Media
Year: 2015
Tagline: (none)

Game cover showing open book with monsters coming out of it

how we met

This is one that Bill brought home from a trip somewhere between here and Minneapolis, probably near Madison – which just so happens to be where the game itself is set. He didn’t look closely and thought it might have been older and worth some money (it’s not). But I insisted on keeping it and playing it because I love spooky-themed games. Fortunately we had seen the movie, so my expectations were tempered.

how it plays

In Goosebumps: The Board Game you take on the role of a monster trying to escape by getting to the typewriter before you are trapped back in a manuscript. The trail you follow is made up of manuscript pages with certain landmarks in between, like RL Stine’s House, Madison Police Station, the Graveyard and such. (Note: The End is not considered a landmark).

Overview of game board showing manuscript pages between landmarks

The board, with start at the bottom right and the end at the top right. The circle bits are landmarks

The game is played with cards in your hand. On a player’s turn they draw as many cards as needed to get to a hand of five. Then they can play a numbered card from their hand to move that many spaces. OR they can play three of a kind. By playing three cards of the same number that monster gets to move directly to the next landmark! OR they can play a MONSTER MAYHEM card which generally helps that player (though not always) and punishes at least one other player. “Take that” is a huge part of gameplay in Goosebumps: The Board Game.

Cards showing numbers between 1 and 6 with monsters on them

The number cards go up to six, appropriately ending with a Nosferatu-looking character

Landmarks are awesome for a couple of reasons. One is that if another player lands on your space, you must move back to the last landmark. So passing landmarks is the only real progress you can kind of trust – I say kind of because some “take that” cards can send you back five spaces which may send you past a landmark you had passed. Boo.

If a player is on a landmark they are safe from MONSTER MAYHEM cards (except one) and can share their space with another monster that lands there. Two of the MONSTER MAYHEM cards are for playing during another player’s turn in order to mess with them or cancel their own MONSTER MAYHEM play.

There are STEAL spaces on the board that will allow you to steal a random card from a player you choose. But you must play that card immediately, so be careful!

That’s pretty much it. It’s a knock-down, drag-out fight to the end. The first player to reach the typewriter by playing a number card of equal or more value to move that many spaces wins!

how it went

In the movie version of Goosebumps, all hell has broken loose when monsters have escaped from the pages of the Goosebumps books! I like that the board game puts you in the shoes of the monsters, which is a lot more fun of a premise than the alternative. It would have been cool if it was a slightly more complex game, even semi-cooperative so that not only the first monster to the end wins.

Pawn monsters like Abominable Snowman and Ventriloquist dummy

I’m the pretty one in front. With the blue background

We played with four, as usual, and boy oh boy it took us probably ten to fifteen minutes to even get one monster past the first landmark. You all begin at the start and send each other back to the start if you land on the same space. And that is not rolling a die, it is within your evil control because you play cards to move your monster. Within about five minutes of game play we were all standing up instead of sitting down. Why? All the better to fuck with each other, my dears.

It was definitely reminiscent of Super Spy when we were shoulder to shoulder bumping into each other at the beginning room for a few minutes. Trench coat to trench coat. Briefcase to briefcase. Spy hat to spy hat. Which still cracks me up when I think of it.

I feel like a lot of decisions in the game design were to make the game play last longer. For example, you might save up your three same numbers and play it at the beginning of one landmark to hop straight forward, all ready to whoop it up. But people are sitting on five cards in hand, usually playing only one! A lot of those people are sitting on cards to dismiss all of your hard work. I am fine with that if it happens to work out that way, but a five card hand is not setting anyone up for success. Three or even four would have been more interesting. This would force players to choose between collecting numbers or keeping “take that” cards. A five card hand makes both of those decisions no-brainers.

A few of the MONSTER MAYHEM cards

In the end Bill won, and by a margin of over one landmark. If you can escape the pack and get lucky for a turn or two, you can really make a run for it.

Inside of box showing plaid design with gnomes on it

BTW the inside of the box is adorbs

play or pass

Pass on this one. With endless “take that” mechanics, Goosebumps: The Board Game will definitely make a monster out of you. But it will also make a monster out of your terrible friends. And the clock. And numbers.

Review: You Might Be a Redneck if…Game

By jen On June 19, 2018 With No Comments

Review: You Might Be a Redneck if…Game
Publisher: Patch
Year: 2006
Tagline: (none)

You Might Be a Redneck If Game cover showing trailer and presumed redneck in front of it

how we met

This is an old story. I found You Might Be a Redneck if…Game at my local town thrift shop. It was half off of $1.99 which is ideal, because I definitely wanted to buy it and $1.99 would have been on the outside of what I was willing to pay.

The cover illustration shows light and teasing fun, which is what I expected out of the gameplay. I was happy to find this game at such a bargain.

how it plays

The object of You Might Be a Redneck if…Game is to be the first Redneck to collect one of each: a recliner, a hound, a flyswatter, some kind of jerky, a television and a satellite dish. Then return home to your trailer and you win!

Game board showing trailers in the corners and the path consists of tires

Tire hop from here to there on the game board

To accomplish this unenviable goal, you must move around the board to various locations that offer these prizes. You don’t have to land at these locations by exact count, nor do you have to do anything once you get there. Once you get there, take your item, put it in your trailer and that’s the end of your turn.

Recliners and flyswatters

So how do you get there? On your turn, another player will read one of the cards to you. Each card consists of a sentence with a blank and multiple choices to fill in the blank. One of those choices is original content and was written by Jeff Foxworthy himself. Your goal is to choose which of the three punchlines is “Foxworthy.” The card has a friendly neighborhood Redneck at the bottom that will determine how many spaces you move in the event of a right or a wrong answer.

Sample card showing your class voted you most likely to return fire

Oh Jeff, if only you’d known where we’d be today

Some spaces on the board contain small signs that you are supposed to follow if you land on them. For example, the sign might say, “Have everybody call you Vern.” You must do this for the remainder of the game.

Another space on the board is DUMB LUCK. If you land on DUMB LUCK, you take a DUMB LUCK card and read it aloud. Then flip the REDNECK COIN. If you get heads, you must do what the card says. If you get tails, you choose another Redneck to do the thing.

Sample DUMB LUCK cards and the coin

For some reason, your mother-in-law’s trailer provides both hounds and satellite dishes. When you land here you must choose only one of these items as you can only collect one prize per turn. You have to leave and come back in order to claim your other item – and you can’t change directions on a single turn.

Hi, ma! Can I get me one of them dishes?

Once you have your items, race back to your trailer for the win!

how it went

This is another game we played recently when my family was in town. Some of our players were fresh from an 11+ hour drive and ready to game — but they wanted to play simple, fun games that don’t require a lot of brain power after a long drive. Bill chose this game as fitting the criteria. And boy did it fit the criteria.

The game allows up to four players and we had six, so my sister Jaime and I played solo, Bill and my bro-in-law Aaron teamed up, and John and Keri teamed up. Sister rivalry, yo.

You Might Be a Redneck if…Game is pretty simple but humorous. It is full of content (or as Bill would say, it’s pitching a lot of ‘tent) and that content is almost exclusively one-liner jokes. Even better, the jokes have multiple punchlines and you pick the “Foxworthiest.”

Sample cards showing one-liners with Jeff Foxworthy's punchline in red color

There’s a lot more ‘tent where this came from

And that’s the dilemma. The funniest punchline is X. Did Jeff Foxworthy say it? Or did he say Z? Sometimes he nails it and sometimes the writers do. If you are not familiar with Jeff Foxworthy’s body of work (which we were not, except as a thing) then this introduces a certain randomness to gameplay. But in a really fun way. It also leads to a lot of fun speculation around who was hired to write the extra punchlines, what was the agreement if any, etc.

The game does itself a favor by allowing movement even if you miss the correct punchline. Moving around the board is pretty quick, and you choose which direction you move so betting on Dumb Luck cards adds a fun option. Who knew I would get to hear my sister belt out a hog holler within a couple of hours of arriving at her visit? Thanks, Jeff Foxworthy.

One of the pawns showing a tall, skinny man in a cowboy hat

A lonely dude sitting in his trailer surrounded by nothing but television, satellite cable, jerky, a flyswatter, a hound dog and a recliner

In the end John and Keri won, which was a pretty poor first impression to meeting my family now that I think about it.

I have to give a shout out to the artwork and design of this game, which appears to match the other You Might Be a Redneck If… properties like the albums and books. It is really on theme by drawing your eye but being sloppy and messy at the same time. I can’t look away, and it works. If the artwork had gone more defined it would have changed the entire presentation of the game.

Um, this is a bunch of pictures of jerky and televisions

It is perhaps worth noting that I grew up in the American midwest, and “redneck” is a term defined almost entirely by pop culture for me. Almost entirely by the silly one-line jokes in this game – which was peripheral in my life. I know the term has history and significance to others beyond the pop culture blanket statements. Please do share your perspective if you have one.

It’s also worth noting that Jeff Foxworthy’s album You Might Be a Redneck if… was released in June of 1993, almost exactly 25 years ago. And the game You Might Be a Redneck if…Game was released in 2006, 13 years later. Someone thought that was a good idea. From light Wikipedia searching it appears this game happened sometime around the point Jeff Foxworthy’s “Blue Collar TV” show was canceled by WB and sometime around the point “Foxworthy’s Big Night Out” was picked up by Country Music Television. It also lines up with “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” (canceled by this point) airing on Nick at Nite and Country Music Television, and with the release of Jeff Foxworthy’s Redneck Dictionary II: More Words You Thought You Knew the Meaning Of. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

play or pass

Pass. This is one of those occasions I wish I had a catch-all meh rating that I could rely on. We had some good laughs over You Might Be a Redneck if…Game. It is light and funny and simple. But the randomness feels completely out of your control. It is not dice randomness, it is literally random choices from a multiple choice card. It also relies too much on a humor we didn’t wholeheartedly identify with. My feedback is very consistent with BGG ratings. The game is fun, we laughed, it’s a great time, drinking helps, etc. But the game is not great. It is a cash grab that is taking the cash and running. Pick it up for a buck or two and play it once.

Review: Laser Attack

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Review: Dark Cults

Review: Goosebumps: The Board Game

Review: You Might Be a Redneck if…Game

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Review: Laser Attack

Review: Whosit?

Review: Dark Cults

Review: Goosebumps: The Board Game

Review: You Might Be a Redneck if…Game

About me

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