Review: Shark Attack! Publisher: Milton Bradley Year: 1988 Tagline: THE MOTORIZED RACE AND CHASE GAME!
how we met
Shark Attack! is a pretty desirable game, so finding the vintage version at thrift is fairly uncommon. We have found a few over the years, so sitting down to play was a must. I wanted to know: what is all the fuss about?
how it plays
Shark Attack! is a children’s game, so gameplay is pretty simple. Each player gets a certain colored fish pawn which they place on the game board at the correct starting space. The shark starts in its correct starting space, a ways back from the pawns.
Looks like I was missing the white fish pawn
When play starts, turn on the electronic shark and it will slowly eat its way around the board. Your goal is to try and be the last fish standing.
One player is declared the Roller. Their job is to roll the dice and then call out the colors. If your color is called, you get to move your pawn to the next space on the board, further away from the imminent danger. If the same color comes up on both dice, that player gets to move their pawn two spaces!
My copy of the rules did not address this (that I know of) but I assume one die has a dot in the middle and the other does not so the person calling colors does not accidentally call the same die twice. Kind of clever!
Once all the fish are moved the Roller rolls the dice again. Rinse and repeat. The shark will continue to grow closer. If it covers an entire fish in its mouth, that fish is considered eaten and is out of the game. Continue play until only one fish remains. That player wins Shark Attack!
Red is about one second from being fully eaten
NOTE: the game suggests that Shark Attack! veterans play an alternative version where the shark begins a bit further along and the Roller role passes from player to player.
how it went
I can see why little kiddos might really enjoy Shark Attack! I myself enjoy a constant tension in gameplay. But guys, this game is not good.
I think you could argue (if you are the argumentative type) that a lot of games are driven by luck, and perhaps you could just roll a die to determine the winner instead of playing the game. This argument is often astonishingly dismissive of certain elements of gameplay and enjoyment and social interaction. But it’s kind of how I feel about Shark Attack!
True, there is no strategy. True, this is entirely luck driven because if your color comes up more often then you are safer than the other terrible fish. True, assigning the job of rolling the die to a single person means that this could be played alone, and you could just bet on specific fish. But is that fun? Is the constant, droning threat of the shark enough to make this fun? Maybe for some people. I wasn’t into it.
I thought of several possible alternative forms of gameplay for your consideration:
Introduce a story element to gameplay. Require each player to assign their fish a back story before play begins. This would at least make you give a tinker’s cuss about the little thing, and then you might actually care whether your fish gets eaten by the shark or not.
Everyone picks a charity when they pick their fish pawn. Every 15 or 30 seconds players are required to throw a bet down on one of the fish pawns – could be dimes, quarters, dollars, whatever. The winning fish pawn’s charity gets that donation.
Place magnets in your fish pawn and use fishing poles from Gone Fishin’ to move your pawn forward when your color is called. I picture this as short but ridiculous. And crazy fun.
Require each player to share a little known fact about themselves before rolling the dice. This could be particularly painful in groups that include strangers.
Require each player to ante something precious to them that is tied to their fish pawn. The winner of the game then owns each of the items that were offered up in the ante. This may sound familiar to Magic the Gathering players, though I never played that way myself. You’d have to be nuts.
These alternative gameplay suggestions are not tried and true. The game sold before we could really test these suggestions. But I feel pretty good about them.
Keri won our gameplay. She’s so lucky!
The electronic shark is in the foreground. The adorbs shark in the background is Keri celebrating her win!
play or pass
Pass, pass, pass. I tried to figure out what all the fuss is about and instead dived deep into suggesting ways to improve gameplay, because as it stands this is barely gameplay.
Please comment with further alternative gameplay suggestions! 366 BGG users are claiming ownership of this game, and they need you.
Review: The Joke Game Publisher: All Things Equal, Inc. Year: 2008 Tagline: IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE PUNCH LINE, MAKE ONE UP!
how we met
My sister told me about The Joke Game originally. She found it at a thrift shop and played it with friends for several hours. Since she wasn’t giving it up, I had to add it to my wishlist and hunt down my own copy.
My impatience got the better of me and I ultimately ordered it from a seller on Amazon for like $15. I have seen it at thrift twice since then, but whatever. I have no regrets!
how it plays
The Joke Game has very simple gameplay. On your turn, roll the die and move your chicken pawn that number of spaces.
The chicken pawns. Choose wisely
Then draw a card and read the joke aloud for the category you landed on. There are only three categories:
Blue: Stereotypes & play on words
Yellow: Dry, witty & dumb
Red: You know you’re [blank] when…
The reader and all other players try to come up with a good punchline for the joke. Once all players have written something down, each player reads their punchline. After this is done, the reader turns the card over and reads the “correct” punchline. NOTE: the red category does not have a correct answer
If any players wrote a punchline that matches or is close to / in the spirit of the correct answer then they get to move ahead one space! Once that is done, the reader chooses their favorite punchline. That player gets to move ahead two spaces! Then the next player rolls the die and takes a turn.
The example joke card for your eyes
Play continues this way until one lucky player makes it to the WIN! space. They are the winner!
how it went
The Joke Game is glorious fun. We have played a few of the other party games by this publisher including Hollywood Shuffle, which I wrote about, and The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Game, which I regifted before taking photos. The Joke Game is my favorite by far. It is simple and the Laffy Taffy style jokes are the ideal backdrop for this type of creative party game.
NOTE: While I would describe the jokes in the game as Laffy Taffy style, not all of them are good, clean fun. A few are a little on the risqué side so best avoid if you are sensitive to that type of content.
The WIN! space is a mere 13 spaces away from the start, and you do not need to land by exact count. You always move between 1 and 3 spaces on your turn, and hopefully you are also moving on other people’s turns. This game is short!
The board showing both the short path your chicken must follow as well as trying to answer the question (I think) of why the chicken crossed the road
When I first played The Joke Game with my game group, I think we played twice back-to-back after being shocked at how quickly it ended. I played recently with Bill and my sister and bro-in-law over Zoom. We played one quick game, then just had our second game go to the WIN! space and back again to make it last a tad longer. But it’s a short game.
The pretty box full of jokes
I will be intentionally stingy in providing joke examples from the game because there’s not endless amounts of cards either. I definitely recognized some of the jokes between my first time and second time playing. The fun part of that was it recalled some of our better punchlines from last play, and that was a fun memory to revisit! But current events or whatever is happening in your life can often drive your creativity in a certain direction and help ensure you are not answering jokes using the same exact punchline six months or a year later.
So while I don’t see myself playing The Joke Game on a weekly or monthly basis, I am keeping it for sure. It’s good fun and can appeal to many different groups and types of humor.
play or pass
Play. The Joke Game is simple, silly fun. I will never tire of it until I tire of the hilarious quips of my close people. Until we stop cracking ourselves up. Until we can’t find a joke in the darkness. In other words, I will never tire of it.
Today’s guest review is by Stef of HappiMess Media! Stef is a thirty-something writer/artist who used to want to be a mermaid. She currently freelances in Orlando with her bae, Honey Bear, and their dog, Max.
Review: What the Face? Publisher: Spin Master Year: 2014 Tagline: The Game of Inappropriate First Impressions
how we met
My husband, HB, and I visited a thrift store in search of an offbeat, two-person game we could play. In addition to Spy Alley, I eventually came across What the Face, which is actually a three-or-more-player game, but it promised such a catty time that I vowed to make it work. And that’s the story of how I became $5.99 poorer.
how it plays
The game contents include
260 face cards featuring photos of the weirdest people you’ve ever seen
88 label cards reading things like “abducted by aliens,” “still sleeps with a teddy bear,” and “Twilight fan”
12 voting cards
A rather pointless board to highlight cards in play
The instructions were annoyingly absent from my copy of the game, although the premise seemed straightforward enough: judge what people are like based on their looks alone.
The one-minute tutorial video on the publisher’s website (since removed) advised that game play goes as follows:
Each player gets five face cards.
The oldest player (Player A) selects a label card and places it on the needless board’s question mark space.
Player A and the player to his/her left (Player B) select one of the face cards from their hands that they think best suits the label card.
Some secret card mixing-up takes place so no one knows whose card is whose.
The face card selections get placed on the A and B spots of the aforementioned useless board.
The other players vote between A or B.
The player who gets the most votes wins the round.
Steps 2-7 repeat, this time between Player B and the player on his/her left (Player C).
If you draw a label card that ends with an ampersand (“Bible study teacher &”), you draw a second label card (“smooth operator”). The two label cards work together as a pair—both labels have to make sense for the chosen face cards. According to the video, these label cards are worth double points, which is the video’s first and only mention of these mysterious points.
It isn’t clear what anything is worth, how points accumulate, when new cards should be drawn, or even how to win the game. It seemed like a mix of Apples to Apples and Heartthrob, only not good.
how it went
I summarized the intended game play for HB, who was disappointed: “I thought we’d just look at each card and be like, ‘This person looks like a pedophile,’ and then everyone else is like, ‘Nah!’ or ‘Yeah!’” But how does one gamify that? Maybe the answer is “just add alcohol.”
After the game sat around the house, unplayed for a year, I ultimately wound up playing it with my three bridesmaids the night before my wedding. I asked them, “Will you guys play this crappy game with me so I can write about it for my friend’s blog?” When they asked what the premise was, I said, “We judge people based on how they look.”
“Middle school, we’re playing middle school,” said one bridesmaid.
“We’re playing me in real life!” said the maid of honor.
We wound up ignoring the voting cards and the board (did I mention how useless the board is?) and straight up played this just like Apples to Apples: One player puts down a label card, the others ascribe to it one of the seven face cards in their hands, and the player chooses her favorite of the proffered options. The player who has seven of her faces chosen wins the game.
For fun, we said that whatever faces of ours were chosen at the end were our friends. Three of the faces I played were chosen, so this was my end-game squad:
The second time we played this, we flipped it: The player would put down a face card, and then we’d attach labels to it. Again, the first one to seven wins. This time, our finale twist was that whatever label cards were left in our hands, we’d assign to each other. For example, these were the labels ascribed to me by the other players:
play or pass
“Our version is nice,” one bridesmaid said reluctantly. “I would not like the real version.”
“I like judging people,” said the maid of honor.
In other words: Pass, unless you’re really desperate, or you’re imaginative and can put your own spin on this. The face and label cards really aren’t that funny, and once you go through them all, it gets especially boring. But maybe you can use this game to deduce how judgmental your friends are…? WHAT FUN!
Review: Dinosaurs of the Lost World Publisher: Avalon Hill Year: 1987 Tagline: An Adventure Game for Ages 8 and Up
how we met
I bought Dinosaurs of the Lost World on the Geekmarket! Bill had played the game years and years ago. After he described it I was eager to give it a whirl. I actually found a sealed copy for a very fair price. When it arrived I ripped that plastic off and away we went!
I think I paid $40 for this copy, and I was very happy with that price. I still have never seen it in the wild, but my friend Melissa got a copy at a swap meet. Miracles do happen.
how it plays
The first thing to do in Dinosaurs of the Lost World is to set up for play. Place hexes face-down throughout the game board to represent unexplored sites. Mix up the tool markers and place them face down in a stack on the TOOL space. Shuffle the EXPERIENCE and EVENT decks and place them nearby.
Here are some of the Hexes. A LOT of them say Nothing HereAll the EXPERIENCE cards are similar to these
Finally, each adventurer gets to choose any eight tools to bring with them on their trip, and no more than two of each. These are secretly written down on a scrap of paper by each adventurer (you will not get markers for these). I think guns are a good choice, but generally this is a crap shoot so just go with your gut and call it good. The back of the rules will tell you the options and where they may come in handy. Once gameplay begins your choices are no longer secret.
During gameplay you will get Tools randomly, and here are some of them!
Your turn involves three things: 1) Roll two dice and move your EXPEDITION along the board. Note: your EXPEDITION is shaped like an arrow, and this is helpful so make sure it points the way that you should be moving. You will bounce back and forth since you can’t turn corners without enough Victory Points, so movement is not always clockwise.
The EXPEDITION pawns that move on the outer track of the board. The pawn here that is not shaped like an arrow has the awful job of representing you on the CHASE TRACK
2) Perform the action of the space you landed on. 3) Move your regular pawn on the Lost World Map up to the number of spaces indicated by the space your EXPEDITION landed on. Regular pawns always start in camp and can move outward in their exploration. They are often sent back to camp.
These plain Janes move you around to explore the middle of the board
The entire time you play, you will gain and possibly lose Victory Points. They need to be tracked on your scrap of paper because they are key to your escape.
There are times when you will need to go into battle, either with a competing EXPEDITION or with a creature such as a dinosaur. VS EXPEDITION, if you win the battle you get to take one experience card, or a non-weapon tool, or an event card of your choice (event cards and escape items can’t be lost, although BGG has some interesting takes on that) from the loser. If you lose, you return to camp and lose your next turn. VS creature, if you win the battle then you get to stand your ground and remain where you are. If you lose, you are getting chased on the super fun CHASE TRACK.
The higher the number, the more difficult these creatures are to battle against
Oh the CHASE TRACK, my old friend. This is you running for your life while a creature chases you. Roll one die and move forward. One of the other players will roll for the creature chasing you. Creatures never move past you, but if they hit your square then you lose one tool or experience card each time. It really sucks, so run fast! When you get to the end you move back to camp.
Certain hex locations on the map have red stars on them. If you begin your turn on one of the hexes with a red star then you can choose to HAVE AN ADVENTURE instead of rolling the dice. This involves going through the comic sheet for that particular adventure until completed. It’s kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure except the die and any EXPERIENCE cards make all your decisions for you. If you have any of the recommended Tools for that adventure, shown in the upper right corner of the sheet, then draw an EXPERIENCE card for each tool you have before you begin.
This is Adventure M Tree Fern Grove that recommends having 1 Shovel and 1 Machete for best play. In these Adventures, EXPERIENCE cards are everything
Once a player has received 25 Victory Points then they may attempt to escape the island! There are three ways to do this:
1) Landing on the last frame of the Indian Caves adventure and having either the Lost Map tile or event card 22. 2) Landing on the last frame of the Pinnacle adventure and having either the Role tile or event card 21. 3) Landing on the last frame of the Geyser adventure and having either the Tarpaulin or event card 23.
Then you win!
Note: most adventures may not be repeated once you complete them. However the three above (Indian Caves, Pinnacle, Geyser) may be completed again since they are your means of escape.
how it went
Dinosaurs of the Lost World is probably one of the more complex games I covered on the blog here, at least so far. But it’s honestly really easy once you get started. Don’t be intimidated by the long (Avalon Hill) rulebook. It’s really a game on the outer track of the board, a game on the inner portion of the board, and occasionally a comic adventure.
A shot of our play late in the game
I have played Dinosaurs of the Lost World a number of times, with anywhere from 2 to 4 players. I found the gameplay to be enjoyable at all of those levels, but with a few nuances to be aware of along the way.
With 4 players gameplay takes a bit longer because you potentially have more people going through adventures, getting chased, etc. But it also helps to explore the board quickly, and it brings all of the juicy items to the table for getting plundered.
I was pretty stacked for this game
With 2 players gameplay can go more swiftly, but you have to be careful about being on the offense with attacking your fellow player. All of the weapons and allies they had pointing at creatures can quickly become pointed at you and really ruin your game. I guess it feels like imbalance can happen more quickly in the smaller player numbers.
I love a bunch of things about this game, most of which are very thematic. I love choosing my initial tools even though I don’t know what I might encounter. I love making friends and enemies in my adventures. I love collecting random items that might help me escape in the future.
Here are 3 randomly chosen EVENT cards to show you variety (red is bad)
The CHASE TRACK can definitely become a bummer if you visit it too many times. It always sets you back at camp and that can be a very long way from where you intended to be. Your movement can give away your immediate goals, especially when you get set back.
Not a great picture of the board, but after I mentioned the CHASE TRACK 18 times I thought a photo was due. It is that thing running along the top. Also it’s hard to see but CAMP is in the bottom hex row, 3 from the right, black text on dark green background
The comic adventures are such silly fun. If you have enough EXPERIENCE cards then your adventure can be a cakewalk, but those cards don’t grow on trees so make sure you aren’t using them when your alternative is acceptable.
We only played once with our regular Idle Remorse game group of four players, and luck was really on my side for that game. I was unintentionally, gleefully hoarding all of the items that are required for escape. It was my game to lose, but instead I blew that popsicle stand, left my terrible friends behind, and won Dinosaurs of the Lost World!
I escaped on a Geyser!
We played the first Choose Your Own Adventure game House of Danger when it came out. So much reading, so little replayability, but so unique. Dinosaurs of the Lost World is kind of like that. I mean it has replayability, but one of its strengths is that it is pretty unique.
play or pass
Super play! The gameplay is more simplistic than the long rules would lead you to believe. There are certainly more sophisticated games out there, but not quite like this one. And the theme is strong, which I always appreciate.
I’d be surprised if a lot of people became addicted to Dinosaurs of the Lost World or brought it to the table constantly. But I’d also be surprised if a lot of people decided to get rid of their copy after play. It’s a fun, approachable game and it has dinosaurs!
Today’s guest review is by Melissa! Melissa is a Milwaukee-area thrifting minion with a lifelong love for gaming. She is one half of the group The Tester Sisters, who are print ’n’ play enthusiasts providing playtesting for games not yet published, rulebook reviews and general honest gameplay feedback. Melissa can usually be found at GenCon and Wisconsin-area Protospiels. You can reach out to The Tester Sisters online or find their impressive resume on Board Game Geek.
Review: Lost: The Game Publisher: Cardinal Year: 2006 Tagline: (none, sadly)
I’m pretty sure that I heard that the Flip the Table crew had done an episode with this game, but I don’t remember actually listening to the episode. Either way, I was a fan of Lost when it was on more than a decade ago. The show was filled with mystery and exploration, which I found really interesting. The ending wasn’t really what I was hoping for, but it was ok. So, when I found the game at my favorite thrift store for $1.99 I knew that it had to come home with me.
how it plays
The object of the game is to be the last one standing on the island. Yup, it is a game of player elimination. So, that’s promising.
Each player gets to choose between 2 randomly dealt characters with power values ranging from 1 to 5. If you get two characters with powers of 2 or less, you get to keep both.
Then you set up the island using “Shore” and “Inner Island” tiles. There are about twice as many tiles as you will use in each game, so there is a lot of randomness or replayablilty depending on how you look at it. The tiles are placed face down and will be explored during the game. Some have a red camp triangle and when explored (flipped over) will introduce a new unplayed character onto the map who players can try to get to join them.
Each player starts next to one of the shore tiles and at the beginning of their turn must move each character they control one space (unless they have an ability or FATE card that allows them to move further). After each character moves, if they are on a face down tile, the tile is flipped over and they must do whatever the tile directs them to do. Most often, the player will draw one or two FATE cards. The FATE cards will be one of three types: an encounter with something bad that the character has to roll a die against, an item which may be useful, or an event card (which can be saved for later, though you can only have 4 in hand at the end of your turn).
The game ends when there is either only one player left or a player has reached one of their character’s alternative win conditions. It is important to note that 12 of the 17 characters have an alternative win condition.
how it went
I played this twice, on the same day with two different groups. The first game was with my husband and older preteen son. I gave us each one of the characters with power of 4 or 5 just to even that playing field. My son and I landed on tiles that gave us cards that were items or events, my husband landed on a tile that only did something for another character and then a tile that gave him a FATE card that was an impossible encounter. Then on his third turn, I used my character to try and “lead” his character. I won the die roll and his was eliminated from the game. Two turns later I eliminated my son from the game.
The second play was with six players. Two players were eliminated very quickly by failing die rolls against other players. A third player was then eliminated by a tile that called for a coin flip, which he failed and then was eliminated from the game. Of the three remaining players, one was much more powerful and had gathered a hoard of six characters. The other two players just ran around avoiding the powerful player until we decided to just call the game and be done.
play or pass
Hard Pass. I’m not a fan of player elimination and I’m really not a fan of player elimination when it is based on a die roll. Everything about this game is random: the character you get to start out, the tiles that make up the island, the cards that you may or may not be able to draw, and the die rolls. In both games I played, players were eliminated due to die rolls (just one roll and you’re out of the game) and one player was eliminated by a coin flip due to landing on a tile. That’s not fun for anyone. And if you aren’t eliminated early on, you either start gathering an unstoppable hoard of followers or you run for your life.
My husband did suggest that the way to improve this game would be to introduce the marble race element from The Magnificent Race to replace the die rolls. One marble per power on your characters, and one black marble for the Smoke Monster. Winner of the race gets all the characters. It would be short, but much more fun.
