It pretty much is. You WILL have to spend several minutes afterwards picking components off of the floor. You WILL end up chasing down the toddler at least once in order to get back the mini/pawn she just scampered off with.
And you will have fun…if you’re properly set up. if you’re not…ugh.
The first game I pulled out to play with the nieces and nephews was one that I didn’t even realize I still owned. Anyone else remember Fireball Island?
Aw yeah. A game with fireballs that actually roll across the board, sending your opponents’ little explorer dudes (or, in my version, various fill in pieces since the explorers are long gone) in to ‘time out’ pits of embers so that you can be the one to spirit away a ruby that’s bigger than you are? A goddamn statue in the middle that spews orbs of flame and judgment? Not exactly a shocker that kids dig that. Sure, I have to help out Amelia (who is 4) with some of the cards, but that’s fine. Oh, and that brings me my first thing that you need to know :
1. You will be filling double duty. The kids will want you to play, but you will also need to help at least one of them out. So be prepared for that. And probably at least one kid will insist on using you as their chair, but you’re probably already used to that.
Amelia is also responsible for an amusing Fireball Island-related anecdote, where she greeted Sue & Kevin to the game table by pointing at them and telling them most intently that “You’re in danger!” as they sat down to play. No explanation, just that.
Anyway, with Fireball Island being a hit, I began seeking out more.Next up was a game called Forbidden Island.
If you’ve ever played Pandemic, this is really similar. Not too surprising since both were designed by the same guy. Up to 4 explorers (there are 5 possible roles with special abilities) wander around an island made up of tiles with some really kick ass art, meaning you get a new random board layout every time you set up the tiles. Oh, and…
2. Kids like shit that looks cool. This works for me, because so do I. I’m down with block pushing economic games and the like, but give me some goddamn art! the chances of someone having any interest in something drab drop off precipitously as the age of the player reduces. Seriously, little kids will happily throw on an ensemble of purple, pink and some sort of polka dot monstrosity that a clown would consider garish. They tend to like them some colours. Anyway…
You move around the tiles and collect cards, sets of which can be traded for one of 4 treasures. But you also flip flood cards, meaning the corresponding tiles are flipped over as well and begin to sink. Okay, it’s all good, we can manage to keep above water while…uh oh, a Waters Rise card. Now all of the previously flipped flood cards get shuffled together and set ON TOP of the rest of the flood deck. That means there is now a real chance of a flood card coming up for a tile that’s already flipped. Now it vanishes, leaving a hole in the board.
Find all 4 treasures and get everyone back to the heli-pad and you win. Both of the tiles where you can collect one of the treasures sink before you get that one? You lose. One of the players gets stuck and can’t reach the heli-pad? Lose. Heli-pad sinks? Lose. Flood levels reach the top of the chart? Lose.
It sounds vicious…and is…but it’s also a lot of fun. The best part is that the MSRP of this thing is in the neighborhood of $20. You can find it online for $15. GET THIS GAME.
Okay, more success! Let’s see, maybe we’ll try something heavier…Tales of the Arabian Nights sounds awesome!
You adventure around that map and have encounters as one of the characters from the actual Tales. Maybe you’ll come across an angry beggar, or a whirlpool, or a sandstorm. You get a series of reactions to choose from, then the massive (and I mean massive) ‘book of tales’ is opened to a specific passage and the results are read out. It’s random, and the focus is completely on storytelling. It can also be wildly entertaining. Maybe you will be named a Sultan and showered with riches and wives. Or maybe you’ll be transformed in to a sex changed gorilla and chased down by a magistrate, accused of robbery (really).
Here’s the problem…
3. Kids HATE down time. Nobody really enjoys that period of time spent waiting for your turn, but it may as well be death to kids. They squirm, they complain, and they wander off when distracted by something happening RIGHTNOW. They have less patience than I do when I’m running on 2 hours of sleep and a whole lot of caffeine. It ain’t a good scene, man.
If I had a lick of sense, I would have cut some of the material out of the game. But I didn’t. So the side quests stayed. And the long term character effects stayed. And the character training stayed. The results were an absolute debacle. Disappointing, and a lesson learned.
I AM going to bust out Chaostle the next time they’re here, but a very heavily customized version of it. Each of the players will get 2 characters (rather than 3-4), the character abilities won’t be used, and we’ll play on half the board. Like I said, lesson learned.
Following up that failure, I have hit on two other successes…one moderate and the other absolutely out of the park.
The moderate success was Castle Panic.
The players are trying to protect that castle in the middle from a storm of Trolls, Orcs and Goblins coming from the forest that surrounds it. Ever turn, a player will draw up to 5 cards, then trade with other players to maximize the number of attacks they can throw at the incoming waves of monsters. Then they draw two new monster tiles (which can also be giant rolling boulders, ‘boss’ monsters, or effect tokens that shift monster positions, allow them to advance further immediately or remove all of a certain type of card from every player’s hand) and the play passes on to the next. Bonus : this one can be found online for a shade under $30. Anyway, this one did fairly well because…
4. Kids like stomping something in to dust as a force. You’re all good guys, those are all bad guys, UNLEASH HELL. It works. Kids like to band together and slap around the bad guys. But there is something kids like even more…
5. Kids LOVE stomping each other in to dust in competition. Seriously. Kids turn Snakes & Ladders in to a contact sport…they don’t just pass each other on the board, their little pawns drop kick one another in the junk on the way past. And the ultimate game to allow that is…
This might look a little familiar because it is a reprint of a game from yesteryear. A friend of mine way back when we was childrens had it, and it was great. It still is.
It’s another game with a random board build every time. The players lay out the beach, jungle and mountain tiles (which are actually all different thicknesses to make this thing pop just a little more) in the center to form the island. Every player turn, the player has a total of 3 movement points to get their little dudes off of that island to one of the ones in the corner.
Why are they fleeing? The island is sinking.
I wonder if these kids are going to develop some sort of a weird island complex? Why exactly are islands always shown to be these terrifying disaster ridden zones to fear and avoid?
Anyway…after the player moves his guys, he flips one of the island tiles. Beaches first, then jungles, then mountains. A few of the tiles are helpful, but most are whirlpools, or generate sharks and whales in the water. Finally, the player rolls a die and moves a shark, whale or sea serpent to crush one of his rivals. Kids like devouring their siblings’ swimmers with sharks. But then, who the fuck doesn’t?!
Eventually, someone flips over a mountain tile with a picture of a volcano on it, and that’s it. You may have to step in to ensure that your version of my nephew Brennan doesn’t make sure he knows where the volcano is every…single…game. Not to avoid it. No no, he wants to unleash that thing ASAP. Count up the people who reached the islands and declare the winner (there are actually point numbers on the figure bases, but we don’t play with those).
It’s pure chaos, vicious competition, and a lot of fun. I think that this game should be presented as a sort of test : if you don’t like this game, you are a morose failure of a human being.
So there you go. A few ideas perhaps, and I manage to create something that probably nobody expected to find here : a child-related post.
