Are you sick of the traditional roll and move games? In 1989 Milton Bradley tried to revolutionize the roll and move genre with This Game is Bonkers. In This Game is Bonkers players play cards on the board which alter how players move around the gameboard. This Game is Bonkers tried to be innovative, but its’ new ideas for the most part fall flat.
In Family Business you take control of one of six famous crime families. Your objective is to keep your family safe while slowly destroying the other crime families. While Family Business fires some blanks, it does a pretty good job hitting the target.
The game of Checkers has had many variations over the years. In 1990 King O’ Kings tried to improve on the rules of Checkers by adding additional strategy and trying to make the game four player. King O’ Kings had the potential to be a good game but fails due to constant stalling in the early game.
In 1987 Parker Brothers created a game called Instant Replay. In the game players create designs using up to eight tiles that the other players try to re-create as quickly as possible. While the idea had some potential, the game fails to be anything more than a short distraction.
Bejeweled is based on the popular PC game of the same name. If you just looked at the box, the game looks like a cheap cash grab. As it turns out Bejeweled the board game is surprisingly good.
Mattel/International Games Inc decided in 1986 to branch out the UNO franchise by creating the game UNO Dominos. Combining the card play from UNO with the tile placement of Dominos they tried to combine two classic games. Unfortunately the combination leads to a game that is too easy to provide any really strategy or challenge to the players.
Before Jenga hit the markets in 1983, the Ideal Corporation made their own tower building game. In 1967 Ideal released Careful The Toppling Tower Game. With its’ huge tower, Careful had the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately due to some issues with the components, the game never reaches the heights that it could have.
Looking at the box, Ladder Splatter doesn’t look like much. It looks like a cheap knock off of other balancing games like Jenga. While it has its’ own issues, Ladder Splatter was better than I expected.
For those unfamiliar with Manga, Manga is a style of comics created in Japan that has become quite popular. Manga, known for its’ great artwork and creativity, had the potential to be a great theme for a card game. While Manga Manga is not a terrible game, it fails to do anything creative or original.
Alan Moon (creator of Ticket to Ride) along with Aaron Weissblum created a series of travel games called 10 Days. While not as good as the Ticket to Ride series, I enjoyed playing the USA version of the game. After playing the Africa version I have to say it is not as good as the USA version but it is still enjoyable and may teach you a little about Africa.