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Top That! Board Game Review and Rules

Top That! Board Game Review and Rules

We would like to thank Blue Orange Games for the review copy of Top That! used for this review. Other than receiving the review copy we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation. Receiving the review copy had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.

How to Play | Review | Final Verdict | Comments

How to Play

Setup

Each player takes one black top hat, one red cup, one orange tube, one green coin and one white rabbit. The players choose how many points they are going to play to. Shuffle the challenge cards and place them face down.

Playing the Game

To start each round a card is flipped over. Players then compete to be the first player to complete the challenge on the card. To complete the challenge on the card the following three rules must be followed:

  1. Objects shown in color must be visible in the stack. An object is visible if it can seen from the side of the stack.

    Stacking in Top That

    This challenge card shows four colored objects. Those four objects must be visible in the stack.

  2. Objects shown in gray must be hidden in the stack. An object is considered hidden if it is completely inside another object.

    Hiding Objects in Top That

    On this challenge card the rabbit is gray so it has to be hidden underneath one of the other objects.

  3. Objects not shown on the card cannot be included in the stack.

If you want to use the advanced rules the players need to pay attention to the objects that have stars around them. Players have to choose whether objects have to be put inside objects with stars on them or if no objects can be put into an object with stars on it.

The first player to complete the challenge yells out “Top That!”. If they completed the challenge correctly they get to take the card for a point. If the player makes a mistake everyone continues trying to complete the challenge.

End of Game

The game is played until one of the players gets as many points as they need to win the game.

Review

While I generally like games that have a decent amount of strategy, one genre that has always been a guilty pleasure of mine is the speed game. I really like speed games because I enjoy racing against the other players trying to be the first player to complete a challenge. A while back we at Geeky Hobbies looked at the game Dr. Eureka which was created by Blue Orange Games just like Top That! I really enjoyed Dr. Eureka since it combined speed and strategy. Just like Dr. Eureka, Top That! is a great little speed game.

While the two games are not exactly the same, they do share a lot in common. Both are speed games where you have to rearrange game pieces in order to match the current challenge card. Both games are so quick to play and learn. You can learn how to play Top That! in minutes and play a game in ten minutes or less. Top That! is easy enough that I can’t see children having any trouble understanding how to play the game.

The main reason that I like Top That! is the same as it was for Dr. Eureka. The game is so fast paced which leads to the game being quite addicting. Each turn takes just seconds to complete. In my first game we ended up playing through the entire deck and counted up everyone’s score after playing through all of the cards. While the game is so simple it is just plain fun. You wouldn’t think that stacking objects based on a challenge card would be very fun but it is. If you like speed games I don’t know why you wouldn’t enjoy Top That!

So you would think that looking at a card and stacking objects based on the color of the objects on that card would be pretty easy. The game is very straightforward but that doesn’t mean that it is always easy. You can get tripped up a lot easier than you would think. It is actually kind of funny when you are convinced that you stacked the objects correctly to realize that you messed something up. While the player with the fastest reaction time has an advantage in the game, if you don’t pay attention you could easily make a mistake.

While I really enjoyed both Dr. Eureka and Top That! I would say that I probably prefer Dr. Eureka. I prefer Dr. Eureka because there is a little more strategy to the game. Dr. Eureka had strategy to it in how you moved the balls between the different test tubes. The game took thought as you figured out how you had to move the balls and if you didn’t think it out you could go around in circles and make no progress. Top That! is more a straight speed game since you just have to arrange the items and interpret the challenge cards. Basically Top That! is a simpler, more straightforward game while Dr. Eureka requires a little more thought and a little less reliance on speed.

While I personally prefer Dr. Eureka I could see a lot of people preferring Top That! Of the two games I think Top That! would be considerably easier for younger children to play. Top That! has less to think about and relies more on just being fast. While I think Dr. Eureka could confuse some younger children, I don’t see that with Top That!. The negative with the higher reliance on speed is that the faster player will usually win the game. If you like speed games and didn’t care for the transferring mechanics in Dr. Eureka I think you should enjoy Top That! more. If you liked the transfer mechanics though I think you will like Dr. Eureka more.

While I wouldn’t recommend using the advanced rules with younger children, I would highly recommend using them with older kids and adults. Without the advanced rules I think the game will be a little too easy for older kids and adults. Using the stars actually makes the game quite a bit harder than you would think and actually leads to a decent amount of mistakes. I played the game with both versions of the advanced rules and I don’t really have a preference over which is better. It actually becomes quite interesting when you switch between the two rules since players tend to make a lot more mistakes. I think an interesting house rule could be switching the rule back and forth each round.

Top That! is a very good game but it is not perfect. It actually shares most of the same issues that I had with Dr. Eureka. If you don’t like speed games, Top That! is not going to be for you. The game doesn’t really have much strategy to it as the game relies entirely on speed and recognizing what the current challenge wants you to do. The other issue is that while you can have a lot of fun with Top That! I don’t see playing the game for hours at a time. I would probably play through the deck once and see who wins the game. Then I would come back to the game another day. I just don’t see playing the game for hours at a time. Top That! is more the type of game that you play along with another game on game night.

Like most Blue Orange Games, the components for Top That! are very good. The components are cute and reinforce the game’s magic theme. The components are well designed and actually make it pretty easy to stack the different components. The components are also made out of pretty sturdy plastic so they should last as long as you don’t abuse them. The cards are well designed like the cards for all Blue Orange Games as they only present the information you need to play the game.

Final Verdict

I have to say that I had a lot of fun with Top That! Top That! is a fun little speed game that while simple is surprisingly addicting. It is so easy to play but if you don’t pay attention you can easily make a mistake. If you like speed games I can’t see you not enjoying Top That! With that said I personally prefer Dr. Eureka since it has a little more strategy that Top That! but I can see a lot of people preferring Top That!. The only real issue I had with Top That! is that it just isn’t a game that you will play for hours at a time.

If you don’t like speed games Top That! is not going to be for you. If you like speed games though I would be surprised if you didn’t enjoy Top That! If you already own Dr. Eureka and don’t want another speed game that has less strategy than Dr. Eureka it might not be worth picking up Top That! If you want a pure speed game though Top That! is a great game. Just like all Blue Orange Games, Top That! is also quite affordable. If you like speed games I can’t see you going wrong picking up Top That!

If you would like to purchase Top That! you can but it on Amazon.