Wicked Witches Way by Asmodee Games
For 2-6 players, about 30 minutes long.
I had low expectations when I first tried out this game that consisted of nothing more than nine colored dice, a small game board, a few cards, and a funny book-like game box. However, in a day of playing more serious boardgames, I had more fun in 30 minutes of playing Wicked Witches Way than I did playing several longer, deeper strategy games. As it depends on a bit of luck and some good visual perception skills, humor arises whenever a player makes a mistake and pays dearly for their oversight.
The premise of the game revolves around witches flying in a broomstick race. Players take the roll of a witch and score points by arriving at the finish line while also collecting "stunt" cards which represent extra points due to fancy flying tricks performed during the race. Moving one's witch happens through rolling the dice and remembering the symbols rolled. This is the heart of the game. To start, one player rolls all nine dice which land with various orange and black symbols face up. Players then quickly scan the symbols in an effort to remember as many as possible. Once a player feels they've seen enough, they flip the game box (in the shape of a book) shut, covering up the dice. All players must then use their spell cards to reproduce either all the black symbols or all the orange symbols showing on the dice. However, any symbol that appears in both orange and black is excluded. Thus, if there is a black web, an orange cloud, and an orange web symbol, I would only want to play my cloud spell card. (The orange and black web symbols on the dice cancel each other out.) Once all the players have played their cards, the dice are revealed and players score points. For each correct symbol (either orange or black) listed on their cards, that player's witch gets to move forward one space. Thus listing three correct orange symbols moves your witch three spaces. Note that placing any card that has both an orange and a black symbol showing, or placing a card with a symbol that isn't showing anywhere will earn you no movement at all. In fact, if the player who closes the "book" makes a mistake they are forced to move backwards two spaces.
The game would be amusing, but not great if that were the extent. However, players that successfully recall and play cards that represent ALL the eligible orange symbols showing or ALL the eligible black symbols showing earn a special bonus. If you match all the orange symbols you move a bonus two spaces forward on the track. Matching all the black symbols correctly earns a player one special power card for each black symbol matched. These cards give players extra powers like the ability to adjust their cards after the dice are revealed, the ability to look at the dice for an extra 10 seconds after everyone else has played their cards, and a significant fraction of the cards are simply extra point cards which represent the tricks and stunts one's witch performs as they fly through the race. The current race leader is always handicapped with a curse token ﾖ which prevents them from earning any of the all-orange or all-black symbol bonuses. This helps to prevent a runaway game by one person getting far out in front and actually encourages a strategy of remaining in second place as long as possible during the game before breaking out for a win. When a player crosses the finish line, the race ends and all players score points according to their location on the track. Points from special cards are then added to the player's score and the high score wins. In our first game, the winner was the only player who didn't complete the race! He had saved up a significant number of extra bonus point cards and nearly completed the race. The two factors together combined for a win.
Wicked Witches Way is a fast playing game that has simple rules but enough challenge to provide many hours of entertainment for anyone willing to take on its pattern-matching style of gameplay. The bonus cards add a fun bit of extra flair to the game, providing players with a few moments of strategy as they determine how they can best be used. Most of the fun in the game comes about as players get a bit too cocky and start closing the game "book" early thinking they've memorized the best set of symbols but have somehow overlooked that one die in the corner which will cause them to move back a few spaces.
Kid Factor:
Of the three games, Ricochet Robot has the oldest age requirement, requiring a bit of spatial reasoning to pull off. However, any child that is good at drawing plans, sketching designs, or even building complex Lego systems has a leg up on planning out robot paths. If the paths remain moderately short, the game is attainable by older grade school children and most middle school kids should fare OK. Meanwhile, the chopstick game is great for any age that can manage to hold on to the sticks and Wicked Witches Way should be suitable for ages 8+. Of the three, only Wicked Witches Way has a slight suitability issue. Aside from the theme of witches, each player is assigned a particular set of color-coded cards. The red player's witch is a rather saucy looking young witch dressed in a red dress with stockings and garter belts. Not too suggestive, but could be a minor concern for some. All three games are fairly flexible and have ways to handicap older players or help younger players along. The simplest solution for all three would probably be to give more time to younger players, starting them off with a bit of extra time before older players jump into the fray. With some practice, even younger players will probably provide older "more experienced" gamers a good run for their money...
For those new to GamerDad Unplugged, be aware that often the boardgames mentioned are not available in your typical local mega-mart or chain toy store. Thankfully, most game specialty stores (stores that primarily sell games) will either stock or know how to obtain them.
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