TabletopWars.com | Board Games, Card Games, Dice Games, Miniature Games, RPG, and More in the Philippines
ADVERTISEMENT
   REGISTER NOW! | Home | About TW | Forum | Calendar | Media Gallery | Rewards Shop
SearchHelpLogin
ATTENTION:
To all new visitors, please register to access special features of the website.  It's FREE!!!
Pages: [1]   Go Down
 Print 
Author Topic: Weird U.S.  (Read 159 times)
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Gerald
(Raiyfe)


Maximum Gamer
*****

Karma: +17/-0
Offline Offline
Gender: Male
Posts: 920
1551.00 Kredz

View Inventory
Send Kredz to Gerald


WWW
« on: July 21, 2010, 11:38:45 PM »

"Have you ever wondered where the Weirdos gather? Welcome to Weird U.S., where colorful characters like the Melon Head, Skunk Ape, La Llorona, Bunnyman, Frogboy and the Killer Clown journey to not so far off places like Midgetville, Crybaby Bridge, Danvers State Hospital and the Land of 2093 Milk Jugs in their attempts to collect travelers and be the last Weirdo standing! Based on the stories from Weird U.S. by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. From Weird books come Weird games."



Players move around the board trying to gather travelers while dodging being exposed by Mark and Mark and battling the other Weirdos.



The game is rated Ages 8 and up.
Logged

Adrian (the other one)
(CommDirector)


Maximum Gamer
*****

Karma: +23/-0
Offline Offline
Gender: Male
Posts: 1548
835.00 Kredz

View Inventory
Send Kredz to Adrian (the other one)


« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2010, 12:58:55 AM »

Well, true to it's name... it definitely is... weird.
Logged

Check out my Games Collection & For Sale List here.
Talismanic (Mark)
(Talismanic)


Maximum Gamer
*****

Karma: +9/-0
Offline Offline
Gender: Male
Posts: 1419
1642.00 Kredz

View Inventory
Send Kredz to Talismanic (Mark)


« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2010, 10:58:49 AM »

Not only is it weird, its bad too! Look at the review by philreh from BGG:


One of my favorite old Bloom County cartoons has Opus the penguin reviewing a movie like this:

"George Phblat's new film, 'Benji Saves the Universe,' has brought the word 'BAD' to new levels of badness. Bad acting. Bad effects. Bad everything. This film just oozed rottenness from every bad scene...Simply bad beyond all infinite dimensions of possible badness...(thinks a minute) Well, maybe not that bad, but Lord, it wasn't good."

Those words crossed my mind as three of my children and I sat down to a light-hearted game of Weird U.S.: The Game this evening. We had just finished Loopin' Louie, so we were ready for some more serious fare. I had received this game as a sweetener in an Origins math trade, and was ready to try out something new. Little did I know that it was to be a "sweetener" like Jonestown Kool-aid.

Nothing on the outside would reveal this game for what it is. The cover presents itself well, with a clever pull up top that reveals the painted miniatures. On the plus side, the miniatures are well done, with one featuring a working light on a car with two detectives, which has a strong resemblance to a photo being taken. The others look like various mass murderers and aliens. Unfortunately, the box is so poorly glued that the pull up flap became unglued and just dangled there. Opening the box revealed the miniatures, a flip-out map, rules, counters, and cards, along with seven dice. A plastic cover was securely taped shut, defying easy opening. The board was ripped on the back where the wires traveled from the chesty spinning half-girl. The board was extra thick, and heavy, while the counters and cards were flimsy and thin. Disjointedness screamed from the box.

The game play itself takes the worst elements of several games and combines them into one bad package.

For example, the movement mechanism. The basic premise is that you spin a spinner, like Life, that goes from 1 to 10, and that the spinner points two directions. One number you use to move your figure. The other is used to move a pair of detectives, who will take a picture if they end up with a character. Three pictures and you are out. Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell what numbers the spinner is pointing to, and so you guess. The spinner really did not spin, and so to really get a spin, you have to grip the figure tightly, which is done by grasping her most prominent feature, her cleavage. A bit awkward, to say the least, for my 10-year-old son.

Scattered around the board are D's and A's, and when you land on them, you get cards. You carry the D cards to spots that you determine must be on the board, even though you probably didn't see them before. Oh, there they are! You get one counter for every card you drop off in the right spot. Ten counters and you win! This part of the game reminded me of Spinning Wishes, where you pick up little toys to get the right to find your rose or whatever. Ennui drips from such games like sizzling lard from a roasting pig. "(Sound of snoring)...Uh, huh. what's that? It's my turn? Again?"

The rules are written with a "inside-joke" air to them, but miss the boat on several important points. One example is the two detectives. Nowhere does it say where they begin the game, or where they go when they catch a person. Without that information, if you assume that they stay in the spot with the character, the game is pure broken. A player could easily get out between his moves just by having two more players move the detective off and on his space. Player elimination at its worst, a sort of Bang! with one player having a 1/6th shooter. Given the game play, however, getting out early in this manner might more qualify as a mercy killing.

Then there is the board. Intended to be weird, it is just bad--too dark, hard to read, having plastic pieces that are supposed to fit in Life-style but don't; it even has Candy Land-type "move 2 spaces" spaces. The coolest part is the magnetic system that is wired to the speakers under the busty spinner lady. When a magnetized player marker goes over a destination, it plays one of "9 weird sound effects!" Or it would if ours worked, which it didn't. But bonus points for the cool idea.

Finally, there is combat. Yes, combat! When two players meet in the same space, they each roll a die! and the high roller wins! If a player wins, they get to roll another die, that either gives away counters, or cards you don't have, or gets a picture taken (but not of the other character standing RIGHT NEXT to the loser, in the SAME SPACE) or perhaps leads to a big battle under a leering statue of Satan. The game, mercifully, ended in about an hour. We put the components back into the pretty box and pondered the game:

"Sababa Toy, Inc.'s new game, 'Weird U.S.,' has brought the word 'BAD' to new levels of badness. Bad rulebook. Bad mechanisms. Bad everything. This game just oozed rottenness from every bad aspect...Simply bad beyond all infinite dimensions of possible badness. Well maybe not that bad, but Lord, it wasn't good."

Don't buy it. Don't give it as a gift, except to someone you really hate. If you have a copy, burn it. If you don't, and something awful happens, don't blame me. I warned you.
Logged

"God put me on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things; right now, I'm so far behind, I'll never die."
                    --The famous Anonymous

Ava Fontaine: We have enough. You can stop now. Yuri Orlov: It's not about the money. Ava: What is it about? Yuri: I'm good at it.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 Print 
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQLPowered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0!Valid CSS!
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Username: 
Password: 
Remember: 
 

Support TabletopWars.com

TabletopWars.com is run by volunteers and it continues to exist because of donations. To show your support, the best way is to send us monetary donations through the Paypal Donate Button below. In the Paypal final review screen, kindly indicate your TW Username in the provided field labeled "Add special instructions to the seller". We appreciate any support you can give. Thank you!


Win Cool Items in the Rewards Shop
ADVERTISEMENT




ADVERTISEMENT
MEMBER GROUPS

ALLIANCE OF ECLECTIC GAMERS AND INTERACTIVE STORYTELLERS (AEGIS)HEROSCAPE PHILIPPINESPHILBOARDGAMERSPUGSROLLING HILLS GAMING CLUB (RHGC)WARMACHINE PHILIPPINES
Copyright 2006-2012 TabletopWars.com. All rights reserved. Contents are copyrighted by their respective owners.
This website is optimized for Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.2 with 1024x768 screen resolution.