Frankly it's hilarious and even my 9 and 10 year old boys, who don't even know 2/3 of the films on the cards, think it's hilarious too.
Our parcel arrived with a big "Quik Drop" label, and I knew what it was instantly! I practically lived in Blockbuster for about 10 of my most influential years. The very thoughtful people at Big Potato had sent us everything we needed for a movie night...
The packaging is THE BEST PACKAGING IN THE WORLD EVER!! A real genuine imitation Blockbuster video box. Nostalgia is pouring into my soul.
Inside the box isn't really a VHS video tape, it's the game board, but underneath it's just as pretty. Everything has it's own space and it reminds me of when we used to rent an extra Playstation controller so we could play two-player. Be still my beating heart.
Set up takes only a minute, or two the first time. You will need 2 x AAA batteries and a small Phillips screwdriver for the timer. Unfold the game board and put the flag together, place the timer on the table, then get a pile of Movie Cards and a pile of Head To Head Cards and you are ready.
The Movie Cards are in 8 different genres: Action, Horror, All-Time Classics, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Comedy, Drama, Animation and Family.
This is an age 12+ game and it does mean there are some adult films included in some categories and a couple of quite grown up suggestions in the Head To Head....
We have played with our youngsters and passed over anything particularly adult, but there haven't been many at all. A bigger point-stealer for younger players is a simple lack of knowledge of films, or ability to guess plausible film titles.
The aim of the game is to collect an entire set of 8 Movie Cards, including 1 from each category. You win them by conveying the title of a film to your team, using only the power of One Word, Quote It or Act It.
If you don't know a quote, just make one up. As long as you don't use any words from the title, you're good.
To decide which team goes first, 1 player from each is nominated for Head To Head. The card is turned over, and nominated players try to be first to shout an answer and press the timer. This resets it to 15 seconds and then it's the other team's turn. Play keeps going back and forth until a player can't give an answer before the time is up.
That makes it sound like a game of tennis. In reality we were lucky if we got past 3 for any category. It's not allowed to have more than 1 movie from any series of movies either...
The team that won Head To Head go first for the main challenge. The nominated player takes the top 6 cards and chooses which 3 he wants to try and get his team to guess, and places them on the board. The other 3 are given to the opposing nominated player to place on their side of the game board.
Long press on the timer gives your team 30 seconds to try to get all 3 answers. If you do then you can attempt the opposing team's cards too, but don't show them to anyone except nominated players, as the opposing team take their 30 second turn next.
Blockbuster the game is brilliant. Hilariously funny and we've played several times now. My boys can't understand why we laugh so much, but if you'd seen what one of them thought demonstrated Mrs Doubtfire and Bend It Like Beckham, you'd understand. I can hardly wait for Gone With The Wind.
Obviously you can have a more genuinely competitive game against movie buffs, but best moment of every second we've played was when my 10yo gave the 'quote' - "Oh my, there is a USA hairy wild man at the capital of England"... and my 9yo thought I was psychic when I just said the right answer...
I honestly have no idea how long a full game takes because we've played different numbers of rounds each time, but you can do the Head To Head and the team round in well under 10 minutes if you are keen and competitive, and don't laugh too much...
Blockbuster Movie Game is available to buy now priced £20 rrp from all good toy and game shops, including online at Amazon*. For more information about the entire fabulous range of quirky and unsual games available see the Big Potato Games website.
We've reviewed loads of excellent games for Big Potato and my grown up kids love them. You can find all of our Big Potato Games Reviews here...
For my mate Chris Fuller. Schoolfriend and Manager of Blockbuster Video, Ashbourne Road, Derby, for many years. He always knew just the film.
We were sent our Blockbuster Movie Game for review. Amazon links are affiliate because board games don't pay the bills and optimistically I assumed it might make me some money. I get a few pence if you order through my link, but you never pay any extra.
Oh wow! This is so cool! I remember Blockbuster's. My two don't even know what a video tape is!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such a fun game! I think it might be one for us to buy x
It really is loads of fun. Describing movies with 1 word is such a challenge, the acting is just hilarious though :D
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