Dale Yu: An Essen Preview of my own (Arthur Saves the Planet, Worm Up!, Little Italy)

Well, I’m sure that many of you have already spent some time looking over the comprehensive Essen Preview that is put together by BGN’s editor-in-chief.  While I am certainly not going to even think about trying to compete with that document, there are a few games that have come my way that I’d like to preview before the Spiel fair later this month.  Additionally, these games previewed here this week give me a good chance to get back to writing about games that are meant for kids or that can be played with kids.

Arthur Saves the Planet

Designer: Mike Siggins
Publisher: FRED Distribution
Players: 2-5
Ages: 6+

Arthur Saves the Planet is a new release which had managed to fly under the radar for me.  My kids have watched the Arthur cartoon on PBS from time to time, so they were quite excited to see an Arthur themed game show up on our doorstep last week!  For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the educational cartoon focuses on Arthur (a 3rd grade talking anthropomorphic aardvark) and his friends in Elwood City.  Each episode has 2 cartoons, each of which teaches the viewer something important and educational – such as why it’s wrong to tease your classmates or why it’s good to do your chores on time, etc.

In this game, there are a number of environmental problems that Arthur and his friends need to solve.  For example, one problem tile is “There is too much plastic pollution”.  The answer (on the other side) is: “Use Glass”.  Another tile says “Global warming is making our planet too hot”, and the solution is “Power Down. Conserve Energy.”

The game itself is very simple to play – which is good as its target audience is probably 10 and under (given the age range of kids that usually watch Arthur).  The board is a depiction of Elwood City and it has 20 spaces on it which are connected up by roads.  Each space on the board has room for a problem tile.  At the start of the game, two tiles per player are placed face up on the board.  Each tile has a problem and a solution on it (as I showed you above), but from the gaming perspective, it’s important to note that there is a point value on the tile and a set of colored dots which correspond to the cards you need in order to solve the problem.  Each player gets a hand of six resource cards, and these cards have colors which match the dots on the problem tiles.

On your turn, you have the option of either moving your player or taking a resource card.  When you move, you simply move up to three spaces – following the roads of Elwood City to navigate.  If you take a card, you can either choose one card amongst the four face-up choices or you can take 2 mystery cards from the face-down deck.  While most of the cards are simply resources, there are a few special cards which can be drawn as well that give special abilities such as moving twice in a turn or changing the color of a resource on a card.  You could also draw a Time Passes card which moves the marker up on the Time Track.  There are 10 spaces on this track, and as the Time Passes cards are randomly shuffled amongst the rest of the cards, it makes it hard to predict when the game will end.

Once you’ve either moved or drawn, if you are on a space with a problem tile, you can “solve” it by playing the matching cards to that required on the tile.  If you are able to do this, you take the tile from the board and collect the appropriate number of victory points.  A new tile is then placed on the board to replace the one just solved.  Finally, at the end of your turn, you make sure that you have exactly six cards in your hand.  You discard down if you need to.  If you don’t have enough, you draw face-down cards from the deck to replenish your hand.

The game goes on until either the last problem card is solved OR the time marker gets to the top of the track (triggered by the cards drawn from the card deck).  The winner is the player who had collected the most victory points.  Ties are broken in order of the number of Problem Tiles solved.

As can be expected for a kids game, the game is easy to teach and easy to play.  My children were able to pick up the game very quickly.  I’m not entirely sure that they get the idea of hand management yet – oftentimes they’ll pick up cards that don’t help them solve one of the problems currently on the board, but they’re getting better with practice.  The only other tricky thing for the kids is dealing with the victory point markers.  There are three varieties of scoring markers: acorns (1 VP), Saplings (5 VPs), and Trees (10 VP).  However, the number of points that each is worth isn’t on the marker at all!  I’ve had to sharpie one side of each token with the value so that my kids can figure out how many points they have.

This is a fine addition to my Mike Siggins collection (right up there with Grand Prix Manager).  With any luck, I’ll be able to run into Mike at Essen – and if he’s not too busy taking notes for his Funagain report on the fair, maybe I’ll be able to get a short interview with him to ask him about the design process and his inspirations for the game.

Worm Up!
Designer: Alex Randolph
Publisher: Gryphon Games / AbacusSpiele
Players: 3-5
Ages: 7+

Everytime I see this box, the tune to “Word Up” by Cameo starts playing in the back of my head… While I try to suppress that again, let me tell you a little bit about this new version of Würmeln (previously released in 1994 by Blatz and then later as Blazing Camels/Kamel Treiber by MB).  The new release comes in a small box (5 inches square) and packs all the fun of the original!

Essentially, it’s a game about worm racing.  Each player controls a worm which is composed of seven worm segments – these are really just wooden half-spheres.  A race course is setup with a start line marked by two wooden posts.  The finish line is also marked with two wooden posts AND a cardboard strip that fits over the posts.  Each worm starts the game with all seven of its segments in a line and touching each other.

On each round, player secretly and simultaneously choose one of their movement chits (4, 5, 6, 7, and X).  Once chosen, all chits are revealed.  If any chits match those chosen by other players, all of those bids are nullified.  Once those are canceled out, all remaining movements are done from smallest to highest.  If you choose the “X” chit, you can move you worm 4, 5, 6, or 7 segments – but it cannot be a number chosen by anyone else.

To move your worm, you simply take a segment from one end of the worm and move it to the other end, making sure that all the worm segments still touch each other.  There are no restrictions on the direction of your movement.  You can go backwards if you want, and you can curve your worm so that it blocks the progress of an opponent.  This can be a useful move as opposing worms may not touch each other.

It is also important to note that if you play the “X” chit, you may also move the finish line in addition to moving your worm.  To move the finish line, you simply put your finger on one wooden pole that anchors the line and move the other post.  When you do this, you can change the length of the course or even change the direction of the finish line.

Once all worms have moved, a new round begins.  Any movement chits which were used in the last round (not those which tied other players) are held out in the next round.  Players bid again and movement takes place as outlined above.  The game continues until one worm touches the finish line.  The game is over usually in 5-10 minutes, though I find that the kids often ask to play another game right after the first. 

The game is well done, in a nice small box with good solid wooden bits.  There are a few changes from the original versions.  First – the components are a bit different.  In the original version, you chose your movement with a die.  The die had an extra bid, “3”, which is not available in this game.  Furthermore, the rules for repeating a bid are different.  In the new version, you may not repeat a successful bid in the next turn (as that chit is held out of your hand) while in the old version, you were only restricted from repeating a bid if that bid was 7 or X.  It’s much easier to remember what you are not able to bid again when it simply isn’t amongst the choices for the next turn!

Overall, this is a cute game that works well with both kids and adults.  Kids can enjoy it as a straightforward race game.  Depending on their sophistication, the blocking tactics and moving finish line elements will have varied effects.  With adults, the blocking can get very nasty indeed and the think/doublethink of the bidding can get interesting as you obviously don’t want to bid the same thing as anyone else.  This game will probably re-enter the list of fillers/closers for me – I had actually kind of forgotten about my dusty copy of Würmeln in the back of the game closet!  And it’ll give me some time to think up some good lyrics to sing along while playing…

“Hey pretty wormies around the world, got a good game to show you, tell all the boys and girls...”

Little Italy
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: Playroom Entertainment
Players: 2-6
Ages: 10+

Unlike the other two games, this one is already available for purchase but has not gotten much press thus far.  This is a lighter design by the Spiel de Jahres winner, Reiner Knizia, released by Playroom Entertainment.  This game is actually not the only Knizia design produced by Playroom this year – look for my Ilium preview soon!  The box of Little Italy proclaims that this is “The Game of Money Drops and Dodging Cops”.  The game is set in the Little Italy district of New York City, and each player takes the role of a family boss.  During the game, you try to direct your cars to the different “money drops” around the neighborhood.  If you’re the first one to the right spot, you’ll collect the money (and the victory points that come with it).  Also, while you are moving around the neighborhood, you’ll want to avoid the spaces where the police are – if you land on those spaces, you’ll end up losing victory points.

So, it sounds simple and easy, right?  Well, there actually a bit more to the game than that (would you expect anything less from Dr. Knizia?!) For starters, when you play with four or more players, you have to share control of the cars – one car is shared with your left-hand neighbor and one car is shared with your right-hand neighbor.  All points – positive or negative – are scored by the players that control each car. 

Movement is also not as simple as you might expect.  In each round, the start player rolls the dice (one die of each color matching the cars in the game) and then chooses any of the dice and places it in front of him.  He then moves the car which corresponds to the die the number of spaces as shown on that die.  The remaining dice are then passed to the next player who rolls them and follows the above method for moving a car.  This continues until someone is only given one die – when this happens, that player collects all the dice to roll for his turn and the whole cycle starts anew.

When the game is setup, there are only two scoring markers on the board – one money token for +1 point and one police marker for -1 point.  There are 7 tokens of each type (valued consecutively from +1 to +7 and -1 to -7).  There are specific spots on the board for each of these tokens.  As each one is collected, the next positive or negative token is put out on the board.  Therefore, there will only be two scoring tokens on the board at each time – one positive and one negative.  If there is a car on the space where the next scoring token is to appear, that newly placed token is immediately scored and the next corresponding one is put out. Thus, depending on the setup of the board, you can get some pretty sweet chain reactions going.

The game is a nice light game with enough choices to keep it interesting.  You will, of course, have more options open to you when you get to roll 5 or 6 dice as opposed to when you only get to roll two.  As you share cars with your opponents, you need to look at the board each turn to try to make sure that you can possibly give your neighbors a negative score to get a leg up on the competition.  Also, it helps to try to maneuver your own car so that it’s not at risk of taking a negative score when possible.  The rules are straightforward enough that my two children were able to pick it up quite easily – admittedly, they may not have chosen the best play each turn, but they understood what to do well enough.  Finally, the game plays quickly, with most of my games coming in around 20-30 minutes.

Overall, I think that this game fits very well into the Playroom portfolio.  I had a chance to speak with Dan Rowen at GenCon, and he had told us that the company was trying to focus on good games – but on the “lighter” spectrum.  Portobello Market was the first release in this particular line, and Little Italy is a great addition to the set.  It is a great game for families or to play with the kids.  It’s also a nice choice for a filler or closer when you’ve got the game group over. 

Until your next appointment
The Gaming Doctor

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