Gone Cardboard News: duck! duck! GO! - Coming from APE Games

If you had asked me this morning what game I least expected to announce today, I possibly would have said, “An abstract racing game that uses plastic duckies for playing tokens.” Boy, would I have been surprised!

Coming in August 2008 from APE Games is duck! duck! GO!, another in a long line of games that I’ll refer to obliquely as often as possible in order to avoid writing out the title. Designed by Kevin G. Nunn, this game is for 2-6 players ages 8 and up. Each player has a plastic ducky – the box includes six different figures chosen from a set of one hundred – and your goal is to make your ducky touch the three buoys on the gameboard, then race to the drain before anyone else.

The gameboard is assembled from up to sixteen double-sided hexboards to match a difficulty level of your choice. To move your duck, choose one of three movement cards in your hand, then reveal it at the same time as other players. The low number moves first, following the path as far as possible; hit the edge of the board or another duck, and you stop moving and spin around to face away from the barrier. If you land on a buoy, you move again immediately.

The advanced game adds a bird dog figure that chases after the ducks. Whoever is in last in the buoy count gets to move the bird dog, sending anyone it hits back to a starting ring, similar to rematerializing at a flag in Robo Rally. When you reach a buoy, you also receive a secret action token – play an additional card, rotate for free, act like a bird dog for one round, etc. – for use later in the game.

The retail price for duck! duck! GO! is $39.95, and you can download the rules in English and German from the APE Games website. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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