Meeple Circus

GaGarfieldstar8,0

#53 I love such interesting games which try something new. Very funny! [c] Theme: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Circus, doing aerobatics --> Gameplay: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Aerobatics dexterity --> Interaction: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]No --> Artwork: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good --> Luck: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]It's dexterity not luck --> Strategy: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]No --> Components: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Play duration: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Perfect --> Easy to teach: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Very easy (10min) --> Rules quality: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Perfect (2 open questions) --> Setup time: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Fast --> No downtime: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Almost no downtime --> Replay value: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]A lot of different cards --> [/c]

EvEvanstar1,6

It's a nice idea to have a circus themed dexterity stacking game, but in practice I found the components to be too poor to even try getting into the silly theme. Essentially, you do a few rounds of drafting for components. Then you have a timed session where you try to arrange the components like they appear on the victory condition cards. In later rounds, they also throw in some forced silly acts for the players to preform for each other while they build their stacks. I'm not thrilled with forced sillyness, but I might be able to get into it if the components were better. Most dexterity games paint their pieces with a sort of matte finish, or shape the pieces so they are large enough to get some friction. This game paints the bits with more of a slippery gloss finish. The player boards you start on are thin cardboard that had bowed in the copy I played. The wooden plank piece that looks like something you can balance on was also misshapen and wasn't quite flat. The other planks that came were, I just happened to draft a misshapen piece. I found the whole experience way more frustrating than fun even though I tend to really enjoy dexterity stacking games. The timed aspect seems to take away a lot of the fun tension I usually enjoy. ☆ Art, Iconography and components functional ☆ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ☆☆☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment