Get along little partner and see what's shaking in the world of boardgames!
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009
Author: Michael Barnes
Each player gets a board with spaces numbered one to twenty. Yep, it looks like Bingo. But wait! There’s 36 spaces, so some numbers have more spaces. Players all get a set of 12 disks numbered- you guessed it- one to twelve. A player rolls a twenty sided dice (the coolest part of the game) and everybody gets to put one of three face-up disks on a space matching the number rolled. Once all the disks are out, players can adjust them, again placing them on numbers matching the die roll. The goal is to get the disks in sequential order. It takes about ten minutes all told, and I think the idea is that you’re supposed to play it a bunch of times and total up the score at the end. Please, I beg you, never play it even once. Bingo is more interesting and exciting. Playing the Lotto offers more thrills. And in both you can at least win a couple of bucks.
Granted, FINITO isn’t really a hobby game, it’s more of a family game and it’s billed as an “Easy Play” game- I guess you could almost call it a “casual” board game. But seriously, it makes cellphone match-three games look like the most hardcore gaming you’ve ever seen in your life. I rarely just refuse to finish a game, but when my wife called while we were playing I was relieved. I excused myself, left the room, and oops!
By the time I got back the game was finished and being put away. I just didn’t have the heart to tell my buddy that the game he handcrafted almost made me pack it in and go home early, for fear of ever having to play it again. There’s definitely nothing wrong with simple, easy-to-play games but the thought of a game like FINITO having traction among hobbyists while other games- good games- like YAHTZEE, SCRABBLE, and CLUE are considered second-rate and unsophisticated frankly makes me sick.
So that’s it. Rodeo over. Everybody file out unless you’re sticking around to help me clean up the bull$%@.
