As a life-long musician and former band director, it was kinda a no-brainer that I jumped up to review a game about a singing competition! Uptaged! his clever and fast paced game that is currently wrapping up is Kickstarter Campaign HERE.
Components:
4 Double-Sided Player Mats (connect to box to make the playing surface)
24 Artist Cards
30 Cue Cards
4 Player Aids
1 Rule Sheet
Gameplay:
Gameplay was quite simple and straightforward. The goal of the game is to advance Artist Cards from the Arena (the stage) down each runway stage and onto your team. All of this happens while the Arena spins and rotates due to Cue Card instructions, meaning that the Artist Cards could end up starting near you but end up on the other end of the Arena by the end of your turn. Each player takes a turn by taking two actions (can be repeated) – play a Cue Card and follow the actions or discard 2 Cue Cards of the same type (color) to advance one individual Artist on the track. Examples of Cue Card instructions are “Spin the Arena 90 or 180 degrees,” “Steal, Switch, or Discard Artist Cards, “Advance all Artist Cards,” or draw additional Cue Cards. Some of the more powerful abilities (stealing/switching Artists from other players) require you to discard additional Cue Cards in your hand, therefore limiting your ability to do a second action possibly. Once you’ve completed your two actions, you will draw back up to 4 Cue Cards and it is the next persons turn. If at any time an Artist is on the last space of the stage and it is advanced, it joins the players team in front of the runway. If there is no player in front of that runway then the Artist is discarded. The game ends once each player has 4 Artists. If a player already has 4 Artists on their team and a 5th one tries to join, they have been UPSTAGED! The active player chooses which of the 5 are discarded,. This is an interesting twist because it is possible, and quite easy, to advance an Artist you don’t want, or know will not help an opponent, onto their team on your turn!
Scoring
Once the endgame condition of every player having four Artists is triggered you must perform “The Cut” and go down to three Artist Cards by cutting one out. You will then score points based off of the Talent Points of individual Artist in addition to bonus points for matching the Genre of the Artists, matching the Artists Focus Symbol, having consecutive point values (like a straight in poker), or for matching the Artist Point Value (like a 3 of-a-kind). So while you may be going for the highest scoring Artists, it may actually be better to go for the lower valued Artists to create increase your bonus points that are scored at the end!
Impressions:
Both Rachel and I thought that the game was easy to understand and we enjoyed that it was quick to play. I was a little apprehensive about how the Arena and Runway would stay together with all of the spinning but the Runway player boards fit snugly into the box with the lid on. It’s a really fun and smart way of making the playing surface! The theme is really well done and the card art and “flavor text” was spot on if you are a fan of any reality talent show. We enjoyed playing it and could see us breaking it out again. There is definitely opportunity for “gotcha” or “take that” with stealing of Artists, canceling actions, and eliminating an Artist by interrupting a turn.
What Could Be Better:
I’d like to see more Cue Cards and a little more variety in their abilities. Even in a two player game, Rachel and I nearly went through the Cue Card stack 3 times. Since you always draw back up to 4, we blew threw them. Once we had been through the stack once, we kinda knew what to expect from them, so there wasn’t a ton of “unknown” in the game-play.
Overall:
For a $20 price point on Kickstarter, this is a great pocket game! It can travel easily, entertain in a pinch, and can be understood by veteran gamers or young players alike. The game is recommended for ages 14+, but I think younger kids can definitely jump on stage and play!
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