I can appreciate a good game that draws me in with the theme. Some games have to start from nowhere and introduce you to new worlds, others give you a peek into a known world and some even drop you square into that world head first. Today we are going to take a look at a game that takes place with familiar friends and places and see how well it does to accomplish this!
Toy Story Obstacles and Adventures (O&A) is published by The OP and is designed for 2-5 players. it is designed and developed by The OP and invented by Forrest-Pruzan Creative.
Overview
Toy Story O&A is a cooperative deck-building game that puts you and your friends in the roles of the Toys who must work together to overcome the Hazards and Dangers in the game and safely reach the end goal of each of the Adventures.
Gameplay
The game comes with everything you need to start in on Adventure 1 laid out and as you progress and beat one of the Adventures the next box is available to you to open. There are a total of 6 Adventures to explore.
There is a large game board where most of the action will be occurring during the game along with each player’s personal board. Each player will be given a Player board of one of the characters, 10 starting cards and a Health tracker to move your life count during gameplay.
The main board will be set with an Adventure track where the progression of the characters is monitored. The Danger stack of cards is next to that, and each turn a player will flip one or more of these over to resolve it depending on placement on the Adventure track. The Hazard cards are the current “boss” you are trying to defeat and there can be between 1-3 of them active at any time.
The Adventure Cards are the deck you will be building from and are set up in a market of 6 on the side of the board. You will also need a supply of Insight and Imagination tokens on the side of the play area.
Players will take turns one at time and progress through 4 steps during each turn. These steps are:
1-Reveal and Resolve Dangers. In this step players will reveal Danger cards equal to the level on the Adventure Track. Each one is dealt with before moving on to the next one.
2-Resolve Hazard Effects. Each Hazard in the game has an effect that will happen every time or will be dependent on other things happening in the game. These are resolved one at a time also.
3-Play Adventure Cards and Take Actions. Here the active player will play the cards in their hands to gain resources and generate effects. The resources gained are placed on your player board and need to be used by the end of your turn.
Insight is used to help defeat Hazard cards and Imagination is used to acquire new cards to your collection. All new cards are placed directly into your discard pile. You can acquire multiple cards as long as you have the resources to purchase them.
4-End Your Turn. After all of your cards are played and you have taken actions and spent resources you need to cleanup at the end of your turn. Cleanup involves bringing out a new Hazard card if needed and refilling the Adventure board. Played cards go to the discard pile and remaining resources are discarded. A new hand of 5 cards is drawn and the gameplay continues to the left for the next Toy.
The end of the game is triggered through either The Toys defeating all of the Hazards and winning, moving on to their next Adventure! Or the Moving Van reaches the end of the track and the Toys lose. Reset the current Adventure and try again.
Impressions
A game that reveals itself as you play can be a little hard to review. There are parts of this game I would love to further discuss but I don’t want spoilers for it. With that said, you will definitely enjoy the surprises that each box gives you. There are additions to aspects already discussed along with new game components and twists with each box. The experience lends itself to a campaign-style game without needing the full investment of a campaign-style playthrough. It is easy to add and use whichever Adventure pieces you would like to as well as you play it, making it an easy way to really mix things up for the game.
Thematically this game is hitting a home run in the world of Toy Story mania. You get to play as one of many of your favorite characters and really experience the moments of the movies you loved the best. The adventure is there and the cards and gameplay really make you feel like you are in the adventure. I would say that for an IP based game, it really leans into the story with great gameplay instead of using the story as a crutch and the only aspects. I felt immersive as opposed to just replaying parts of the story verbatim.
Overall if the Harry Potter Deck builder was a game you enjoyed, this is a no question game for you. If you like the Toy Story franchise, this is also a no-brainer. I recommend this one for any of the above, or for someone looking for a fun trip through a light and full of surprises deck builder that leaves you smiling through the whole adventure!
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