Time Travel. You had me at Time Travel. That’s really all it takes to be honest. If the movie or book or game has time travel, I’m ALL IN. Back to the Future has it, and more. It’s one of the best trilogies ever made – fight me. It’s still watchable today, and it is still enjoyable to sit through. It’s just about a must watch when it’s on TV and you’re flipping through the channels. With that said, I was very excited to play Back To The Future: Dice Through Time by Ravensburger Games. If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you know I love dice. And now that you know I love BTTF, well….. to say that my expectations were high is an understatement.
Overview:
In a nutshell, you are trying to return lost items that have been scattered throughout time in the four time periods that the movies take place – 1885, 1955, 1985 and 2015. (Side chat – isn’t it crazy that ALL of BTTF is now in the past?!) The only way to discover these lost items is to fix damaged events in the timeline that are put out each turn on locations on the board that span all four timelines. Depending on the number of players, 3 to 8 event cards are drawn and placed on the board each turn. Some of the event cards are instants that can help, or hinder, the team’s ability to win the game, others are placed on specific locations and years and must be removed by paying a cost. Once you remove an event, you gain a Lost Item that you will then need to try to return to its correct location and year. You win the game by returning all of the Items back to their correct times and places. You lose the game by running “OUTATIME,” which we will discuss later.
Once the events have been placed each round, each player will roll their 4 dice. The symbols on the dice are what allow you to perform actions. Players perform one action at a time and then pass turn to the next player.
– Actions
Use the Flux Capacitor to time travel to the same location in any other year.
Use the Lightening Bolt to reroll any other unspent dice.
Use the BTTF arrow to move to any location in your current year.
Use the Fist to move Biff to any other location in the current year.
Use Doc Brown to remove any two Paradox Tokens from the board (more on these later).
Use the Wrench as any other icon when removing an event card.
Spend any single die to move to an adjacent location in the same year
Use any two matching die symbols to use any one other symbol.
– Removing Events
Each event has 1 or 2 icons which match sides of your dice. To remove the event and gain a lost item card from that time period, you must be on the event card location, possess all of the needed symbols, and Biff has to be on a different location in that year. If there are multiple event cards on the location, you must be able to clear all of the event cards, not just 1 of them. If Biff is on the location, you must move him (with a fist as an action) before you can clear the event cards. As the game progresses and multiple event cards land on the same location, it gets very challenging to remove the events. This is where rippling your dice becomes important……
– Rippling Dice
I mean, I wouldn’t allude to something without talking about it next, right?! So, remember, this is a Co-Op game. You will want to help your partners and strategize a little bit. With that in mind, at any point during the game, you may leave dice on you location to be used by you or other players, either this round or in future rounds. What’s interesting is that they can also be used by any players on the same location in the future! So If I am on the Clocktower location in 1955 and another player is on the Clocktower in 2015 and has 3 of the 4 dice symbols that they need to clear the 3 event cards that are there, I can drop the 4th die symbol that they need as my turn on the 1955 Clocktower, thus making it available to the player in 2015! I really like this little bit of playing with the space time continuum – leaving something in the past so it’s available to you in the future!
– Gaining and Bringing Back Lost Items
Item cards are gained when you clear an event off the board from a location. You gain an event from that year and place it at the bottom of your player board. You can only hold 2 Item Cards at a time, so you will have to balance gaining them and dropping them back off. The Item Card tells your where and when the item must be returned. It can only be returned to that location if it is free of event cards and Biff is not there. If either are on the location, they must be cleared/moved before you can return the item. Once you return the item, you are awarded an Einstein Token and you’re able to move the OUTATIME marker to the left one space. Einstein Tokens are one random sides of the dice that are one time use and available for any player to use.
– OUTATIME Marker
The OUTATIME marker and track is the “clock” for the game and will advance at the end of each round. Look at the game board and determine which year has the most locations with event cards on them. The highest number (0 through 4) is the number is spaces you advance the OUTATIME marker. If any of those locations in the year with the most events have a Paradox token on them, increase the number of spaces by 1.
– Paradox Tokens
These are added at the end of the round after the OUTATIME marker has been moved. These are placed on all locations with event cards in the year that advanced the OUTATIME markers. For example, if 1885 had the most locations with events, let’s say 3 of the 4 locations had events (doesn’t matter how many are on each location, just that 3 had some), then you would place a Paradox token on each of the 3 locations in 188 with events. These are removed by removing the event or with a Doc Brown die action. Remember, if the year with the most events has any Paradox tokens, it advances the OUTATIME marker one more on the track. This really starts to add up.
And that’s the gist of the game. I’ve played it a few times 2 player (covid….) and have enjoyed it. Each game felt really tight and went down right to the wire for the win/loss. The first game we won on the last possible turn and the second we lost in a tight battle with Biff. We enjoyed reading each event and item card as they came out and seeing how they would influence the gameplay. Having only 4 dice and not having a free reroll makes every decision really matter. I haven’t played a ton of co-op games, but I had a lot of fun playing this one and I don’t think anything was lost no being out for my own. It was fun to strategize a few turns ahead each round and allowed us to stay engaged during the other players turn. We figured out really quickly that you really have to work together and talk out what you were thinking of doing so that we both didn’t end a round in the same year or both start going for the same event to remove. The resources are so limited that there is literally no time to waste. It was important to not end in the same year because there was never a guarantee that anyone would roll a Flux Capacitor in order to be able to time travel. Also, ending in different years made it easier to ripple dice if needed.
The game components are just fine for a game at this price point. The dice feel great, and the mini DeLorean’s are awesome. the colors are bright and beautiful. There’s no real need for anything here to be “deluxified.”
Overall, I enjoyed the game and the thrill of re-living all three movies. I can see myself puling it out with friends that enjoy the movie trilogy or when I am looking for something light with dice that is fun and non-threatening to new gamers. If you’re a BTTF geek like me, it’s probably a must play/buy!
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