Hello, my lovely Geeks and Geekettes!
It’s no secret that I am seriously into my dinosaurs, I know what you’re thinking, “What? You? Into Dinosaurs? Nooooooooo....!?” but it’s true. Definitely a Dino Nerd, and proud. As a result, I am always on the lookout for more dinosaur stuff to add to my growing collection, and board games are no exception to this.
Players: 2-4 | Ages: 10+ | Game Time: 20-40 minutes |
I’m a millennial, which means my love of dinosaurs ultimately began with the god of all dinosaur movies Jurassic Park. And let’s face it, what’s not to love. It’s got science, action, a strong female role model (Rexy, Dr Sattler, take your pick) and CGI which still holds up today almost 30 years since it was released.
So when I see Jurassic Park board games specifically, oh yeah, you know I’m gonna buy that!
This week’s special is Jurassic Park Funko Verse by Funko Games. For those of you who haven’t seen the Funko Verse, this is a series of games where your playing pieces are small Funko Pops, those crazy little plastic, large-headed, dot-eyed collectibles which have taken the world by storm. There are hundreds of fandoms, which have been converted into Funko Pops, and as a result, now they’ve created the Funko Verse board games, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we see hundreds of fandoms in little Funko Verse board games.
For Jurassic Park, I currently own two of them: the original main game, and a mini-game that can be played not only as an expansion to the first but also as a stand-alone game.
So what‘s in the box?
Funko Verse starts with your characters, which are roughly a third of the size of a standard Funko Pop. In the original game, we have Mr Arnold (because Samuel L Jackson), Dr Grant, Dr Sattler and a Velociraptor, the latter of which comes with additional base tokens denoting her two sisters. The stand-alone expansion consists of Rexy and the sexy meme god Ian Malcolm.
Each character has their own special ability so choose wisely!
Once you have your characters, you need an area of play. The boards for both game and expansion are double-sided, allowing a good choice for your battles to commence. My favourite is from the expansion, which shows the parked cars outside the Tyrannosaur paddock.
Each area has two different games available to it, a total of four per box. The gameplay options for each area are identical, the only difference being the map you’re working on. This does mean you are able, and fully encouraged to, mix and match your game pieces between the boxes, fancy a three-player game between Rexy, Malcolm and Grant? Then fantabulous! The game mechanics even allow other Funko Verse characters to join your game. Who do you think would win between Harry Potter and the Velociraptor? That’s easy, Raptor, cos she’s a clever girl, against Hermoine though? Oooh now that’d be good, wouldn’t it?
So you have your pieces, your gameboard and you can choose one of four sets of rules, you might think about what kind of equipment you might be needing to help you along the way, say . . . A flare, or a pair of night-vision goggles. These extra pieces of equipment come ready-made to actually fit in your character’s hand/claws which is a great visual way for the players to keep track of who has which item.
Move around the board according to the goal you’ve selected from your four game cards. Battles can be fought using the challenge dice, these can knock your character over, or severely damage them. Gain points for knocking them out, or for reaching certain goals throughout the board. Oh, and did I mention your points are little pieces of amber? Most points at the end, or first to a set number of points is the winner.
The games themselves are very basic, this can mean that after a few rounds of Leaders, you find the game losing some of its appeal, but its simplicity does make for a very accessible game for younger players. It’s advertised as a strategy game, but it’s not particularly intense, so older players, or those who are used to playing games such as Catan, Scythe, or Risk might find this a little boring.
The Funko characters however are very charming, and the way that Funko Games have set up the game system to be compatible between fandoms is very clever, the game designers have created a simplistic game with multiple possibilities of play as each verse character brings their own special ability.
All in all, I’m a bit of a fan. The system is simple, the pieces are adorable and it has replayability. So for me, this is a steady five on my dice rating. I am hoping that I‘ll come across other JP-based expansions to add to the collection.
Love
Dino-Girl xx