The world of board gaming has quite a few tasteless titles from Cards Against Humanity to a whole genre of games having to do with a certain bodily function.
In the last few weeks, we’ve had the chance to play two such games with very questionable themes but redeeming qualities.
The Dingo Ate the Baby
In 1980, a nine-week old baby disappeared from a camping site in Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia. The parents of the baby claimed that a dingo had taken the baby but the mother, Lindy Chamberlin, was arrested for murder, spending three years behind bars. She was only released when the baby’s coat was found near an area where dingos lived and a new inquiry found that the baby had, indeed, been taken by a dingo.
The controversy over the case sharply divided Australia but, in much of the rest of the world, the story was more of an oddity and, in fact, became the basis of numerous popular culture references such Seinfeld’s Elaine Bennis saying to a party guest out of boredom “Maybe a dingo ate your baby” and a fictitious band on Buffy the Vampire Slayer by the name of Dingoes Ate My Baby.
My wife found the game The Dingo Ate the Baby at Ollie’s for $6 and, unaware of the emotional connections for some, picked it up.
The card game is rather themeless with the goal being to collect different cards so that they add up close to, but not over, a predetermined number for each round. Some of the cards simply have a number on them while others also include a special power that can be used on your own cards or your opponents.
Each player starts with one face up card in their “ranch”. On a turn, you can:
- Play another card to your “ranch” row. If there is a special effect on the played card, you can use it against either yourself or your opponent.
- Play a card to your opponent’s ranch as long as the card color matches that of that player’s starting card.
- Destroy your starting card, which is protected from any action by your opponent.
- Discard a card.
Play continues until there are a certain number of discarded/destroyed cards. For a three player game, it would be after the 6th card.
The player who came closest to the goal value without going over scores 1 point for each other opponent they beat. The player who came second closest then does the same and so on. The game plays up to 15 points.
Ignoring the theme, this is an OK game. There is a small bit of strategy. You can play some large card into your opponent’s ranch when there are few discards left in a round. You can destroy your own cards if you’ve gone over in attempt to get back on track.
Overall, though, it is just mediocre and really just barely worth the $6 we paid.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Release Date: 2017
Publisher: Upper Deck
Designer: Mike Elliott
Road Kill Rally
As long as we’re talking about tasteless, I’ll bring up a film by producer/director Roger Corman. From 1954, he made dozens of films that are now seen as cult classics, including such titles as Machine Gun Kelly, Little Shop of Horrors, The Wild Angels, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and a number of works based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. At other times, his films were borderline tasteless such as Dementia 13, Slumber Party Massacre and the movie that this game was very much patterned after, Death Race 2000.
Released in 1975, the movie starred, among others, David Carradine and a young Sylvester Stallone who raced in the “Transcontinental Road Race”, scoring points for hitting pedestrians. That, too, is one of the ways that you gain points in the game Road Kill Rally.
The race takes place over an undetermined length with road sections revealed as the frontrunner comes to them and the finish line buried in the final four road sections in the deck. Before the game starts, eight accessory cards are dealt to each player, of which they can keep one of each color, that alters the car for attacking, defense and driving.
Each player also starts with seven Rally cards which act as an altering action on a turn, the power of an attack (bullets in the top right corner) and, most importantly, the health of your car. Run out of rally cards and your car is reduced to zero and you must slowly build up your speed.
Luckily, if you take damage that makes your car’s health go below four rally cards, you can draw three new ones at the beginning of your turn.
The current speed of your car and information such as the number of kills and negative points for wipe outs (going to zero rally cards) are kept on the dashboard.
Everyone starts the race at 100 mph, allowing them to move 5 spaces on a turn. During each turn, they can choose to accelerate 20 mph or decelerate 40 mph with increases by discarding rally cards. Also shown on the dashboard is the amount of damage a car will take based on speed and the type of turn the car is going through. Cleverly, the turns are rated based on whether you are taking them on the inside or outside corner with the inside, tighter, corner doing more damage.
In the example above, if you enter the corner at 160 mph (8 on the gear shift), you will take two damage on the outside track but four on the inside.
Now comes the truly tasteless part of the game. Yes, that is a nursing home and those splotches on the road are where you actually put figures of different types that you are trying to hit. In this case, red are elderly and count as 50 points in end game scoring. There are also adults (green, 20 points) and children (yellow, 30).
Luckily, for pedestrians, your aim isn’t that good. You have to roll dice to see if you are successful or not so a lot of those road walkers will live to see another day.
There are additional rules for shooting weapons at other cars and collisions plus some road sections have their own special rules.
Is this game tacky and tasteless? Absolutely; however, the group we played it with were able to look beyond that and found much of it to be hilarious and, while not the greatest game, there was enough strategy to keep people engaged the whole time.
Components are also very nice with thick chipboard for the dashboards and road sections, coated cards and small but passable figures to target on the roads.
I know this game will not be to everyone’s liking but, if you can get past the theme, it can actually be a pretty good time.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Release Date: 2010
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Daniel A. George
