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Welcome to Which Game First where we boldly explore the hilariously huge world of board games. Did we unearth any hidden treasures you’ve been missing out on? Let’s find out!
First up: We shuffle up and deal a path to the great outdoors in Trailblazers
Next: We peel out and puzzle our way to the finish line in Tiny Turbo Cars
And lastly: We wheel and deal our way ahead of the other kids on the block in Junior Executive
Trailblazers
Designed by: Ryan Courtney
Published by: Bitewing Games (2023)
Players: 1 – 8
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 30 minutes
Trailblazers is a card drafting game where players are gutsy folks who pave and brave the trails of the great outdoors.
Players are competing to earn the most points by building biking, hiking, and kayaking loops from their campsites of the matching trail type. So this game is all about completing those LOOPS.
Each round, players are dealt eight trail cards where they’ll draft two cards, arrange those cards in their personal area, and pass their hand to the next player three times. Cards must either be placed adjacent to or overlapping other cards. While players can push their luck by aiming to construct long and elaborate trails, only closed loops that start and end at a matching campsite will score points. Players also compete to fulfill “First To” and “End Game” goal cards.
After four rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points from closed loops and goal cards wins, blazing new trails while everyone else goes off the rails!
Tiny Turbo Cars
Designed by: Hjalmar Hach, Alessandro Manuini, Jonathan Panada, Laura Severino, Giulia Tamagni
Published by: Horrible Guild (2022)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 8 & up
Playing time: 30 – 45 minutes
Tiny Turbo Cars is a race game in which you program the movements of your tiny toy car, with a sliding puzzle acting as your remote controller.
At the beginning of each round, players have to work their way through their sliding puzzle controllers simultaneously, trying to create the sequence of actions they want their car to perform during the round.
Each symbol on the puzzle corresponds to one of the possible actions — but only the two middle rows of commands on your controllers will be applied, so there’s room for maneuvers, but be quick! The first player to put down their controller will be the first to move their car during the round. Each player then executes the program they created, and the sooner you play during a round, the safer you are that your actions will actually play out as planned rather than crashing into unexpected obstacles…or other cars!
But trying to be quick might also increase your chances of making mistakes, and every time you take damage, you lose battery power, which will slow you down. But hey, mistakes happen, right? You can always recharge and be back in the race.
The winner is the player who makes it across the finish line first, and/or the farthest. Ladies and gentlemen, start your tiny engines! Vroom!
Junior Executive
Designed by: (Uncredited)
Published by: Whitman (1955)
Players: 2 – 4
Ages: 7 – 12
Playing time: (not listed)
Junior Executive is a “play money game” game where players are kids in charge of a company that makes one of these products: toys, ice cream, soda pop, or candy.
Players each start with $2000 of capital. Each player must start the game by obtaining a truck, which a player can buy for $1k and then take a loan out for another $1k, or they can take a chance at winning a truck by rolling doubles.
When a player gets their truck they will roll dice and start to move around the serpentine board. If the truck stops on a space that this company services (like toys to the toy shop) then draw an order card. If the product is deemed to be in season (like ice cream in the summer) the banker pays the player the larger of the 2 amounts on that order card. If a player stops on a spot that does not sell their product, nothing happens. Beware the spaces for fines and other things that will drain your money.
Insurance cards can be purchased to protect you from crushing events. Loans can be obtained throughout the game, but need to be paid back at the end with a 2% interest rate
Once the season timer runs all the way through an entire year, the game ends, loans repaid, money is counted, highest total wins, and they get to declare themselves a captain of industry to 8 year olds everywhere!