Intro
Who doesn’t love a game of pinball? The high pitched pings and clinks as the silver ball thunks off the bumpers, ramps and flippers. The flashing lights and electronic beeps that accompany each score target being hit. The rapid clicking sounds of frantically bashed buttons, the mechanical whir and clank of ramps shifting position. But what if there was a game of pinball that had none of that, but was still great fun, suitable for all ages and you didn’t even have to leave your house? Sound good? Well read on.
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House by Pandasaurus Games is a dexterity game where you have to flick dice along a series of cascading cardboard platforms printed to look like a pinball machine with a haunted house theme. You score points for hitting monsters, landing in multiplier zones and for collecting clues strewn throughout the spooky mansion.
On a personal note, this is my daughter Sarah’s favourite game to play with me. She has autism and this is a game that relaxes her and stops her feeling overwhelmed. It’s responsible for lots of fun bonding times and I’ll be sharing her thoughts on the game later in the review to give a second perspective. This might be handy for you if you have children on the spectrum who you are looking to connect with through gaming.
Intro
Who doesn’t love a game of pinball? The high pitched pings and clinks as the silver ball thunks off the bumpers, ramps and flippers. The flashing lights and electronic beeps that accompany each score target being hit. The rapid clicking sounds of frantically bashed buttons, the mechanical whir and clank of ramps shifting position. But what if there was a game of pinball that had none of that, but was still great fun, suitable for all ages and you didn’t even have to leave your house? Sound good? Well read on.
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House by Pandasaurus Games is a dexterity game where you have to flick dice along a series of cascading cardboard platforms printed to look like a pinball machine with a haunted house theme. You score points for hitting monsters, landing in multiplier zones and for collecting clues strewn throughout the spooky mansion.
On a personal note, this is my daughter Sarah’s favourite game to play with me. She has autism and this is a game that relaxes her and stops her feeling overwhelmed. It’s responsible for lots of fun bonding times and I’ll be sharing her thoughts on the game later in the review to give a second perspective. This might be handy for you if you have children on the spectrum who you are looking to connect with through gaming.
Game Set Up
First you connect all the levels of the pinball table, cleverly made up from cardboard boxes inside the main box, and parts of the main box itself. You add the sides and obstacles, which only takes a few seconds, place the monsters in their starting positions, shuffle the clue tokens face down and randomly put 6 clues in their starting positions on the board. You then choose your colour of dice and take 4 of the 6 available, choose a turn order and write each player’s initials at the top of the scoring sheet.
Gameplay
The players take turns flicking dice from the launch platform onto the pinball table below. If your dice lands in the bonus space, or is knocked into the bonus space by another player’s dice, you are given one of the 2 reserve dice in your colour to take an additional turn. Each player takes 4 turns (plus any bonus dice flicks) to form a round. The scores from that round are then added up, then the players move onto the next one and start again. There are 3 rounds in total.
When you flick your dice, you’re aiming to hit monsters and clues, then hopefully ricochet off those targets and into the bonus space or one of the dice score multipliers. Monsters respawn between turns but any clues that are hit get taken by the player that hit them and kept until the end, with clues only being restocked at the end of each round. You may also knock opponents’ dice off of key targets like high multipliers. Any dice that fall off the board, whether you flicked it off the board or an opponent slammed theirs into yours and sent it flying, score zero points.
Scoring
Each round, there are 3 different monsters to hit. If you hit one, you get 2 points, two will net you 5 points, and if you hit all three of them, you get 10 points for the round. They are quite large and so are probably the easiest way to consistently attempt to earn points.
Players score the total of their dice as well, so long as the dice didn’t fall off the pinball machine. Each dice has faces 2 x 1’s, 2 x 2’s and 2 x 3’s, with each upward facing dice face then multiplied by any multiplier it’s touching. So a 2 rolled on a x3 multiplier scores 4 for that dice. Even if you get a x5 multiplier though, if the dice is a 1, you’ll only score 5 so there is a lot of luck involved in trying to score points this route.
The clues can be quite lucrative too but again they’re random and you don’t know how much they’re worth until the end of the game with many of them only being worth 1-2 points. So really the best strategy seems to be to go after monsters and luck into other points along the way.
So Who Is This Game For?
While Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House is definitely a great game for families and I’ve had great fun playing it with my kids, it’s also 100% a fantastic choice for an adult game night. Since it can be pretty tricky to control the dice when flicking them, first timers get a lot of “beginners’ luck”, which makes it a perfect party game with everyone standing a solid chance, regardless of general gaming ability. This might also deter some more serious gamers though, who need a lot of skill and strategy to be involved as a victory condition in order to have fun.
As an adult game, it works really well as both a drinking game (where you drink if your dice fly off the pinball boards and score nothing) and as a palette cleanser between more serious strategic games. As a family game, it’s brought endless fun to me and my daughters who sometimes get bored playing more traditional games but who are captivated by the simplicity and fun of this one.
So Who Is This Game Not For?
Serious gamers who hate party games, dexterity games or games with a large luck factor. Also people who have cats who jump on their board games while they play them. In most games, you can set up the pieces back up where they were but due to the nature of how the entire scoring of Boxtop Pinball is based on who lands where, a knock could mean the game is ruined.
Replayability
There aren’t very many variable options to keep things fresh. Honestly though, the game doesn’t need it. It has a gimmick, which it does really well to offer a very memorable and fun 15 minute game. It’s here for a good time, not a long time and it doesn’t need to be any more than it is.
Final Thoughts From Me
Boxtop Pinball is an exciting and quirky thematic game that’s delightful for kids and adults alike. It’s not complex, so it’s easy to teach and learn. There will be people who don’t like it but for those that do, it’s a great addition to any game night as well as being great for bonding times for families.
Second Opinion From My 9 Year Old Daughter Sarah
It’s very fun! And if you have a child or two children, it would be really fun for them. Oh and it’s fun for adults as well. When I play it, I feel joyful and I smile all the time while playing it. It makes me feel lots of emotions like calm but excited. If you get overwhelmed with new games, like I do, then I think that Boxtop Pinball will be the game for you because you don’t really get overwhelmed with it, it’s very easy.
