| GamingReport.com
Watne Tonjes
October 2004
USA
Cloud 9 by Out of the Box Publishing is a new board
game of bluster and daring for mixed play groups of
ages eight and older.
Players assume the roles of pilot and passengers in
this balloon, with a hand of six balloon cards and
a matching set of score and passenger tokens. Each
ride of the balloon starts with all the players in
the balloon basket at the bottom cloud while the passengers
take turns as pilot. The pilot is in charge of the
balloon, rolling a number of dice as determined by
the balloons height to see what cards must be played
to keep the balloon climbing. Once the dice are rolled
to determine what if any cards are needed to raise
the balloon, the passengers are free to disembark or
risk the pilot’s choice. While the pilot is constrained
to stay in the balloon, the pilot has a couple advantages.
If the acting pilot has an exact match of cards for
the dice result, the player is forced to raise the
balloon, but if the player has a wild card, then the
pilot has free choice. As an added bonus, if the pilot
is left alone in the balloon, the player can chose
to disembark or try to shoot to the top with repeated
raising attempts for extra points. This is difficult
to do more than once, though, as the higher the balloon
rises, the more dice and therefore cards are likely
to be needed to raise the balloon. Since any passengers,
pilot included, in the balloon when it crashes gain
no points for the entire ride and players only get
to one card when a new ride begins, this can be significantly
tricky for a solo pilot.
This vicious cycle of daring do is continued until
the end of the balloon ride upon which at least one
of the players has fifty points. Since the topmost
cloud is worth twenty-five points, successfully reaching
the higher levels of clouds can greatly speed a game.
While the number of wild cards is extremely low, so
usually luck of the dice and pilot hands will control
the balloon’s rise and fall, there is room for
plenty of strategy and bluster. Passengers in the balloon
should always consider the number of cards in the pilot’s
hand and the results of the dice roll, as well as who
is likely to be pilot next in there decisions. Similarly,
crafty pilots can always try to psyche out the other
passengers and can apply some strategy based on the
cards in their hands, the balloon’s current altitude,
and their dice roll.
Cloud 9offers a fairly straightforward game with easy
play and a decent mix of luck and strategy to appeal
to players young and old. The rules are quite clear
and concisely written on a single folded, full color
booklet that is roughly equivalent to four pages with
visual examples. The game design is also quite durable,
with a sound box, internal compartments for the parts,
solid wood tokens, a thick playing board, and sturdy
balloon basket. Even the playing cards are a surprisingly
thick plastic, far more durable than the paper cards
of Candy Land or paper money of Monopoly. The art is
simplistic, but perfectly befitting the theme of a
game of hot air balloon extravagances. This is fun
little game, little due to compact, efficient storage
design, not in the nature of the game play. Definitely
check out this game and strive to reach new heights.
They come with more points.
For more details on Out of the Box Publishing and
their new board game, Cloud 9, check them out at their
website http://otb-games.com and at local gamestores.
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