FunkoBack to The Future - Back in Time Board Game for 2 - 4 players

What a great game. Easily 5 stars. Our 9 year old loves it and can't wait until we play the next game.The theme and production quality are top notch, except in our case 3 of the plastic characters pieces (Jennifer, George, and Lorraine) are leaning to one side noticeably - but does not affect play of the game.There is a strategy aspect to the game where each character's ability, moves and rolls MUST be optimized. This requires discussion and planning with your teammates. If the the character's strengths at the start of the game aren't leveraged (for example, at the start Marty can roll two blue dice and has the ability to move Lorraine towards him), it is very hard to win. It is also critical to join forces with other characters sharing the same square to improve the chances of successfully winning a challenge. You have to cooperate and plan with each other. Yes sometimes the dice go against you but the fun is trying to overcome it rather than looking to fix something that isn't broken. Before blaming the dice, I suggest approaching each loss as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and consider what to try differently next time.This game is challenging as cooperative games should be. I've read other reviews complain that Biff comes up too often or house rules are needed. I completely disagree. Luck is a factor in this game with the dice roll, however I don't see the fun in a game that is easy to win. We've played about 10 times and have won twice. Both times the victory came on the last player's turn before 10:04 pm. Both times we cheered and high-fived each other. It was thrilling and we excitedly talked about what happened during the game that got us to victory. This is the experience I want from a great co-op board game.We've also had the game end early because of rolling Biffs and the picture fading away. Yes, we complain bitterly how Biff wouldn't give us a break and then we eagerly set up for the next game to try again. I suppose if you can't stand to lose then this game may not be fun for you. This game is no different than other co-op games like Pandemic, Forbidden Desert, etc - you're going to lose more than win, even more so if you don't play together as a team.

Sure, my headline is the most cliche, clickbaity thing you can think of. However, I truly feel transported into the movie when I am playing this game. This coop board game will get you and your friends and/or families high-fiving when you complete a challenge, but flipping the table when Biff comes over and messes you up.The lovely designers of Prospero Hall have knocked it out of the park with this one. I have played Jaws before and knew when I saw this new release that they would do the IP justice. I had just watched the movie a few weeks before playing the game so my Back to the Future fervor was at an all-time high.First off, the game is pretty simple to learn. Your character has several "power tiles" at the start which tell you what you can do on your turn. On all the starter ones, you can either move or use a dice in a "challenge." You'll be running around the board trying to gather parts for the Delorean and ensuring Lorraine and George stay in love before time runs out. What's not to love?Well, good ole Biff is running around trying to ruin your plans. And oh man, if you hated him in the movies, you'll hate him even more in this game. Everything you do, he is there ready to reverse anything you've done. Whenever you do a challenge which typically involves helping George and Lorraine or trying to pick up the parts, you can roll "Biffs" on the dice which will move him towards George and/or Lorraine. When he gets to their spot, he will drop their love on the love meter. You need to keep this high but he will be constantly lowering over and over again.I don't want to go over all the rules, but I'll say for the price, the components are really good. The art on the cards is not just movie stills, but instead are custom images made for the game. I haven't assembled the Clock Tower dice tower since I heard it is a little fragile, but everything else is great quality. Pick this up if you are a Back to the Future fan!

This game is best for super fans of the Back to the Future series. It takes some readying (and maybe even YouTube) to fully understand the instructions of the game. That is ok though because once you play a couple times you get the hang of it. The details of the gameplay objectives and possible events/outcomes makes it feel like this is possibly how it could have happened in the movie. Every roll of the dice, card drawn, and decision made puts you in Doc, Marty, Jennifer, or Einstein's shoes as you try to defeat Biff and prepare the time machine for travel, all the while making sure George and Loraine fall in love. When your group finishes the game, a victory feels like a real accomplishment and the defeats normally come with a lesson of why and encourage you to change your strategy for the next game.That all being said, this game is hard to win. I mean REALY hard. There are so many parts that rely on dice rolls to be successful and the probability is not always good. Even the most sound strategy can fail or drag the game out to over an hour simply because the dice are not rolling the way you want them too. This may be fixed most easily with some kind of House Rule that limits how much they can hurt you or even change the rules for re-rolling.Another unique factor is that this game is cooperative and not played against each other. All players are on the same team trying to beat Biff and the clock and that works a different brain muscle than versus board games do. Most of the fun comes from the nostalgia though, so if you are not a big fan of the movies, there are plenty of other games to get your fix. If you are a big fan though, this game may be a must-have so that you can get the experience of helping Marty and the gang in their adventure in 1955.