Jungle Speed Review

BoomdedeBoomdedeBoomdedeBOOM!

What the fu-

BOOMDEDEBOOMDEDEBOOMDEDEBOOM!

Oh for goodness sake not again. Where’s my dressing gown?

Budumdadadumdadadumdadadum –

ENOUGH! For God sake Jungle Speed! Will you leave Dobble alone?

 

 

Much like Dobble that we reviewed not too long ago, Jungle Speed is a snap variant. Which isn’t to say it isn’t interesting. Oh no. Much like the aforementioned Dobble, this game adds some simple yet brilliant twists that make it so much more. Grab your preferred set of bongos, and prepare to head down to the Jungle. Bomdedebomdedebom…

The key to everything in the game and, as you’ll soon discover, in life, is focussed on the Totem. Isn’t it strange how your voice naturally takes on a deeper resonance as you say it? The Totem! This carved pillar of wood is about to become the very centre of your world, the pinnacle of your desires and the object you fear most in the world. With the probable exception of your friends’ grasping claw like hands. Deal out the deck of cards and once you’ve finished the groups’ ululations and cleaned the blood of the pre-game sacrifice from the table the Totem can be removed from its ceremonial towel and placed within easy reach of all players. Are you ready for this?

 

 

You’ll all begin flipping cards from the deck in front of you, one at a time. Carefully, respectfully, always showing the Totem the image before you see it yourself. There will be no peaking here. You’ll reveal strange shapes in familiar colours. Perhaps symbols of long lost tribes… or perhaps not, only the Totem knows for sure. This will continue until, at last, you will believe your image matches another and out like a coiled spring your arm will shoot, fingers desperately striving for the feel of smooth wooden contours, the glory of defeating your opponent in the purest test there is. And, more importantly, dumping all your cards on their pile. Lofting the Totem high you declare that you! You were the fastest!

Except, with the emotional equivalent of whip lash you realise you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake. That tiny shape in the centre of the card you thought was a circle is in fact a square and now the Totem burns your hand and the laughter and jeers of your opponents burn your ears as they happily pass you all of their discards. He whom falsely grabeth the Totem shall be punished!

 

 

You see, the other key to this game are the shapes printed on the cards themselves. Every card has 4 identical siblings in the deck (all different colours) and a whole host of suspiciously similar looking cousins. The genius of the graphic design on display is that you when you spot a match you are immediately filled with crippling self-doubt, making that triumphant race to the Totem a hilarious stuttering, jerking lunge. While on the other hand it is immediately obvious when you’ve screwed up.

This just gets even more hilarious in the two-player variant where both players are given two decks of cards, one for each of their hands. Now, when a match is called you have to make sure you’re grabbing for the totem with the correct arm! It’s just insanity!

 

 

Oh and it get’s more interesting: hidden within the deck are these special cards that snap the game out of control just as you thought you were getting into some kind of rhythm. The coloured arrows mean you compare matches on colour, not shape, often immediately initiating a challenge between two (or more!) bemused players. The outward pointing white arrows pause the game so that everyone can reveal their top card at the same time making it a chaotic race to check everyone’s cards at once and, as it turns out, eyes just can’t move fast enough. But whatever you do, don’t get confused with the inward pointing white arrows, which trigger an immediate challenge between all players, with the winner placing their discards in a pile beneath the Totem. These then form a lovely consolation prize for the loser of the next duel, ratcheting up the tension even higher.

Jungle speed offers a thrilling counter point to the typically calm process of an evenings board gaming. A contest of observation and speed. Things feel fine at the start, but the longer you go without being involved in a challenge, the higher the stakes become, and the greater and greater the tension climbs. A tension made ever sweeter by the niggling threat of actual danger, for with all those flying hands at some point there is going to be a clash. So far we’ve had nothing worse than a few scratches from sharp nails but there are whispers of much worse in the dark corners of Board Game Geek’s forums…

 

 

Jungle Speed is a cracking (hopefully not literally) game. But how does it compare to the also excellent Dobble? Jungle Speed’s Totem certainly offers a nice advantage to resolving who wins, without the risk of damage that Dobble’s brave cards face stoically every game. However, Jungle Speed does have the slight issue of having no definite end. In theory, the game could go on forever if different people keep winning hands. Of course, I’ve never seen that happen, but it does lack the relentless rush that typifies Dobble. But then, Dobble is often the fastest way to cause your brain to shut down in panic (yes, of course that’s a good thing). Impressively, by taking the core mechanism of Snap, Dobble and Jungle Speed have managed to come up with two very different gaming experiences and which to go for comes down to personal preference: do you prefer the physical challenge of Jungle Speed or the mental anguish of Dobble? Personally, I can’t quite choose, and to be honest they are certainly cheap enough to afford both…

 

Rating: All Hail The Totem!

 

Our copy of Jungle Speed was sent to us by Esdevium Games. It has an RRP of £12.99, and is available from your friendly local game store: http://www.findyourgamestore.co.uk/