Sunday, April 8, 2012

I'M GOING TO INVADE WESTERN EUROPE AGAIN - ON PRINCIPLE: Odd fact of the day - the same fellow who directed the tedious film The Red Balloon also created the tedious board game Risk.

9 comments:

  1. isaac_spaceman1:59 PM

    Those right there are two of the cherished staples of my childhood. 

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  2. Watts2:20 PM

    I never got to play Risk as a kid, but as an adult I played the Risk 2210 updating and I REALLY enjoyed it. Partially because it wasn't the hours-long there-can-be-only-one play of the original and also because you could colonize the moon. 

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  3. Joseph J, Finn3:05 PM

    The 5-turn limit helps.  Plus, I always liked the twist of the devestated regions that are impassable, random for each playing of the game.

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  4. I never played Risk as a kid but both of my brothers loved it. 

    My 18-year-old nephew loves it too. So much so that he taught his nine-year-old sister how to play -- just for those times when he wants to play but needs a third player. She's actually not bad! 

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  5. My earliest memories of deliberate betrayal involve Risk.  I must have been too young, because I still hate that game.

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  6. Lou W9:14 PM

    If you have any interest in playing Risk again, I highly recommend Risk: Legacy.  It's the classic Risk board, but with a number of the new rules that speed up the end-game.  But that's not the main change, the main change is that you PERMANENTLY alter the board every time you play.  You add cities, name contenents, strengthen regions, and dozens more crazy alterations that are secret.  Secret?  Yes, because when you open the box there are a half-dozen sealed packets which only open when certain game conditions are met.  For example, the first time all a players units are eliminated during a game, you immediately open a pack that changes the game in play, and all future games.  Each pack brings new rules, new cards, new special abilities, etc.

    It's a game unlike any I've ever played, becuase it is constantly evolving.  My kids have loved it, because the board is the history of all our games, and they've been able to customize it.  We are on our 12th game and have opened all but one of the secret packs, and they have been mind-blowing and world-altering.  Unquestionably the best version of Risk ever, and still just as good at teaching kids where Kamchatka is.

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  7. Yep, the uninhabitable territories bring a new challenge to each game.

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  8. Are you seriously calling The Red Balloon tedious? Why? The obvious religious allegory may be annoying, but it's still pretty effective film-making, in my opinion, emphasizing visuals over dialogue...and short (half hour). Not surprising it was an international hit.

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  9. I thought it was an anti-communist picture.  Very effective though.  Never failed to make an emotional impact when the proletarian mob nationalized that poor kid's balloon.

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