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At the New York Toy Fair in February 2007, I walked every aisle, looking for games in unusual places. In addition to numerous unappealing titles from companies both old and new, I ran across a few games that sounded appealing, although I couldn’t look deeper than the surface since Toy Fair isn’t conducive to playing anything.

One of the intriguing-looking games was Idol Quest from Rex Games. Rex Games is best known for Tangoes, a nice-looking plastic tangrams set with small packs of puzzle cards that’s celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007. When I worked in a game store in San Francisco back in the early 1990s, I remember selling Tangoes non-stop. The puzzle was always on display on the counter, and once customers started fiddling with the bits, they had to take one home to share with children and friends. Idol Quest is a departure for Rex Games, but based on how the game plays—rather than how it looks in a trade fair booth—I’d advise the company to seek help before publishing board game #2.

The problems with Idol Quest start with the rules. A first reading of the rules seems clear: You want to stack blocks in order to move one of your explorers to the top of the tower, grab the idol, and escape on a boat. But once you pull the bits out of the box—a challenge of its own as the insert holding the chunky cheese-like blocks lacks fingerholes for easy access—and start to play, you realize that implementing the rules is going to be a challenge. The first two instructions for playing the game, for example, are:

1. To begin the game, each player places two blocks anywhere on the lake grid.
2. Each player rolls the die. The player who rolls the highest number goes first. Play continues to the left.

If we determine player order after placing blocks on the grid, then how do we place the blocks? Simultaneously? Do we place them one at a time, or in sets of two? The placement of my opponents’ blocks could affect where I place mine, so some kind of turn order would be ideal.

The next line in the instructions causes further consternation: “A turn consists of drawing a card, rolling the die and moving one of your Explorers. If you draw an ‘ADD BLOCK’ card, place one, two or three blocks on the board, then discard the card. If you draw any other card, you may keep it and play it at any time.” The deck contains 35 cards: add one block (6), add two blocks (7), add three blocks (6), climb up to any height (4), jump down from any height (4), push another player (4), and steal any card (4). Each player starts the game with one card, but the rules don’t specify whether an “add block” card in a player’s starting must be played immediately, held, or discarded and replaced. Whether you must play it or can hold onto it, getting one is a huge advantage since you can build a stairway to a heavenly idol quickly.

If you aren’t dealt an add block card, however, and don’t draw any for the first few turns, you’ll be moving your explorers in circles over the two blocks with which you started. Movement of the explorers is determined by the die roll, so both the ability to build towards the tower and the movement of your explorers are determined by factors outside your control.

The tower in the center of the board also invites questions. It’s made of cardboard, for one thing, which is an odd choice considering that the blocks are solid and nicely designed. What’s worse is that the height of the tower is 4-1/3 blocks high. Players can move an explorer upwards or downwards only in one level increments, so it’s not clear whether the tower is meant to be four blocks high—that is, accessible from level three—or whether you have to pile the blocks up four high before you can move onto the tower.

As our game progressed, we had fewer and fewer choices as to where we could place additional blocks. You can trap an explorer under a block, given the right circumstances, but this never happened, which meant the levels were littered with explorers with little open ground. Once all of the blocks are on the board, you move unoccupied blocks whenever you draw an “add block” card. For several turns, we had exactly two blocks free and one place to move them, so we could only shuffle blocks back and forth.

Once a player grabs the idol, he has to move the explorer holding it off the blocks onto a dock, where he grabs a boat and hotfoots it to a museum. But only one of us had placed a block adjacent to a dock—a rookie mistake, I’ll admit, though I will take credit for placing it—which meant that to leave the idol holder had to (1) rearrange a dozen blocks somehow, moving explorers out of the way first, in order to create another dock exit, or (2) try to push past other explorers, who could simply steal the idol on their turns, making the winner simply the person who rolled highest while moving toward the dock.

As you might be able to tell from my dismissive tone, we did not enjoy Idol Quest. Your moves are largely determined by the luck of the draw, the components don’t work well together, your options in the midgame are limited, and the winner was the player who rolled highest. Perhaps with a game’s experience, I’d build the blocks differently next time, allowing for more building opportunities and escape routes—but there won’t be a next time.

One of the other players said, “If I had had this game when I was seven, I would have played it to death.” I agree because I remember the luck heavy games that my brother and I constantly played, yet as a product of 2007 rather than 1977, Idol Quest is a relic that should never have been found.

April 10, 2007 | (5) Comments | Permalink