Rochester Gamers Community

Last Friday, I stopped on over at Barnes & Noble to see if there was anything left in the clearance section left over from Christmas. I was considering Stratego Civil War (at 50% off, it was $15), which they had, but I heard that there is problems with the figures falling over due to the small bases. I decided to pass, but noticed that B&N was still selling some decent games (at retail price however). Among the bookcase edition of Risk and other games you would normally see at Target, a "Special Collector's Edition" of Jenga caught my eye.

Now, it wasn't the special version that came in a fancy black box.. come on.. it's pieces of hardwood.. no need for the fancy box. What caught my eye was the "Donkey Kong" theme slapped on to it. Yup.. I had heard about it last year, but never saw it sold and so I forgot about it. $24.95 was the price.. yeah, a bit steep for Jenga, but I went ahead and bought it anyway.

I haven't played it yet (big surprise there..), but I was able to open the box and checkout the goodies (I haven't read the rules yet). The pieces are still the same shape, but they have holes drilled into the ends for one of the four possible players to insert their playing piece. Actions are determined by a spinner with 12 possible outcomes. One thing I hate about spinners is that they always land on the line. A 12-sided die with a lookup table could be substituted, but an errant die roll (or a sore loser ;) ) could accidentally knock over the tower. The rules of Jenga are modified a bit as a player may have to move his piece up the structure as well as move up to two girders depending on the spinner result.

Some work will have to be done before I actually play the game. The holes were drilled before the black paint was applied. Therefore, the holes are too tight for the playing pieces. I had to ream them out a bit with a drill. Otherwise, the game is not playable. One other problem is that the pieces seem more slippery than the standard game. I wonder how long these games will actually last.

The graphics on the pieces look very nice and help keep the nostalgia of roller-skating rinks alive. I can fix the problem with the holes, but I am still concerned about the slippery blocks. We shall see when it gets to the table. If you have $25 burning a hole in your pocket and are a sucker for Donkey Kong, this might be an ok choice. A B&N membership will save you $2.50 according to the receipt.