All Wound Up

Leave it to Twilight Creations to come up with something that is about as unique as I've seen in board gaming yet.  All Wound up isn't perfect but it is one of the most innovative and cute board games I've seen in a long time.

Gameplay

The story behind All wound Up is that you play an undead roaming a graveyard with your friends.  You start a race through the grave yard.  The first one to the other side wins.  There are places on the board that can slow you down and other places that give you bonuses and help you move along faster.  Sounds pretty standard so far doesn't it"

Well the first thing that makes the game unique is Twilight Creations play area design.  Rather than have a standard fold up game board they provide the play area in tiles that are laid on a table to form the play area.  This design allows for many different scenarios that can change game play and allow a wider variety of gameplay experiences.  We've seen this design with other Twilight Creations games and we've loved it every time.  The really big difference in this game over others that we've looked at is the fact that the pawns are self propelled wind up toys!  Rather than move around the board by dice rolls each players uses action cards to determine how many winds he can give his toy.  Once this is decided the player places winds the toy up, places it on the game board, and watches it go.  Once the toy is in motion it goes wherever it wants.  This could land the player on a token that benefits him or slows him down.  He just has to watch it happen!

Dealing with these little guys can be a bit trying at times with them falling over and running off the play area but there are rules for such events.  What seemed to frustrate the players more than that was the constant passing of cards around the table before each play session can begin.  Action cards are dealt out and have to be passed around as part of the game process for each round.  These action cards are used to either move your pawn by applying winds to him, or slow down your opponents.  Also some players complained that the rules are a little vague out of the box. 

On the upside the girls in the group went crazy for the well made and cute wind up toys and as far as the rules go there is a faq on the Twilight Creations website that offers answers to many of the most common questions that came up during play.  Once players settled into the mechanic they really seemed to have a great time playing with the wind up toys.  Also, for me, there is something really satisfying about playing a card that forces an opponents toy to be turned in a different direction.  the next time he moves he is forced to start in that direction.  This just really cracked me up, until it happened to me of course.  Then it's just not funny, no not funny at all.

7/10

Presentation

Again the artwork is well executed and attractive and the wind up toys are well made and fun to play with.  As we've said before about other Twilight Creations games we love the modular design of the tiles that are assembled to make the game board. 

8.5/10

Overall

While we weren't completely sold on the game mechanic we did love playing with the wind up toys.  It's a blast to watch them creep across the board after the given number of winds is applied.  The game is for two to four players.  For our test we had four players.

7/10

Stephen Lackey

All Wound Up

Published by Twilight Creations

Check out the official website!

Review:

Gameplay 7/10

Presentation 8.5/10

Overall 7/10