| SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES�. At last, a trivia-based board game devoted to scary movies, horror novels, Ed Gein wannabes and Goth music! Professional spooky type KARL STEIGER puts on his make-up, dons a black cloak and rolls dem bones�. [PUT MAIN PICTURE HERE] �Here�s how we play. I ask a question. If you get it right, Steve lives� Name the killer in �Friday The 13th�.� �Jason! Jason! Jason!� �I�m sorry. That�s the wrong answer�� �Listen, it was Jason! I saw that movie 20 goddamn times!� �Then you should know Jason�s mother, Mrs. Voorhees, was the original killer. Jason didn�t show up until the sequel. I�m afraid that was a wrong answer� Lucky for you there�s a bonus round. But poor Steve? He�s OUT�� �GOTH�, NO LONGER a mere musical subculture found in dark, dank pockets of England, is the en vogue word of the moment. You�ve bought the T-shirt, watched the SNL piss-takes and probably even eaten the burger - now play the board game. Brian Tuttle, the bloke responsible for the now-legendary �Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon�, formed McNutty Games, the Endless Games company that publishes the �Goth� game, in 1996 with a view of providing high-quality board games for an adult market, Endless themselves having always specialised in fun for all the family. Add that detail to the fact that Damien Golnek and Ed Long, the two men responsible for the Living Dead Dolls, consulted on the writing of the game with �Goth� creator Matt Nuccio, and you have a very intriguing premise indeed. While the rules seem rather complicated at first the game is pretty simple to play once you�ve worked your way around all the red tape. Players take turns to move around the board, the die number rolled determining what topic the player must contend with (if you roll a six you get to pick one of the five subjects). Rolling a six enables players to choose their forte. For each question answered correctly the player receives a tombstone and the winner is the first player to get hold of all due headstones (13, natch). Along the way players get the opportunity to �grave rob� from one another in a shameless bid to fill their plots before everyone else. The five categories of question on each card are �Movie Mayhem�, �Alchemy� (miscellaneous real life questions), �Music Macabre�, �Bloody Tales & Poetry�, �Stiffs� (difficult questions on all subjects), and Necro-Choice (where you as the player choose the category). Sow does Goth compare to established trivia games such as Trivial Pursuit? Says Shane Mayer of Endless Games, �I would say that comparing Trivial Pursuit to Goth is like comparing apples to oranges because TP is a general knowledge game and Goth is narrowly focused on one genre. �However,� he adds with a touch of pride, �We think that Goth has raised the bar in the trivia category because we add game play where players can do more than just answer questions and it's not just the person who knows the most that wins the game. Not too mention the design work on the game is above and beyond what any game out there has.� Questions range from the difficult (�What new wave band did Tim Burton movie film composer Danny Elfman once front?�) to the fair (�What gothic rock band did singer Peter Murphy front?�) to the damn right easy (�What creature is a person definitely hunting if they have stakes, garlic, matches, crosses and hawthorn?�). Some of the questions are desperate and do not really deserve a place (�Which 90s rap group explained �I Could Just Kill A Man�). Some of the questions are not as easy as they sound unless you�re an expert (�What was Stephen King�s first best selling novel?�), and, of course, the obligatory Kevin Bacon questions crop up for old times� sake via Stir Of Echoes, Flatliners and Hollow Man. The same questions do have a tendency to crop up two or three times, albeit phrased slightly differently, which is irritating and disappointing to say the least, yet on the whole there are enough decent questions, and the novelty power of a game such as this, to keep you and your friends amused for a long time to come. So why has a game like this taken so long to arrive? Explains Shane Mayer, �There has always been an untapped Goth or horror market out there, but it has certainly grown and reached a point where there are so many fans of horror that the market can support a game. Horror has also reached mainstream status, where even the retail buyers have to take notice. In the past, a buyer wouldn't even look twice at Goth simply because of the name on the box, but when parents come into their stores requesting a game called Goth they can't ignore it.� |