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Leave it to the design studio Prospero Hall to resurrect this 44-year-old film in a new cardboard format. This group of designers has been responsible for recent hits such as Horrified, Jurassic Park: Danger!, and even the Funkoverse Strategy Game. They design mass-market titles that bridge the gap between gaming hobbyist and random Target shopper. Listening to the opposition’s justifications for their ideas makes you feel like they’d be better sharks at times, but you can’t necessarily guarantee it. Being the shark is a tremendously unique feeling. A mad one. You can’t describe the thrill of being chased by the people around the table without any limitations. Risks are yours to take, and when they pay off it’s a mad feeling. The temptation to add to the madness is incredible when it’s legal, and stirring the pot is crazy fun. There is no expectation of you to speak at all, but any smile, time taken, or flinch sparks outrage. In Jaws, each hero gets a different set of abilities and limitations but with a shared objective, and the shark plays in a completely different way. The heroes need to work as a unit to communicate their plans and abilities. Only one can collect barrels, only one can carry them easily, only one can fire them at the shark. They also have a selection of abilities to coincide with these, but communication is key! The last thing you want is for each beach to become a bikini buffet for the shark!
Ravensburger and Prospero Hall are on a roll at the moment. Alongside Disney (and Marvel) Villainous, they’re releasing all the pop culture hits. Jaws is a one-versus-all kind of game, like Scotland Yard, Whitechapel, or Fury of Dracula. One to three players play as Brody, Quint and Hooper. Meanwhile, one player takes on the role of the villain-of-the-piece shark, itself! Victory is sealed when the heroes perish or the boat sinks! These points also have stats for the shark, determining its evasiveness and damage it will do. Sometimes it’s too tempting to not go for the big hits! This is the beginning of Jaws' best scenes. The Orca. The vessel that could either become the greatest creation in terms of shark hunting or simply shark chow. The boat is split into eight sections on a 2x8 grid, shown through cards. The cards are double-sided to show gradual wear and tear and can be removed to show full destruction. The shark must eat as many swimmers as possible to gain strength. When the shark has two barrels, or has eaten so many swimmers, the game moves on to Phase Two. Phase TwoJaws was not just another cult classic. Through a huge following and excellent reception, it gained its place in film history as a classic. A giant shark with an insatiable appetite terrorises the innocents of Amity Island. What's not to love? Well, it gets better knowing that a rag-tag team of misfits decide to take the lead on the shark slaying. Between managing the chaos, arguing, and having very questionable style choices, they do manage to beat the shark down. It's epic, and a film you need to have seen in your lifetime! Listening to the opposition's justifications for their ideas makes you feel like they'd be better sharks at times, but you can't necessarily guarantee it. Being the shark is a tremendously unique feeling. A mad one. You can’t describe the thrill of being chased by the people around the table without any limitations. Risks are yours to take, and when they pay off it's a mad feeling. The temptation to add to the madness is incredible when it's legal, and stirring the pot is crazy fun. There is no expectation of you to speak at all, but any smile, time taken, or flinch sparks outrage.
Choosing a less desirable breaching point for more evasion was wise in our case, as the humans managed some fantastic dice rolls! It doesn’t matter how ripped a shark you become in Phase One, a machete to the head can still cause an awful amount of damage. Inevitably, you’ll have less and less choice as you decimate the boat, and the humans will be more and more cornered. Your shark ability cards will also be very circumstantially used here, but the right one at the right time can give you more of an edge when needed! Final Thoughts On Jaws For the second act, you flip the main board. Now you’re on board The Orca, Quint’s vessel. The ship is sinking, like the latter stages of Jaws. (Spoiler alert! But come on, everyone’s seen Jaws, right?) Now the humans have to battle the shark in a tense, tight stand-off. You’ll have to use action and strategy cards to both defend the poor Orca boat. At the same time, you’ll try to defend yourself from the relentless, hungry shark! Yet those blemishes are small. Jaws reliably delivers a level of enjoyment that competes with a trip to the beach. This is a top-shelf hidden movement design and is a great experience for those who are fans of the film. You can even juice up the experience by playing Quint’s death on a nearby screen between acts, and your play group will eat it up like an enormous Great White munching on swimmers. Alternatively, if you're after a more hands-on experience hunting sharks and saving the folk of the '80s, Jaws the board game, developed by Prospero Hall and published by Ravensburger, is a superb alternative. The game features asymmetrical teams, is for 2-4 players and plays in around 45 minutes! Gameplay For a game that looks to be a cat and mouse-esque film port, this is fantastic. There is no denying it excellently links to the cult classic, with each card containing a quote from the film. It's impressively designed, and I guarantee your performance in Phase One is not a surefire route to winning.It suddenly feels as if you’re playing an entirely different game. This portion of the game switches from a large-scale hunt to a more focused battle. That sense of climbing into your opponent’s skull and deciphering their tactical approach still exists, albeit in altered form. Victory is sealed when the heroes perish or the boat sinks! These points also have stats for the shark, determining its evasiveness and damage it will do. Sometimes it's too tempting to not go for the big hits! Alternatively, if you’re after a more hands-on experience hunting sharks and saving the folk of the ’80s, Jaws the board game, developed by Prospero Hall and published by Ravensburger, is a superb alternative. The game features asymmetrical teams, is for 2-4 players and plays in around 45 minutes! Gameplay Jaws (the board game) is asymmetrical, 1-3 of the players play as the heroes of the story, and the other player plays as the shark. The game runs over two phases, Amity island and The Orca. Our heroic human heroes (Hooper, Quint and Brody) must take down the beast to win. The perfect eating machine wins if it kills all three heroes, or destroys the Orca.
Basically, each round is great - but for slightly different reasons. This two-in-one approach makes sure Jaws stays fresh throughout, which isn't a small achievement for a game that takes two or more hours to finish. As a result, you'll have a blast playing it. In Phase Two, you don’t get the benefit of unique roles or jobs. You get unique items with unique benefits, but that’s all. Everyone sings to the same hymn sheet, and that’s the sheet of shark slaughter. You need to co-operate, but in less of a “do your job” style, but more in the sense of divide and conquer. Having three spots that may reveal a menacing maw means you can’t leave any alone without good cause. The discussion here though can be a lot more open due to the repeated round style. And when the ship inevitably turns to scrap, there will be less area to cover, meaning it may go down to the wire! The shark has to take you all down, and being a martyr is a completely rational thing to do here! Shark
The most novel aspect of this release is its two-act structure. Once a side has accomplished its goal, we move to the climactic showdown at the Orca. The board is flipped over, revealing the iconic vessel, and violent conflict ensues. For a game that looks to be a cat and mouse-esque film port, this is fantastic. There is no denying it excellently links to the cult classic, with each card containing a quote from the film. It’s impressively designed, and I guarantee your performance in Phase One is not a surefire route to winning.
The barrels, iconic of Jaws, aren’t wasted by the humans when spent. They act as beacons to identify when the shark has been in that area and can help identify where the shark is. However, loading them up and collecting them is a hassle, and by the time you’ve loaded every area up the shark may have a belly full of Speedos! As before, the shark's movements are a mystery. Whoever controls it will be given three location cards to choose from, and these dictate how much power and evasiveness it'll get in that area. At the other end of the scale, our heroes must decide where they think the shark will emerge. Do you divide and conquer? Or do you congregate in one spot to boost your chance of a kill? You'll have to choose wisely, because the shark may just eat the boat out from under you and dump everyone into the sea. Awkward. Generally, it doesn’t matter too much who you play as. You’ll always be working towards a common goal. The characters have different focuses in Phase One, dependent on their role in the film. You’ll have a job to do, but you’ll work together to do it. The game’s main requirement is cooperative decision making, but it’s not that simple! You’ve got to work together to ensure the shark is always on the run and scared. Without that fear, they won’t see things as risks, and that’s dangerous. Their focus is keeping hidden and taking sly attempts to gain strength. Allowing leeway to do as they please will mean they’ll be using their abilities to eat more rather than escape. Jaws was not just another cult classic. Through a huge following and excellent reception, it gained its place in film history as a classic. A giant shark with an insatiable appetite terrorises the innocents of Amity Island. What’s not to love? Well, it gets better knowing that a rag-tag team of misfits decide to take the lead on the shark slaying. Between managing the chaos, arguing, and having very questionable style choices, they do manage to beat the shark down. It’s epic, and a film you need to have seen in your lifetime!The heroes now need to kill the shark, like in the Jaws movie. Dependent on how well they did at preventing locals from becoming lunch, they’ll receive item cards to help them. They do a range of things, centred around hindering and slowing the shark. Their goal is to get the shark to zero health.
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