Bigfootses, the Card Game is a game by Wilbur Massie, published by Bigfootses Games. It is for 2-6 players. In this game, players will be taking on the role of hunters trying to catch Bigfoot, or should I Bigfootses, plural. They will be trying to capture the the most and the most valuable ones at that. The player that can best hunt these elusive creatures will be declared the winner.
To begin, the cards should be separated into two decks, the Thingies and Woods. Each deck should then be shuffled separately and placed face down in the middle of the play area. The over sized Profession cards are shuffled and each player draws one. Players are then dealt 5 Thingies cards and take one of the dice. Players should then reveal their Profession and place it face up in front of them. The first player is chosen and play now begins.
On a player’s turn they can perform one of four different actions; range, work, rummage, restock or retrain. The first action that is available is to range. There is where the majority of the action takes place. To begin, the player will draw a Woods card and place it face up on the table then depending on what type of creature is revealed the player will resolve the encounter. If it’s a bigfoot, the player adds the number of bigfootses in their corral, giving one point for each one there, along with any equipment bonuses they have. This number is subtracted from the evasiveness of the bigfoot to give the number that is needed to be rolled on the die. Other players can then play cards to make the bigfoot harder or easier to catch. Once the other players have finished playing cards, the hunter player rolls the die. A roll of one is always a failure. If the number rolled is equal to or greater than the number needed to capture the bigfoot, it is captured and placed in the players corral. The player must then announce their current victory point total. Players that have fewer points can then draw a Thingies card. If the roll is failed, the bigfoot card is discarded.
Sometimes other creatures will appear. These creatures must be captured in the same way as above except that the bigfootses in the player’s corral do not aid in battle. If a player loses a battle with one of these creatures, it breaks one of the player’s pieces of equipment. If the player wins, they will take the creatures treasure. Bigfeatures are treated the same way as other creatures, except that they will count as victory points if they are caught. Witches are the only creatures that remain in play. Once they are drawn, the stay face up until another witch is drawn, even their ability stays in effect.
The next action that can be taken is to go to work. Players can use there character’s ability on their card once per turn. However, they can’t perform this action if they have 7 or more victory points.
Another action that can be taken is to rummage. This is done by drawing a set amount of cards based on the number of victory points that you already have. These cards are then placed in the players hand. A player can play one equipment card during their turn before or after their action. Players can only have 3 equipment cards face up in play at any time. However any of them can be discarded to add another equipment card to replace it. Players may also only have one weapon at a time. Items and shenanigans can be played at any time.
The next action that is available is to restock. This is done by discarding as many cards from your hand as you wish and then drawing that many Thingies cards to replace them with.
The final action is to retrain. To do this, the player discards their current profession and draws a new random profession card. Players can discard bigfootses card from their corral to allow them to choose whichever profession they would like instead of choosing randomly.
Once a player has completed their action and played their allotment of cards, they must discard down to a hand limit of 5 Thingies cards. Once a player meets the victory point limit determined by the number of players, they will win the game.
COMPONENTS
This game has lots of really great looking pieces. The cards have some really great looking artwork on them. I love the look of them. They feel very cartoonish and fun. The cards are a bit thin however and the gloss finish on them tends to make them stick together a lot. It took awhile working with them to get them to where I could see each individual card without trouble. That’s a rather minor problem though. The dice are really unique and fun. The different colors are beautiful and I really like the bigfootses heads etched into each one. These are really great looking. I like the insert as well, as it fits everything into separate compartments really nicely. This is a really fun looking and unique card game.
8 out of 10
RULEBOOK
The rulebook for this game is only 4 pages long. It is in full color. It has a few pictures mainly of setup and one example of gameplay. Everything is explained really well. The only problem was that you had to flip ahead to see the specifics of how to perform certain actions. Once again, this is a rather minor problem especially when the book is only 4 pages long. I didn’t really have much trouble with the rules and it only took a few minutes to read through. In any case, it’s not bad.
8 out of 10
GAMEPLAY
This game is really light and fun to play. It’s a game that won’t take very long to play, usually about 30 minutes. It’s something that even the kids enjoy playing. There’s definitely a lot of luck in what cards you draw as well as how the die rolls for you. Some of that can be combated with better equipment from the Thingies deck. The game feels a little bit like Munchkin in a sense as you are drawing from the Woods deck and then deal with whatever monster or creature appears. There are even ways to really stick it to your opponents just like in Munchkin. The thing is, I like the theme and gameplay of this game better than Munchkin. That will probably illicit some hate mail from the avid Munchkin players, but it’s the truth. In any case, the game is really fun and I like it.
9 out of 10
OVERALL
Bigfootses, the Card Game is a light card game of hunting for Sasquatches. It has a rather short play time with games lasting around 30 minutes. I really love the artwork throughout the game and the theme is very much a part of it. The art feels like something from the Simpsons. Fans of take that games like Munchkin should really enjoy this one. It’s really easy to learn and play. My kids really like the art and humor of the cards. I really like the dice. This is one that will definitely get lots of play around our house. I really enjoy the take that aspect of the game. It can be a bit random at times but some of that can be avoided through the equipment cards. All in all, this is a great little light filler game that everyone should pick up. I highly recommend it.
9 out of 10
For more information about this game, please check out Bigfootses Games at their site.
GAMING BITS 