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Game Chef 2012 review: The Last Band

posted Apr 25, 2012, 6:48 PM by Good Idea Games

Summary: Players compete to survive in a death race, fighting each other with song lyrics and fighting against the arena itself.

Roses: This is one of the most creative ideas I've read for this contest. It's absolutely full of fun imagery, and the concept of using song lines for game advantage is cleverly implemented.

Density: Kyle makes good use of his space, and has a good layout that helps make important information readily accessible. However, I think the author could have used a little more space to explain the game a little more. 
Ingredients: This game was CLEARLY inspired by his ingredients. It's such a bizarre combination of things, I strongly applaud the author for his creativity.
Points of Improvement: I'm not judging you based on layout, but the bold font is difficult to read. I'm not clear on how long the game is supposed to take, or how much is supposed to be read at once... the sample shows a single line of a  song being performed per turn. With average bikes having 40 fuel, and an average attack doing 4 (not including environmental and bike defense factors) that's 10 lines of music per bike. By the time each player has taken 40 turns, I'm afraid the game play may be rather predictable. I think this game could use a stronger emphasis on player interaction, such as a board around which players literally race their pieces.
Final Thoughts: This is a very creative idea that looks like a compelling game. I've never considered anything like it, and Kyle definitely found an effective way to tie music into a combat system. I loudly applaud you for that. This feels like a START to a very interesting game, but I think it would really benefit from a board game element, like combat or racing.