Photo above is property of Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP)
Company: Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP)
Game: The Goonies: Escape with One-Eyed Willy's Rich Stuff
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: 80's Nostalgia, Treasure Hunt
Date Played: February 18, 2022
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 8/10
Size of Team: 1+ Players (Ages 12+)
Time: Unlimited (Approx. 120+ Mins)
Price: $29.00
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You are a gang of intrepid kids looking for One-Eyed Willy’s rich stuff to save your families from eviction! The story closely follows the classic 80’s movie, with all of your favorite characters - Mikey, Data, Mouth, Alex, Brand, Chunk, Stef, the Fratellis, and - best of all - Sloth! You will need to stay ahead of the Fratellis as you try to follow the clues to find the missing pirate ship and its treasure in order to save the Goondocks, all while avoiding One-Eyed Willy's booby traps - and setting a few of your own along the way.
Video above is property of Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP)
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The production quality is really good for the game, particularly given the price point! There are apparently more than 120 components, so there’s lots packed in. Much of the game revolves around cards, but there is also a laminated map (with a dry erase marker provided), 8 character notebooks (which totally look like some of the ones we might have brought to school), a rulebook, and a number of additional pieces that are best discovered along the way.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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Coded Chronicles games have a rather unique format that feels a bit like a combination of an escape room and a role-playing game. You will explore the world over time by adding new map tiles as you progress. Each tile has specific numbers on it that you can interact with. Each character in the game has its own “skill,” allowing them to do specific tasks like look at things, explain them, pick them up, decipher them, use them, or (in Data’s case) use inventions. Although there are 7 characters in this game, it can be played by any number of players, as each person can play as multiple characters. When you want a character to use their skill with a number on a card, you look up the corresponding passage in their notebook and read it aloud to see what happens. If you have picked the correct character to interact with the number, you will get some useful information, progress to a new map tile, get to open an envelope, or add an item card to your inventory. If you picked incorrectly, there might be nothing to read, or you might get some additional information or flavor text to help you out. Some of these passages are quite long and word for word from the movie, giving it an immersive, nostalgic feel. (We tended to each read to ourselves passages for our characters, but then read aloud the ones that were important or moved the story forward.) Folks who like to read in character will have a lot of fun with these! You also, of course, encounter puzzles along the way! These will also solve to numeric codes, leading you again to specific passages in the notebooks.
The game is divided into three chapters, making some nice breakpoints; though, we found the first chapter to be by far the longest, at about two hours for us. In this chapter, you start with 5 characters, who are being chased by the Fratellis. At certain points during the game, you will move the Fratellis forward. Some of these are required in the progression of the game, but you will also move them forward if you get the wrong solution for a puzzle, use more than one hint for a given puzzle, or look up the solution. This really only affects your “score” at the end of the game though, not actual gameplay. In the second chapter, Chunk and Sloth are introduced, and they have their own independent path for a while, such that you need to be sure you are keeping their inventory separate from that of the rest of the characters. As with the movie, all of the characters are eventually reunited in Chapter 3.
Photos above are property of Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP)
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This is a challenging game! We definitely required a lot of hints. Sometimes it was the great feeling of “oooh - how did we miss that?!?!” There were some other times where we felt like the directions were a bit more ambiguous, and one in particular with lots of red herrings, but we definitely appreciate that you usually knew when you “got” it! There were some fun, refreshing mechanisms and more tactile puzzles, in addition to more traditional card-based puzzles. For example, one of the characters periodically received instructions throughout the game to add specific things to a drawing, without knowing quite what they were making. The final drawing revealed an answer to a puzzle towards the end of the game. There were also many puzzles that required good observational skills and pulling together information from multiple places.
Photos above are property of Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP)
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We rewatched the movie in preparation for playing (though not necessary, it could be helpful), and the game really delivered on all of that good old 80s nostalgia! The reading passages and character-based play make this a fun variation from many tabletop escape games. As more of a mass-market game with a very popular theme, we were definitely not expecting it to be as tough as it was from a puzzling perspective! There were a few points of frustration with the puzzles along the way, but also some very satisfying solves, and we appreciated that hints and solutions were always available. This box is definitely packed with components, and there was lots of fun anticipation every time we got to open a new envelope. You do need a lot of table space, as the map is quite elaborate by the end of the game, not to mention all of the items in your inventory, the notebooks, etc. We would estimate this will provide about 3-4.5 hours of gameplay (3.5 for us), so that is definitely great value for the price. If you’ve always wanted to be one of the Goonies and find One-Eyed Willy’s rich stuff, this is your chance!
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Bamboozle Brothers (Manufactured by The OP) for providing us with a sample of this game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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