Funk Family Game Night

It’s overdue, but we finally had Funk Family Game Night #49!  We had intended to play a couple of new games, but our first run-through of game 1 took a while as we learned the rules..  But totally worth it!  Jungle Ascent is an EXCELLENT family game!

I’ve become a huge fan of 5th Street Games.  Currently, the 2 games we own are Farmageddon (can’t wait for the expansion!) and Jungle Ascent.  I’ve got a couple more that I’ve Kickstarted and am REALLY looking forward to.  They really seem to get family games, merging fun, fast gameplay and great theme/artwork!

Jungle Ascent might be one of my new favorites.  The game is EXTREMELY easy to explain and understand, which is perfect for our game nights.  And the gameplay itself keeps everyone engaged as they try to outwit the others in their race to the top!  Do you place hazards forgoing movement?  Do you attempt to go around hazards or do you try to draw a card to enable you to avoid imminent doom?

As I said, our first game took longer than expected as we interpreted rules and learned about the cards.  But in no time, everyone had the general idea and were throwing hazards and laying pathways like professionals.  As new cards came along, it was rare that we had to discuss how they were used.  The only issue I had with the entire game was that my girls fought over the single female character..  So we assigned it to Jenn, instead…   Then the fight moved on to the alien…  *sigh*

Abby ended up winning the game, even though she was trapped for several rounds early on by a couple of immobile hazards!  She stayed patient, drawing cards and playing hazards to slow everyone down enough to work her way out of her situation.  Brynna had a FANTASTIC play, late in the game, that ended up giving Abby the win.  She played a ‘free’ effect (no actions) to remove ownership of a fireball hazard, causing it to be immobile and blocking my path..  Then played ANOTHER free action to ‘recycle’ the card she had just played and then played it AGAIN on ANOTHER fireball hazard to block Jenn’s path!  Then she STILL had her TWO actions to move up her pathways!

This is definitely a game that we’ll be playing again.  I was worried that the ‘take that’ mechanics might cause some conflict between the girls, but they handled it well, taking nothing personally, and had a blast!

Again, I can’t say enough about 5th Street Games and their family friendly lineup.  Looking forward to more!