| Perfect Timing
Published by: Cotmer Productions Inc.
MSRP: $29.95
Reviewer: Mark Jackson Let's start with the basics: I enjoy GOOD party games - Time's Up (R&R Games), Taboo (Hasbro), Catchphrase (Hasbro), and Apples to Apples (Out of the Box Games), to a name a few. I detest BAD party games, which shall remain nameless but usually involve prodigious amounts of trivia and/or weak "give your partner/team clues" mechanisms. If someone brings out Perfect Timing (Cotmer Productions), don't worry about hiding.
You're about to experience an enjoyable, if light, 45 minute game of time sense and clever play. Each player/team starts with 24 "hours", recorded on a track at the edge of the board. In the center of the board is a circular track, which you can move your piece around in either direction. Rolling the die each turn gives you the distance you can move, or it can cause you to draw a Good Times/Bad Times card (essentially a random event)... or even allow you to move wherever you wish on the board.
The game itself is "fought" in a series of stopwatch challenges, activated by which space you land on. The majority of them involve attempting to start & stop your stopwatch as close as possible to a set time (1-10 seconds), either while watching the time or with "by time sense" (without being able to see the face of the stopwatch). The winner of each challenge receives a Time-Saver card. They can either keep the card (collecting all ten wins the game) or trade it in for the number of hours on the card (which is recorded on their track). Everyone but the winner of the challenge must lose the same number of hours on the cards from their tracks. While collecting the different Time-Saver cards can win you the game, it can sometimes be difficult to accomplish. The other way to win is to run all the other players out of "hours" at the same time. Players without any "hours" are placed on the Time Out space, where they work to get "hours" back on their tracks so they can return to the rest of the board. There are other spaces on the board: Desperate Times (which is a stopwatch challenge fought solely for "hours") and 1-on-1 Challenges (which involve two players who both put up a stake of one Time-Saver card - the winner gets them both!).
Doesn't sound like much, does it? I was surprised to find myself enjoying this game based on my quick read-through of the rules. Still, all of my playings have been filled with laughter, tension, and a great deal of fun. Gamers and non-gamers had a good enough time playing Perfect Timing to ask for a second playing immediately following the first - an excellent sign. My one question with Perfect Timing is replayability. Because the same 10 stopwatch challenges are used for every game, I wonder if the sameness will doom this game to the dusty shelf after 4-5 plays. However, I see this fitting in a "family" gaming niche, where it would be welcome every 3-4 months. (Note: I have the same kind of reaction to Apples to Apples, which I also like.)
The game takes 30-60 minutes, depending on the number of players. It comes with 4 stopwatches, well-written rules (including a helpful quick-start page), cards, a nicely-designed board, 4 dobbers & a die. Reviewer bio: Mark Jackson runs Game Central Station, a website and Nashville-based board game club. In his spare time, he's a loving husband, the daddy of 5-month old Braeden Keith ("Gamer-in-Training"), and the pastor of the church @ hickory hollow. | |
