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Rating: 6.0 / 10 Pros: - Fast playing - Easy to teach -Good for a range of ages and numbers of players Cons: - The elevator and Double Dare spaces introduce too much luck - More of a guessing/gambling game than a stock market simulation
Price: MSRP $29.95 (Board game and CD-Rom) or MSRP $19.95 (CD-Rom only) Available from: www.mrbigshot.com
Related Links: Tabletop Game of the Week: Easy Come, Easy Go Tabletop Game of the Week: Fightball
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Tabletop Game of the Week Mr. Bigshot
The
Spin: “Think you can out-invest Warren Buffett? Play ‘Mr. Bigshot and find out” The
Story Players of Mr. Bigshot take on the role of investors attempting to make as much money as quickly as possible through investing in the stock market. The
Play After choosing a character token, players simultaneously decide which of two stocks (Big or Shot) to risk their money on for that turn. The lead player for the turn then reveals how the stock did in the first quarter. Whether the players made or lost money, the cash is tracked using the game board with players who lose money moving backwards, those who win moving forward. After the first quarter, players decide whether to sell the stock or ride it out for another quarter. Then, second quarter results are revealed and scores are adjusted. This process continues until the fourth quarter or until everyone has bailed from both stocks. At the end of the round, the actual company names are revealed. In all twelve pairs of Big and Shot stocks are chosen, unless one player makes it to the top of the money path before then (which happened in all of our games). There are a couple of other game mechanisms that should be mentioned. Scattered through out the board are squares that allow a player who lands on them to double or quadruple their risk in the upcoming rounds. The middle of the scoring track also contains elevator spaces that, on a certain roll, can be used to advance a player’s position. My
Take For a first effort from a small publisher and first-time designer, Mr. Bigshot is pretty successful in doing what it sets out to do. Potential buyers do need to make sure that it does what they want it to do, though. The game isn’t for everyone. |
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Mr. Bigshot, despite the use of real stock results from the past is more of a party game than a simulation. Though knowledge of stock market history would certainly help, most players are left just guessing which stock to choose and gambling on whether or not to ride it out, giving the game a kind of push-your-luck feel. If a group had a bunch of stock market historians, it would become almost a trivia game (“let’s see…a casino stock from 1999, well, that could be…”). I can’t imagine that outside Wall Street and a hand full of stock market wonks that there are many people with that kind of encyclopedic knowledge of decades of specific stock results. Regardless, the game is clearly not aimed at that group, but instead aimed at families and |
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casual gamers. These gamers are helped along by the historical facts on the board which give key events from the year that might have affected the stock market. For our group, the game had a bit too much luck involved, especially in the elevator spaces and the double and quadruple (Double Dare and Double-Double Dare) scoring spaces which could make for huge swings in game score if players took the gamble. Still, for what it is, the game provided a lot of fun moments in a short period of time. I think it would be a great game to play with large groups by dividing into teams and competing with other teams for high score. Conversely, because of the neat Crankulator gadget used to reveal stock prices, the game could be played solo as a challenge to get to the end of the scoring track in the least amount of rounds. Of course, there is the Mr. Bigshot computer game to give gamers the solo experience. It comes free with the board game or can be purchased separately. The computer game is pretty much identical to the board game without the board. The A.I. is competent and the game plays quickly. I’m positive the excellent computer implementation will get more play from me than the board game version. The
Components: The game board is colorful and durable with artwork that is humorous and well done. The player tokens are folded cardboard attached to plastic stands—they look kind of cheap, but the artwork on them is cute. The neatest component is the Crankulator which features a red cellophane window to allow the lead player to read the hidden stock results (devices like this always remind me of my grammar school spelling books, so nostalgia points for this device). Overall, the components are pretty typical for a small game company and the game looks great on the table. As mentioned above, the game includes the Mr. Bigshot CD-Rom, making it a really great value. Note: If you are interested in the computer game version, go to www.mrbigshot.com for a free demo.
- Danny Webb (September 12, 2005) |
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