Customer Reviews

Rio Grande Games Balloon Cup

5 star:		(4)
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This is a great 2 player card game. For people who are new to the influx of European style board and card games, the 2 player game genre is dominated by the likes of `Battleships'; boring games from you childhood, `Magic the Gathering'; geeky games played by the black t-shirt crowd, or `Chess', highly strategic games. So a game like `Balloon Cup' gets overlooked far too often since it doesn't fall into any of those categories.

Balloon Cup is a great 2 player game that appeals to a more mainstream audience who is looking for something more challenging than `Battleships', not as brain-draining as Chess and doesn't require purchasing a whole wardrobe of black t-shirts.

Balloon Cup is an addictive game that has a nice balance of luck and strategy to make those long winter evenings fly by. The best compliment you can give to a game is after finishing one game; your immediate thought is for a re-match.

For those who are familiar with the European games movement, and have played games like `Lost Cities' and the Kosmos 2-player game series; Balloon Cup ranks up there with Lost Cities as one of the best 2 player games of all time. I am totally addicted; this is my new favorite 2 player game!

I received this game as a gift from some gamer friends who had heard great things, but never played it themselves. My husband and I have had so much fun with it, I've since bought my friend a copy of her own. Gameplay is very simple, set up is quick, and a game takes about 30 minutes to play. The cardboard tiles and laminated cards are thick and seem durable, and the artwork is typically attractive euro-game quality. It's designed for only two players, which we actually prefer since so many larger games just don't scale down very well (Carcassone, Stone Age, and Race for the Galaxy are notable exceptions).

Most simply put, players try to rack up points while blocking their opponent's attempts to do the same. The game mechanics (place cards on either side of the center tiles) couldn't be simpler, and we actually worried that it was *too* simplistic. We were wrong - there's considerable strategy in your card placement, especially when it comes to blocking your opponent. This is a game that can get downright diabolical if both people are even a little ruthless. Luck comes into play in your card draws, or when you're forced to place a "bad" card against yourself or a "good" card for your opponent.

I'd highly recommend this for those new to gaming or game enthusiastics alike, but especially for anyone competitive. This is definitely not a cooperative game, so anyone who doesn't like the idea of "playing to win" should probably pass on this one.

This is a great game! It's designed for two players. The pieces are all of high quality. The game itself usually takes only 15-30 minutes to play, which is nice -- it's quick and doesn't drag on. Also, because of the design, you feel like you're playing a new game every time you play it. It's not a game you can play every night (it'd get old), but we pull it out maybe 3-4 times a month and have fun with it. This game is fun for adults, and I think it would be fun and easy to play for children, too (I don't have kids so I'm not sure...).

Here's a great game for 2 players. Learn it in about 10 minutes, and play it often for years. It's basically a card game. The premise is this. You're a hot air balloon pilot, trying to beat your opponent in a race for trophies. There are 4 square tiles that you lay out to begin the game. Each is 2 sided, with a low number on one side and a higher number on the other. These numbers simply mean that the player with the lowest, or highest point total played on that tile (as indicated on the face up side of the tile) wins any colored wooden blocks that are placed on the tile during the game. There are 5 different colored blocks. You earn colored trophy cards by acquiring the appropriate number of those colored blocks before your opponent does. Be the first to gain 3 of the 5 trophy cards, and you win.

Each turn, you may play one card and draw one card. You select a number value (1-13) of a colored card from your hand and play it either on your side of a tile or on your opponent's. The color you play must correspond to the colored blocks that are on that tile. Play high cards on your side if the face-up tile is high, and low cards if it is low. Don't have a good card to play on your side? Then make your opponent happy by playing a low card on his side of a high tile, or vice versa. So you can win tiles by laying good cards on your side or bad ones on theirs. But remember they can do the same. A tile is scored when both players have played the number and color of cards corresponding to the number and color of wooden blocks on the tile. Add the total points on each player's side of the tile, and the one with the highest or lowest total wins the colored blocks. Collect enough blocks to exchange them for trophy cards. Flip the tile over each time it is scored. If it was high before, you'll be playing for the low total next.

Looks easy, and plays easy. But the strategy is when to play your lowest and highest cards, and what side do you play them on? Wait for better cards, and your opponent may play something that makes what you are holding useless for awhile. There are only so many cards of each number value in a color, and only so many of each colored block available. Timing is everything. Then there is the question of what tile to play on. Tiles will have different numbers of colored blocks on them. You may stand to gain 1 or 2 blocks of a rarer color, which you need less of to gain that trophy card. Or you may gain more blocks on a different tile, but have a more common color which requires more to claim the trophy. Whatever you choose, you will likely enjoy this fast-playing game every time you play. Enjoy!