BACK TO THE FUTURE: DICE THROUGH TIME Is Impossibly Fun
Ravensburger has a new board game called Back to the Future: Dice Through Time that was released in conjunction with the 35th anniversary of the film, and they sent me a copy to review. The basic conceit is this: Biff has stolen the time machine, mucked everything up, and two to four players have to work together to make sure events stay on track and various objects are returned to their correct place and time before the space/time continuum is irrevocably damaged and everyone fades into oblivion. It’s fun.
The game itself is gorgeous. Illustrator Matt Taylor and graphic designer Sam Dawson did tremendous work on this. The color scheme of ochre, tangerine, hot pink, and electric blue had the potential to be eye-watering, but somehow it works. The Biffs-throughout-time pieces are fantastic, and the simple but bold graphic illustrations on the cards are really lovely. The pieces are all great quality as well. Maybe I’m too used to playing poorly made children’s games with my preschooler, but I was impressed by the heft of the cards and tokens and playmats.
As for the gameplay itself, it is a bit complicated, but not in a bad way. For each round, one player draws three to eight event cards (depending on the number of players), places them on the board, then players take turns rolling their dice (each player gets four), moving their DeLorean through time and space to punch Biff (there is one for each of the four years represented on the board), clear events, and gather and return important items. At the end of each round, you assess what is left on the board and move the “Outta Time Tracker” closer to your own oblivion. There are also Einstein (helpful) and Paradox (very much not helpful) tokens that come into play, but this review is getting long enough. One person I played with said it is the same level of complication as Monopoly, and I think that is objectively untrue. It is much more complicated than Monopoly. In this game the players each get a mat that functions as a cheat sheet for the order of play and what each icon on the dice does, and Monopoly really doesn’t require that. But, because it is collaborative, it doesn’t really feel as complicated as it is. Your fellow players can help you out and remind you of moves you can make, so it never feels overwhelming.
Dice Through Time does feel slightly impossible to win though. Maybe. I only played it with more than two players once, and that was my first play-through when I was still figuring out the game mechanics, and even on the easiest set up, we lost fairly quickly. With two players and a slightly improved understanding of how it works, the game did last longer, although I still have not beaten it. And, I have to confess, I forgot one of the rules, so I was basically cheating to make it easier and was still three items away from winning when we ran out of time. I should also note that I am not exactly a hardcore tabletop gamer, so some of you pros out there might actually need the super difficult “Nobody Calls Me Chicken!” mode that requires players to return all 20 item cards to win. I played in “Science Experiment” mode, which uses only eight of the item cards.
That being said, even though it felt maybe impossible to win, Dice Through Time is still hella fun. Game designers Chris Leder, Ken Franklin, and Kevin Rodgers have done a great job building in enough flexibility that there is always some move to make, so you never feel stuck. Although, the Special Event card that reduces each players’ set of dice to three for a round is evil for sure. I am going to keep on playing with the dream of beating the beginner difficulty and moving up to regular difficulty. Insert some quote about the triumph of the human spirit here. Maybe Churchill: “We shall fight at the Clock Tower; we shall fight at the high school and at Lou’s Cafe, et cetera.”
Back to the Future: Dice Through Time is currently exclusively available at Target for $29.99.
