#83: Sorry! - Pokémon

Sorry! - Pokemon

• designer: uncredited
• publisher: Hasbro
• date: 2000
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/4.0
• age: 6+
• # of players: 2-4
• print status: OOP?
• cost: $15.40 (Amazon)

Sorry! is one of those games it has become "cool" to crack on... and one of the comments you hear that drives me nuts is "Winning is purely the luck of the draw." I'm sorry (intentional pun!) but that's just not true - it's kind of like people saying that backgammon is all about getting good rolls. There are decisions to be made - decisions that affect your ability to play... and, if you roll that way, you can do a bit of card counting to assess the probabilities.

But that isn't why Sorry! - Pokemon is popular at our house... it's the special power cards for each of the colors that add some extra randomness to the game while also speeding it up. The cards work as "normal" number cards unless the correctly colored player draws them - and then they help that player move their pieces faster or even teleport a piece into the finish area.

Now, you may wonder why I'd think that more chaos is better - while I'm known for loving fluffy games, I'm not a big fan of chaotic games. In this case, the increased game speed from the special power cards make the game accessible to a wider number of kids & family members... which is a good thing.