Spooktacular Preview

boardgamequest.com:

Note: This preview uses pre-release components and rules. What you see here may be different from the final, published game.

While I wouldn’t call them a small publisher anymore as they’ve been putting out quality games for a decade and a half, I feel like Level 99 Games can sometimes fly under the radar. Yet they are also a publisher where I’m always looking forward to trying out their newest releases as their games are always well-executed and have fun themes.

The latest from them is Spooktacular, now in funding on Kickstarter, it puts you in the shoes (tentacles?) of an old-school, B-movie monster looking to scare and devour terrified moviegoers.

In Spooktacular, the goal of the game is to score the most points. The massive amount of unique monsters that come with Spooktacular is going to make every player’s experience a little different, but the core loop of the game is similar for each player.

On a players turn, they usually start by playing a card from their hand. Each player has 5 common cards in their deck and a few ones provided by their specific monster. The card you play will let you take an action with the core ones being:

Move: Move your monsters to an adjacent room.
Spook: Move guests in your room out through a doorway. Gain a point per guest that moves.
Devour: Eat one of each color guest in your room. If you ever have all 5 color guests devoured, you can turn them in for a Spooktacular ticket, which will be end game VPs.

Each monster also has their own unique ability that range from simple to complex. These will let you affect the board state in different ways and provide alternate ways to earn points. At the end of your turn, you draw back up to 3 cards in your hand.

The game ends when a player reaches 50 victory points or all Spooktacular tickets have been claimed.

Spooktacular feels like a bit of a crossover from Disney Villainous and Horrified. It reminds me of the asymmetrical characters from Villainous that all play just a little differently,