Pack & Stack
Pack & Stack
Sep 02I’m becoming more and more a fan of puzzle-style games. Games like Ubongo, On the Dot, and Rumis really get your brain working in a different way than most other board games, and while they can be a bit brain-bending, they always leave me wanting to play again. Pack & Stack is a game that has a nice puzzle-like element to it, but won’t leave your brain oozing out of your ears into a puddle on the table (unless you already have some sort of medical condition that would cause that to happen anyway).
In the game, you are trying to efficiently fill up your pickup truck with a pre-selected load of colorful wooden blocks. Unlike most games where you gain points each round for doing things well, in this game you lose points every turn for doing things badly. And trust me, you WILL lose points!
Each round you roll the 5 colored dice. These dice correspond to the 5 colors of wooden blocks in the game (blue, green, gray, brown, and white). You will then collect the appropriate number of wooden blocks of each type, depending on what numbers you roll on the dice. And, these are non-standard six-sided dice, so you may get anywhere from 0 to 5 pieces, depending on the color. After every player had collected their load for the round (and everyone will roll the dice for their own load), each player will draw 2 truck cards. Players will then simultaneously reveal the cards into the middle of the table. Each player will then select a truck that they think will best hold their load of blocks. The catch is that you can’t choose one of the 2 cards that you drew. Also, if you’re the last one to select a truck, you don’t get one from the table. Instead you have to draw a random one from the draw pile. The truck cards in this game are an overhead picture of a pickup truck, with beds of varying sizes and shapes. On the cab of the truck, there’s a number ranging from 1 to 4. This indicates how high you can stack blocks in the truck. So, once everyone has chosen a truck, each player will fill their truck with blocks, trying their best to get them all to fit in the truck without leaving any blank space. If you have space left over in your truck after filling it up, you lose 1 point for every 1×1 block of space (for reference, the white block is 1×1). If you have blocks left over that won’t fit on the truck, you lose 2 points for every 1×1 block that didn’t make it onto the truck. The player who loses the least number of points will get a 10-point bonus. Everyone pays points tokens to the bank, returns their blocks to the starting piles, discards their truck card, and then another round begins. Keep in mind that there’s no time element to filling up your truck
(unlike, say, Ubongo) – everyone can take their time and find the most efficient way to fill it.
The game ends when the first player gets down to 0 points. At that point, the remaining player who has the most points is the winner. Even with a full complement of 6 players, the game only takes about 30 minutes to play.
I really enjoy this game, and have found that it’s especially a lot of fun to play with my kids. My kids are 6 and 3, so we play with some modified rules (mainly, we don’t “race” to get the best truck). But, even for my 3-year-old, she can still be engaged in the game by rolling the dice, collecting the correct number of blocks, and then sorting them into the correct piles at the end of the round. We even pretend to “drive” the trucks to the different piles to drop off the blocks, which they think it great.
But, don’t get me wrong, this game is also quite enjoyable for adults, too. In other reviews, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about how there’s really only one meaningful decision in the game, that being the selection of which truck to use. While that may be true, I don’t think that it detracts from the gameplay, and it definitely makes the game more accessible to non-gamers who might be overwhelmed by too many decisions. Having said that, Pack & Stack is definitely a game that favors those who have a good overall sense of spatial awareness. So, in general, I suck at this game. But, that doesn’t keep it from being fun! Components are very nice and colorful, and the artwork is cartoony and fun. If you’re looking for a light, fun, short game that can be played in a variety of settings, Pack & Stack is a definite “Buy”!
