No Deal (Drumond Park Deal or No Deal)

Member Name: cyberem78

Product:	Drumond Park Deal or No Deal
Date:	08/09/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Younger players will find it easy.

Disadvantages: Boring unless you create the hype.

Channel 4's teatime gameshow 'Deal Or No Deal' is still a hugely popular show four years after it was first aired. The game, hosted by Noel Edmonds, involves the use of twenty two sealed boxes and the opponent of a mystery 'banker' who only communicates through Edmonds via telephone. A contestant choses one box as their own. Inside every sealed box is a card containing a monetary amount ranging from 1p to £250,000. The contestant randomly choses the other boxes to open aiming to find boxes with the lowest monetary amounts. The banker then offers the contestant a payment 'deal' (to buy the contestant's box) according to his best guess of what monetary amount is in the contestants box. The contestant is judged to have won the game when he accepts a deal which turns out to be more than the monetary amount in his box or has an amount in his box that is more than the banker's highest offer.

The game has been manufactured as a book, electronic game, an interactive DVD, as a nintendo game and as this more basic board game. Created by company Drumond Park this set includes a large playing board, electronic battery operated telephone, playing cards, score sheets, instructions and boxes.

The set up of the game takes a long time as you have to assemble each of the twenty two boxes (with their lids) before playing. It is excrutiating work and very fiddley. I suggest you attemp this task as a family or group as it takes a long time to do. There are also lots of cards that need to be torn out of larger cardboard strips and each cards printed with monetary amounts that need to be placed inside the boxes. Finally you need to put batteries into the electronic phone. It requires 3 AA size batteries. You will need a cross-shaped screwdriver to open the battery compartment.

Once this is all assembled you will need a large playing space. The playing board is approximately 27 inches wide and 18 inches long so you will need a big table area.

How to place the boxes and playing cards on the board is explained in simple terms in the instruction manual. The board is actually marked out very simply too with marked illustrations of where to place the twenty two closed boxes, the telephone and your chosen box.

The game can be played by 2-6 players. The score sheets have a space where each player's name can be written down and their scores recorded. I have played this with up to four people and find the dynamics of this amount of people to work better than the minimum amount of 2 people.

The game is very similar to the television version and should be simple to learn the rules if you are familiar with the gameshow format. How this differs is that one player choses a box. The instructions state that this should always be the youngest player but I have found that if you play with the same group of people each time this becomes unfair so in my rules all players take turns at choosing the box. Then each of the other players chose to open one of the other boxes. They do this in turn until it is time for the banker to make a payment offer for the main box (this is after five boxes are opened initially then after every three boxes).

When the boxes are opened the monetary amount on the card inside should be obscured with a card from the illustration on the mian board. It should also be entered into the telephone via the keypad. One player should be assigned the task of keying in the amounts. The telephone then rings and an offer of payment will flash into the digital screen on the front of the telephone. Each player decides whether to deal or no deal. This continues until the end of the game. The player who dealed at the highest amount wins that game. If a player chooses not to deal they must find their box is worth more than the last remaining box at the end of the game. However, it is still the person who dealt at the most money who wins. Players can choose to play up to six seperate games and at the end of all games the player with the highest monetary total is the overall winner.

This game requires no mental skill or concentration and as such is suitable for younger players. The company actually states this is for ages 8 and above but mature children below this age could probably play too as long as they have help with the mathematics required at the end of the game.

There are a lots of things about the game that I find problematic. Firstly, the host's voice on the telephone is lack lustre and robotic. I was hoping it would be Noel Edmond's sparkling voice not some Mr Nobody! The voice lacks any drama needed to infuse excitement into the game.

Another problem includes the battery operated phone. Mine has malfunctioned in the middle of a game - displaying an error sign. It has also ran out of power mid-game. To rectify an error message you have to turn the phone off then switch it on again, effectively starting the whole game again. When this has happened to me the prospect of beginning another game has been so tiresome that the whole game has just been abandoned. The electronic display also flashes the banker's offer way too quickly and then the text vanishes. I have frequently had times when I or a fellow player wanted to deal but couldn't recall the exact amount offered!

Another problem is the boxes. After assembling the boxes they are more difficult to store. They also can lose their shape or crease. Unless you change the money cards inside each box it becomes possible to recognise the boxes and remember what amount is inside them. Having to juggle the cards around before each game becomes very tiresome and long-winded.

It can also get pretty tiresome having to re-fit the lids of the boxes after the completion of each game. I and my fellow players have always gotten bored after three games and have never been able to last until six. The mere act of having to open each box becomes a little tedious after a while. The instruction booklet says that each player should open their chosen box as 'drmatically as they choose'. Therefore the game relies on your own hype and acting skills to be exciting. If you are playing with a quiet, reserved person then the game might feel a little weary and slow.

Although I find the television gameshow very exciting this board game ultimately fails to capture the meaning and high-drama that makes the show so successful. A good idea in theory but a little dull in practice.

Summary: A board game that lacks excitement.