Around the World in half an hour... (Wild Card Games Backpacker)

Member Name: littleme96

Product:	Wild Card Games Backpacker
Date:	24/11/08 (211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent original game, Addictive

Disadvantages: Can take a little while to get the hang of!

According to the box, Backpacker is "A fantastic game for 2 to 6 players, and just like travelling, it's fun, exciting, fast-changing and very addictive". Having purchased this card game a few years ago, I can 100% agree with this statement. It really does do what it says on the packaging!

The box itself is a navy blue colour with a picture of the world in the background and a 'Backpacker' in front of it. The word 'Backpacker' is clearly showing in white block lettering which follow the curve of the globe picture. The statement 'The Ultimate Travel Game' is printed underneath the icon.

Within the box of cards are the official rules and an information for beginners sheet. There are also 2 cards which act as a summary of the official rules and 2 blank cards which can be used as replacement cards if any of yours go missing.

To play the game, each player starts off with 5 cards and the remaining cards are used as the 'Future' pile. Each player picks up a card from the play pile at the beginning of their go and then either plays or discards a card onto the 'Past' pile. Cards are placed in piles in the front of each player and some cards enable you to put cards on other people's piles (usually in order to make things difficult for them). The game length is made up of 'years', which is basically the time taken between drawing the first and last cards on the 'Future' pile. The amount of years played is agreed by the players before the game begins.

The aim of the game is to visit as many different countries as possible (although you are only allowed one continent card per pile - eg you could not have both France and Germany, as these are both Europe cards). Once you have collected and played as many country cards as possible, you go 'home' to bank your points. However, there are certain cards that can lose you your points, prevent you from going home or that can be used against you by other players. As well as putting cards on your own pile, you can also put certain cards on other player's piles to stop them in their tracks! The player with the most points at the end of the agreed amount of years is the winner.

There are 106 normal sized cards in the pack and these are divided into the following types:

Country cards - these depict the country that you have visited and have the country name and photo on them. They are different colours depending on the continent that they belong to (Brown for Africa, Purple for Europe etc). Each country card has a number in the top right corner, which shows the amount of points that are gained from visiting that country.

Bonus cards - these are used with country cards to increase the amount of points won. These cards are blue in colour.

Grey cards - these are bad cards to have in your hand! They prevent you from going home and therefore banking your points, but you are penalised for playing them.

Red cards - help you to throw a spanner in the works for your opponent. Can be very useful if they are doing better than you!

Green cards - can be used to get rid of red cards from your pile.

Orange cards - these act as change cards and can help to improve your hand.

Yellow cards - these can help to alter the game to your advantage.

Pink cards - these are problem cards that you can use against the other players.

I mainly play this game with my Husband and things can get quite abusive (even worse than when we play Monopoly!). It really is an excellent game, as things can change so quickly depending on what cards you have and the way in which your opponent uses their cards against you. It does take a little while to get used to the cards and what to do with them, but there is a brief description on each card as a reminder and once you get into the swing of the game, it is fast paced, fun and addictive.

I bought my pack of cards from Boots for about £9.99, but you can also buy it online. The website for the game is http://www.backpackercardgame.com.

Summary: One of my favourite card games.