Sixtomania

Review by Gayle Reece

Designed by C. Fager
Kimo Press PO. Box 1361, Falls Church, VA 22041
Price: $12.00 + .95 postage
Complexity: Easy 6 if you are over 30
Solitaire Suitability: None

This game should appeal to most baby-boomers, but they better have good memories. Being on the elder side of this faction is helpful in answering the early 60s questions since many of them relate to events that made news, but were quickly forgotten or not often discussed. I don't know where a player would find the answers to some of these questions if they were not provided in the game.

The game is played on a board designed as a peace sign. The first quarter has questions from the early 60s, the second quarter from the mid-66s, and the other half from the late 60s. There are several ways one can move around the board and keep getting sent back to the early or mid-60s. The center strip of the peace sign and its legs are Vietnam. Once in Vietnam, it is almost impossible to get out unless you have drawn a good "Karma" card. The majority of a player's time in Vietnam is spent trying to roll specific numbers to get to another question. if a player does get to move, it is only a few spaces and then he is still stuck there with more bad luck.

The object is to be the first to get to the Watergate/Nixon Resigns space at the top of the peace sign. The game is fun and moves quickly Since it was done with a very low budget, it fulfills all it needs to with simple components. Playing pieces are love beads and the board is laminated paper that curls and needs to be weighted down to lie flat (creating storage problems if rolled).

The rules are clear and the game is well presented. The only luck involved is in the Karma cards which can be either good or bad. Karma can send a person backward, forward, into Vietnam, or cause lost turns. A player can be sent off to suburbia or a cemetery to wait out turns caused by bad Karma or Vietnam. After completing the instructions on the cards, a player moves back onto the peace sign.

The game is fun to play and can be enjoyed by "old hippies" as well as anyone who watched TV or listened to the radio in the 60s. The game provides entertainment each time it is played. It certainly generated lots of conversation with "Remember when..."

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