POD: Board Game

Review


Title: POD
Company: POD Company
Category: Board Game
Reviewer: Shadis Staff

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

POD the Acronym for "Power of Direction" is a new, yet-to-be-released game by a fledgling game company in Southern California. In fact, the company has not come up with the financing to put the product on the market in the fashion that they want. So why are we spending time on a game that the public can't even get its hands on yet? Because when we feel it is an excellent game and deserves any help we can offer to get this game on the market. POD is one of those classic games just waiting to be discovered by some enterprising company with the backing to do it right.

POD is similar to Chess in a few ways. First, when you look at the board, the pieces and the set up have a Chess look to them. Second, each piece has a specific mode of movement, and third, the game ends when you capture the Communication and Command Pod (which I quickly found myself protecting like my king).

That is where the similarity ends. The Game /board is a maze which players negotiate by moving their pieces using a specified number of Directional Changes for that game piece. This makes things exciting and challenging, unlike Chess which has a structured movement for its pieces. The POD Game pieces break all the rules of board games. Some move off and back onto the board. Others move as if in hyperspace, jumping from Transport Zone to Transport Zone, while others still, jump, freeze and even push opponents pieces out of the way.

No cards, no dice, no luck, POD is simple enough for an eight year old to learn how to play, but hard enough to master that it will bring hours of intellectual enjoyment to the most cerebral of gamers. As you master the game, you can add difficulty levels by changing the maze layout, and adding new game pieces that have different movements and abilities.

Craig Hancock, Bill Bolhuis and Irv Silberman the game company owners and creators of POD have spent the last three years play testing and perfecting the POD game. They think it's ready to hit the market and we couldn't agree more. The POD company is still entertaining financing and investment offers. So if you are considering investing in games this is a product we recommend you take a look at. The POD game can be played at popular Southern California Conventions and we hope the owners take it nationwide soon.

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