Everybody remembers what it was like walking into your old neighborhood Blockbuster? Even if hearing the name doesn’t immediately evoke that particular smell and memories of all the plasticky VHS and DVD tapes and the white particleboard shelves you would have had some experience with this ironic brand
While your local video rental store might’ve closed (RIP), you can now relive at least part of the magic with a new Blockbuster board game that recently launched and is sure to put you deep in your childhood nostalgia feels. Move over, wingspan whipping out this puppy on game night is definitely going to be the New Thing.
The objective is simple: be the first team to collect one movie from all eight genres—action, classic, comedy, horror, sci-fi, drama, animation, and family. It comes complete with a sound-effect timer, and the actual board you play on is meant to replicate the parking lot of an old blockbuster store
British board game company Big Potato Games approached Blockbuster with the game idea first, explained Massimo Zeppetelli, head of marketing for the company. “We realized if we felt such heartfelt nostalgia for picking up rentals, then others would feel the same,” he added. After a year of developing the game, they bought the license for Blockbuster and now we have this!
Zeppetelli estimates that of the films included, “90 percent of them would feel right at home on an old-school Blockbuster shelf, including classics like Home Alone and Die Hard.”Of course, there are a few newer surprises in there as well, so the whole family can play.
The VHS packaging was one of the first things they decided on once they came up with the concept for the game, says Zeppetelli. “We knew we had to put it in a VHS, to remind customers of the true Blockbuster experience.”
You can get it at only two places for now: Target and the last remaining Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon.