Description
Potion Explosion is a game for 2 to 4 players by Horrible Games.
It was designed by Lorenzo Silva, Andrea Crespi and Stefano Castelli.
Dear students, it’s time for the final exams of the Potions class! The rules are always the same: Take an ingredient marble from the dispenser and watch the others fall. If you connect marbles of the same colour, they explode and you can take them, too! Complete your potions using the marbles you collect, and drink them to unleash their magical power. Remember, though, that to win the Student of the Year award, being quick won’t be enough: you’ll also need to brew the most valuable potions in Potion Explosion!
Details
Players: 2-4
Time: 30-45 mins
Ages: 8+
Designer: Stefano Castelli, Andrea Crespi, Lorenzo Silva
Artist: Giulia Ghigini
Publisher: Horrible Games
Review
At first glance, Potion Explosion looks like just a gimmick or your childs marble collection but this board game adaptation of digital match-3 games like Bejeweled has so much more to it.
Once you finish building and setting up the special dispenser and filling it with “ingredients” (marbles), the game begins. On each players turn, they take one ingredient marble from the dispenser. If the marble they take causes two marbles of the same colour to collide with each other, that triggers an event called an “explosion”. When two ingredients (marbles) “explode”, the player may take all connected marbles of that colour. If a player can trigger a chain of explosions, they may take all the marbles that have “exploded”. After taking marble(s), players adds them to corresponding slots on the potions that are in progress on their desk.
Once all slots on a potion have been filled with marbles, the ingredient marbles from that potion are returned to the dispenser. The potion is flipped to its completed side and moved below the desk. A player may “drink” one or more completed potions at any point during their own turn to use their special powers.
This game is fantastic and easy to learn and play making it a great family game. The ascetics of the game are also great making it a great addition to your collection that will turn heads each time you bring it to the table.