Hail to the Chimp
Ages: Teen

In my real life, I am a member of the League of Women Voters and very involved with preventing voting machine fraud, so I was really interested in a political game. It is one of the more complex games of this year, with different play depending whether solo or multiplayer - the game designers conceived this game as a party game. The very rich design provides for ten different contestants - from Murgatroyd, a jellyfish of the Silent Majority party whose language no one understands, to Toshiro, the octopus whose platform is that most of the world is water, and water-based animals have been under-represented. Campaign stops are held in ten different dynamic maps which are inventive graphic combinations of place and philosophy. And this is not all.

To win, a player must acquire the greatest number of clams. Clams are the largest easily swayed voting block. Primaries are held in campaign stops with four candidates before the actual election takes place. Sounds simple but the game play allows many options: curses that limit the mobility of opponents or makes them stink so that clams move away; players can team up by waving their arms and gang up on an opponent; the stench of corruption cloud that will remove all clams; voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail make the game feel all too real. And this in not all.

The introductory screen opens to a "live" broadcast by GRR with Woodchuck Chumley spouting the latest breaking news with a under scroll in complete disagreement. It's as good as political satire can get. That the attract screen is so cleverly done is a prelude to more creativity in the game. It's a real labor of love by some very intelligent and talented people. A full color manual accompanies the disk as warrants a game of this complexity.

Fun Factor: You don't have to be a political junky to play it but you do to truly appreciate it.
Female Factor: Gives equal opportunity candidates.
Player Friendly: Could have used more saves.

Reviewed by: Editor - 07/08