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The Game: Funfair by Good Games Publishing
How Many Players: 2-4
Age Range:10+
What Type of Game: City building, economic, deck management
Difficulty/Complexity: Low
Average Length: 30-60 minutes
Replayability: Medium
You should try it if you like: Amusement parks and light/quick games that are bright and cheerful

A review copy of Funfair was graciously provided by Good Games Publishing

What's The Story in Funfair?

You are building a theme park!

Purchase attractions to entice guests to come to your park. Attractions can be rides, theaters, food, or pretty much anything you can think of that you would find in a fair. You can then purchase upgrades for each of the attractions, such as upgrading the seating or adding elements to the thrill rides. Hire staff members, and spend your money wisely to make the best theme park there is!

What the Gameplay Feels Like

Funfair is an easy game to pick up and learn. It moves quickly and still has a good bit of challenge to it. Throughout the game, you have the option of getting Blueprint cards which provide you with goals to work towards. Some of these blueprints can be quite challenging, and once you have them you cannot get rid of them! However, completing the challenge on the blueprint means you are able to score lots of extra points at the end of the game.

The game is 6 rounds long, with each round being a series of 6-7 steps.

The rounds

For each round, you begin with the City step. Here, you turn over a random card which can provide special bonuses to all players for that round. Next, you have 3-4 Park steps. These steps are where you can purchase and add attractions, upgrades, or staff members to your fair. You can also do other actions such as drawing blueprints or cards from the market on the board in front of you.

After the action steps are over, you have the Guest step. Here is where you get your money. You can get money for each attraction you have or for staff members if they offer special “ticket” bonuses. You can also get investors to provide an additional 5 monies towards your big Showcase Attraction if you have not built it yet. This card is one that you draw at the beginning of the game and is a big, expensive attraction. It is up to you if you want to spend the money on it right away or hold off to try to have the cost come down with investors chipping in.

Finally, you have the cleanup phase. All of the cards which were laid out in the market (in the center of the board) are discarded and replaced with new cards. You also must discard down to having only 5 cards in your hand.

As you go through each round you are trying to make the best theme park you can to earn the most money. However, you are also trying to finish your blueprint challenges, or else you suffer penalties at the end of the game!

What I like

Well, first of all, it is about theme parks. Who doesn't like theme parks? I absolutely love how cheerful and bright the game is, and every card just makes you smile.

Besides that, I am always on the lookout for games that play well for 2 people. Funfair plays wonderfully whether you have 2 people or 3 or 4. For my husband and me, this makes it a great game to bring to the table.

I also will admit that I have some memory problems and cannot always keep the more complicated games straight without constantly grabbing the rulebook. Funfair is simple enough that I was able to just enjoy every game we played without second-guessing what I was doing.

This would make it a great option for some children. It has a lot of money management incorporated in, which would give some good educational benefits as well.

Just beware, they would probably want to go to a theme park after playing this!

What I didn't like

The only thing I don't like about this game is that there isn't more of it. While we are enjoying replaying it, the limited number of cards could make it less enjoyable after a lot of plays.

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