GAMING POINT OF LOU QUICK HIT – A TEA PARTY IN PANDORA
Well hello there everyone, it’s been a minute since I’ve actually sat down to write a review of a game. My ever expanding list of responsibilities behind the scenes at “The Pint” have exploded in recent months and I have found far less time to get back to my roots, which is playing fun games and then hammering aimlessly on a keyboard hoping something coherent rears it’s head in the process.
Aaaaanywho… lets get to the “toe pick” of this article, a fun little card game that I ordered a few months back (and have had sitting on my table since it arrived) after it’s reveal during Gearbox software’s PAX East unveiling of the highly anticipated (and preordered the day it became available) Borderlands 3, and that game is: “Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party”.
The premise of the game is really quite simple, you are a vault hunter that was invited to a Tea Party by the one and only Tiny Tina (easily one of the top 10 NPC’s in videogame history) and what do vault hunters do while hanging around eating crumpets and drinking tea? why you mess around with everyone’s favorite robot sidekick CL4P-TP (or Claptrap for short). Using an assortment of parts you try to build one of five distinct version’s of the character (standard, pirate, wizard, and gentleman) all while attempting to block your opponents from accomplishing their Claptrap first.
TTRTP plays fast, with most games taking about 10-15 minutes to complete, and while the game seems simple at first, the more you play the more you start to see all the various permutations available to assist you in your quest to screw over the other players in the game. For instance: you can install the wrong parts on YOUR Claptrap to stop another player from acquiring that one piece they need, or you could put a wrong part on THEIR Claptrap to block them from finishing unless they remove it first (and without the proper action card in their hand they cannot do it). The game is also very liberal in allowing you to refresh your hand by discarding as many cards as you want at the end of your turn in the hopes of getting that one piece you need on your next draw phase, the only trade off in this scenario is that you may inadvertently put a critical piece to someone else’s build back into play for them to acquire. This last situation ties into my singular pain point with the game, which is I don’t feel that there are enough parts cards in the draw deck. If there were just one more card of each part type available (or even a second set of wild cards) it would help to alleviate the frustration of having to wait (sometimes for multiple turns until the draw deck eventually recycles) to get that one card you need. It’s not a problem that rears it’s head very often, but when it does it can slam the brakes pretty hard on your game. I’ve never minded losing due to me making a critical mistake as that’s how you learn, but I’ve never been a fan of losing due to bad RNG.
Other than that, my family (who are all MASSIVE Borderlands fans) had a great time with this game. As a matter of fact, it’s still sitting on my dining room table as we speak. If you are a fan of fast playing, simple to learn card games you really can’t go wrong, and don’t worry, you don’t need a working knowledge of the video game series to enjoy TTRTP, but if you ARE, well you basically sit around the table throwing BL quotes around with reckless abandon while you play, which only adds to the games amusement factor.
As of this writing the game is currently sold out on TinyTinaGames.com, but I did see that there were still copies available on http://www.gearboxloot.com, and with a $20.00 price point you really can’t go wrong.
Until Next Time Everyone
Be Good To Your Fellow Nerds
Lou
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