Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for the kind of game where you flick things across the board with your fingers. Ten years ago I came back from London with a more-than-complete pile of Subbuteo equipment, including extra teams, scoreboards, etc. And I brought Carabande to the latest Seattle gaming convention and spent quite a while flicking small hockey puck shaped racecars around a track. So it's only natural that I would like Fingerflick Sports.
In Fingerflick sports, you can play football, basketball, or baseball by flicking disks about the size of a thick quarter around a large playing field. The disks are plastic, and come in blue, grey, and red. There are stickers you can apply to make them look like football players or a basketball or whatever, but I don't bother since the colors are a good enough designation, and I think they will slide better without the stickers. The board is big, about 20" by 26", and necessarily doesn't fold, so the game is in a rather large box, and is hard to store. It also has a very nice little pivot piece that fits into the middle of the bottom of the board, so you can rotate it to any angle to take your flick. The pivot works well, even on carpet!
There are three plastic surfaces that fit into the board depending on whether you are playing baseball, basketball, or football. You also get goalposts for football, two (very cool) baskets for basketball, and a little black chute that you can tip up and flick a disk out of, for shooting baskets and kicking field goals. It's all very good quality equipment, and will last for a long time.
Of the three games, I have played basketball many times, baseball at least three times, and football only once. In the basketball game there are four defenders, portrayed by blue disks, and one offensive piece, represented by the ball (red disk). The board has several circles marked on it, and the offensive player must flick the ball from circle to circle down the court, until he is close enough to try to shoot a basket. The defender gets to flick a defensive piece after each offensive flick, but if he hits the ball it is a foul and the piece is put back where it was. If the offensive player fails to land on a circle, or touches a defensive piece, then he loses control of the ball and the other player may now flick the ball.
When the offensive player is in position to shoot, if the defensive player can flick a piece onto the same circle without touching the ball, then the offensive player is blocked and can not shoot from that circle. If he isn't blocked, then the offensive player puts the ball into the black chute, puts it on the board over the circle, tips it up, and tries to flick the ball into the basket for two (or three) points. There is also a circle directly under the basket where you don't have to flick. If you are not blocked, it is an automatic slam dunk!
The game is quick and a lot of fun. Beginners may have to practice for a while before they can flick accurately or make baskets, and you can expect to flick pieces off the court regularly. (Don't worry, there's a rim around the entire board that keeps things from flying across the room.) (... most of the time.) The balance is pretty good, too. Better players will be able to keep control of the ball for longer, but better defensive players will also be able to block you from making a shot on the basket. And despite what you may think during your first or second game, it is actually possible to control how hard you flick it. Just keep practicing.
Baseball is also fun. It is really only played with one disk, although others are used to mark runners on bases. There are specific targets to hit for singles, doubles, triples, home runs, and outs. These are automatic. The rest of the board is "in play". If the ball is hit to the outfield, the fielder must flick it to the nearest picture of a glove to catch it for an out. On the infield, he must flick it to whatever base the runner is heading for.
Baseball is a little less realistic in its simulation of the game than basketball, but it is still a good exercise in flicking accuracy. There are no strikes or balls, but you can still try for singles, home runs, triples, or bunts. And you can decide whether or not to risk running on to the next base. The only problem with baseball is that it is too much of the same thing. Both sides are just flicking to hit a target. There are no defenders to avoid, or blocking maneuvers to attempt. And you don't get to use the black chute. Still it's fun to test your skill at making that double play, and it's exciting to finally hit that home run to bring in all your men on base.
Football is the only one I haven't played enough to review properly. It involves flicking the ball from helmet space to helmet space down the field toward the goal. The defense just has to hit the piece that's running and knock it off the helmet to make a tackle. In the one game I played, this proved to be so easy to do that it's hard to believe that any touchdowns will ever be made except by the occasional lucky long bomb. It's shaping up to be my least favorite of the three games, but I will have to play it a few more times before I can make that determination.
It's a great set of games for those times when you want to give your mental dexterity a rest and challenge your manual dexterity for a while. On the box they promise more games to come, such as soccer, hockey, golf, bowling and tennis. Soccer and hockey seem like a natural for this system, although it may be hard to tell those two games apart. There are already two slits in the main board where the goals will be, and every time a piece goes through one of them I feel like I'm playing air hockey. And who knows what expansions will be next; Shuffleboard? Pool? Horse races? Whatever it is, I'll keep my flicking finger in training as I eagerly await the next installment.
Finger Flick plans to release smaller, less expensive versions of baseball and basketball in folding, non-arena versions priced around $20. Also on the drawing board for the same format are hockey, tennis, golf, and soccer. Finger-Flick Sports is currently available nationally at Toys 'R Us - Ed