Cost: $8.00 at Toys 'R Us From: Milton Bradley Players: 2 or more Playing Time: 10-30 minutes Type of game: Beer 'n' Pretzels Complexity: 2 Skill level: 1 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 1.4, May/June 1993
Serious game players have long enjoyed plotting intricate strategies, outwitting opponents, and planning moves far in advance for a big payoff. Serious game players will find such skills utterly useless in Pass the Pigs, a whimsical diversion bearing absolutely no resemblence whatsoever to Chess, Diplomacy, or Go. In fact, Pass the Pigs' closest kin is Cosmic Wimpout, a simple dice game which is nevertheless more complex than this one.
Pass the Pigs, previously known as Pigmania, comes in a smart plastic case about the size of a glasses sleeve. Nestled snugly inside is the minimalist equipment: an itsy-bitsy scorepad, an equally tiny pencil, and a pair of pigs.
Yes, pigs.
To play, simply pick up the pigs and roll them like dice onto a table. Points are awarded depending on how the pigs land (on their side, legs, back, leaning on their snouts, etc.). After you roll, you may pass the pigs to the next player and add the points just earned to your score, or you may press your luck and roll again. But beware: if one pig lands on its left side and the other on its right, you "pig out" and lose all the points accumulated on that turn. If the pigs come to rest in contact with each other (an "oinker"), your score drops back to zero. To up the ante, another player can call out a configuration before you roll. If it comes up, the points go to him instead. Of course if the pigs land a different way, he loses points. The first player to reach a preset score is the winner. Other players should get last licks (oinks?) to offset the advantage of going first.
Goofy? Heck, yeah. It's downright dopey. But for some inexplicable reason, it's also fun and not a little addictive. Gamblers will enjoy the tension betwene playing it safe by banking your points or risking it all and going for "one more roll." Pass the Pigs is a great pick-up game to play while waiting for something else to happen, since it can be completed in only a few minutes and the pace is quick.
But Chess it ain't.