Flip The Table

It's our first ever LIVE podcast, recorded at BGG.con 2013! Our guest Eric Summerer from The Dice Tower joins us as we play Saved By the Bell from 1992, a pick-up-and-deliver game where players earn points by hanging out with the gang from Bayside and going on a date with both Zack AND Slater! Race around the school while avoiding detention and asking your friends uncomfortable questions about their classmates. Enjoy 54 unique(ish) images of the Bayside gang and collect your favorite ones to score valuable points. Over 2 decades later, did this game hold up as well as its namesake television program? Plus, a Battle of Wits you won't want to miss!

They had faces of foam rubber and hearts of gold...but do they have what it takes to make a great board game? Flip the Table investigates as we play The Muppet Show! This late 70's title features the wacky Muppetational stylings of Kermit, Fozzy, Miss Piggy, and the whole gang, and thrusts them into a madcap world of clinical, tactical movement. Which Muppets will reach the footlights and take their place on the big stage? How in the world does the mysterious Double Spinner factor in? What do Statler and Waldorf have to say about all this? Download now to find out!

In this special episode, we play 3 generations of games about the FABULOUS, SIXTY-MINUTE Price is Right! First, we go all the way back to the sixties and enjoy the trick-taking madness of Bid it Right: The Price is Right...where we fight over bowling balls and jigsaws to see who can earn the most cash. Then, it's a trip to 1986 where we play The Price is Right Board Game...a game which blends basic appraisal skills with a little Dungeons & Dragons. Finally, we play the 2008 Price is Right DVD Game, and see if modern technology can improve upon the formula. Which TPIR game is the superior experience? Come on down and find out!

This week, Flip the Table returns to the wacky world of Mad Magazine for a trip back in time to the Cold War...where the White Spy and Black Spy eternally engage in an epic duel on behalf of vague (but menacing) government agencies. Welcome to Spy Vs. Spy: The Board Game, where you and up to 3 others can build tunnels in search of deadly bombs and inexplicably bring them back to your home base, presumably while lit. Use tiles from your hand to build routes, and play your sabotage tiles to block in rival spies and force them to juggle hissing explosives turn after turn in hopes they somehow make it back home before their inevitable destruction. The question: does this game feel like the bleakness of the Cold War, or the fun, youthful spirit of the Cola Wars? Plus: Wrong Scattergories!

Way back in 2001, when the dot-com bubble was bursting and the Internet was crumbling to dust in front of our eyes, one company had the foresight to create a time capsule of what would most assuredly be a distant memory 12 years later...a way to teach generation after generation about the thrill and excitement of online auctions. Now, in 2013, contributing Flipsters Ben and Niki Turner stop by to play the eBay Electronic Talking Auction Game! We let the soothing voice of the electronic squawk box guide us through 30 auctions of indeterminate length. Who will bid their way to victory and get the best assortment of random junk? And can we find the off switch? Find out now!

What problem has ever been solved by "Less power"? No important one, that's for sure. This week, we play the Home Improvement board game, where players roll, move, and grunt their way through the magical world of drywall, circuit testers, and subjective answers to trivia questions. It's a game that combines a little bit of Talisman, a little bit of Monopoly, and a whole lot of home improvement (the activity, not the sitcom). Who will be the first to capture the crown of command complete their jobs in the project house? Plus: which panelist is dreamier than Jonathan Taylor Thomas? (Spoiler: Nobody. Don't be stupid.)

What do you get when you combine rubber bands, six sided dice, and The Prisoner's Dilemma? The Olympics, of course! This week, we're playing the Bruce Jenner Decathlon game from 1979! This vintage Parker Brothers title features Olympic Gold Medalist turned Kardashian stepfather Bruce Jenner guiding you through a magical journey through 10 track and field events which play out suspiciously like the same 3 mini-games repeated over and over again. Flick plastic discs at rubber bands and exercise your basic arithmetic skills on your way to the Gold! The question is, did this game eat its Wheaties for breakfast, or is it really full of Little Chocolate Donuts? Download now to find out!

This week, it's the Doctor Who Time Travelling Action Game!!! Oooh-WHEEE-Oooooooooh!!! WHEEEEE-oooh-WHOOOOOOOO!!!! Woooooo-OOOOOOh-oooooooh, Doooooo, d-doooooo... (Dum-da-da-dum, da-dum-da-da-dum, da-dum-da-dum) WHEEEOOOOOOOO, woooooo-OOOOOOOH!!!! Plus: Wrong Scattergories.

We hope you've brought your Cliff's Notes, because this week's episode is about Pride and Prejudice: The Board Game! Based on the timeless Jane Austen novel which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, this roll and mover pits players against each-other in a 19th century smackdown to find out who is the king and queen of regency life. Listen as the Flip the Table panel fails miserably to understand anything about Pride and Prejudice, guessing blindly at trivia questions about the novel as we flail our way to the church by exact count to win the game. Does this title adequately prepare us for life in 19th century British high society? Plus: we play Apples Against Prejudice in the Battle of Wits! Join us, won't you?

Come join us in a world where stone warriors protect the city by night...and everyone kinda sounds like they belong on the Enterprise. We're playing Gargoyles: The VCR Board Game; a VHS pack-in with the Disney movie which was a special bonus feature long before DVDs brought us hours of deleted scenes. Spin and move your way to the Xanatos building within 20 minutes to defeat Jonathan Frakes before he unleashes horrible robot doppelgangers on the city of New York. If nobody makes it to the finish, the city is destroyed. OR IS IT?!?!?! Download now and join the adventure!

The Flip the Table gang didn't get invited to too many parties in our formative years...but now, we can see what that would have been like thanks to the early 90's celebration preparation simulator Party Mania! This Nightmare-style VHS game is a race against the clock as you and your friends busily attempt to complete your chores and perfect your hair and outfit in time for the Keller Twins' huge bash. If you're lucky, one or more players will be ready in time for the party...too slow, and you'll be at home with your lame family and the nerdiest kids in school. Earn Mom's approval and manipulate your friends as you roll, move, and charade your way to victory. Does Party Mania flow through our veins? Download now to find out! 

Some would say that, prior to the 2000's, "Mashups" were an imperfect art form. Case in point: the 1996 hoops drama Space Jam, in which basketball megastar/baseball notsomuch Michael Jordan teams up with the Looney Tunes gang for an interstellar basketball throwdown. This week, the Flip the Table panel immerses themselves in the Space Jam experience by suiting up and taking it to the hole in Space Jam: Michael Jordan's Cosmic Court. In this Plinko-based basketball simulator, four competing Michael Jordans race to be the first to hit the ultimate SLAM DUNK to defeat the Monstars and rescue Bugs and the gang from the horrific Monstars. Without Bill Murray around to pick up the slack, can anybody save this game? Plus: DOUBLE SHAWARMA! Don't miss it!

Set condition one throughout the ship! It's time to play Battlestar Galactica...but not the good kind like you want. We're covering the Parker Brothers edition of BSG from 1978, where four alert Viper pilots engage in an exciting, tense, and dramatic training mission to drag the husk of a crippled Cylon raider back to the Galactica for inspection or something. Spin and move your way through space as you attempt to use your awesomely destructive laser weapons in a non-lethal manner to keep your fellow pilots from bringing home a busted toaster. How does this compare to the modern edition? You'll have to listen to find out. Though you've probably already cracked that case.

Take a little bit of 90210, add a splash of Voltron, and sprinkle in a little kaiju mayhem, and you get the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; the early 90's phenomenon which taught us that all problems can be solved with multicolored spandex and increasingly larger robots. This episode, Flip the Table plays the eponymous board game by Milton Bradley from 1994, where players mow through an army of Putty Patrollers to earn the right to form the Megazord and take on King Sphinx. Only the ranger who strikes the final blow can win the game. It's got dice chucking, memory elements, bluffing, and resource management...but does the game feel like an epic battle, or recycled, poorly dubbed stock footage? Only one way to find out...

One cannot master the art of Ninjitsu without the most important maneuver in the martial artist's arsenal...what the masters call, loosely translated, "Roll and Move." That's why we're playing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Power game from 1987! In this game, players pick their Turtle of choice and battle an endless army of punks, Shredders and Krangs until they earn the right to enter the Technodrome and defeat the Bad Guys once and for all. However, mere basic arithmetic skills are not sufficient to take down the Foot Clan...you'll need to use the Battle Flipper to land a die in the right plastic compartment to collect your trophy and prevent your Good Guys from fleeing to the discard pile. Does a board game with roll and move combined with dexterity elements work as well as a pizza with peanut butter and sauerkraut? Then, will our newly developed Ninja skills with the Battle Flipper be enough to prevent us from losing all our points in the Battle of Wits? Get in the Turtle Van...and set a course fo

This episode, we play perhaps the most popular and well-known game we've ever reviewed on Flip the Table...it's Mall Madness! In the electronic version of this game, players take the role of shopping-obsessed teenagers racing to buy arbitrarily priced retail goods, such as sunglasses, t-shirts, and pets (on clearance, if possible). Need energy? Stop at the movie theater for a quick meal. Then, send your friend to the rest room to delay their progress. Has this electronic monument to mall culture stood the test of time, or is this just another roll-and-mover with fancy window dressing? Plus; Professor Laserbooks guides us through a Battle of Wits where we plumb the depths of consumer fads. Check it out! Seriously!!!

Say your prayers and eat your vitamins! It's time to play the WWF Wrestling Superstars board game...with our special guests from Chikara pro wrestling, Billy Kumohara and Ophidian! Join us as the host of Chikara's Quiz Present Crisis Battle and the Venomous and Vile Master of Snake Style wax nostalgic about the golden age of wrestling, and find out what happens when 80's pro wrestlers escape their reality and take up fighting monsters in Tokyo. Then, we check our boots for foreign objects and ring the bell for a special squared-circle themed Battle of Wits! Can Team Chikara steal enough energy from the crowd to defeat the villainous Team Flip the Table, or will they pull hair and bite their way to victory? Download now to find out!

Leave your razors at home and get ready to scheme...this week's game is Survivor: The Australian Outback! In this game based on one of the earlier seasons of the popular reality show, we collect survival items and engage in intense table politics, sort of, as we attempt to earn immunity and avoid being eliminated at Tribal Council. Secrets will be revealed, and rice will be eaten. Find out who survived the final vote, and whether or not we're still friends after (SPOILER: No.) Plus, it's our most devious, maddening, diabolical Battle of Wits yet!

It's animated anarchy at Flip the Table Headquarters as we take on two games in our first ever cartoon special! First, we play 1983's Masters of the Universe 3-D Action Game, a spin-and-mover which seeks to improve the Snakes and Ladders formula by injecting a healthy dose of Beast Man. Then we travel from Eternia to Townsville and take on Lenny Baxter and Mojo Jojo in The Powerpuff Girls: Saving the World Before Bedtime...a program movement game all the way from the futuristic utopia of The Year 2000. Is Chemical X enough to overcome The Power of Grayskull? Will He-Man ever figure out how to take the Wind Raider out of reverse? Listen now!

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BANCE!!! This week, we play the Batman Forever Audio Game, our first ever title featuring an audio cassette (It's like a VHS, but you can't see anything). We follow the commands of a mysterious 1940's radio announcer as we attempt to be the first to bring Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey to justice. Will Two-Face's army of thugs stop our Dynamic Quintet? Will a phalanx of useless police officers do anything to stop this rampant epidemic of crime? Will we need a pencil to rewind the tape? Tune in now to find out!!!