Flip The Table

Now you can virtually experience the warm California sun via the radioactive glow of a cathode ray tube...with VCR California Games! Join us as we roll and move our way through the bay area, participating in generic extreme sports competitions to raise enough money to go to "The Nationals" by way of watching 5 second clips of skateboarding, BMX, wind surfing, and more. Is this game totally "Nails," or is it the opposite of "Nails"? What does any of that mean? Plus, Professor Laserbooks sneaks some education past FTT Standards and Practices and into the Battle of Wits. Cowa-BANCE-ga!

Set your VCRs for 1985 and prepare for a healthy dose of drama as we play All My Children, the board game based on the popular ABC soap opera! This game by TSR (The company behind Dungeons and Dragons at the time) attempts to inject a little bit of gamerly nuance into a licensed roll and mover. Were they successful in turning endless melodramatic plots into a solid experience for gamers? Flip the Table investigates. Download now!

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad episode of Flip the Table as Rich Sommer from TV's Mad Men joins us to review MAD Magazine: The Board Game! This 1979 classic combines the subversive wit and satire of the iconic magazine with all the thrill and excitement of an old roll & move board game. Players travel counterclockwise around the board as they do everything they can to lose all the money they have in a chair-swapping, impression-of-a-rock doing, deliberately-vague-rules-interpreting slugfest. Many of us had this one as a kid...but does it hold up almost 35 years later? Also: We find out how someone with an actual IMDB listing fares in our first ever Celebrity Battle of Wits!

All rise! The People's Court is now in session! Join Flip the Table and returning contributors Ben and Niki Turner as we face the dreaded Judge Wapner Spinner and play this 1986 title based on the original courtroom reality show. Does this roll and move board game accurately depict the drama of petty disputes in a small claims court? Also: we seamlessly edit over a mistake in identifying where Jerry Springer served as mayor, and we engage in a special Judge Edition of the Battle of Wits. Download now!

In our season finale, join Flip the Table as we present our awards for the best and worst games we've played on the show. Which game had the most BANCE? Which was the most eye-gougingly bad game we've played all year? We'll tell you! With words! Also: listen and laugh at our expense as we valiantly struggle to pronounce your names in our first ever listener Q&A, and find out who will be crowned the 2012 Battle of Wits Heavyweight Champion of the World! It's a super-sized episode filled with more plot twists than a Dennis Miller joke about M. Night Shyamalan movies. Listen now!

In our last game review of 2012, Flip the Table invites you to "Experience Bij" as we play "Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive VCR Board Game"! The Klingon warmonger Kavok has taken control of the Enterprise in this roll & move race against the clock. Can our Starfleet training overcome hammy acting and crew infighting to prevent an intergalactic war, or will the fragile alliance with the Klingons be shattered by a 60 minute VHS tape? Plus: Flip gives a full report from BGG.con, and Professor Laserbooks challenges the panel to a super-sized Star Trek Battle of Wits! "Engage" your favorite podcasting device and "Make it so" the noises we made go into your ears...download now!

This week, we're joining forces with the Game Night Guys to bring you team coverage of Murder, She Wrote: The board game! It's a deduction game with a traitor element released 25 years ahead of its time. Like Battlestar Galactica, there are many copies of Jessica Fletcher (played by the immortal Angela Lansbury) chasing down a twisted murderer as they try to exterminate an entire island resort. Is this game worthy of being played after, say, "60 Minutes: The Board Game"? Plus: A Battle of Wits with an ending you won't believe!  Check out our review, and visit gamenightguys.com to hear their coverage of Murder, She Wrote!

If you've ever enjoyed searching your couch cushions for change, you'll be intrigued by this week's title. Electronic Talking Mystery Mansion is a 1995 deduction game featuring a boatload of tiny doll furniture, and a squawking box which leads you through a treasure hunt. You'll search every nook and cranny of the house to find the Million Dollar Prize...but watch out! The other players will try to steal your clues by talking you out of them (read: beating you in a die roll). Nearly 20 years later, does this electronic gimmick hold up? Use the power of the Internet to download this episode and find out!

Just in time for Halloween, this spooktacular episode of Flip the Table features a dark and mysterious journey into the world of Dexter, the board game based on the Showtime television series. This title lets players step into the role of blood-spatter analyst and serial killer Dexter Morgan as he stalks other murderers and deals with them by making impulse purchases at hardware stores, sailing a boat across dry land, and riding along with his Dark Passenger into the endless, maddening downward spiral of one-way Miami traffic. Then: The Battle of Wits challenges the panel to price out more peculiar collectibles. Download now!

Are you ready for some cutting-edge, video edutainment? This week, Flip the Table takes on 1990's Gone Birding! It's "A full-color video adventure in bird identification" where players watch VHS clips of birds, advancing across the board one space for each correctly identified species. However, what lies beneath the veneer of G-Rated entertainment for the whole family? Plus: the panel takes on another Battle of Wits inspired by this week's game and LangGuini from Island Officials! Who will be the king of bird calls? Find out now! 

For the first time, Flip the Table attempts to scratch the surface of the massive Star Wars universe with a special two-game episode! First, we take on the Funburst children's classic Ewoks Save the Trees and find out what happens when the dastardly Phlogs attack the peaceful kingdom of Candy Land. Then, it's Battle Droid vs. Clone Trooper in the card-driven arena of Star Wars: Galactic Heroes...we talk about rules variants, and what's wrong with this poor Clone Trooper's foot. Does either game capture the epic space opera, or are the 3-D pop-up boards a mask for something much darker? Spaaaaaace!

Hey! You! Do you like being frightened to death by a dead technology? Then prepare to be thrust into the "Atmosfear"-ic world of Nightmare, the 1991 VCR game! This roll-and-mover challenges you to take on the mysterious Gatekeeper as he shouts instructions at you in a strange accent. Will you beat the clock and stop the tape before the Gatekeeper dooms you forever, or will you be "BANIIIIISH TO THE BLECK HEWWWL"? Download now to hear Flip the Table's take on this cult classic, and find out if it holds up 20 years later.

Flip the Table has returned from the near future to bring you Robocop: The VCR Game! This roll-and-mover features real video clips from the cinematic classic. Much like the ill-fated ED-209, this one's got a shiny veneer that seems impressive; but set it at the top of a flight of stairs, and you might reconsider your investment. Would we buy this one for a dollar? Download now to find out...you have 30 seconds to comply.

If you've been to a thrift shop in the U.S. in the last 25 years, you've probably seen a shrink-wrapped copy of this week's title, Trump: The Game. No, not like a "Trump" from a deck of cards, or the onomatopoeia of a bag of laundry being dropped on a passer-by from 10 stories up...we're talking money mogul Donald Trump's entry into the world of board games. In this episode, the bold risk-takers at Flip the Table sit down to play the 1980's edition. Come wheel and deal with us as we try to find out why so much shrink-wrap remains unbroken...

For the first time ever, Flip the Table takes on 3 games in one show! In this super-sized, epic length, 65 minute spectacular, we go back in time to the early arcade boom to cover three board games based on video game classics; Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Turtles (not the good kind like you want). Plus, in the Battle of Wits, Flip challenges us to enter the game and survive pixilated peril in a special classic arcade quiz. One of these games actually gets our seal of approval...which one? Press start and find out!

What happens when you take a video game, turn it into a board game, then reintroduce video? You get the Halo: Interactive Strategy Game; a DVD board game which allows you to take on the role of Master Chief as he navigates endless menus. Does this box of grey plastic have a chance at recreating the pulse-pounding experience of one of the world's most popular shooters? Plus: In this week's Battle of Wits, the panel tests their knowledge of video game world records...so hop on your Warthog and download now!

As party games go, this is one...we're playing Heartthrob from 1988; the slumber party classic where players attempt to get into each-other's heads to find out which eligible bachelor they would choose to dance with, go steady with, and ultimately attempt to raise socially well-adjusted children with. It's a teen throwback targeted at exactly the opposite demographic of the Flip the Table panel. This week, we answer Chuck Woolery's timeless question: would we go on a second date with Heartthrob? The answer may surprise you. Or not.

Yo, Joe! On this week's program, we play GI Joe: Mission: Cobra HQ...a roll & move game of infiltration where Snake Eyes and three other Joes attempt to steal TOP SECRET files from Cobra Headquarters. The question is, does this game contain the same level of subtle nuance and deep emotional engagement as the animated series? Download now to find out.

It's a Chuck Woolery extravaganza as we play Lingo, the DVD board game featuring the host of such legendary game shows as Scrabble and Love Connection. Based on the GSN game show, this game seeks to capture the TV experience. Does this fusion of Bingo, Mastermind, and newspaper word puzzles succeed? The answer is just a click away...

It is perhaps the only board game to come with both a cardboard wrestling ring and a DVD...it's WWE: The DVD Board Game. This title casts you as the manager of a stable of wrestlers vying to collect all of the WWE titles by solving exploding Wheel of Fortune puzzles. Listen to find out if this game is a Jobber, or a Heavyweight Contender.