marimacc

This is a surprisingly fun game for people of ALL ages, adults, kids, and families. I think it’s an excellent addition to any boardgame library.

This is one of a group of games I called “minor action” games, which seem to be popular in Korea, where this game originated. By minor action, I mean, there is some dexterity involved, but you aren’t playing twister, you are just very delicately tapping the sides of the plastic tree with an axe, in an attempt to knock off a piece of bark (worth one point), while trying to NOT knock off a piece of core wood, worth negative 5 points. It’s amazingly simple to learn, and surprisingly, it does have a lot of replay fun value.

For smaller kids, there’s basic math, so it’s educational, and the potential fun of the “Board” basically exploding all over the table. For adults, it’s still a lot of fun; when I set it up at Origins, people would play, get mad they made a bad cut, and then insist I set it up again right away. And it had a whole room full of people laughing! I like the fact that you could play this game with kids, adults, or a mix; I’ve even played it with my 76 year old mother, and she enjoyed it.

I don’t see that many down sides to this game. True, it’s so basic some might find it repetitive, but I’ve played it 5-6 times in a row while still enjoying it. You probably aren’t going to be able to while away a whole afternoon playing it, but it’s a great fun little break game. It does take a couple of minutes to set up, but considering how much time it takes to set up a lot of other games these days, I don’t think it’s a real concern. I think the main concern is that the bark does tend to go flying, so it’s very important that you find all the pieces before you put it away. Otherwise, you’ll have a sickly looking tree next time you play. 🙂

Sure, if you’re really into in depth strategy games, this isn’t going to be a favorite for you; but we all need a break sometimes, even from our regular games that we love, and I think this is the perfect game for that.