Run for Your Life, Candyman!
2-6
12+
30
Run, run, as fast as you can...
Yours is an enchanted land made entirely of candy and confections, but underneath that sugar-frosted veneer lies the disturbing truth. The king has betrayed you all. The sweet, candy citizens throughout the land are being packaged and shipped from the castle to voracious children all over the world. But not you. You're not going out like that. Time to get your candy buttons out of Dodge!
So, it's every gingerbread man for himself in a mad dash for the border. And if you have to snap a few ginger limbs to save yourself, well...that's the way the cookie crumbles.
User Reviews (3)
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This game is awesome. I found it years ago and the copy on the back really grabbed me, especially; “But Not You, You’re not going out that way!” In the context of it’s silly subject matter.
The game is played like Candy Land with added cartoony, candy violence. There are cute gingerbread man playing pieces, a winding track of colorful candy traverses the board. there are special spaces marking locations that one can suddenly be transported to and wonderful, goofy artwork. Movement is controlled, much as in Candy Land, with cards decorated with one or two candies. The added fun comes from the Gingerbread Status Sheets and the Candy Cage Match! spaces on the board.
The status sheets have a diagram of a gingerbread man, each limb, the head and the torso correspond to a candy type and each of these areas contains 6 little boxes. When one player passes another player on the board they can, if they choose, attack the player they are passing by drawing a card which determines the hit location. Damage is marked by X-ing off one or two boxes in the indicated area. There are also Special Treat cards which depict special weapons and can extend the range of an attack etc. Such as; Licorice Whip, Popped Rocks etc.
If a Candy Cage Match! card is drawn instead of a regular candy movement card, the player who drew the card drags a player of their choice to the nearest candy cage match space. (there are 3) Players then bash on each other until a special card is drawn… a card that also controls when Special Treat cards are drawn and is determined at random at the start of play.
The last dash of the game subjects players to multiple, multiple attacks by two candy crazed children. If a player survive this multi-turn gauntlet, with so much as one body part remaining, they win the game.
Play is well-paced and exciting and funny. The artwork is very colorful and appealing and the fights are goofy-cut-throat fun. Our whole family loves this game and it is dragged out to play as frequently as possible. The one and only negative thing I can say is that the playing pieces are folded cardboard that insert into plastic bases and with all the use this game sees our cardboard gingerbread men are showing some wear and the one or 2 of the plastic bases are a little loose but that is a minor point about one of the most fun board game experiences I have ever had.
As a child, it was safe to say I was a fan of Eleanor Abbott’s 1949 classic, Candy Land. In fact, if pressed on ways to improve the game, I could really only offer two nearly identical suggestions: death and dismemberment. Enter Run For Your Life, Candyman.
If rating a game on enjoyment resulting directly from the pain of others, you’d be hard pressed to find a better game. With the obvious exception of Duck, Duck, Goose if played properly.
A typical conversation in the Magik household (with falsified identities, of course):
Xander – “You rolled a double gum drop. You could saunter right on past and put yourself in a great position to win”
Willow – “Yes… or I could double back and take that last arm of yours.”
Xander – “But this arm is all I have left… what kind of person…”
Giles (interrupting) – “Odds aren’t in your favor, but I’d give it a shot. That arm would look real nice on your mantle.”
Anya – “The games consists simply of cardboard characters, a deck of cards, your personal character sheet, and a game board. Where did you get this mantle you speak of?”
Giles – “Not now. You’re not even playing this game with us. And I resent the way you end sentences in prepositions and insist on the somewhat pretentious use of the Oxford comma.”
Anya – “How could you possibly know where I place my commas? This is a spoken conversation.”
Willow – “Guys, while you were arguing, I totally took his arm. He’s currently dying a painful, bloody death.”
It is nearing party game perfection. Eleanor Abbott, they have done you proud.
I enjoyed this game. It’s easy to pick up due to its similarity to Candy Land and moves quickly. I admittedly spent more time trying to take out my opponents than I did trying to win, so technically didn’t do very well. However, I was satisfied with the pile of candy limbs I had collected by the end. I also appreciate that in this world a completely limbless and headless torso could somehow roll its bleeding self across the finish line.