Kickstarter Game Preview: Mixtape Massacre

Please be aware this board game might not be suitable for all gamers. The rulebook, tokens and many of the cards contain artwork of graphic and disturbing violence.

If you always found yourself rooting for the killers in 80’s slasher flicks, Bright Light Media has designed the game for you!

Quick Links:

Who would like this game? >
Mixtape Massacre kickstarter page >
Mixtape Massacre on BoardGaming.com >

The following is a preview of a prototype copy of Mixtape Massacre. The artwork, components and rules may not be in their final form.

Overview

Remember when they spilled pig’s blood on the prom queen? Or let that little boy drown at summer camp? Or fed those adorable furballs after midnight? Well Mixtape Massacre lets you control the victims-turned-psychopaths in their quests for revenge. And somehow, the poor town of Tall Oaks is plagued with all of these monsters at once…

Gameplay

Mixtape Massacre is a simple game – you roll your dice to determine movement, go where the dice will allow, and if you’ve made it to a location with a Scene Marker in it you’ll have a Killer Scene – a chance to kill one of the promiscuous teenagers of the town.

The town of Tall Oak has twelve locations, and each one will contain a Scene Marker at the start of the game. You, as well as the other deranged murderers playing the game, will attempt to get to these locations by rolling the highest numbers on a standard D6. Once at a location containing a Scene Marker, you draw a card from the “Killer Scene, Dude” pile. These cards show and briefly describe the townsfolk you’re trying to kill, and give you the number of knives you’ll have to roll on the custom Action Dice to be successful.

You roll three Action Dice, and you’ll usually need 1 or 2 knives to make the kill (2 of the 6 faces are knives). If successful, the Killer Scene card will tell you how many souvenirs you collect – these are grotesque images of severed fingers, feet, eyeballs, etc. We’ll spare you the pictures here, but the Kickstarter page has them prominently displayed. Souvenirs are located on the other side of Scene Markers; the marker in the location you’ve successfully killed in is the first to be collected. Once all twelve locations on the board have had their Scene Markers claimed as souvenirs, all locations save the spot of the last kill are re-supplied with new Scene Markers.

Play is passed around the table until one player collects the requisite number of souvenirs to win (15 in a 2-player game, 12 in a 3-player game and 10 in a 4- to 6-player game), or until only one player is left alive. That’s right, there are plenty of townfolk who won’t die so easily, and they come at you with whatever they have handy. If you take 6 injuries from them (or from other players), you’re dead. Enjoy watching your friends play the rest of the game, you disgrace of a mass-murderer.

There are sewer spots scattered around the streets of Tall Oak that you can use to move quickly from one side of the board to the other, and there are special Bonus Track spots that allow you to draw a card from the Bonus Track deck. This deck is filled mostly with helpful items for immediate or future use, but also contains a few cards that will hurt you.

The most exciting mechanic in Mixtape Massacre is the killing spree. When you’ve successfully killed, you get to continue your turn… and all of your movement rolls are doubled. This gives you a chance to make a kill at one location, immediately move to the next location and attempt another kill, and so on as long as you’re successful. The middle 4 locations of the board are laid out to encourage killing sprees, as there’s only 2 road spaces between them (thus a roll of 2 or more will get you from one location to the next).

Who would enjoy this game?

Family Gamer {no}

Absolutely not for children.

Social Gamer {yes}

Without difficult decisions and planning to weigh you down, everything in Mixtape Massacre is set up to induce laughter and dice-rolling excitement.

Strategy Gamer {no}

With both movement and attack success/failure determined by dice roll (and only a few ways to alter those dice rolls), there is nothing here for Strategy Gamers.

Casual Gamer {yes}

Mixtape Massacre is extremely easy to learn – like 5 minutes of rulebook time, then you’re ready to go. Any Casual Gamer who likes horror moves – particularly 80s horror movies – will enjoy this game.

Avid Gamer {maybe}

Avid Gamers won’t love Mixtape Massacre because there’s an absence of depth and challenge… but they will love that they’ll be able to get even the most ardent boardgame haters they know to play with them if those individuals enjoy horror movies.

Power Gamer {no}

As should be evident by now, this is a very light-hearted, simple game. There is nothing to get immersed in, and nothing meaningful to do with your character.

Final Thoughts

This game is for a very particular player – one who absolutely loves slasher movies. The mechanics don’t matter. If you like horror, you’re going to laugh and enjoy Mixtape Massacre. If you don’t like horror movies, there is nothing else here to make it worth your while.

While much about the game is simple, the artwork is awesome. The prototype we played only had 3 pieces of finished art on the cards (the three pictured above), but the non-finished cards contained descriptions of the artwork that will eventually appear – they’re always interesting, and frequently hilarious. In a game relying completely on a niche theme, top-notch art was imperative – and Bright Light Media nailed it.

Nostalgia runs through Mixtape Massacre, and it’s easy to appreciate if you were around in the 80’s. In addition to characters based on Gremlins, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie/Prom Night and It/Killer Klowns from Outer Space (as well as The Ring, which is a bit out-of-timeframe), the locations on the board are an homage to the 80’s in general. There’s “Diamond Lake” (get it?), an arcade, a video rental shop, a skate park that’s simply an empty pool… and 80’s horror movie locales like malls and high schools. There’s also a well so that the poor girl from The Ring doesn’t feel completely ostracized. Everything has been well-thought out and planned to keep the theme at the forefront while you chuck those dice!

Support this game on kickstarter.com!

{Backing ends May 8th, 6:55am PST}
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