Hachette Board Game Night Review

Thanks to Hachette and Tryazon, we could host a game night and review four of their games. We played Mind Map, Task Team, Now!, and Hallapagos. While we enjoyed all the games provided, there was a clear winner that we felt was the best.

Fourth Place: Now!

We started off playing Now! Now! is an excellent game for beginners who want to branch out from games like UNO or Skip-Bo. This game provides everyone with a deck of cards. The objective is to get as close to one of the numbers as possible without going over, so we place three cards in the middle of the playing area. You can discard as many cards as you want, but the catch is you have to wait for a shuffle card before those cards return to your deck, so discard with care.

The first three people who call out “now” force the remaining players to use whatever card they are currently holding. Everyone then flips their cards and sees who had the closest number to each card without going over. Any cards not claimed stay until the end of the final round.

Overall, Now! is a fun game with minimal setup and easy instructions. It’s a great pick if you’re looking for a quick game or one you can play without too much mental strain!

Third Place: Mind Map

Mind Map was our third-played game. The game aims to place your card between two subjects based on what the item matches. For example, in the image below, we presented the categories “a symbol for maturity” and “great for parties with friends.” After placing the markers, the other players will place the number token on top of each other’s markers based on what they think the item was. You get points for each correct guess and every correct guess the other players made (on your marker).

Mind Map is not as beginner-friendly as Now!. It takes a few rounds to get the hang of it, but quickly, different perspectives make you question your friends’ and family’s ideas of certain items. Mind Map is a fun game, but it requires attention.

Second Place: Hallapagos

We ended the night playing Hallapagos, which was the focus of this review. Hallapagos has the most setup and rules of the four games. The idea of the game is to survive daily on this island and build a raft before the hurricane strikes. However, only one person can fit on a raft, so you must build enough for each player.

Now, with all the survival requirements, such as collecting wood, water, and food, it can become challenging. So, maybe the best idea is to focus on getting yourself off the island, and whatever happens to the others… happens.

The tagline is “a cooperative game… until the food is gone!” And that sums up the game perfectly. You need to cooperate with everyone to survive, but not everyone makes it onto that raft. This game requires some experience playing other strategy-type games. While it is easy to learn, players must have experience to outsmart their opponents.

First Place: Task Team

Last, but not least, is Task Team. This is the game that keeps on giving. Task Team is a competitive game played in teams. While the game’s instructions say it can be played with only one person on each team, we feel that a few cards would require more than one person to use effectively. Task Team is beginner-friendly and has the easiest setup of all the games (pull everything out of the box). This game has no instruction manual, as the cards tell you exactly what you need to do.

The game has several props, from a timer to tops to a small measuring tape. Each card tells you what to do, which prop(s) to use, and how to use them. Some examples from our gameplay were throwing the top in the air and seeing how many claps you could manage before catching it, throwing counters onto cards placed in the middle of the table, and listing ingredients for risotto.

This game is chaotic fun, and we recommend it to any party. The first to collect seven cards wins. We had so much fun with this game we had no choice but to rank it first in the pack we received.

Overall, our experience with Hachette and Tryazon was a blast, and we know that our guests will be going out to purchase at least a few of these games on their own.