Publisher: Arcane Wonders
Age: 14+
Players: 2-5 players
MSRP: $59.99
Release: Arcane Wonders website
Many board games feature historical themes, but few focus on a very specific era of my childhood: 90s gaming. Where I spent every Friday going to Blockbuster (or Video Village, or even the local grocery store!) to rent 8-bit and 16-bit game cartridges for weekend gaming.
Video Game Champion cleverly recreates those fond experiences, as players compete to rent and play as many video games as they can.
Read on for our review of Video Game Champion!
Gotta Play ‘Em All
Video Game Champion is a set collection and drafting game. Players take turns selecting a button tile from the set up grid, and choosing the action on its row or column. Actions include begging the parents for a new game, studying to get money, or doing chores for the grandparents to get rid of those pesky IOUs from the parents (which clog up our hand of buttons).
Buttons are used to play games at the rental store (or games we own). By discarding combinations of sequential buttons, same numbers, or same suits (depending on the game), we can beat a game and earn victory points during final scoring at the end of the game.
Harder games take as many as five buttons to beat, but thankfully we have multiple ways of completing them. Just playing a game (by discarding two buttons) grants a future wild token towards beating it, while we can also purchase and use game magazines as additional wilds.
Going to the rental store is one of the actions, but all players get a chance to visit during the weekend round, after everyone has taken three turns. Getting stuck without any money to rent anything during the weekend stings, but it’s still possible to play owned games, or simply build up a hand of buttons for the next round.
All 30 included games, as well as all magazines, are revealed by the end of the final round. When the games come out, as well as whether they’re in the rental store or the game store (for owning) adds to the replayability, along with different public objectives.
Public objectives include the first to play three fighting games, or the first to own magazines that cover all six genres. The number of goals scale per players, and always felt highly competitive, while allowing everyone to accomplish at least something.
16-bit Cards
Two aspects impressed me the most: game balance, and the “game cartridges” themselves.
The extra large, Tarot-size cartridge cards are directly inspired by 90s console games, with satirical names and awesome box art. Ten-year old me would definitely play Dungeon Shredders, District Disorder, and Bounty Huntress. The game cards are a big draw — just as they were in the 90s, and I love that we see all of them every game.
Balance is very tight, with players having a limited number of actions per turn and per game, but so many ways to earn points. Do I stock up on money for a good rental weekend? But I still need more button tiles to actually play the games! Is it worth clogging my hand with IOUs to own a new game I can play any time? Should I spend extra on new games and magazines to earn crystals for the password book, an entire personal grid-puzzle with its own rewards and points?
For a completely open-information game, it’s a deeply strategic experience.
My biggest complaint is the amount of table space. For a game without a board, Video Game Champion takes up a huge amount of space. The rental store alone needs room for 15 of those extra-large cards placed in rows, in addition to the 5×5 button and action tile grid! It could have benefited from mats or boards to help keep everything organized. And I wish the action cards had the name of the actions, rather than just icons.
The Rating
Video Game Champion has a recommended age of 14+. It’s aimed at nostalgic adults who can enjoy the old school video game references and specific time period. Younger games can understand the actions, but the strategic depth of balancing action economy with money and button management make this best suited for teens and adults.
The Takeaway
Video Game Champion nails the 90s gaming and rental store nostalgia. But it’s not simply for show: there’s a deeply strategic experience that scales well for different player counts. Gameplay strikes a perfect balance between complexity and depth while being incredibly easy to teach. A great play for video game and board game fans.
Video Game Champion is available now at major retailers such as Amazon and Target.
