Bang! - The Addictive Spaghetti Western Game Review

My take on games in general seems to be one of only buying games that I can have anyone play, ones with varying themes so people don't get bored (Dragons, Orcs, and Viking looking warriors, and anything-goes Party games only go so far) and ones that are generally a blast to play. Given all the praise and attention people seemed to be giving Bang!, I finally decided to snatch up the last copy at my local comic shop. I'm very glad I did.

I opened the box just being aware of the basic beats of the game. I knew "Bang!" cards shot people, "Miss" cards made you miss the shot, and there were roles to be played out. However, all the rest of the cards do a great job of really fledging out the gameplay and making that theme actually work as a shootout.

Gameplay:

When you sit down for a game, you have your little 3-card, 5-life "base" in front of you. Basically, it keeps track of your life (an amount of bullets you are alloted, given your character) and upgrades to guns for you and other people. However, you won't know what to put on this base until the cards are dealt.

Roles are dealt out with the amount of outlaws and deputies changing with the amount of players. No one reveals who they are in the game except for the sheriff, who starts the gameplay. You'll also get a character that acts as a special ability in the game. Only you will be able to do what the card says unless someone upgrades later. This character card also shows you how many life bullets you start with. That last slot on your base tells you how far you can shoot, which you can upgrade later. You initially only have a range of 1. Range is determined by how far left or right the target is sitting.

Now that you are set up, The sheriff starts up by taking 2 cards (which everyone always does at the beginning of their turn) and starts playing cards as he sees fit. This is really where all the "Bang!" shots are fired, players try to evade, you get to upgrade, and so on. There are 2 types of cards; Blue-bordered "in-play" cards and brown-bordered instant-action cards. The blue ones are things like gun upgrades, range upgrades, dynamite, and other things that last longer than just that turn. All other cards are instantly acted upon and discarded. Once a player is done with their turn, they need to have only as many cards in their hand as they do life bullets. As you get shot more, you can carry less cards.



The sheriff is trying to kill the outlaws and the renegade, the outlaws are trying to kill the sheriff, the deputies are trying to help the sheriff kill the outlaws, and the renegade pretty much wants everyone to kill each other off.

Cons

Really, my only qualm is one that happens a lot with new games, which is just reading what is happening on each card you get and figuring out what each card does. For a bunch of 5 first-timers, there was a lot of reading the cards and the booklet to figure out just what you could do with your cards. Our second game went A LOT more smoothly, and was much more fun once the down-time was cut and the shots were just flying all over the place.

I can also see where, if you were killed early, this game might irritate or bore you a bit. You want to play the game with your friends, not sit on the sidelines watching others duke it out. You also need to watch out for people that get upset if people are actually shooting at them. "Why the **** are you shooting at me!?" might happen. Although, sometimes you just lose games, so these are small gripes.

Pros

Pretty much everything else in this game works really well. LOTS of player interaction happens wether it be from laughing at the stupid character someone got, watching someone get blown up by the dynamite, or the rampant swearing that goes on when players are trading shots, gunning for each other, it's all a blast. I really like Westerns, so this just puts the game over the top for me.

Final thoughts

The reason for games in general is to pass the time and have fun while you are doing it. There is so much interaction in this game trying to shoot your friends and playing the right card at the right time, that I have to absolutely recommend this game. I would even say this is a great party game that your entire family will love, although I can see kids maybe being upset at being killed off early or why Mom shot them.

I highly recommend Bang! for your group game collection!

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle Review

Ok, so maybe I'm a few years on the uptake of this "classic" portrayal of Iron Man, but I simply had to see what all the fuss was about.  Evidently, there were pieces of this storyline in the movie, so I wanted to see what they pulled from and just how drunk and disorderly Tony actually became.  So, here goes.

I try to write these things without spoilers and such, so you can determine for yourself whether or not you want to read it, but I might have to be a bit more liberal this time, given that this story has been around for almost 30 years now.... Jeez, I'm old.

You ever have something that you idealized when you were younger and remembered it being "so great" only to revisit it years later and realize it wasn't really all that amazing at all; it was just a different time and you were into that sort of thing?  This is how I feel about this trade.  I definitely see where they pulled from IM's origins and such for the movie, but for the most part it left me a bit flat.  

Were drugs and alcohol just the gasp-worthy things back in the 70's that made this so stand-out?  They had Harry Osborn popping pills and it is known as Spider-Man classic.  I guess Green Arrow did the same thing with his sidekick Speedy having a heroin addiction too...  I guess there is angst in these types of stories but no one really wants to follow the exploits of some cracked out loser.  At least not for very long.  Regardless, this thing obviously sold books, which is really the whole point, from a publishing standpoint.  

Now, there are some decent appearances and cameos in this thing, like Namor, the Avengers (Captain America even gives Tony Stark some fighting lessons; I don't know why Tony didn't change his clothes first) and some alright villains teaming up on behalf of Justin Hammer.  Really, all the stuff that goes down is because of him.  He starts mucking with the suit which leaves Stark wondering why he sucks at being Iron Man.

The whole first part with the Namor just seemed kind of... filler.  IM has a few too many on the plane, then mentions his reaction time is messed up when he fights with and against Namor.  Tony almost drowns because of Hammer.  I felt it was much less about the drinking and more "holy crap, what happened with my suit? I almost died right there!"  

Tony develops a bit of a romance with one of his bodyguards, Bethany Cabe, but in the mean time, he continues to have a few problems with the suit.  He bodyguards for an ambassador and, during a press conference and with IM's hand on the ambassador's back, Hammer activates IM's repulsor blast, killing the ambassador in front of the whole city.  What happens?  Oh, they let him go.....

"Officer, I... I realize this will be difficult to believe, but I didn't murder anyone!  My repulsor activated without any signal from me whatsoever!"  Perfectly logical that the cops talk for a panel or two and decide that it really isn't really a threat, having killed a man in full view of hundreds of people.....  Yeesh.  All he had to do was give up his suit.  No running from the cops, very little, "my life sucks because people hate Iron Man," just an "oh, well, you killed him, find out who did!"  maybe i am just used to longer, more involved storylines, but this is supposed to be quintessential Iron Man here!

Tony gets kidnapped by Hammer, gets told the evil plan, blows up the machine messing with the suit, and gets Iron Man back online, beating up a team of baddies.  Whatever, you can glance over this.

Tony really only gets his drink on in the last issue or two and stands up Bethany a few times, treats her and Jarvis like crap, prompting Jarvis to resign.  Bethany wonders what is up and helps Tony out of his funk.  Jarvis gets rehired, IM beats up Jarvis' insurance guy, and the world is happy once more.  

The real 'Demon in a Bottle' was maybe 2 issues.  It just seemed like a caveat in what was pretty much Justin Hammer messing with Iron Man.  Maybe the story just isn't my thing, but I never got the sense that this was a long-term problem Tony had been dealing with.  I thought that maybe there was more to it and Tony had been drinking out of control for years.  Maybe I'm just not that into Iron Man.  Maybe it's affected my review of this trade.  Maybe.... maybe it just isn't that great...

If you really like Iron Man, you should give Demon in a Bottle a look, but if you know the basic plot points of the storyline, you don't need to know much more.  The real story is not all that compelling and you will do yourself a service to keep the idealized story in your head over the actual one.