Model Retailer Magazine
David Popp
September 2006
USA

PRODUCT LAB Out of the Box game offers armchair travel in Europe Product: The old phrase, “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium,” is the perfect way to sum up 10 Days in Europe, the latest game from Out of the Box Publishing, Inc.

This creative family game about traveling in Europe is for two to four players and includes a colorful game board, four wood tile holders and 66 tiles made from heavy card stock. It also includes a four-page instruction card and a compact storage box.

Performance: The game is easy to set up. Each player gets a wood tile holder with 10 slots, one for each day of the trip. The game board, placed in the center of the table, is used to identify country locations and the various ocean, sea, and ferry connections.

Play starts by players randomly choosing 10 country or transportation tiles, which are mixed together, and then placing them into their tile holders one at a time. From there, play runs clockwise around the table with players drawing and discarding tiles to attempt to put their trip together.

The idea is to construct at 10-day European vacation in which each day’s destination connects in some way with the next. Days may connect by having countries with contiguous boarders, by using a ship to travel from one country to the next or by flying between destinations.

The thing that makes the game challenging is that once a tile is placed in a day’s slot, it cannot be moved unless it’s discarded and re-drawn later in the game, which can be pretty risky. Players are not allowed to shuffle tiles in their itinerary slots at anytime. More than once during play testing, I had two complete five-day trips but couldn’t get them to connect without discarding part or all of one of them. The first player to present a European holiday that connects all 10 days is the winner.

Marketing: 10 Days in Europe is a lot of fun to play. The game moves quickly (about 15-20 minutes per round) and has high-quality wood and card-stock components. The box indicates that the game is recommended for ages 10 and up, but I thought it would probably be good for slightly younger players (ages 8 and 9) as well. The game also offers some fun educational value, teaching players the geo- graphic locations, populations and capital cities of European countries as they plan their routes. All of these are good selling points and should make it easy to pitch the game to parents or anyone looking for an entertaining, family-oriented game.

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