Pyramid Magazine
Andy Vetromile
August 2008
USA

Sometimes you get the feeling Hollywood is getting its ideas for movies by throwing darts at a bulletin board covered in theatrical elements and using the results to crank out a title and script. If you can imagine this process in reverse, you'd have a pretty good sense of how to play Cineplexity.

The object of the game (for four to 10 players) is to be the first player to score the requisite number of game cards.

To get the party started, someone is chosen to play the part of director for the turn. He takes one of the dual-slot trays full of cards from the box and pulls a card from each slot, placing them in the middle of the table and announcing them so everyone knows what's in play. They list movie elements from nine different categories: theme, setting, critiques, genre, characters, scenes, actors, production, and props.

Players begin calling out titles, trying to offer something that covers both cards. For example, if you have a card that says there's a scene in a bathroom and a prop card that says there's a gun in the film, you could choose Saw, The Godfather, or True Lies, but these bits don't have to be in-frame at the same time so it could also be Teachers or Starship Troopers. The director selects the first right answer he hears, though discussion is allowed and reference material may be brought to bear to convince him an earlier suggestion was right. Attention must be paid to who is playing director at the time since it's his interpretation that applies (critiques in particular ask for an opinion). For example, if a card says the movie has "gratuitous nudity," was "overrated," or contained a "noteworthy kiss," those are all in the director's view.

The right answer earns the player one of the two cards; the other stays on the table and is paired up with a new card for the next turn. The tray moves clockwise to the next director who now adjudicates the action. If no one can combine the two cards in play, a third may be added to widen the options; players must match two of these cards, not all three. If these three don't generate an answer, a new set of cards is chosen. The fewer players you have, the more cards they must score to win the game, and the first to rake in that many cards wins.

In an industry that seems to be skimping on cardstock of late, it's good to see cards so full and stiff they could draw blood. Not only are they firm enough, they're colorful and the text on them is as large as the creators could make it, to forestall complaints that the round was over before you could read the cards. The illustrations are small and usually just functional icons, but they're there for you Kovalic (and Quinn-Kinney) completists.

If the shrink-wrap and the website are anything to judge by, the initial offering of this game is the "premiere limited edition" and has more than 200 bonus cards. This obviously suggests the second go-round at the printers will have fewer cards (the components are packed tightly into this iteration). 300 cards is still a tidy number and should provide plenty of options for play, but you go through the cards a lot faster than "500" might hint at. Extra cards may also explain why some card backs are blue while others are darker, almost purple.

The game is another of those painfully simple ideas that produces an entertaining pastime, though it must be noted: The more you know about movies, the less challenge there may be to the game. It's still a lot of fun trying to pull something from memory to fit the requirements (and to be the first to do so), but much of the time it's just not that hard to do if you're a buff. There will always be occasions when an awkward pairing turns out to be tougher than anticipated, but those moments come too seldom, and it's a shame because that's when you feel the adrenaline and the heat. (Try coming up with a movie when one card lists Steve Martin, Steve Buscemi, or Steve McQueen, and the other John Goodman, Cloris Leachman, or Gene Hackman . . . without using the Internet Movie Database.)

As simple as the rules are, there's still plenty of debate flying as the game progresses. Most of it is the "all in good fun" brand and not the "holes in the rules" kind, but tempers can flare so get your house guidelines about what you will and won't allow in order as soon as possible. Use of outside materials can slow things down if you don't already have a laptop and a video guide propped onto the table (a game can take as little as 10 minutes). Also take heed that you need at least four to play.

There's plenty of replay value, and since the company does junior and alternate versions of many of its games, it stands to reason sequels and supplements can't be far off. Cineplexity is another good movie game, forcing you as it does to reverse-engineer your own trivia, and another winner for the Out of the Box Publishing crew.

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