GameFest.com
Patrick Korner
August 2003
Canada

If Africa was a little too exotic and distant for you, then perhaps the good old United States of America is more to your liking? The companion release to Out of the Box Publishing’s 10 Days in Africa (which was reviewed previously – check out what I had to say here), 10 Days in the USA lets players travel the width and breadth of the country – from the Emerald State to the Garden State, from the Deep South to Alaska – all without leaving the comforts of their living room. This Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum release is similarly enjoyable, educational and interesting compared to the African version, but there are a few differences…

Description

10 Days in the USA, at first glance, looks a lot like its African counterpart. Same board (but of course showing the USA this time), same allotment of blue, green red, yellow and orange cards. A few graphic changes – the jeeps are now vintage sports cards while the airplanes have been upgraded to jet power. The main differences are that each state is represented only once (in contrast to the central countries in Africa, which got two cards each), and that Alaska and Hawaii add a new colour to the game: Purple.

The object of the game remains the same: arrange a set of 10 cards such that you can make an uninterrupted trip through all 10. As with the first game, you have to start and end your trip in a state, not a car or plane. You can travel freely between adjacent states or use planes of the appropriate colour to travel between two separated states, provided they’re of the same colour. The cars let you skip over a state that you’re missing – so you can drive from Washington to California, using the car to go straight through Oregon. As with Africa, the first player to arrange all ten of his/her cards correctly wins.

To start the game, each player draws 10 random cards and places them onto their racks. Once each player has their cards, the remaining cards are put in a face-down pile next to the board and the top three cards turned over. Those three cards form the start of the three discard piles. That’s it for set-up; you’re ready to play.

Game play is simple: On your turn, draw a card. You can take the top card in the pile or you can pick the top-most card from any of the three discard piles. You then replace one of the cards in your rack with the freshly-drawn card; the unwanted card goes into whichever discard pile you choose. That’s it! Play continues until someone finishes their route, allowing them to show the rest of the table just which scenic route they took.

The only real difference to game play, when compared to the African edition, are the two purple states. To get to either or Alaska or Hawaii, you have to fly (no driving through Canada, sadly). But there aren’t any purple planes. To get there, you have to use a plane that matches the colour of the state you’re coming from. To get out, you use another plane that matches the colour of the state you’re heading to. The planes don’t have to be the same colour, which can be a nice way of avoiding panting yourself into a corner.

Comments

In my review of 10 Days in Africa, I said I thought that the game was only very good for two, and I stand by those comments for 10 Days in the USA as well. It’s a great two-player game, but a potentially frustrating multi-player game. Nothing is as annoying as watching the key state you need disappear into someone else's rack before you even get a shot at it – even more so in this version of the game because you can’t hope for the second card for some of the key countries to show up. This issue is offset partly by the geography of the USA– the central states aren’t quite as all-important as they seem to be in Africa – there are more ways of getting around, essentially. Because there’s a heavy dash of luck to the game, I like the fact that it plays quickly, which lets you play multiple rounds to even things out. And parents playing with their kids just have to keep the usual ‘don’t play cut-throat with your children’ rule of thumb in mind.

The artwork and graphics of the game are about on par with other Out of the Box offerings – that is to say, very simplistic. But once again, because of the style of the game, the minimalist art works quite well. I wouldn’t want the map on the board to be prettied up with fancy graphics and other bells and whistles, as it would very much interfere with its functionality. The game won’t make you ooh and aah when it comes out of the box, but it does the job just fine. It may just be my eyes, but it appears as though OTB fixed the issue with orange and yellow looking too much alike, too – I didn’t have that issue with this game, in contrast to 10 Days in Africa.

The card racks are the same sturdy wooden ones that come with the African edition, but I don’t like these ones quite as much. The ‘natural wood’ and wood-burning style of Africa, in my opinion, beats out the blue-and-silver painted ones in the USA edition, which look a little garish. They also smell when you first open the box – make sure you play in a well-ventilated room at first! I’m assuming that the paint won’t make you light-headed, but it’s good to be sure. Alternately, you could use this as a potential excuse for when your wife / husband beats you…

The card stock is nice and thick, as with Africa. For some reason, though, several of the cards in my copy of this game split down the middle after a couple of plays, as if the glue used to keep the two halves together was defective in someway. A little white glue and some patience made things whole again pretty quickly, and a quick check with Out of the Box confirms that this issue has been fixed - any copies in stores now won't have this problem. Overall, the components are nearly, but not quite, as good as those in 10 Days in Africa.

Educationally, 10 Days in the USA does a great job. I can see this game being a favourite of teachers throughout the states, as it teaches basic USA geography in a way that’s fun and engaging and, very importantly, easily accessible to younger players. No complicated rules or fiddly bits to remember here! The same basic population and capital information found on the African cards is repeated here, which is a nice touch. Those out there who think that Seattle and Los Angeles are capital cities, play the game and find out where the governments of Washington and California really call home. And those who are wondering if perhaps the USA-centric focus of this game makes is less enjoyable – think again. There’s lots to enjoy here, even if your address doesn’t reside in the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’.

Conclusions

For me, 10 Days in the USA is nearly as good as its companion game, 10 Days in Africa. The minor quibbles are well worth living with, since this is definitely one of the better games Out of the Box has released in recent years. Parents looking to teach their children a thing or two while having a great time in the process would be well advised to pick this game up, but it’s a fun diversion for adults as well. Overall, I slightly prefer the African version, but 10 Days in the USA is a fun, light game that’s worthy of being added to just about anyone’s collection.

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