I think I had my hopes up a bit too much for this one. I found this online, I watched their video, I was sold on the idea and bought it right away. This is a 3 to 6 player game that takes only 5 minutes.
In Spaceteam, you and your team must work together to fix all the malfunctions on your ship in under 5 minutes. While doing this weird problems will come up to add a bit of a deterrent. You must share your tools and work together to get the ship up and running. That was the appeal to me, the idea of a chaotic real time game where we all somehow have to work together.
To play the game, deal out all of the tools, then deal out the appropriate cards(listed in the instructions) from the orange deck. When you start the timer, flip over your Malfunction deck(orange cards) revealing the bottom card only. There are no turns, you are all playing at the same time. To resolve a malfunction card, you must find all the appropriate tools needed. The card can list a tool name, have a picture or a symbol. After that card is resolved you move onto the next. If you have an anomaly card you must perform the action listed on the card before moving on.
While making your way through the malfunction deck you will be on the lookout for a systems go card. System go cards show a part of the spaceship that is now fixed and running smoothly. You will need system go cards to win the game. Tool cards are spread out between players, you must share to win the game. Tool cards must be passed by a person adjacent to them. Once a tool card is used on a malfunction card it can’t be used again until that card is resolved. Once you have collected all six of the system go cards you’ve won the game.
I really thought this would bring the excitement of a game like Happy Salmon but add a bit of purpose. I was a bit let down though. The game is chaotic, but felt more confusing than anything. Everyone speaking over each other doesn’t work as well in the cooperative setting as I thought it would.
The first time out of the box, it didn’t go well, people got confused, some people were mixing up the rules and there wasn’t really an opportunity to fix it. I’d say that first round was pretty unsuccessful. Afterwards we actually sat and discussed it a bit, and came up with a better approach. It did improve the second and third time, but I still wasn’t in love with it by the end. I do like the idea of it and having the 5 minute playtime is nice, especially if you are trying to round up a group of people. I’m kind of on the fence for this one.
I will definitely give this one another try, since it seemed to get better each time we played. It just didn’t live up to my initial expectations. The nice thing is since the game is only 5 minutes there’s not a big commitment to keep trying.
If you like space team try:
The Skillful Meeple 