Board game publisher Allplay (formerly Board Game Tables) has been making a name for themselves with their small box games. I’ve lost track of how many they’ve released to date (a couple dozen maybe?), but they always do a good job of capturing my attention. The art and small form factor are both exceptional, so the real question is if the gameplay holds up.
And to answer that question we are going to be looking at Switchbacks, a hiking-themed game that’s actually a retheme of the original Japanese game Connect37.
Gameplay Overview:
In Switchbacks, there are 37 hexagonal tiles, numbered from 1-37. Each player starts the game by secretly looking at one of the tiles and removing it from the game. Then, on a player’s turn, they first explore by taking one of the tiles from their hand and placing it onto the grid. Then they can either choose to Hike the tile, placing a Meeple on it, or Buddy Up, putting a pair of Meeples off to the side for later use. A future Hike action may use the buddy pair to place both Meeples on the same tile.
The game ends after all tiles have been played. Each hiker will score a point if it’s on a complete hiking path. A hiking path is complete if it’s part of a consecutive number run of at least 4 tiles. The player with the most points is the hiking champion.
Game Experience:
Switchbacks is a game that fellow BGQ reviewer Andrew would say is “Fine”. It’s a game that does what it sets out to do, but also does nothing to really stand out. The rulebook is a tiny 3 pages (with generous use of illustrations), so you can get up and playing this one in minutes. Play a tile, maybe put a hiker on it, draw back up. Easy peasy.
Despite the lack of anything noteworthy, Switchbacks is still a solid game. It plays quickly—about 15 minutes—which feels about the right amount. The little wrinkle of knowing one tile that’s out of the game is also pretty interesting. As you can usually tell when someone is hoping for a run of specific numbers and you can know right away if they are out of luck due to the missing tile.
The buddy up mechanic is also pretty nice, as it’s basically a stalling action. You can only place a hiker on the tile you just played, so you need to decide right away whether it’s worth placing a hiker, or a pair for double points. Because the tiles are hexagons, you do have a lot of freedom in how you trace your paths. That being said, the game can also get somewhat mean if you have an opponent who really likes to mess with people. You can clearly see what numbers players are shooting for, and placing tiles to block is a viable strategy.
My biggest fault with Switchbacks is probably the game arc. The board starts off really open, which leads to lots of interesting decisions. But as the board fills up, choices become much more obvious, until you’ve only got a few placement options left and then you are kind of just going through the motions. By the end of the game, most all interesting decisions have long since been made. Thankfully, the game has a short playtime, so it gets off the table before things get too stale.
Final Thoughts:
Switchbacks is a fine game, but probably not one that people are going to rush out to get. As a small filler that’s pretty portable, it works quite well. However, after a few plays, it’s probably going to be regulated to the corner of your gaming shelf to await being tossed in a bag for travel or when you need a quick filler for the night.
Final Score: 3 Stars – A solid game that looks beautiful, but doesn’t really stand out in any way.
Hits:
• Pretty components
• Easy to learn and get to the table
• Super portable
Misses:
• Later game decisions are less interesting
• Doesn’t do all that much to stand out
