Fugdale’s Funhouse

Object: Get the Adachi Family to the giant Glass of Milk on the 3-D Island while avoiding the cops.

Review: This game is one of the most amazing graphical board games I have ever seen available for free online. The four members of the criminal Adachi Family are on a hunt to steal the large glass of milk stationed at the top of the island’s central mountain. After all, they need milk for strong bones and healthy teeth and the authorities don’t want them to have it.

This is actually a giant board game with looks reminiscent of the Game of Life by Milton Bradley. The family are in a miniature van which you control by rolling a die. The van moves forward along a path of spaces. Each space is either a fortune space, which moves you forward; a misfortune space, which moves you back; a challenge space, where you have to answer a trivia question quickly to advance; or a Hot Pursuit Space; where you must complete a challenging mini-game to avoid being captured by the police.

That’s right, the police do not want you to get to the milk and they are hot on your tail from the beginning of the game. The luck of the die and the extra spaces on the board will hopefully set you far ahead of the police car. The police car gets a chance to roll the die every time you roll it, so you have to roll high or they will catch up. When they catch you they helicopter you off to Milkatraz Prison where you must make bail, serve your sentence and lose a life, or risk escape by spinning a giant wheel of fortune.

If you manage to make it through all the areas of the board you will win, but this game requires a good deal of luck and a lot of various skills and brain power. It doesn’t seem to have any save points, so you must play it all in one sitting. The game doesn’t always seem fair. The first of the Hot Pursuit Challenges is enough to make you give up altogether and the Milkatraz Prison happens far too often and you almost always lose a life when you go. You only have 3 lives and the police can catch you so easily.

However, this game has the most beautiful board, the playing cards are elegantly tucked under the board and pop out when you need them. The cut scenes are amazingly detailed and have the look and feel of Pixar’s The Incredibles. The rolling of the die is nicely animated. This game deserves the highest marks on overall design, audio and technical implementation. It makes it worth the demanding effort involved in winning the darn thing.

Please let me know what you think of the game?