Pyramid Pick: Ricochet Robots

Pyramid Pick

Ricochet Robots

Published by Hans im Gluck, available in the U.S. from Rio Grande Games

Designed by Alex Randolph

$24.95

Alex Randolph's new Ricochet Robots may not attain the classic status of Twixt (probably his best-known design), but he has nonetheless produced an elegant piece of work that will be enjoyed by many.

The premise of the game is simple. You've got four double-sided board sections that can be put together in 96 different ways (with a plastic piece to lock them together), each one of which has a few target spaces and a fair number of walls on it. There are four plastic robots which are placed on the board. One of 17 target space chits is drawn, and then everyone has to figure out how to move the robot to the target (there are four targets specific to each robot, and one particularly difficult target which any robot can hit). A robot can be moved in any of the four standard directions, but the kicker is that it will keep on moving until it hits a wall or another robot. The targets are placed such that there are few or no spots where a robot can naturally end up and just move in, so you have to either find a way to get to one of those few out-of-the-way spots or maneuver other robots around to get the one you want to stop in just the right place. Occasionally you'll get a target which can be reached in three or four easy moves. More often you'll have one which can be reached in six or seven, but the sequence will be tricky to figure out. Sometimes . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: June 4, 1999

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