Hey You Guys! ‘The Goonies’ Retro Board Game Has Tons of Rich Stuff
The first Goonies board game has quality gameplay and great card art to make this game a rarity in even the most prestigious collections.
The Goonies is an absolutely classic movie. It’s exciting, funny, and even inspirational at times. If, for some wild reason, you’ve never seen it, please do so now. I’ll wait.
Before Funko Games released their own Goonies board game, there was this Milton Bradley version released in 1985. It should come as no surprise to you that there was a board game based on the movie.
Oh, the 80s. What a time to be alive. When every movie, no matter how violent, got a board game and action figures directed toward children.
So, how is the Goonies board game? You will hopefully be very pleased to find out that it’s not awful!
Goonies Board Game Gameplay
The Goonies board game is a competitive “roll”-to-move game with hand management mechanics and some take-that elements. The goal of each player is to be the first one to escape the cavern with a treasure in hand. Because the Goonies are all about one thing, and it’s every person for themselves.
Each player takes the role of one of the Goonies and moves through the various sections of One-Eye Willy’s Cavern.
Rather than just using a die to move, players have a hand of cards that direct how much they will be able to move on their turn.
Rather than rolling a die to move, most cards simply have a number indicating how much they allow the player to move. But the Fratelli cards allow you to move another player backward. Plus, the One-Eyed Willy card jumps you in front of the player in the lead.
Throughout the adventure, players will encounter special areas that might slow them down. These special areas are indicated by the colored spaces on the board. When starting a turn on any of these spaces, players draw from that area’s Encounter deck. This dictates if the player is able to get by the various booty traps throughout the cavern.
A green card allows a player to move as normal, but a red card moves them back to the previous doubloon space. While this is nothing revolutionary, it is a big step forward over other movie tie-in games of the time, and I can appreciate that.
Get One-Eyed Willy’s Rich Stuff
But this isn’t the last twist the Goonies board game has to offer. The final area of the board is the One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship, and it gives the players a full range of areas to move around in.
Players enter the area in the upper right and have to make their way down to the bottom row to grab a treasure crystal, then to the doubloon on the left. This, again, isn’t anything revolutionary, but it adds a nice flair to the final area and gives the players a sense of control over their actions.
The first player to reach the Escape with a treasure wins the game!
Final Thoughts
I actually really like this game, for what it is. It’s by no means a thrilling adventure on par with the movie. Still, it is a well-thought-out game with more effort put in than many other movie-tie-in designers of the time.
When you’re working with a movie as big as The Goonies, people will buy the game regardless of the quality. So it’s nice to see Milton Bradley put some real effort into making this more than a simple roll-to-move.
Plus, the artwork is fantastic. The box art is exciting and really captures the movie, and the art for the cards had no right to be this detailed. It’s a shame the encounter cards are just a drop in quality.
Still, it makes me wonder why the designers didn’t implement the free-movement mechanic of the pirate ship into all of the game’s encounter areas. Having this element in other areas would absolutely have made this into a much more memorable game rather than yet another game that’s a simple race to the end.
The competitive theme of the game doesn’t quite fit with the message of the movie. But, cooperative games weren’t really a thing in 1985. Plus, it’s the Goonies, so I’ll give it a pass. Overall, it’s a decent game with a moderate amount of gameplay for the time. But with enough nostalgic theme to make it worth picking up for a diehard fan.
