Have you ever seen that show Banzai on G4? It's pretty wild. There's all sorts of crazy stunts going on in the show. And Screenlife Games, the same company that brought out the Scene It? group of games, have come out with a home version of Banzai to play. And I recently had a chance to try out the game. I had cleared off a space on the coffee table thinking I needed at least as much space as the Scene It game. But there isn't a board per se. You have a sectioned bowl you put in the middle and each player has their own bowl with plastic pieces. Then you watch the challenge to find out what it is and give you different options to bet on the outcome. One has the 80s band Go West where the 90s haven't been as good for them. They have 6 eggs on a platter not unlike the chambers of a gun. And what a coincidence, 5 of them are hard-boiled, one isn't. Each will select one and smash on his head until the regular egg is selected. Then comes the betting phase: you have 15 seconds to place how many pieces of your sushi you'll wager. Since we weren't skilled in using the chopsticks, it was all we could do to put the pieces in to wager, let alone decide how many to bet with. They're counted up, and who has the most pieces in his sectioned bowl places their bet. And like poker, the other players can either ante up to match what the leader placed in his or her bowl. Then each player selects a card for their wager. Then you press play to find out the outcome. I won't say what happened, but the outcome was honorable.
ScreenLife Games is at it again. They launched a new Banzai game. Check it out:
You can purchase the game online. Also, Tako the octopus character has his own MySpace web page at www.myspace.com/takotheocto.