October 7, 2008: Creative Mechanics

Every now and then a game comes along with very creative game mechanics. Climb!, by Le Scorpion Masqué, appears to be one of those games with extremely creative game mechanics. According to W. Eric Martin's Boardgame News review:

"Climb! includes a deck of 42 cards, each of which has one to three color-coded holes in it. Each color matches a digit – black is for the thumb, blue the index finger, green the ring finger, and so on – and the cards come in three levels of difficulty, with the holes getting smaller with each jump in skill level. The holes represent the holds embedded in a climbing wall, and your challenge is to make your fingers climb the holes in the cards from base to summit."

Take a look at the photos in the review. I'm impressed! This is one of the best examples that I've seen of "mechanics match the theme." Climb! is on my (long) list of "Games to Try at Essen."

-- Phil Reed

(Note: The Le Scorpion Masqué site is in French. Fortunately for me, the game is in both English and French.)