My mother sent me many beautiful gifts for Christmas, including lovely ones that she made herself. I will cherish them. However, she also sent one utterly confounding gift, which overshadows the others by sheer force of its strangeness.
It's a game, which is generally a good gift because I like games. I especially like ones that are easy to understand and do not have whole booklets of rules and requirements. When I first unwrapped this game, I figured it couldn't possibly be complicated because it was so small.
The game is called "Magnetic" and the tagline is "It's a game with it's own appeal!" Okay! Not super reassuring to me, but okay. According to the box, Magnetic can be played by 1-4 players. Great perfect. I can play by myself later. Let's play together for now.
Here is what was in the box:
- one set of instructions, printed on a double-sided piece of paper
- one kind of long yellow string
- 20 shiny black oblong magnets
- one terrible small plastic bag
First, we should go through the instructions and see if we can learn to play. We shall start with side one of the piece of paper which has two sections "Game Ready" and "Game Play." I have retained the original spelling and spacing so we can get the full experience.
Here is what it says under "Game Ready": Lay the game rope flat on the table or level, and divide the magnet pieces evenly among the players.
Okay. Easy enough. I throw the game rope (piece of string) onto the ground. I divide the magnets in half: some for me, some for you.
Let's move on. Under "Game Play" it says: Each player places one piece in the game rope in turn. If a player places a piece and two or more pieces are sucked, the player must remove all the pieces that are sucked together. Finally which player will be in the hands of all the piece placed in the game rope, the player wins!
Here is where we begin to encounter some conceptual difficulty. If the pieces "are sucked" then that's bad, and you have to take them. But then things go off the rail. How am I supposed to win?
Hopefully, the back will clarify! There are FOUR sections here. The first section is called "Game Introduction" and it says: There's a lot of uncertainty in this game, but the most popular is "I thought I was going to lose, but there's still a chance to turn it around. The goal is to put all the magnets in the sponge pocket without a magnet attached to it, you win!
Who is being quoted? Is all of this their quote? Is this (this!!!) the sponge pocket??
That doesn't feel right. This is a sad weird plastic bag. It cannot be a sponge pocket.
The next section is no help. It is called "Game Ready" and says: Place the sponge and Nestle on the table and divide the magnet pieces evenly among the players."
What sponge? What Nestle? Where is the rope now!? Guess we will keep reading.
Next, is the longest section of instructions. It is titled "Game Beginning." There's a lot to learn here, so please pay attention:
Each player takes turns placing a piece in any groove of the sponge. As you and your opponent take turns in banishment, as theplayers droptheir pieces, there are magnets that are attracted to each other. Youwill then receive the attracted magnet piece into your hand so in the process of offalling, you should try not to let the magnet.When one side out of the hands of allthe magnet pieces, then win the game!
Again, there is no sponge in this box, and certainly not one with grooves, so that's irrelevant to me. OFFALLING? OFFALLING? Do we think this is related to the cut of meat? Or do we think it is supposed to be "of falling"? But then who is falling? Me? With the magnet? NOT LET THE MAGNET WHAT?
Okay, there is still hope. There is one last section called "Game Over." Surely, this will explain the "When one side out of the hands of allthe magnet pieces, then win the game!" part from the last section.
It says: When one side out of the hands of all the magnet pieces, win the game.
Oh. Perfect! Now I get it. When one side out of the hands of all the magnet pieces... then win the game! Excellent game for me to play by myself or with three friends.
There are lots of other magnet games available for purchase, some of which have a rope, and some have a wavy sponge. I have to assume that these instructions were written by some AI that stole instructions from the two different magnet games (one with a sponge, and one with a rope).
Later, my mom did explain that the game is pretty simple. You place the rope in a circle on the table, and each player must place one magnet inside the rope at a time. If they stick (are sucked) together, you have to take those back into your hand. First one out of all their magnets, wins.
Or, you could say, "When one side out of the hands of allthe magnet pieces, then win the game!" It really is a game with it's own appeal.
