Take a Cooperative Trip to Oz in Wicked: The Game

Set in the world of Wicked, players must work together to create sets and gather magic, in order to progress through their story.

Published by Spin Master, Wicked: The Game is a cooperative board game for 2-4 players.

Gameplay

Players are working together to make their way through all the chapter cards. Each chapter card says how many magic tokens they must collectively gain to progress to the next card.

At the start of each round, a hand of 8 cards is drawn. On a player’s turn, he takes the hand of cards and draws a card into it. He then drafts two cards. Each player has space to make two or three sets on his player board (the number varies based on player count). In order for a card to be added to a set, it must be the exact same card type. If a player’s board is already full, and he drafts a card he cannot add to any of the sets already there, it must go into an empty card space on the Emerald City board.

Each card type has a minimum number of cards that must be in its set in order to turn it in. When you meet a minimum number in a set, you can turn it in to gain the listed number of magic tokens; however, if you get more cards in the set, you get more tokens. Also, each player has a unique player color. If you turn in a set of cards whose color matches your player color, you get one extra token. Some cards also show the wizard icon on them. When you turn in one of these, you must advance the wizard one space on his track.

If the Emerald City board is ever filled with three cards, they are all discarded, the wizard token advances one space, and a wizard card is drawn. The wizard card will have a special effect that is either helpful or harmful for the players. Completing a chapter card will also give players a reward.

The same hand of cards keeps getting passed between players, until there are no more cards left in it, then a new hand of eight cards is drawn. If the wizard reaches the final space on his track, players lose the game. If players make it through all the chapter cards before that happens, they win.

Review

Wicked: The Game has a great table presence. The Emerald City in the center of the board, the artwork, the magic tokens: everything is beautiful, eye-catching, and blends well with the fantasy setting of Oz.

The idea of card-drafting and hand-passing mechanics in a cooperative game is clever, but everything is open information, which takes away part of the strength of the idea. All players can see everyone's sets, and know which cards are optimal for each player.

There’s an element of luck as a new card gets drawn into the hand each time it’s passed, but in general we found the game too easy. We played through it several times and never lost, and never really felt like we were at risk of losing. However, we did enjoy ourselves with it. It’s not something we would come back to a lot, but we still had a good time playing through it.

It feels like this game is aiming at a broader audience, and not targeting adult groups with a lot of gaming experience. Families could definitely enjoy this and groups that don’t play a lot of games, which is likely the target audience — and that’s a great and worthy goal.

The film isn’t out at the time of this review, and while the musical it’s based on has plenty of fans, how successful this game will be at reaching that broader audience feels dependent on the success of the movie. As with any officially licensed board game, that theme isn’t going to work for everyone. But as a long-time fan of Wicked, I quite enjoyed seeing the characters and story moments depicted on the cards.

There are some missed opportunities in Wicked: The Game, but it’s still a pleasant experience that has the potential for a broad appeal and has more to offer than similar themed games hoping to reach a wider audience.

Pros: Beautiful production value, an interesting blend of mechanics

Cons: We found the game too easy

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.