Game summary:
A game for 1 – 4 players
Play time around 45 – 60 Min
Designer: Patrick Marino
Artist: Stephen Hillenburg
Publisher: The Op
Unboxing
The box contains the following components:
Rulebook
1 Krusty Krab Game Board
10 Friend Dice
1 Chum Bucket Plankton Figure
6 Krabby Patty Ingredient Tiles
4 Team Tokens
30 Spatula Tokens
30 Theft Counters
60 Time Counters
4 Team Home Base Cards
48 Krusty Krab Cards
18 Plankton Action Cards
The Chum Bucket Plankton Figure next to this board and the team token has been placed over here. So the effect of the Plankton card will take place on these cards.
An example of a team with the team player and the dice that belongs with this team.
Let’s get it to the table
Place the Krusty Game Board in the middle of the table and place the Plankton Figure near this board.
Take all of the Krabby Patty Ingredient Tiles and create a complete Patty, tiles must be placed with the ingredients on top. Shuffle the Plankton cards and place the pile near the Patty.
Place all the dice, Time Counters and the Spatula Tokens within reach of all the players.
Each player now chooses a team and receives the corresponding Home Base Card and the Team Deployment Token. Search through the Krusty Krab card deck and as if find the starting Friend for your team.
Shuffle the Krusty Krab card deck and place it also near the board, then draw 4 cards and place them near the kitchen and draw 4 cards and place those near the Dining Room.
Now we are ready to play
Actions on a Player’s turn
1. Place Team Token in a location (Dining Room or Kitchen)
2. Flip and resolve a Plankton Card
3. Roll and Assign Friend Dice.
4. Resolve Friend Dice and Finish Turn.
1. Place Team Token;
The active player chooses where to send their Friends by placing their Token in the Kitchen or the Dining Room. During their turn, player can only interact with the four face-up cards in their location and with the Friends on their team.
2. Flip and resolve a Plankton Card;
Plankton will bother customers, interrupt Orders or try to steal pieces of a Krabby Patty. You take the following actions when you reveal the top card of the Plankton deck:
– Add 1 Theft Token (orange tokens) on the left space of the tile that you see on the Plankton Card
– Move the Chum Bucket Plankton Figure to the indicated location, that can be the Kitchen, Dining Room or the Chum Bucket. If it’s the last location, you place it on the side of the board. This represents Plankton returning to his restaurant
3. Roll and Assign Friend Dice;
On your turn you are going to collect all the dice that are shown on your Team Home Base Card plus any extra dice from Friend card(s).
After rolling the dice, you can choose to make new friends, complete an order and/ or attack a Villian. When you roll the dice, you can combine the symbols that are shown on the Friend, Villain or Order cards. You can combine the symbols with each other to either recruit the Friend to your team or to attack a Villain.
The active player roll the Dice and assign at least one die to a card. If you cannot assign a die, you must select one and unassigned it from the dice pool.
There are 4 different symbols; Friendship, Effort, Teamwork and Fun. Each color die is strong in one of the traits, some of them include a double symbol (counts as 2 of that symbol).
4. Resolve Friend Dice and Finish Turn; your turn ends when you have used or discarded all of your dice.
Friends
If you’ve assigned the matching dice to a Friend card, you’ve successfully made a new friend. Add that friend to your team and remove any Time counters from the card.
Villains
If you’ve assigned the matching dice to a Villain card, you’ve successfully disrupted that Villain’s plans. Add a Time Counter to this Villain and you receive a Spatula Token for each Time Counter that you’ve added.
Orders
If you’ve assigned the matching dice to an Order Card, you’ve successfully made the requested food for that Order. Take this card and place in sideways in your player area.
Krabby Patty
Check the Ingredient tiles. When all of the spaces on any ingredient are filled with Theft Couters, remove the counters and turn over the tile to reveal the computer side.
This side shows you that Plankton has stolen the ingredient and studied it.
Friends or Villains with full Time tracks are placed outside the play area in a separate discard pile.
Refill any empty card spaces with new cards and place the dice back in the supply. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
The Krabby Patty Ingredient Tiles. The 3th and 5th tile are already placed on the other (computer) side.
A Villian with already one token on it. After resolving these dice, this card will be placed next to the board. You got one card that has been disrupted from the game.
End of the game
The game ends when the players have completed seven customer Orders before Plankton carries out his plans.
If you want to make it more difficult, you have change seven into any other number up to 11 Orders.
You can lose in several ways;
1. If Plankton steals all 6 parts of the Krabby Patty and all of the ingredients has turned to the computer analysis side.
2. If ten or more Friends are defeated
3. If any one player has all the Friends on their team defeated.
An order card with 2 dice placed next to it, you’ve now resolved this one.
A few examples of the Plankton cards. On the top you see where you place Plankton and on the bottom you see where you can place that token.
The four teams with there card and team token.
Final Conclusion & rating:
Weight: 2/ 5
Replayability: 7
My rating: 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲
Overall impression of the game
The Op teamed up with Nickelodeon to bring the first-ever officially licensed SpongeBob SquarePants game, to the market, this one-of-a-kind cooperative card and dice game SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton Rising.
It’s is a new game in the Rising series and it’s a fun game for the whole family unlike other games in this serie which are also somewhat heavier in theme. This is a game you can play with kids, if you are a fan of SpongeBob then you will be fine!
You must prevent Plankton from stealing all the ingredients, if you do this you have a chance of winning the game but you will have to prevent your friends from being defeated. During the game you can make new friends or defeat Villains, but you must also ensure that you fulfil orders! You do this in the same way as defeating Villains or making friends, you have to roll the dice and match the symbols on the card. With the dice you need some luck, especially in the beginning this can be a little tricky because you are dependent on the result but because on both sides of the board are 4 cards, so enough choice. Luck can also be influenced later in the game by adding the right friends to your team and therefore more dice.
This is a nice game for 2 players, in my opinion with more players it can be a fast game when everyone has a lot of dice and therefore can quickly collect many friends, fulfil orders and defeat Villains. This makes it just a little less fun for me, but the theme really makes up a lot.
Whether this game is much different than the other games in the Rising series, I have to be honest. There is definitely something different in the game, but basically the games are very similar and it will mostly be the theme that you will choose. Personally, I’m rather will go for one of the other games in the Rising series. When you’re looking for a fun cooperative family game, this one is recommended.
I want to thank The OP Games for letting me review this game, my opinion has not been afflicted by this. Are you curious about their other games? Be sure to check out their website!
