Summary
👥A game for 2 players
⏳Play time around 30 – 45 minutes
🏢Publisher is Maestro Media
Introduction
Remember racing home after school to make it in time for your favorite cartoon lineup? The Disney Afternoon cartoon block was packed with daring heroes, clever villains, and unforgettable adventures. With REWIND you bring those worlds together in a new 2-player game. Which characters will be in your team?
Let’s get in on the table
Place the game board in the middle of the table, with the dice, inspiration tokens, and fear tokens placed around the board so that everyone can reach them. Next, choose an episode to play and place the objective tokens for that episode on the game board as indicated on the episode card.
Each player creates a unique team of characters with a total point value that does not exceed the specified limit for the episode. Players then take the character cards for each of their team members and place them in front of them. Each character is considered an ally of every other member of their team, and each character on the opposing team is considered a rival character.
Next, players shuffle their inspiration cards from all their characters together to form a personal inspiration deck. Make sure you have space for a discard pile. Each player then draws 4 inspiration cards to their hand, which is also the maximum hand size.
A player may choose to use Mulligan, discard all 4 cards to the discard pile, and draw 4 new cards. After this, shuffle the cards in the discard pile into the draw pile.
To determine who goes first, each player rolls 5 dice and counts the number of hits they have rolled. The player who has rolled the fewest hits places their score token on the 0 of the score tracker.
Next, the player who rolled the most hits places their score token on top of the other player’s token, indicating that this player has the initiative.
The player with the initiative chooses which team color they want to be in this game and then places one of their team members in the designated space on the game board. After this, the players take turns doing this until all characters have been placed.
Let’s Play
In REWIND, the two players compete against each other in a series of rounds full of tactics, excitement, and clever timing. Each round consists of three phases:
Inspiration, Action, and Scoring.
The goal? To grab victory by making clever use of your characters, their skills, and the power of inspiration.
Inspiration phase
The player with the initiative leads the round, but whoever is behind in points gets a little boost by receiving an extra inspiration token (not in the first round). Both players simultaneously play an Inspiration card from their hand. This card gives you inspiration tokens, which are the essential energy you need to perform actions in the next phase. Some cards also have immediate effects.
A wild inspiration works like a joker, allowing you to choose which type of token you use. From round two onwards, the player with the lowest score also receives one extra inspiration token of their choice, so it is always possible to catch up.
Action Phase
Now the battle begins, starting with the player who has the initiative. Players take turns performing actions with their characters. Each character can perform a maximum of two actions per turn, but only if they are not exhausted.
Actions cost inspiration, which you pay for with tokens from your played Inspiration card or from inspiration previously stored on your characters. Each character has three possible actions: move, challenge, or use a special ability.
Movement
Move your character orthogonally across the playing field, up to the indicated speed. Walls, rivals, and dotted lines can block your path, unless your character can fly! During your movement, you can pick up objectives or strategically drop them. If you are the last to leave a control area, you may leave a control marker behind to keep the area for your team.
Challenges
REWIND is all about confrontation. When two characters challenge each other, dice decide the outcome. The challenger rolls dice equal to their skill value (shown on the card), while the defender rolls according to their defense value. Hits are deducted from shields; what remains is converted into fear tokens that are placed on the rival.
A character who gathers too much fear becomes overwhelmed and runs away! Some challenges can even affect multiple rivals at once, creating spectacular moments.
Special abilities
In addition to standard actions, characters have unique abilities, such as special actions that can turn the tide of battle.
Scoring Phase
After the action comes the reward. Points are awarded based on the current Episode Card, which determines the conditions of the round. Control areas, objectives, or specific challenges can all contribute to the score. The player with the initiative scores first, but if both players score the same number of points, the initiative automatically changes hands.
Once a player reaches the required number of victory points, that player wins the game! If there is no winner yet, both players draw their hands back to four cards, prepare their characters, and start a new round with inspiration.
Control and tactics
Many episodes revolve around conquering and maintaining control areas. By having the most characters or a control marker in an area, you claim that territory. Strategic movement and timing are therefore crucial, because losing an area can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Conclusion & our score
Re-playability: 8
Our score: 8,5 out of 10 dice
Let’s start with this episode of REWIND. From the moment we saw this version, the Duck Tales theme song has been stuck in my head. Partly because of the characters, this was an episode I couldn’t wait to play. In addition to the game materials such as the game board and various tokens, the box also contains awesome standees featuring the different characters. These characters are truly a feast for the eyes and make REWIND perfect for playing at home. The inspiration cards really complete the package, with awesome artwork, but then again, you wouldn’t expect anything less from Disney. Don’t forget, we’re dealing with a prototype here, but it already looks good.
REWIND is a tactical and thematic board game in which you use inspiration tokens, positioning, and timing wisely. By moving your characters cleverly across the game board and intimidating your rivals, you can get closer and closer to victory. Choose the right moments for your special actions, which cost a lot of inspiration, and build your path to victory step by step.
Each game feels like a scene full of excitement, strategy, and unexpected twists. Some games will be faster than others, but on average, a game of REWIND takes us about 30 minutes, especially if you already know the rules. What’s fun is that you can mix the characters with each other, creating some interesting combinations.
REWIND is now on Kickstarter, where you can purchase six different board games, with one gameplay and about 38 characters. That means you’ll have a lot of fun playing! Think back to those great times in front of the TV with Ducktales, Goof, Darwin Duck, or Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers.
Thanks to Disney and Maestro Media for the opportunity to play REWIND and write about it here.
