As everyone knows there are creatures that live under your couch called Dustbunnies, don’t bother looking for them, they are shy and will hide when humans come near, but trust me, they are there. And if Andy Hopwood is to be believed these near mythical creatures have a favourite pastime and that is gambling, gambling on fluffballs as they race across the carpet and shoot up the hoover.
Daring Dustbunnies is a small box, push your luck, racing style game to some degree, with hidden information, special powers and even some pretty mean take that, but it’s also crazy fun and hilarious to boot.
At the start of each round players are dealt two Dustbunnies, picking one to keep and flipping the other, this gives them a special power that only they can use. They are then also dealt a fate card telling them which colour Fluffballl they are betting on.
Each player gets a hand of four cards and each round they must play one of those cards and until they have played or otherwise offloaded all their cards they will not get a new hand of cards. Most of the cards move the Fluffballs of the corresponding colour. A Black 4 moves the black fluffball four spaces forward. If the space you move to has an action, do that action. The actions allow you to play another card, move another fluffball, give or take cards and even dump cards from your hand. All of these are things you’ll want to do because refreshing your hand also gains you charms, special power cards that allow you to manipulate the board state. You can also chain your actions, so if you play a card to move a fluffball to a play space you can play another card and move another fluffball and take that action too.
If the space you move to has a fluffball on it, you cannot take the action and must instead take static for each fluffball on the space before you arrived. Static powers your charms. At the start of the game you have a wire charm which allows you to move a fluffball backwards, away from the hoover, but as you recycle your hand you’ll gain more charms granting you more special powers.
But beware, the TALISMAN OF TRUTH! In the deck are a handful of cards called the Talisman of Truth, this card, when played, reveals your fate card to the other players, making it far more likely that your fluffball will vanish forever into the Tube of Destiny. However, if you play two talismans in the same round you instead get to guess at another player's fate, and if you guess correctly they must reveal their card for all to see!
The round will end when all of the following are true. No Fluffballs are on the start space, at least one Fluffball is in the hoover (tube or bag) and all Fluffballs are in separate spaces. At that point medals are awarded to the Fluffball closest to but not in the vacuum cleaner. Gold, Silver and Bronze. Then a new round begins. After three rounds the game ends and the player with the most gold medals will win. However, it's always all still to play for in Daring Dustbunnies. Any player who’s Fluffball is successfully sucked into the bag of the hoover, not only scores no medals but also loses any previous medals earned!
Daring Dustbunnies then is a tense game of hidden identities that keeps you on the edge of your seat as another player powers your Fluffball towards the hoover at a lightning pace. Or an agonising battle of wits as players all fight to be the last one standing without revealing their fate, jostling on the very edge of oblivion to stay this side of the fluff sucking menace.
It’s a garish game, purple and green, with crazy yet characterful artwork, but we’ve had fun every time it hits the table and at around £25 this makes a great small box gift for gamers who have a sense of fun and want to fling helpless Fluffballs into the yawning abyss of oblivion.
On the Ninth Day of Christmas, Santa gave to me... Nine Dustbunnies racing!