The guys at the Marektoy were kind enough to send me a copy of the Finnish edition of Around the World in 80 Days along with the games I’ve translated. It wasn’t on my list of games to get, but sure I’ll like to have it if I get it for free…
I tried it with Johanna yesterday. She liked it, as I expected. Around the World in 80 Days meets her criteria, I think: it’s fairly simple, has a good theme and a scoring system that makes sense. We had a pretty good time playing it.
However, unfortunately it’s not a very good two-player game. While the rules describe the two-player setting, the game box says it’s 3-6. Good move, because most of the elegance this game has simply vanishes with just two players. You just have to keep on moving swiftly, because once you fall behind, you’ll probably lose.
I fell behind already in Brindisi and sure, I lost the game. Johanna made it to London in 72 days, leaving me in New York. I was few days faster than her, but in this case it didn’t matter: she was first, she won.
It was pretty quick though: I didn’t time the game, but it couldn’t have been much more than 15 minutes. Of course, I’ll play anything Johanna likes, but otherwise two-player Around the World won’t be high on my list. If her friends come over and want to play something, this will be a good option, however.