Board games were mentioned in the TV news today — ok, it was the smallest of the four Finnish main channels, but anyway. They said playing board games was more popular than ever, which is always nice.

Their main point, however, was the new game from Kari Mannerla. Kari Mannerla, as we all know, is the mastermind who came up with Afrikan tähti, the best-selling Finnish boardgame ever (1.6 million copies sold, and it still sells 30, 000 copies each year even though practically every Finnish household has it) 55 years ago.

His new game is called Inkan aarre, Treasure of the Incas. It makes one wonder: what has Mannerla created, as he has had 55 years to come up with another brilliant idea. It must be something deep and profound, something spectacular…

Bah. Inkan aarre is a simple re-theming of Afrikan tähti. Instead of Africa, players travel around South America. That’s it. It must’ve taken at least 55 minutes to come up with that idea… The rules are, I understand from the TV spot, exactly the same. Map is different and the components look better.

The newscaster presented this like Inkan aarre was the greatest thing, no, the only thing to happen in the Finnish board game scene since Afrikan tähti. Sure, it’s nice that the old man Mannerla gets another game to his ludography (which, now, has two games — pretty good score for 55 years, by all international standards, wouldn’t you say!), but to be honest, this is so lame words can’t describe it properly.