Don’t Press That Mine Turtle – Will this game blow up?

Take the classic truth of dare concept, then add an explosive turtle. You now have Don’t Press That Mine Turtle.

I’m quite a fan of Big Potato Games’ releases. Often being aimed at families, with quick, easy to teach systems, they can be brought out with pretty much everyone and have a good time. With that said, I felt as though I wasn’t the target audience for Don’t Press That Mine Turtle, with its cards and challenges being aimed at a more teenage demographic rather than families thanks to some of the gameplay elements being a little more mature than the likes of Don’t Fall for It and Whirly Derby.

As I said in the first line, Don’t Press That Mine Turtle is essentially truth or dare. Each player has three cards that have challenges on them that they then set for another player to complete. If the recipient can’t or won’t complete that challenge, they have to press the button on the back of the titular turtle a set number of times. If they do complete it, the giving player has to press the button instead. After a certain number of presses, the turtle will explode and the game ends with that player losing. 

It’s light hearted, silly, and a fun concept. Why is there an explosive turtle? Why wouldn’t there be? It doesn’t have to make sense, and frankly the turtle is adorable enough for me to want it included in more games. Really, it just acts as a hard stopping point for the game, rather than allowing it to drag on until people are bored of playing, and it’s a simple enough mechanic for anyone to understand. 

So why am I a little down on Don’t Press That Mine Turtle when compared to other games from the same company? It mostly comes down to what those challenges are. A significant number of these challenges involve giving your phone to other players to have them mess around with your social media accounts, “texting your crush”, or similar things. As a man of a certain age, I don’t really do a lot of social media stuff, and I’m not really all that interested in messaging someone’s secret crush. It very much feels that this is aimed at a teenage demographic, which is fine, but this isn’t really something I enjoyed.

With that said, some of the challenges were really entertaining. Having someone rap about something of your choice for 30 seconds is quite funny, as is deciding whether or not slithering on the floor like a snake is worth not having to press the button twice. It feels like the challenges are somewhat all over the place in who they’re aimed at. In fact, taking out the social media and phone related ones allowed our kids to engage with the game and have a lot of fun with it. If you’re interested in Don’t Press That Mine Turtle, do think carefully about who you’re intending to play it with.

Aside from my minor gripes though, this is a well put together package. I liked the inclusion of the “write your own challenge” cards, similar to those you’d find in the likes of Cards Against Humanity. On top of that, the cards are really good quality with a very nice linen finish. The turtle feels solid enough as well and will likely survive being knocked about by overexcited players. If you’re happy to tailor the deck to the people you’re playing with, then you’ll probably still find some enjoyment in Don’t Press That Mine Turtle.

Don’t Press That Mine Turtle is available now from Big Potato Games.