UFO A Go-Go gives you the chance to host an intergalactic party with a bunch of aliens! You are looking to be a better host than all of your friends. To do that, you must make sure various party attendees are kept happy, win VIP challenges to make your party guests feel special, and deal with galactic events!
Overview
Running events is quite the challenge, especially when other people are hosting parties at the same time, all while keeping an eye on your party too. Aliens are fickle creatures, each with their own rules when it comes to enjoying a party. You’ll need to adhere to all the rules set forth by the aliens at your party — or else another host can call ‘Party Foul’ and steal that alien away.
Each host will also get a turn to level up their party — drawing a card that could be a VIP challenge, a Galactic Event, another alien, or a party favor. The real challenge comes with keeping track of the aliens at your own party and watching their needs. Each of them has a different need for you to continue to do from tapping your head at the start of a turn, narrating everything another host does on their turn, or standing up and saluting when a VIP card is won. You’ll need to make sure you either do the actions needed consistently, or at least not get caught out.
You’ll also need to remember the needs of aliens at other parties, in hopes of calling out their hosts and gaining more for your own party. These alien cards add so much fun to the game, with their variety and difference to each other.
Components
Inside the box, you get 180 cards, 8 different character host pieces with their bases, a winner’s bridge, a galactic coin, a quick reference to the card types/gameplay and the manual.
The winner’s bridge is not very big, as it tends to not have many different characters on them at the same time, however, I do wish it was bigger. The look of these alien hosts are very nice, as is the design on the cards that had full artwork.
When it came to the cards, there are 4 different types; VIP challenge cards, Galactic Event cards, Alien cards, and Party Favor cards. VIP channels and Galactic Events are cards that are ran by the host. VIP challenges happen instantly, forcing all players to play the game written on them until there is a winner. That player then gets the VIP card to give to one of their aliens, making them a VIP alien and worth two points. Galactic Event cards are challenges that the host with the card decides when to use. This can be during another player’s turn or right after drawing it. Party Favors are the only cards that don’t need to be read out loud. These allow players to mess up other players either by stealing their aliens, stopping them from winning VIP cards, and doing various other actions.
I feel like we have talked about UFO A Go-Go‘s alien cards enough — they stay at your party unless you lose a galactic event or forget to keep them entertained. Since this was a press version of the game, not all of the cards had artwork; some had lovely sketches to show the idea behind the card.
Turn structure
At the start of each turn in UFO A Go-Go, you will draw a card from the deck. Before you grab the card you might need to perform an action if one of your alien requires it. One of them, for example, requires you to make a big fake laugh before the start of your turn. Once you have drawn a card from the deck, you must announce what type of card it is. If it is not a Party Favor, you need to read the card out loud. If it is a VIP card or a Galactic Event, then you will need to start reading the event.
Some of your aliens might change how you read these cards out loud. One forces you to place a hand over your mouth when talking, while another asks you to say ‘As the Galactic Emperor’ at the start of each sentence you make — as long as you have over 4 points.
Once you have finished the event or put away your alien/party favor, you can then move onto the next player’s turn. If you end up getting enough points, you can move your host to the Winner’s Bridge. At the end of your turn, you end up moving up one place if you are on the bridge. You are looking to stay in the top slot of the party bridge for 5 turns; without causing a party foul.
Game experience
Keeping track of everyone else’s aliens does require you to sit close together. You need to really attempt to remember a lot of information, while keeping your aliens happy. One of the members of our board game night suggested having some sort of player booklet with the different aliens listed in them, for easy reference. I also felt that the board was a bit too small. With that said, the artwork around the game and concept as a whole is really nice.
Conclusion
I ended up enjoying UFO A Go-Go so much that I took it to a second group of board gamers to play with it at. There is so much chaos and fun to be had when it comes to keeping all of these aliens happy while also trying to win VIP Cards and not lose galactic events. Parties within outer space are intense — especially if you want to be the best host that you can.
So many of these alien cards can stack, making all of your actions super funny. The box itself is a small size, which fits nicely in my collection and is easy to bring around to friend’s houses. These sort of interactive games that have us all doing super funny things, while not needing a lot of space to set up, is really wonderful.
UFO A Go-Go was on Kickstarter at the time that I received this copy of the game. Sadly, the developers cancelled the Kickstarter and are looking to get a publisher instead. I really hope they find someone who is the right fit, as I’d love to grab a few expansion packs for this amazing game.
A copy of UFO A Go-Go was provided for review purposes. You can find out more about it on the website of publisher Akupara Games.
