(This Game Is) Bonkers! Addiction

Entertainment > Leisure;
Games > Board

Description

Bonkers! (also known as This Game is Bonkers!) was a race-style board game produced by Parker Brothers and later by Milton Bradley. The object was to be the first player to score 12 points by adding instruction cards to the empty spaces in an attempt to move to several scoring stations. The game's slogan (for both versions) was "It's Never the Same Game Twice!"

Each game of Bonkers! came with the following:

* a gameboard
* four pawns
* a stack of cardboard track cards
* a score card with plastic peg markers
* four large "Go to Lose" cards
* two dice

The board consisted of a 55-space looping track. Most of these spaces had an outline of a track card next to it, the cards being played throughout the game; there were also three "Score" stations (one of which doubled as the starting point), a "Lose" space, two track spaces marked "Go to Lose", and one space marked "Back 15".

The object of the game was to play track cards in a way that directed one's pawn to a "Score" space, upon which the scorekeeper moved that player's peg ahead one point. A player could also score by rolling a 12, or by means of "Entrapment": If the player's pawn ended in a continual loop (for example, ahead 2/ahead 3/back 5), that player was said to be "trapped", at which point his or her pawn was left on the space at the "front" of the trap, and the player scored one point.

There was one space on the board marked "Lose". If a player landed on this space, he or she lost one point, and his or her turn ended immediately (even if the space was already occupied by one or more pawns.) There were two spaces on the back side of the track that also sent the player directly to "Lose". In addition, each player had a large "Go to Lose" card; at any point in a player's turn, an opponent could use this card against that player to force him or her to go to the Lose space immediately. Once a large "Go to Lose" card was played, it was removed from the game. At no time could a player's score drop below zero.

The first player to score 12 points won the game.