Funfair – First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
In 2017, Good Games Publishing released Unfair, a bruising and thrilling adventure that challenged players to build the city’s greatest theme park. Designed by Joel Finch and illustrated by a bevy of talented artists, it remains a popular game due to the high replayability ingrained in the mechanics. And while many people may remember the infrequent “take that” moments of the game, it focuses deeply on maximizing the economy and prestige of your theme park.
Now, though, there is a new experience. For the gamers who felt uneasy with the Unfair experience, the players who’ve never encountered the previous game, and for anyone who likes theme parks and tableau-building, Good Games Publishing now has Funfair, a standalone game that is both lighter and faster.
Joel Finch returns, this time partnering with Mr. Cuddington—who were just awarded for their artwork with Tidal Blades. The “take that” mechanisms from the original game are not present in this iteration and the playtime makes for a family-friendly game that doesn’t compromise on the variability that was so well-implemented in Unfair.
What It Does
Funfair is a goal-oriented experience that rewards players who create tight economies of guest revenue and who invest judiciously in the right rides and upgrades.
Players select attractions (up to five) for their park—one of these will be the showcase ride that draws guests like moths to a flame. It’s a good flame, though. That doesn’t burn the moths…
Building those attractions, hiring valuable staff members, and drafting blueprints that depend on certain theme park configurations will all help players to score points at the end of the game. Attractions can be upgraded. Staff members contribute money or expertise to assist in the construction of the theme park. And then blueprints grant big point bonuses at the end for certain combinations within the park.
It’s a balance of economy and ride prestige. Whoever has the most points at the end will win.
How It Does It
Tableau-building is the name of the game. But not the park. That would be a terrible name for a theme park.
In Funfair, a central board manages the open market, the round tracker, the city event deck, blueprint deck, park deck, and endgame award.
The open market gives players a shared space to build or reserve new cards for their tableau. The round tracker keeps record of the actions each player is taking and the refresh phase. The city event deck adjusts the conditions of each game round, typically giving players some bonus to consider when taking their actions. The blueprint deck possesses the overarching strategic plans that players will want to pursue over the course of the game. The park deck both refills the open market and enables players to draw cards for their tableau-building. And then the endgame award incentivizes players to aim for an additional objective while mapping out their park’s attractions.
A round plays quite quickly. The city event card is revealed for that round. Players then alternate turns, taking an action at a time around the table until each player has either taken three or four turns (the showcase attraction unlocks a fourth turn for players when it’s built).
And the tableau is quite easy to understand. The lowest positions are for the five main attractions that can be built. Any upgrade to a ride—like a theme, guest services, or feature—is then slotted behind the preceding card until only the upper left and right symbols are visible. The left symbols track the types of upgrades on each attraction—for the purposes of endgame scoring, blueprints, and awards. The right ones indicate what money is earned by the attraction or upgrade each refresh phase.
Staff members are the only card “anomaly” in the game. They are placed off to the side and either increase your coin economy, influence the purchasing of new Park cards, or provide bonus points at the end.
The game ends when the city deck is depleted.
For what it does, Funfair plays quite fast. I demoed the game on a scripted TTS mod and was thoroughly surprised at how smooth the pace of the game was for the hour. The two-player game felt brisk and enjoyable.
Why You Might Like It
Funfair feels like a card game rendition of RollerCoaster Tycoon, which was a favorite game of mine growing up. The money that you make helps to drive the positive changes in the theme park.
The game plays fast and it has built in a remarkable amount of variability. The combinations between staff members, attractions, and blueprints really give players a lot of agency in determining what they want to do.
Why You Might Not
If you’re coming from Unfair, then this may be too much of a reduction in complexity and variability. With the current expansion and planned future ones, Unfair is going to offer a lot more innovation in replay value.
Even if the theme is appealing to you, you’re going to need an appreciation for tableau-building. And player interaction, while positive, is lower. The event deck will introduce ways to engage with the other players, but the main thrust of the game is centered on the thoughtful and considered approach to building up your park—with economy and blueprints in mind.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed Funfair. Games that play in an hour feel rare nowadays. So many games last 90 minutes or longer and while I enjoy board games enough to eagerly sit down for that span of time, it’s refreshing when you can jump into something that engages you with surprising variability but also moves speedily toward resolution.
The tableau-building feels meaty and satisfying, and though I’m not great with economy-building, I still felt like I was able to create a strong network of attractions, upgrades, and blueprints. I lost.. but not by much. And losing didn’t bother me. It was enjoyable to play and to experiment with.
I will say that my personal preference might now be to explore Unfair and see the potential there, but Funfair is definitely going to appeal to a lot of gamers given the lighter and faster design. Also, Mr. Cuddington has done an excellent job in creating an inviting theme park world that makes me want to explore every card. The duo is on top of their game.
It’s a good first impression and I’m ready to play more!
For a full review, check out the Right for You / Wrong for You look at Funfair. And you can now see what I think of Unfair in the most recent first impressions article.
Have you played Unfair before? Would a friendlier tableau-builder appeal to you more? Which game would you prefer and why?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.