With the exception of the Nexus card game, I tend to like Cheapass/Hip Pocket Games. I'm known for being cheap and for being a gamer. Who would have known a company would come along that had me as a target audience. One cool/odd thing about Hip Pocket Game reviews is the fact that just about any reviewer will probably put more words into the review than are actually written in the instructions of the game.
That doesn't mean that the games are simple. Many require strategic thinking that can't be brushed aside as luck or chance. What it does mean is that this company actually thinks through and playtests what they put out pretty thoroughly before they put it out. And they also realize that 47 pages of rules doesn't necesarilly an entertaining game make.
Playing time is about 30 minutes and players need to provide the deck, something to represent a pawn for each player (coins will do), and tokens of some sort. The cards are about 3" by 3" with a profile of Safari Jack on the back and either a Move, a Map section or an End Cap on the other side.
Map cards represent different types of terrain: forest mountain desert and water. Map cards have to be connected to base camps and/or identical terrain containing map cards or end cap cards.
End caps also depict terrain and have 3 walls that cannot be crossed. They are basically cul de sacs representing a thicket or impassible terrain where an interesting specimen (worth the number of points printed on the end cap) is waiting to be collected.
Players begin the game with their pawn on a base camp card (any card can be a base camp if you play it with the back up) and a hand of six cards.
Players then take turns. During a turn, they draw a card (if any are left in the draw pile); play a card; and move their pawn. The goal of the game is to move your pawn as quickly as possible to any end caps that have not been claimed and to be the first to amass 15 points (this amount decreases if you are playing 3 or 4 player games). Each end cap is worth a varying number of points and whoever claims it first puts a token to note that he/she got there first.
Playing a card happens in a couple of ways. You can expand the map by joining up map cards, or laying down and end cap card or by establishing a base camp (playing the card face down) OR you can play one of the movement cards to give your pawn a little extra movement or to jam your opponent over one space away from winning the game---if you've got the right cards.
Jump cards allow players to teleport to any non-end cap space during their turn. Bump cards replicate the effect of moving onto another player's pawn, allowing players to teleport their opponent's pawn to any unoccupied space on the board at all. Of course, the cost for using the bump card is that you can't move that turn.
Movement for a pawn is usually limited to one space per turn. However, there are cards in the deck that allow 2, 3 or 4 spaces to be moved during a turn. Ending your move on an opponent's pawn lets you "bump" his pawn to any unoccupied space on the board. You can't move your pawn onto a card you just played during that turn (remember: draw, play, move), so you've got to be careful not to help your opponent out.
That's basically the gist of the game. Draw, play, move. Players continue making the board, moving their pawns and 'photographing' wildlife until someone passes the magic cut-off for points.
We only played this as a two player game but found it to be a lot of fun. It's got just enough "jam your buddy" aspect to be competitive but not so much as to worry about anything that got past the metal detectors--- er, assuming you're playing at a place with metal detectors. At any rate, Safari Jack is a decent game, with decent production values for a decent price.
If you like other Hip Pocket/Cheapass Games, you'll almost certainly like Safari Jack. I recommend it to anyone wanting a nice little diversion that requires some thought and not so much in the cash requirements.
