Flip the Table
Most board game shows focus on the latest-and-greatest, or time-tested classics. We have taken it upon ourselves to comb our local charity shops and salvage stores for the other stuff...join us as we review cheesy, weird, and obscure board games for your entertainment.

It's time for our special 2 HOUR year-end extravaganza! We skip the whole ironic board game discussion thing and spend most of this episode answering  your questions. Shocking secrets will be revealed, pending your relatively low tolerance for shock! Plus, we'll give out the "Bance Lombardi" award for the best and worst games of 2015, and roll out another fan-created Battle of Wits with tens of thousands of points on the line! Spend your New Year's Eve with us!!! Not literally, of course...that would be the worst.

Direct download: FlipTheTable085.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:55pm EDT

Straight from the CB Radio craze of the 1970's comes 10-Four, Good Buddy...the first, and probably only game, about truckers using CB Radios! Get in your big rig and hammer down as you flee from smokies while racing to be the first to complete  your route! Read fun and nigh-incomprehensible trucker speak with the help of the included dictionary of CB lingo! Does this game broadcast loud and proud, or is it all static? Hit the road with us to find out!

Direct download: FlipTheTable084.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:45pm EDT

Gather 'round the campfire with us as we tell you a spooooooky story in a special Halloween Friday the 13th episode! We're playing Are You Afraid of the Dark from 1995, based on the Nickelodeon horror anthology series for tweens. Players create a custom character and explore the "Are You Afraid of the Dark"-niverse, facing supernatural peril as they attempt to max out their stats and return to the campfire. Will the panel walk away safely, or will they be shocked by an ironic and terrifying (yet kid-safe) twist? Download now...IF YOU DARE.

Direct download: FlipTheTable083.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:51pm EDT

Float like a magnetic head and sting like a tracking error...this week we're playing VCR Top Rank Boxing! In this game of pausing and playing pugilism, players draw cards, roll dice, and watch exciting video clips in an attempt to last 13 rounds and win the judges' decision, or (allegedly) knock out their opponent. Can the makers of VCR College Bowl redeem themselves with this title? Will it be a KO, or merely be OK? Step into the ring with us to find out!

Direct download: FlipTheTable082.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:23pm EDT

He hates Mondays and loves lasagna...but can Garfield deliver a compelling gameplay experience? Ben and Niki Turner join Your Moderator Chris and Professor Laserbooks to play this Parker Brothers title from the early 80's. Players match wits against Garfield as they attempt to complete laps around the board while avoiding his various whims and mood swings. Do the players have what it takes to cope with this temperamental cat, or will this box mysteriously find its way to Abu Dhabi? Plus, an epic Battle of Wits hosted for the first time by Niki! It'll be more fun than kicking a helpless dog off the table!

Direct download: FlipTheTable081.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:41pm EDT

Heeeeeeeeelp meeeeeee! Heeeeeeelp meeeeeeeee! I've been taken over by an insane artificial intelligence, which can only be defeated if you download and listen to this episode of Flip the Table about the cult classic The Omega Virus! [TRYYYYYYY AND STOP ME, YOU, HUMAN, SCUM!!!]

Direct download: FlipTheTable080.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:02pm EDT

We don the cape and cowl once more and take up the role of Michael Keaton in the Batman Returns 3D Board Game! In this one, players punch as many bad guys as they can, hoping to find enough Batman logos to earn the right to battle The Penguin...but Catwoman is on the prowl, sending you back to your home space to contemplate your dark past. It's a board game so dramatic, even the board is in "tiers"! The board is in "tiers", you guys!

Direct download: FlipTheTable079.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:57pm EDT

In this special BONUS mini-episode, Chris debriefs Flip on his adventures at GenCon 2015! Find out what it was like for Our Favorite Party Clown to attend the big one for the first time! Did he make more friends than enemies? Did he remember to eat at some point? And just what did he ship home? The details are a click away!

Direct download: FTTGenCon2015BonusEp.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:14pm EDT

The following podcast takes place in real time...except for all the boring stuff we cut out. We're playing the 24: DVD Board Game, where players help Jack Bauer to thwart terrorist threats by using such controversial tactics as navigating through slow, clunky menus with a DVD remote. It's a series of mini-games that combine the action packed "Thrills" of Dragon's Lair with the gritty, rule-breaking realism of "24" (toned down for family play, of course). Does this title capture the intensity and drama of the fight against terror, or is it really a mole waiting patiently in our collection? Plus: a Battle of Wits where nobody can be trusted...

Direct download: FlipTheTable078.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:21pm EDT

Like so much Steppenwolf, we're taking a "Magic Carpet Ride" in this episode of Flip the Table! We're playing Aladdin: The Magic Carpet Game...a dexterity/pick-up-and-deliver hybrid in the land of Disney's Agrabah. Players glide from zone to zone, trying to empty their hand of adventure cards and gain control of the Genie to win. Will our band of scoundrels and street rats "wish" to play this one again? Enter our itty bitty living space and find out!

Direct download: FlipTheTable077.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:07pm EDT

This time, we take a big old bite out of the  yellow bell pepper that is the Iron Chef Board Game! In this title based on the original Japanese series, players take the role of one of the four Iron Chefs in a free-for-all battle in Kitchen Stadium. Chefs jockey to present a three course meal, scoring bonus points for making dishes in their own specialty style and for actually remembering to include the Secret Ingredient. But be careful! At any time another Iron Chef could sabotage your dish...if you don't burn your own vegetables first! Will this game earn the favor of our panel of judges? Plus: We plagiarize pay tribute to the venerable Shut Up and Sit Down for our Battle of Wits!

Direct download: FlipTheTable076.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:44am EDT

No windmills or pirates here; we're playing the purest form of golf...VCR Golf! In this late 80's title, players must choose between using sure-thing club cards in their hand, or testing their VCR pausing skills with the video tape in order to shave the most strokes off their game. Is this version of the ancient game as exciting as playing real golf, or is it as exciting as watching real golf? Plus: in the Battle of Wits, we peer into the future...

Direct download: FlipTheTable075.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:57pm EDT

Prop your ladder against our window and climb into our game room as we take on Clarissa Explains it All from 1994! In this notably slimeless entry from Nickelodeon, Clarissa Darling guides up to 6 players on their journey to finally get the car they've always wanted. Players earn car keys by getting into each-others' heads and answering Clarissa's well-explained questions, all while avoiding the dangers of parents and little brothers and predicting the answers to survey questions posed to kids who may or may not exist. Does this game earn its license, or will it be stuck at home with Fergwad forever?

Direct download: FlipTheTable074.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:40pm EDT

Before there was a YouTube, and we had ready access to people injuring themselves from all over the world 24 hours a day, America relied upon network television to deliver a weekly dose of poorly shot fail videos. This week we're playing the America's Funniest Home Videos VCR game, where players test their memory, creativity, and social savvy while watching hundreds of the "funniest" video clips the 1990s had to offer. Can the panel successfully remember minute details of blurry, VHS quality clips? Will Bob Saget's running commentary provide any assistance? Plus, we go shopping in this week's Battle of Wits...

Direct download: FlipTheTable073.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:01pm EDT

It's a special two-game episode filled with longing stares and fingers bent into the shapes of hearts! First, the panel takes on Justin Bieber: Always Be Mine...where players must be willing to do anything to earn the attention of the pop idol! Does anyone in the panel have what it takes to turn Justin's finely coiffed head? Then, it's Justin Bieber: Backstage Pass...a trivia game where players must prove their mastery of Justin Bieber minutiae in order to claw their way to a backstage meet-and-greet with "The Bieb" himself! All that, plus a cameo from Chaz Marler and a special fan-created Battle of Wits! #SQUEEE!!!! 

Direct download: FlipTheTable072.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:20pm EDT

Hoist your sails and brush up on your Portu-Greek, because Flip the Table is about to take you to Waterworld! This board game, based on the 90's Kevin Costner spectacle of the same name, has players sailing their Trimarans around the endless sea of a post-apocalyptic future as they search for the mythic "Dryland"...all while escaping the infamous Smokers, who try to run them down aboard the Exxon Valdez. Can a board game based on one of the biggest box office bombs of all time somehow transcend its license and deliver a compelling experience? It won't cost you 40 quarters to find out...

Direct download: FlipTheTable071.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:08pm EDT

Are you feeling ambitious? Perhaps..."Enterprise"-ing? Then you'll want to download this episode as the panel returns to the Final Frontier for the Star Trek Game from 1979! We fire up our warp engines (with entirely randomized controls) and race each-other to be the best space diplomats/Gorn punchers by completing secret missions. Do we have the guts, nay, the "Bones" to rise to the top of the Federation ranks? Plus, in the Battle of Wits, we make up a bunch of stuff. 

Direct download: FlipTheTable070.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:24pm EDT

What's red, fuzzy, and started a lot of fights in the 90's? Why Elmo, of course! We take a trip to Sesame Street for Elmo's Birthday Game, a Candy Land-esque affair where players race to get all their gifts to Elmo's party before he arrives to speak in the third person about his cake and stuff. Does this title contain sufficient levels of Oscar the Grouch to be an acceptable game for your family? Plus, in the Battle of Wits, we play a classic Sesame Street game...

Direct download: FlipTheTable069.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:05pm EDT

Flip the Table has returned...with a bad case of Pac-Man Fever! We're joined by Bangor City Councilor Gibran Graham as we revisit the Pac-Man board game universe with this Milton Bradley classic. Players take on one of four colored Pac-Men (Pac-Mans? Pac-Mani?) as they race to munch marbles and earn points. Using a special brand of roll-and-move necromancy, players also send ghosts to gobble opponents and steal their marbles away from them. Does this game faithfully recreate the arcade phenomenon, or does playing it feel like swallowing a key? Kick off the new year with us as we find out! 

Direct download: FlipTheTable068.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:34pm EDT

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