Matt is the Taskmaster (game review)

 

Taskmaster, The Board Game

Ginger Fox Games (@GingerFox_UK)

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)

Taskmaster has been described as ‘a joyously unlikely phenomenon’. 

The sort of culturally relevant and massively engaging fusion of fun, competition and comradery that is highly addictive and pretty much guaranteed to lift your spirits when you watch it. Basically, it’s a game show that both ridicules and torments the celeb comedians who take part in weird and wonderful challenges set by the Taskmaster overlord himself Greg Davies and his smashing pumpkin co-host ‘little’ Alex Horne… 

we 'may' have drawn portraits upside down...

So how do you capture the ‘Taskmaster magic’ and turn it into a family-friendly game that anyone from age 8 upwards could jump into and get some of the experience as dished out on TB by Alex and Greg? Well – the lovely boffins at Ginger Fox Games have managed to channel the wacky randomness, the imaginative tasks, and the creative challenges into a superb board game for 3 or more players. 

The players assemble...

The board, cards and task-related accruements are nicely designed and the rule are simple enough to be picked up really quickly. You can choose to have a roaming Taskmaster where you all get a turn or nominate on master who oversees and judges the task – the winner gets the prizes brought by each player in the prize task and gets to hold the rather lovely token of Greg’s head too.... 

varied reactions...

Everything you need for set up is in the game box - the board, rules sheet, scoreboard / pieces, paper slips, the aforementioned Taskmaster trophy as well as 200 task cards plus a pen. What you’ll need in addition is host of household items like paper and pens, maybe some bread, tea bags, tea towel etc and some space to enact the challenges. One lovely touch is that for the final round you can stream Alex via video giving you the task which is very cool!

the ol 'throw round objects at taskmaster' round

We played with some pals and their teenage daughters – it was a brilliantly fun and hard-fought contest that included artworks, physical challenges, poem creation and some ‘acting’ – a very good time was had by all and we’ll definitely be playing this with whoever we can in the future. 

final challenge delivered by Alex...

I can’t think of many better Christmas presents – that will deliver roughly an hour of high-spirited hijinks! 

Out of a potential 5 - you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - Your task is to grab a copy of this game ASAP!)

Here's a handy link: BUY THE GAME!

Full disclosure - a copy of this game was provided for review purposes :)