September 17, 2013
Pap the Disney Gamer's
Highlights Albert's Favorite
Things Week: Beauty and the
Beast: The REAL Board Game
Created by: Milton Bradley
Tale as old as
time... as retold by Milton
Bradley.
Happy Albert week, everyone!
We are yet again celebrating the
Disney things the days of the
week (and occasional recapper)
writers love dearly! This time,
we are focusing on everything
that Saturday Matinee writer
Albert Gutierrez has made his
favorite throughout the years!
If you are a loyal follower of
his Saturday column, you know
that Albert LOVES Disney's
Beauty and the Beast. In fact,
he loves the film so much he has
written
several
articles
about
the
film. So it comes to no
surprise that one of his
favorite games was inspired by
Beauty and the Beast. Much like
with Brent week a month ago, we
are dealing again with an old
school game, the board game to
the exact!

You might recall that a few
months ago, I wrote about a Game
Boy Color title named Beauty and
the Beast: A Board Game
Adventure. Several times I had
declared that game to be one of
the weirdest Disney video games
ever conceived. In that article,
I mentioned that the practice of
taking a very successful license
and turning it into a board game
is as old as time itself. It is
very easy to do as all it takes
is some slight creative use of
the franchise, some basic board
game rules, and you got yourself
a game. But as I did my research
for both this game and Brent's
favorite game last month, I
realized that there is a big fan
base for this kind of
experience, the kind that
dominated family game night
before digital stimulation
became the 'it' thing. So
finding a game about what is
arguably one of the best films
ever made, Disney or otherwise,
is a treasure of childhood
nostalgia.

In Beauty and the Beast: The
Board Game, the objective is
fairly similar to the one
presented in the Game Boy Color
game. Playing as Belle, your
objective is to get to Beast's
tower before Gaston does. If you
get to Beast first, the spell is
broken and you win the game. If
Gaston reaches the tower, Beast
remains cursed forever (note how
they skipped out on the whole
'murdering the Beast' aspect of
the film's climax). Up to six
players can participate in the
rescue of the Beast.

As it is clearly shown, the
game was made with younger
children in mind. For board game
enthusiasts, this may be way too
simple (a problem also shared by
Brent's favorite board game). At
the time of this writing, the
Beauty and the Beast board game
has a two star rating on Board
Game Geek. This shows the
problem that also tends to
happen a lot with licensed video
games; with the rush to cash in
on the success of a film or
franchise, game makers skip out
on the detail gameplay concepts
and focus on gameplay that can
be easily designed then marketed
towards families. For the die
hards, this is a slap in the
face. But for the family
audience, the charm does not lie
in the game itself, it lies in
the enjoyment they get of
gathering together to forget
about the ills of the world and
their daily stresses (whether
they'd be school related or work
related), and just have fun.
That is what game night is
supposed to be about.

Depth of gameplay aside, if
there is one thing that Beauty
and the Beast: The Board Game
succeeds at is in its colorful
presentation. Rather than just
being a flat game board, the
game features a three
dimensional castle players can
set up before each play. The
castle serves as both the final
setting of the game, as well as
a recreation of the ballroom
scene. There is also a picture
of the Beast you can change into
the prince once you have won the
game! The rest of the game's
details, however, are not as eye
catching. The cardboard game
pieces feature clipart versions
of the characters and props from
the film, such as random
enchanted objects as seen in the
'Be Our Guest' musical sequence.
Once again, Beauty and the
Beast's romantic ideals may
not make it the best candidate
to turn into any kind of game at
first. But throughout the
history of Gamer Tuesday, we
have seen the tale as told as
time retold through two
different points of views on the
Sega Genesis, an early computer
game that remains one of my most
cherished childhood memories, a
digital board game, and now a
real life board game. Not every
game was successful in retelling
the romance of Belle and the
Beast, but they are all creative
in their own way. The Board Game
is very simplistic, but if you
are a fan of this fantasy
romance, it doesn't matter.