Super Fantasy: Ugly Snouts Assault (Golden Egg Games)

Hack and Slash video games were a big part of my time in college. While other people were out partying, drinking, and going to class (the typical college experience), I was burning hours in front of a computer screen on a game called Diablo 2. Looking to bring that video game experience to board gaming, Super Fantasy: Ugly Snouts Assault was created. This cooperative game is designed for 1 to 6 players, ages 8+. It takes approximately 90 minutes to play and contains loads of different missions.

Setup
1. Choose a mission to play from the Missions Book and setup the dungeon as demonstrated in the map. (Note: If there are traps in this dungeon, shuffle them and draw them face down to put in their spots.)
2. Shuffle the magic items to form a face down pile, and then do the same for the small items.
3. Make separate piles for all the shield, wound, poisoned, stunned, frozen, and counterattack tokens.
4. Place the turns board near the dungeon. Place the heroes' turn token on space 1 and the end of the game token on the appropriate space your mission dictates.
5. Have each player a choose a character. Then give them their hero board, skill tiles, four wooden markers (placed on the 0 for experience and red circle for skills), life point tokens, and a character standee.

Game Play - Each turn is divided into two phases, the Heroes' Phase and the Monsters' Phase. During the Heroes' Phase, each person takes their turn in a decided upon order and may perform the following actions - 1. Move, 2. Open a door, 3. Bash a barrel, 4. Lock pick a chest, 5. Attack, 6. Defend, 7. Charge up, or 8. Disarm a trap. To perform this action, you must declare the action you are going to take and how many of your six dice you are going to roll to see if you succeed in your action.

During the Monsters' Phase the following four actions occur - 1. Monsters wake up in their rooms, 2. New monsters come out, 3. Monsters move and attack, and 4. Clear out tokens that weren't used this turn. If a hero ever reaches zero life, they don't die, but your number of turns to complete this mission is reduced by one.

For the missions, it is recommend you play through them in order as they ramp up in difficulty. You can also increase the difficulty of missions as well going from Normal to Heroic to Epic!

Review
Super Fantasy: Ugly Snouts Assault is a hack and slash/dungeon crawl game that doesn't take itself too seriously. There is some tongue in cheek humor and nods to video games of this type. The six character types are traditional classes, but unlike a bard who plays a harp, the instrument of choice is an electric guitar. The art, rule book, flavor text all have some humor in them as well. Another positive for the game is the replay value. With six characters to play with, multiple missions, varying difficulty levels, and a modular board you will have plenty of opportunities to experience new game play. You could also play solo or be the ultimate villain and play against your friends as they try and take you down.

The negatives of this game are that there are so many components and mainly just little pieces of cardboard. This is to be expected for a dungeon crawl game, but it can still be overwhelming at first blush. All these pieces also create for a long setup time. The game also can be a bit random with dice rolls. Sometimes you feel like you aren't making any progress, and as the game gets closer to ending you know you are going to lose and it just can be frustrating. If dungeon crawls are your type of game, this is one that is definitely worth checking out. Be sure to also check out the sequel Super Fantasy: Night of the Badly Dead.

This game was provided to me for free by Golden Egg Games in exchange for an honest review.