Atmosfear: The Ultimate Conflict
1997 / Video strategy board game / 3-6 players / Australia
****
I'd planned to buy the late-childhood favourite again when my daughter was old enough to either be interested or not traumatised by the glowing eyes staring at her from the side of the box wherever she was in the room and making her childhood a living nightmare, but then a family reunion and curiosity over a good bundle deal* won out over responsible parenting. (I can always hide it in a cupboard... but maybe that's even worse?)
The Harbingers was still good fun in all its excessively-frilled roll-'n'-move ticking-clock ghost-train cheese, but we hadn't been missing anything with the Soul Rangers expansion. With lazy inverted rules, barely distinguishable playing pieces and an appalling video, you'd be better off improvising some house rules with the regular game if you're that bored.
- The Harbingers: ****
- The Soul Rangers: **
* A few missing keystones and a playing piece were an inconsequential inevitability. My childhood Scrabble was in much worse nick. It's only a rubbish Soul Ranger anyway.
