Jolt

Today we’re going to be looking at JOLT, a really cool magnetic shuffleboard game that’s captured our children’s imaginations over the last few weeks. Toby’s especially taken with it, largely because he’s pretty good at it. I’ve played JOLT a lot over the last few weeks and would have got to the review sooner, but it didn’t really fit with the Halloween aesthetic. I did vaguely try to link it to some kind of electric Frankenstein thing, but it didn’t really work, so I decided to leave it until Halloween was over.

In JOLT, you take turns sliding magnetic pucks down a track, a bit like playing shuffleboard. Your aim is to land your pucks in the highest-scoring spaces you can, although getting one to stay there until the end of the round is another matter.

To set up, lay the mat out on the table with either the straight side or the Duel side facing up. Both sides play much the same way, but on the straight side you sit next to each other and on the Duel side you face each other. We generally preferred the Duel setup, but both work well. At the start of each round, turn over a Trap Card and place the Trap Magnets where it shows.

On your turn, choose whether you want the positive or negative side of your puck facing up, then slide it down the track. Magnets with the same side facing up push each other apart, while opposites pull together. If your opponent has a puck sitting in a high-scoring space, you might use that push to nudge it out. Equally, if your puck gets too close to one that attracts it and the two snap together, both are out for the round.

This sounds simple on paper, but it takes a lot of skill to play well. You can use one magnet to push your puck away and another to pull it towards a scoring space. After a few goes, you start to get a feel for it. From there, it’s very easy to get drawn in and have that “one more go” feeling, which is always an excellent sign.

Once you’ve both played all your pucks, add up the value of the spaces your remaining pucks are sitting in. Play three rounds, using a new Trap Card each time. Whoever has the most points in total wins.

That’s basically it. It’s a simple game and you could teach someone to play it in two minutes, but what I really like is how it feels to play. We’ve played quite a lot of shuffleboard-style dexterity games here on Little Board Gamers over the years, and this is definitely one of my faves. The magnets feel really well balanced, both in terms of how far one can push your puck and how close you can get to another before the two snap together. Once you get a feel for those distances and have an idea of what’s possible, you can pull off some pretty impressive shots.

The box is really nice, as is the neoprene mat you play on, and the magnets themselves are chunky and feel really well made. I’d still be careful with them, but I’m fairly confident that if one fell off the table, it wouldn’t instantly smash to pieces.

Overall, JOLT is an extremely well-made, fun dexterity game. It’s easy to introduce to younger children, with the usual care around magnets, and it’s the sort of game you could get out with the grandparents too. I fully expect this to be one of my big Christmas recommendations, and it might even make my games of the year list. Great stuff.