Matthew BaileyI was so excited when Slam Throne was announced. Essentially, Slam Throne is Pogs, which we probably all played if we’re of a certain age and grew up in the ’90s, but with powers attached to whichever slammer (or kini, which is the word I generally used) you happen to pick.
It works exactly as you’d expect it to. You all have a stack of caps (I’m not actually sure what they’re officially called… I want to say Pogs, but let’s go with caps). You place them face down, slam your slammer down onto them, and collect any that you flip over. Each cap you flip scores you points, and there will also be some sort of power attached to it, such as making the other player use their other hand or flip a coin and if you guess it right 2 times, take no damage.
The first person to clear their stack (which is the other player’s health) wins.
Now again, when I heard about this, I was so excited. I was completely up for it, and when we saw it at the UK Games Expo I dragged the kids straight over to the stand. But needless to say, I’ve been left very disappointed.
Now, we’ve never played Dice Throne at Little Board Gamers. I’ve played it once or twice at a friend’s house, but I don’t own a copy. I do actually quite like it I don’t really know why I don’t own it and I was really excited by the concept of the Dice Throne guys making something similar, but using Pogs as the inspiration. Unfortunately, this is, in my opinion, a big swing and a miss.
The game plays absolutely fine exactly as you’d expect it to. I do wish the slammers were heavier than they are. They’re plastic and very reminiscent of the Pogs kinis from the ’90s, as opposed to the heavier ones that many of us eventually ended up using. I kind of understand why they wouldn’t go with the solid metal ones that could basically leave a crater in the floor, but something in between would have been nice.
In the current packs you can buy, which are the convention-exclusive packs, you get one of four possible slammers, 20 caps, and an actually quite nice neoprene slam pad, which does make things a little easier. Although, I’d honestly just suggest playing on a neoprene playmat if you’ve already got one, and if you don’t, get one it’ll really improve your board gaming experience.
Firstly, it’s basically just Pogs, and that’s no problem at all. The problem is how they’re choosing to sell it.
I was expecting it to be kind of like Dice Throne, where you’d buy a base set and then maybe some expansions, each containing extra slammers and extra sets of caps. That’s not how this works.
Instead, they’re selling everything in blind bags, meaning you could buy four packs and end up with four exactly the same slammers, while still not getting all of the different caps.
Now, I appreciate this worked for Pogs in the ’90s, and the collectible nature of them was a huge part of the appeal. But this is from the people who make Dice Throne. This is a hobbyist product.
Maybe this could work if it were being sold alongside Pokémon cards in supermarkets and toy shops, but I just don’t see it getting that kind of traction. I might be wrong, but I honestly don’t think I am, because I don’t think this should be aimed at kids.
I think this is aimed squarely at adults around 40 years old who played Pogs at school, and I think, for most of us—apart from the really hardcore Pokémon collectors we don’t want to be buying endless blind bags. We want to spend £40, get the complete set, and just play the game. I don’t want to be collecting these things all over again, and that’s where I think it falls down. The bags are also £!0 each…. which is a lot. p
The powers on the slammers do add something, but most of them feel a little hit and miss. Instead, I think having powers based on number values, or abilities attached to the caps you flip themselves, might have worked better.
I don’t know. At the end of the day, this is Pogs, and Pogs are cool, but I just wanted a box of stuff so I could play Pogs not start collecting Pogs again.
Now, time will tell. If the blind bag approach doesn’t work, we may very well see a proper boxed set that contains everything you need to play. But, to be honest, at this exact moment I’d genuinely recommend you just buy an old set of Pogs online and play with those instead.
