What is The Root Beer Float Challenge Game?
The Root Beer Float Challenge Game is a dexterity party game for 2-8 players from Playtacular LLC. The game is for players ages 8 and up. Players are competing to be the first person who can can build a Root Beer Float by collecting all 4 Main Ingredient Cards.
What’s in the Root Beer Float Game Can?
The Can is 9 inches tall and 4.5 inches in diameter. The packaging is pretty cool. The lid of the can pops off, and a plastic insert pulls directly out of the can. All the contents are nicely packaged in the plastic insert.
The Root Beer Float Challenge Game Contains:
- 1 Oversized Root Beer Can
- 1 Ice Cream Ball (a large ping pong ball)
- 2 Cherries (soft plastic, and they actually look like real cherries)
- 4 Straws (rigid plastic straws)
- 1 Challenge Die
- 80 Ingredients Cards (20 for each ingredient)
- 120 Challenge Cards (40 Solo, 40 Co-op, and 40 Head-to-Head)
- 1 Instruction Booklet
How do you play The Root Beer Float Challenge?
The Root Beer Float Challenge is a party game where players take turns competing in various Solo, Cooperative, and Head-to-Head challenges. All the challenges involve doing something with one or more of the ingredients: Root Beer Can, Ice Cream Float Ball, Cherries and/or the Straws.
Players take turns rolling the six-sided challenge die. You will either roll:
- A Solo Challenge
- A Cooperative Challenge
- or a Head-to-Head Challenge
In a solo challenge, you will pick a blue solo challenge card and attempt to do the challenge on the card. If you successfully do the challenge, you get to pick an ingredient card of your choosing from ingredients being used in the challenge. In the Solo Challenge example above, you are using straws and the root beer can. If you successfully do that challenge, you get to pick a straw or root beer ingredient card to add to your ingredients.
In a Co-op challenge, you will pick a green card. You choose a teammate and try to work together to complete the challenge. If you complete the challenge, both teammates get to choose an ingredient from the back of the card.
In a Head-to-Head Challenge, you will pick a red card. You choose a person to compete against. Whoever wins the challenge will get to choose an ingredient from the back of the card.
What are the Challenges Like?
There are 120 Challenge Cards (40 Solo, 40 Co-op, and 40 Head to Head). The Challenges vary in difficulty, but all require some skill and dexterity. Here are some card examples for you:
Difficulty is adjusted by setting the amount of attempts each player, or team of players, get to complete the challenge. Easy: 3 attempts. Normal: 2 attempts. Expert: 1 attempt.
Pros and Cons & Final Thoughts
Pros:
- Easy to Teach / Easy to Learn – This is a very easy game to teach people. The directions says ages 8 and up, and this feels about right to us.
- Good Rulebook – The rulebook is in full color, and explains the game quite well. It’s a very simple rulebook, just 4 pages long. The outside of the root beer can also explains gameplay.
- Dexterity Challenges – The game looks simple, but challenges can be deceptively difficult at times. Sometimes you need great balance. Other times you need good hand-eye coordination. And other times you need strong lungs.
- Fast Paced – The box says 30 minutes to play a game, and this feels about right for 4 players. The game will take a bit longer for each additional player you add.
Cons:
- Dexterity – Yes, I also listed Dexterity as a Pro, but I can see this game being frustrating for kids and adults with poor dexterity. People who are more gifted athletically will have an advantage in this game.
- Only 4 Straws? – The straws are dishwasher safe, which is nice. But, there are over 50 Challenge Cards that use the straws. Sometimes you are putting the straws in your mouth. Other times you are laying the straws on the table or the floor. And you are always touching them in your hands. Sharing and using the straws (mouthwise) might be a turn off for some players.
Final Thoughts
First off, I think this would make an excellent game for a child’s birthday party. Just sit the birthday boy, or birthday girl, at a table surrounded by all their friends. Get some adults to be Game Masters, and you can kill an hour EASY with this game! Then serve some Root Beer Floats and Birthday Cake for dessert!
This game might actually be a fun addition to Adult game nights too. If your gaming group mostly plays strategy games, this might be a fun change of pace for everyone. Break it out as a filler game, and let everyone have some giggles for 30 minutes.
There can actually be a little bit of strategy involved in the gameplay. If another player is close to winning, you want to keep them from getting their last winning ingredient. So, you want to avoid choosing them as teammates in coop challenges, or opponents in head-to-head challenges. This will keep you in the game a little bit longer.
The plastic, molded inserts are a bit tricky to reuse when putting the game away, but it is possible. Everything stores nicely back in the can. You might want take a picture with your cell phone camera prior to opening up the insert the first time, just so you have an idea how everything goes back together.
I really wish there were a few more straws in here though. I can see some people not wanting to put these straws in their mouths after other players have used them for other challenges. We simply broke out our own big bag of clean plastic drinking straws for challenges that required us to put straws in our mouths.
This game has a suggested retail price of $19.99 which seems very reasonable for the the quality of contents you are getting inside. We just recommend picking up an extra bag of straws in case you have to “suck up a cherry using a straw like a vacuum”. 😉