Pyramid Review
Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel
Published by Alien Menace
Game design by Tyler Sigman
Squirrel logo by Lynn Cook
Graphic Design by Marc Davis
Additional contributions by Edward Evans
100 cards, six playmats, rules (all black and white), in an envelope within a ziplock bag; $7.95
Gone are the days of terrible movies made by talentless directors with half-applicable titles -- but on the plus side, now there's a game about them. Behold, Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel from Alien Menace, the game of making bad flicks you'd be embarrassed to see on late-night TV for free.
The object of the game is to produce the worst film possible. Art is a subjective thing, so the only way to keep track of whose movie is the most repugnant is to award them stars just like reviewers do. If you come out with the fewest stars in your film at the end, you win the game and not one Oscar.
Each player (three to six budding writer/producer/directors, but they really want to act) has a playmat with spaces for keeping track of their Movie Elements. Elements are all the things you can't afford for your flick -- the actor, the plot/script, the monster, a title, the set location, your special effects, and of course a big finale. The game is played in two stages: Filming and Release.
During Filming, players take turns playing a card and drawing back up to five from the Filming deck. You only get to play one card per turn, and once cards are played no one may look . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 27, 2003
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