Everyone is familiar with the feeling when you are looking forward to the weekend. All week, you slave away for a small fee. From at least 8 to 5, you stare at spreadsheets, presentations or large walls of text on either a very bright or very dimly lit screen. All those reports, figures and memos give you square eyes or a beetle burn out. Eventually that bubble will pop… In the milk carton office the office beetles have been working their beetle butts off all week. But luckily it’s Friday afternoon and that means: weekend! But first: the Friday afternoon drinks! The beetles quickly finish their work to ‘relax’ for the rest of the evening with some delicious nectar in the Bubble Bar. The first team of office beetles to arrive at the bar will win a free round of nectar and eternal fame: a most coveted prize. Who will arrive at the Bubble Bar first? The blue accountants, the green lawyers, the red sales managers or the yellow beetles from HR? It’s Beetle to the Bubble!
Goal and game design
This cheerful game, from newbie (newbeetles?) publisher H-Town, is a simple racing game perfectly suited for even the youngest beetles, but also for the experienced office beetles who actually know what beetle binge drinking is. Depending on the number of players, your department of beetles consists of two or three beetles (thick wooden discs with stickers that you get to stick yourself) in the same colour. You win this rat race to the nectar bar by getting all your beetles to the bar first. However, between the milk carton office and the Bubble Bar is a path with some flowers and stems, and the beetles have to overcome some challenges and block each other before being let into the bar by the beetle bouncer.
At the start of the game, players place several thick cardboard tiles between the office and the bar, which together form the trail to possible victory. The game contains several double-sided tiles and this allows players to build their own track with different paths and challenges. As a result, the game already contains a nice amount of variety and players can decide whether to play a quick or longer game. Don’t worry, by the way, because even if you use all the tiles, Beetle to the Bubble is a nice smooth racing game.
Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, all players are still located in the milk carton office. Using the different coloured flowers, players can move their beetles to the bar. Each turn, a player can use 1 or 2 cards to move a beetle or beetles. At the end of a turn, players replenish their hand with just one, unless a special effect dictates otherwise. By playing multiple cards, you might move beetles faster, but burnout is lurking around the corner. Even office beetles deserve a break or sabbatical from time to time.
There are different types of cards, which usually indicate a beetle and a particular flower. Based on these cards, players may move one of their beetles or, if indicated by the card, a beetle of their choice to the next flower of, say, a certain colour. If a beetle is already present on the flower, this location counts (temporarily) as the beetle’s colour.
Beetles can be stacked, but there is usually a maximum height for this stack. If a stack is too high, no beetle is allowed to join or pass the stack. A bit of a beetle blocker. A player earns extra cards by landing his or her beetle on top of another beetle. Also, beetles on a pile can hitch a ride: when a beetle moves, the beetles on it move with it. This makes it easy to move several beetles, but be careful not to help your opponents too much.
There are also cards that require you to move a specific number of steps, but there are also cards that change the playing field. Different flowers also have special properties, and landing on these flowers gives a player a handy bonus.
Verdict
I first stumbled and bumbled upon Beetle to the Bubble during the last convention season and its cheerful and colourful design, playful title and simple gameplay immediately appealed to me. The game is very easy to explain, but is sufficiently varied. The gameplay is intuitive, clear and there are plenty of paths to victory. The race track changes constantly due to the various bonuses, cards and stacks of beetles, so players have to be able to change their tactics rather quickly. This makes it perfect as a family game, but also as a light-hearted game for experienced players during their Friday afternoon drinks. A surprising and playful hit for the Beetles (no not those Beatles!).
