Frequent site visitors and listeners of the Pop Goes the Culture podcast know that we’re big Funko fans. Between our various website contributors and podcast hosts, we own untold hundreds of Funko Pops and assorted collectibles. Many of us are gamers as well, so anytime Funko releases a new tabletop game (such as the Funkoverse games that made our 2019 Holiday Gift Guide) or video game like the Funko Pop Blitz app for mobile devices, we’re always ready to give them a try. This year, Funko has released a line of easy to learn and quick to play card and board games based on some of our favorite holiday movies.
Funko sent us copies to review. My family (2 adults, ages 40 to 42, and 3 kids, ages ranging from 11 years old to 16 years old) played through each game multiple times in order to get a good feel for them. Should you add these games to your holiday shopping list? In a word, yes, but with so many options it might be hard to decide which to pick up for yourself or the gamers in your life. Below we break down each game and how it plays.
We started with the game for the youngest and smallest number of players, Frosty the Snowman – Follow the Leader. Follow the Leader is for 2-4 players ages 4 and up. It is a cooperative game, so everyone wins or loses together. Average gameplay time is listed at around 15 minutes.
Frosty the Snowman is on his way to the chilly North Pole and you can march along! In this cooperative card game, move Frosty’s friends forward and backward to swap their places in the parade. Get the kids in the right order and you win!
In Follow the Leader, players are dealt and draw cards featuring children from the animated special or Hocus Pocus, the rabbit wildcard. Players are presented with a strip that shows the order that the children need to be lined up in to earn a victory. Players use the cards in their hand to move the children around — either a space forward, a space backward, or working together with other players to swap positions — so that they can put the kids in the correct order.
Since the max number of players is capped at 4, I sat out and observed while my wife and kids played. Because the age skewed way younger than anyone we had playing, they chose to go for the hardest victory condition of matching 3 different lineups before running out of character cards. While they all understood the gameplay and the rules, the older two children mastered the ability to see and think moves ahead and became the defacto generals, ordering the youngest child and my wife on which cards to play. The family managed to earn their third and final victory on their very last character card, making the game a satisfying challenge under the hardest skill level.
Overall, the family loved the game. They did feel that being able to visualize moves in advance and playing together well as a team was crucial to winning. They questioned the lower age limit of 4 years old, believing that a player or players that age would need older players to patiently guide them through the game at an easier skill level.
Pick up Frosty the Snowman – Follow the Leader at Amazon.
Up next was Elf – Snowball Showdown. After working together to get Frosty the Snowman to the North Pole in the previous game, Snowball Showdown brought out our competitive sides. Snowball Showdown is for 3 to 6 players ages 6 and up. Average gameplay time is listed at around 20 minutes.
Join Buddy the Elf in a surprise snowball fight! “Throw” a set of likecolored snowball cards at another player and they can return fire! When you’re the target, roll the jumbo snowball dice to dodge the icy barrage. When you get hit, take a snowball “splat” card-three hits and you’re out. In this frigid fight, the last elf standing wins!
In Snowball Showdown, players are dealt and draw snowball cards with different numerical values and background colors. On their turn, a player chooses who to attack and presenting cards of the same colored background. The total numerical value of the cards played is added up. The defender rolls a large die to determine whether they dodge the attack outright (making the player to their right or left the target, depending on the result of the roll) or how many cards they can draw to add to the cards in their hand to play in response to the attack. If the defender is unable to match or exceed the value of the cards by playing their own cards of the same color, then the defender takes a hit. If the defender can match the numerical value of the attacker’s cards, then the attack is blocked. If the defender plays a higher number, then the attacker takes the hit. After a player is hit 3 times, they are out. The last player standing is the winner.
Not to spoil the rest of these reviews, but Snowball Showdown was the favorite game of the group among the most players in my family. Though gameplay is completely different, there is an element of the card game War to Snowball Showdown. The game was easy to understand, fast-paced, and had enough of an element of luck that it offered up a few surprises to keep things interesting and mitigating the ability to gang up on one player a little. The competitive nature of the game might overwhelm younger players, but for my kids, it seemed to be right in the sweet spot in terms of appropriate gameplay for their age, and they immediately voiced their desires to borrow the game to play with their friends.
Pick up Elf- Snowball Showdown at Amazon.
After the fast-paced frenzy of Snowball Showdown, our next game slowed things way down. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Twinkling Lights is for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. Twinkling Lights is a competitive game. The average gameplay time is listed at around 20 minutes.
Clark Griswold is determined to hang 25,000 twinkle lights for Christmas, but tangled wires and a pesky squirrel are out to spoil the holiday spirit!Lay tiles to create Christmas bulb combos and score, but spotting the pattern you need among the twisted light-strings is no easy trick!
In Twinkling Lights, player are dealt cards with a pattern of either 3 or 4 multicolored lights. Players lay tiles in the center of the table, building off of the tiles laid by others, to try and connect their pattern of lights in a row. The first player to complete all of their patterns wins.
Since the number of players is capped at 4, my wife sat this one out. Gameplay is much slower and more strategic than the previous 2 games, as players try to place their tiles in a way that makes sense of the twisted string of wiring so that they can make their patterns. There is a bit of a Dominoes element in the style and slower pace to Twinkling Lights. All agreed that the game likely skews older than 8 years old and up. This feels more like a game for the adults while the youngsters are off playing Snowball Showdown at the kiddie table.
Pick up National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Twinkling Lights at Amazon.
We picked up the pace again with our next game, Gremlins – Holiday Havoc. After Snowball Showdown, Holiday Havoc was the 2nd favorite among the family. Holiday Havoc is for 3 to 5 players ages 8 and up. It is a competitive game — physically and mentally so. The average gameplay time listed is around 15 minutes.
The Gremlins have gone from cute Christmas-gift pets to minimonsters causing havoc around town, and you must stop them! Flip over cards to reveal favorite creatures from the classic movie. If you see a match, pounce fast to score. But beware, other players are on the prowl. And whatever you do, don’t get them wet or your chance of losing multiplies!
In Holiday Havoc, players are dealt a stack of cards featuring different gremlins on differently colored backgrounds. Players take turn flipping the top card from their stack face up in front of them. When two matching cards are revealed, players try to slap those piles and claim the cards in the pile for their stack. Additional cards with special consequences may be revealed, including the Sunrise Card, which ends the game. The player with the largest stack in his or her hand at the end of the game wins.
We moved from our larger gaming table to a smaller coffee table for this one, so that everyone could easily reach all the piles of cards. The action was fast and furious, with players slapping cards (and each other’s hands) in the race to claim the piles of cards, in a play style akin to Slapjack. Some of the gremlin cards are fairly similar looking, which in a game where you’re scanning quickly can lead to inappropriate slaps. Upon repeated gameplay sessions, as we got to know and recognize the different cards better, that issue cleared up quite a bit, though an anxious slapper will always make a few inappropriate slaps.
As with Snowball Showdown, the kids were already calling dibs on getting the deck to play with friends.
Pick up Gremlins – Holiday Havoc at Amazon.
Our final card game was A Christmas Story – A Major Card Game. Like Twinkling Lights, this is a slower paced game. A Major Card Game is for 3 to 6 players ages 8 and up. It is a competitive card game. The average gameplay time is listed at around 15 minutes.
Help Ralphie Parker get the BB gun and decoder ring he covets at Christmastime! Peek at present cards, “triple-dog-dare” other players to make risky trades, and beware of the bullies who are lurking in the deck. If you have the infamous “leg lamp” you can swipe another player’s card, but act fast because you may not have the prized possession long. It’s a lively game of “take that” and family laughs just in time for the holidays!
In A Major Card Game, player are trying to peek at the face-down cards in order to find the Red Rider BB gun and Little Orphan Annie Decoder Pin. In that respect, the game is a bit like Memory. However, players trade cards, either from a set in the middle of the table or with one another, giving the game a bit of a White Elephant vibe. Eventually, when a player believes he or she knows where the BB gun and Pin are located as they move around the table, that player makes a declaration and flips the cards face up, in a final reveal similar to Clue.
There are a lot of moving parts to keep track of in A Major Card Game. Players mark which cards they’ve peeked at with a colored bow token as the cards move around the table. Players need to be disciplined in not fidgeting with the cards face-down on the table in front of them — if you and I trade cards and you put the card I gave you on your right, then it needs to remain on your right so I can keep track of where it is located. Additionally, players need to remain focused. We had a gameplay session get interrupted for a few minutes, and when play resumed, it was hard to remember where different cards where located. We all enjoyed the game, with many players ready to state where they thought the BB gun and Pin were located on their next turns before another player made the call and won the game. That said, it certainly seems to skew higher than ages 8 and up.
Pick up A Christmas Story – A Major Card Game at Amazon.
As stated, my family enjoyed each of these games. Our favorites leaned heavily toward a faster paced and more competitive style of play. Your family many vary. At less than $10 a pop, there’s little reason not to pick up one of each for the gamers in your life. They make excellent stocking stuffers! All are easy to understand and play right out of the box. All are quick games to play, with the average gameplay time of each ranging somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes.
If you’re still undecided after reading the official descriptions and our thoughts above, then here’s the list of which games we’d recommend, in order of our preference:
- Elf – snowball Showdown
- Gremlins – Holiday Havoc
- Frosty the Snowman – Follow the Leader
- A Christmas Story – A Major Card Game
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Twinkling Lights
Our last Funko game on this holiday gift guide is the board game Elf – Journey From the North Pole. Journey From the North Pole is a competitive game with cooperative elements. The game is for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. The average gameplay time is listed at around 20 minutes.
Help Buddy the Elf find his dad by laying a loopy route from the North
Pole to New York City. Play path cards to the board and move Buddy
along its crazy curves. Lead him toward your secret goal landmarks
along the way to score points. The player with the most points when
Buddy the Elf finds his dad wins!
In Journey From the North Pole, players lay tiles to build a path for Buddy the Elf to move from the North Pole to New York City. Players are given a card with three destinations on the board to visit. Players steer Buddy toward those spots on the board in order to earn points as he makes his way to the Big Apple. The player with the most points when Buddy reaches the city wins.
Full disclosure — my family didn’t play this game correctly. The game is for 2 to 4 players, but since there are enough components, we’ve played it with 5 players each time. We’ve also played with some variation of our own house rules each time. I say all that because we’ve not played the game the way it was designed yet, and we’ve still had fun each time we have played. The fun comes in laying tiles to form a path to get Buddy from the North Pole to New York. The most direct route would be straight down the board, but you want to reach (thereby earning points for reaching) different destinations on the map. The first time we played, we agreed that it didn’t make sense for anyone to earn points if Buddy hasn’t reached New York by the time all the tiles are played. In that session, we were so busy pulling against one another and circling around destination objectives that Buddy never made it to meet his dad. We played it more like Tsuro and we all lost.
After that, we worked to make sure that Buddy got to NYC, and by being more cooperative, we accomplished that goal. However, in our rush to make sure Buddy made it, a lot of destinations — a lot of points — were left on the board. Also, we got where we just left Buddy at home in the North Pole until the entire path was laid, then slid him along like some supersized Chutes and Ladders at the end. The Buddy piece is cute, but a bit of a distraction when you’re just focused on laying more path.
How will the game play with the correct number of players following the rules? I don’t know, but we can’t wait to pull Journey From the North Pole out often this holiday season to find out!
Pick up Elf – Journey From the North Pole at Target.
Disclaimer: Review products were provided by Funko.
Disclaimer: Purchases made through the links above help support Pop Goes the Culture.
