Designers: Zach Connelly
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
2-4 players | 15 min. | ages 6+ | MSRP $30 | BGG Entry
Time to teach and learn: 2-3 minutes 

Game Synopsis

Welcome to the cardboard arcade! You don’t need tokens or quarters. You don’t even need electricity. Just the flex of a finger! housed within this humble cardboard box is a pinball machine complete with all the challenges and excitement of its blinky flipper-based forefathers. Line up three box tops from tallest to shortest in a stairstep pattern. Add walls, bumpers, and monsters, and you have yourself a good old-fashioned Halloween themed haunted house. 

Use a cardboard pedestal to launch dice from the top of the pinball machine, scoring points based on where each die lands and the number you roll. Haunted realm areas will multiply your score. Face down clue  tokens could offer a windfall or a pittance.  Wandering monsters provide juicy targets. Knock down Medusa,  Frank (enstein) and  Bob the flaming skull to cash in a hefty bonus. Aim for the summoning circle, and you’ll gain an extra die, giving you even more chances to score. 

This haunted house is no walk in the park, though. It takes a combination of good aim and coordination to send your die careening into just the right place. And there are many literal pitfalls to avoid. If your die falls through the box, it’s gone for the round. No one scores points until the end of round, though, so even the best shot can be wrecked by the flick of another player’s finger.

Why We Love Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House

There is a kind of primal satisfaction at the heart of any dexterity game. Your actions translate directly into success or failure.  Box top pinball can reward skillful play but there is an ever present element of chaos that magnifies the fun. Even the greatest shot is in jeopardy until the last die is flicked. This echoes, the real experience of playing pinball in a deliciously frustrating way. You might make the most magnificent flipper shot and watch your silver chrome ball spin through lights and bumpers and bonuses. But every machine has its gremlins and you know the fickle finger of fate stands ready to undo even your best beautiful moves. In box top pinball those gremlins could be cardboard obstacles, or the other players themselves!

This is a game powered by nostalgia and imagination. The will to play is so strong that we can upend a series of box lids, and trick ourselves into an experience that captures the essence of the original in a very real way. And when we boil it down, the essence of pinball isn’t lights or flippers… it is dexterity divided by chance. If three box lids can be a pinball machine what other pinball challenges could we make on our own? This spooky playground is one we certainly enjoy exploring over and over. But the real brilliance of box top pinball is the invitation it offers for us to see the world around us as an arcade in the making.

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Congratulations to designer Zach Connelly

More information on Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House at Pandasaurus Games

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