Television is littered with quiz and game shows. If you love to shout answers to trivia questions at your television, then early evening viewing is heaven. I don’t get to watch many of these shows but one of my favourites is The Chase, which just happens to be one of the most successful and longest running game shows on UK television and one of ITV’s most successful daytime TV shows ever! The Chase sees four contestants answer general knowledge questions and try to outrun the very knowledgeable Chasers (who are expert quiz masters) to try and win the money for the prize pot which remaining players play for in the final chase. It is a great show to watch, one that fans get invested in and definitely one where watchers of the show shout the answers at their screens. And now it is also a family board that is also lots of fun.
As I don’t always have time to watch the show, we have been playing the board game. This version of the board game isn’t just a general knowledge quiz game, it is a race to beat The Chasers and the electronic timer! It is a quiz game suitable for family play and has over 1000 questions. To play requires a minimum of 3 players, and a maximum of 6, and is suitable for age 8+. It has a playing time of around 30 minutes.
In the box:
- Game Board
- Electronic Timer Unit (requires 2x AAA batteries, not supplied)
- Question Cards
- Contestant Playing Pieces
- Chaser Playing Pieces
- Chaser Picture Cards
- Money Tokens
- Instructions
For those of you that have never seen the show, The Chase pits contestants against a Chaser. The Chasers are professional quizzers with outstanding general knowledge – their level of general knowledge, facts and figures is really impressive. The board game version doesn’t feature all The Chasers that we currently see on our television screens. We all have our favourite Chasers, but the board game version features only four of them: The Beast (Mark Labbett), The Destroyer (Shaun Wallace), The Governess (Anne Hegerty) and The Sinnerman (Paul Sinha).
As with the television show, The Chase is on! In this family board game players must keep at least one step ahead of The Chasers and their vast wealth of knowledge to avoid being chased down and win money for the prize pot to be able to compete in the Final Chase.
Before you can play there is some simple set up to do. Install 2x AAA batteries (these are not supplied with the game) into the electronic timer and place it on the game board. Place the game board within easy reach of all players in the centre of the table. Each player must take a coloured Contestant Playing Piece and the corresponding Chaser Playing Piece. Players then take a Chaser Picture Card (an image of The Chaser they want to play against) and places it on their Chaser Playing Piece. The Chaser playing pieces are then placed on the silhouette of The Chasers on the playing board. Separate the question cards into two piles: blue and red. Place the money tokens near the playing board. With set up complete its time for the chase to begin. Can you outsmart a Chaser?
Playing the game. This board game is played over three rounds:
Round 1: Cash Builder – each player has one minute to answer as many questions correctly as they can, scoring £1000 for each answer they get correct. The Question Master (the player to the right of who is answering the questions) then starts reading questions aloud from the blue question cards. Each correct answer earns £1000 and at the end of the minute the player takes a money token that represents how many they got correct and places it in the groove on their playing piece.
Round 2: The Chase – all players play at the same time. They all place their playing pieces on the playing board Chase Ladder, 3 steps away from The Chaser. Every player then looks at the red side of their money token for the Chasers money offer statement. Each player then decides if to play for the money on the blue side of their token, move one step away for a lower money offer or take a step closer to The Chaser for a higher money value (as shown on the red side of the card). Each player then takes it in turns to answer a multiple-choice question from the red question cards (the cards also show how The Chaser has answered). If the contestant gets the answer correct, they move one step closer to the end, if they get it wrong, they stay where they are. The Chaser also moves in the same way. If the contestant gets to the end before The Chaser catches up with them, they win the money they were playing for. If The Chaser catches up with them, they lose and are out of the game.
Round 3: The Final Chase – the player who got through round 2 with the highest monetary value plays the Final Chase (unlike the tv show where all players who get through play as a team). Now the chase is on! The player who is playing the Final Chase and The Chaser places their playing piece on the playing board on the blank square between 1 and 30. One of the remaining players now asks the questions and 1 or 2 players become The Chaser (depending on if a 3 player game or more). The timer is set to 2 minutes and the question master asks questions from the blue cards; with each correct answer the contestant moves their playing piece one space. Once the time has elapsed, The Chaser has two minutes to try and answer enough questions to catch up with the contestant. If The Chaser catches up, the contestant loses and The Chaser wins. If The Chaser gets an answer wrong, the contestant is asked the same question – if answered correctly they push The Chaser back one space on the board.
Overall, The Chase board game is a fantastic game to play. It is slightly different to play than what you watch on the television show, but it works extremely well. We all had great fun playing, adults and children alike.
There are over 1000 questions on various general knowledge topics, and there are questions that will suit all age groups, albeit some can be quite hard (it is a quiz game after all). Some are questions where you must know the answer, or not, and some are multiple choice so there is a very good mix and a good variety of topics.
As a family board game or a game for a group of friends to play, it is excellent. It isn’t so easy that players get bored and there is a good mix of questions so that everybody isn’t always getting them right or wrong. Although some of the questions that The Chasers get wrong can be questionable, but they can’t know everything can they!
A really fun and enjoyable TV show quiz board game (and requires no staring at a screen). Teenagers and adults will get the most from but is still lots of fun for children aged 8+ (although I would probably say 10+) – everybody can join in, play and be able to answer questions. It would make an excellent game to sit and play on game nights with friends and family.
I love it. Can you beat The Chasers?
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £27.99
For more information, visit www.johnadams.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
