Pitch your greatest and latest ideas to the creative director as you vie for the most points. You are in an advertising firm and must quickly use your wits and charm to earn the top spot for the current project.
Was this game sent for review or self-purchased?: This was kindly sent for review by Flat River Games on behalf of Ludonaute.
In two sentences, what do you do in the game: Players take turns being the creative director, the person who chooses the project and selects the best answer from the players. Everyone else is listening to the project idea and using their brains and creativity to come up with ads, titles, slogans, and names to pitch to the creative director.
Have we played any other titles by this publisher?: We have purchased other titles from this publisher, but this is our first review of one of their games.
What was surprising about this title: The game is a little slow as you learn to be silly, but eventually, everyone at the table will begin to laugh and ease into their strange projects and weird ideas.
How likely is this to return to the game table?: Fairly likely. The minimum player count is 4, so it is a little on the high end of minimums for our table. That being said, it is a game that is swiftly taught and easily learned.
Game length: Approximately 15-20 minutes for 4 players to complete a “standard” game. Players will each play as the creative director twice (two rounds) but the game can easily be extended to however many rounds you want. The game length is also extended as you add players to the table as well.
Language Barrier Playability: Very difficult. Unless you translate your entire pitch in multiple languages, then it will be very difficult to impossible to play this game. The game is extremely dependent on language and tables with a language barrier may not enjoy this game for that reason.
Artwork: Simple. The artwork is very limited and simple. The coffee break cards and icons on each project card feature very simplistic pop art. The artwork reminds us of brochures and Microsoft Word.
Quality: Good. There is nothing bad we can say about the quality of the materials or the contents of the box. The cards are durable and the box is neatly painted. There are no kerning problemsm Shuffling/handling the cards is easy to do. Nothing particularly stands out in terms of quality, but in this case, it’s a good thing. The quality is exactly what you want: a set of sturdy simple cards that feel good in your hand and let you enjoy the game without thinking about the material. Usually, when cards stand out, it’s because they feel flimsy or the printing is off.
Strategy: Very light. There isn’t a whole lot of strategy outside of being charming, witty and charismatic. Though we did have some moments where players immediately said “I’m ready” after being told about the project, leaving the rest of the players with only 20 seconds to think of an idea before pitching started.
Instruction Manual: Quick, easy and small. The manual is very well written and has a little silliness thrown in to make it enjoyable.
Organization: Great. Everything fits neatly and easily in the box. It is split into two compartments which hold both types of cards very easily and can make distributing the 2 types of cards much more quickly.
Final thoughts: Pop Com is a quick and easy game you can play as a warm up or in between games while you wait for the next game. It is very casual and loose but can also be rigid and chaotic depending on who the creative director is. Pop Com is a little teaser of silliness that eventually everyone will sink into and use their brown nosing skills to make their way to the top.
Sushiball Games 