U-build connect 4 board game

After I opened the box, I got briefly overwhelmed by all of the pieces that needed to be assembled for the gameboard. So I decided to time myself and got to work. After I assembled the game, Derek and I embarked on a best of 10 tournament and decided who should go first by a good old fashioned game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

When it is your turn, you can manipulate the bumpers on the top of the game board to help your strategy to get 4 chips in a row either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

I will have to publicly admit, I pretty much lost big time, but we had blast trying to find new ways and strategies to win. Hasbro provided this U-Build Connect 4 free to facilitate this review. Over the years Connect 4 has had a surprising number of spinoff games. U-Build Connect 4 has some interesting additions for Connect 4 but unfortunately they just add more luck to the game.

The objective of the game is to get four of your checkers in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The player then chooses one of the slots on the top of the board. They drop one of their checkers down the slot. Usually a checker will fall into one of the grid spaces on the bottom of the board. If something else happens you may have to take a special action:. This red checker is stuck on the bumper. If a checker is no longer lying flat against the board, it is removed from the board.

If the checker falls on top of another checker it is also removed from the board. When a checker is removed from the board, the player does not get another turn. The yellow checker has come off the gameboard so it is removed from the board. When more than six checkers land in one of the grid slots, the seventh checker stays where it lands but does not count towards getting four in a row.

In any other circumstances, the checkers stay where they land. Winning the Game When one player gets four checkers in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally; they win the game. Basically the goal of the game is the same as normal Connect Four. You need to get four of your discs in a row in order to win the game. The difference in U-Build Connect 4 is that you can no longer just drop checkers into whatever column you want. There are bumpers situated around the board which can change the column that the disc will fall into.

Before dropping your checker you try to move the bumpers into position to get your disc to fall into your desired column. Being a fan of Plinko, adding this type of mechanic to Connect 4 was intriguing. The idea of having to setup the bumpers in a way to bounce discs into your desired column seemed like it would be a fun addition to mix things up for Connect 4. After playing the game for a while I think the mechanic is fun and could lead to a good board game.

As a matter of fact if you use the rule where you can move as many bumpers as you want, you only need to use the bumpers to hit two of the spots. Other than the columns one away from the left and right side of the board, you can move the bumpers out of the way and literally drop the checkers into your desired column. Unless you make a rule where you have to use the bumpers, there is no reason not to just drop your disc into the column you want. When you play the game like this it is basically your normal Connect Four unless you have to drop a disc into one of the two columns that require you to use a bumper.

If neither player misses an obvious four in a row opportunity, the winner is going to come down to who is able to get one of their discs into one of those two columns at the right time. Since following the normal rules basically allows you to ignore the spirit of the game, we decided to try out a house rule in order to emphasize the unique mechanics of U-Build Connect 4.

We came up with a rule that all discs that are dropped have to bounce off at least one bumper in order to be counted.