We recently featured the Funkoverse: DC Comics games on Board's Eye View. The Rick & Morty game is another in the Funkoverse series designed by Prospero Hall; this time drawing on the popular Adult Swim cartoon.
The game comes with two Funko Pop figures - the eponymous Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith - plus its own double-sided board and all the tokens and custom d6 dice needed to play as a standalone game (albeit that that will mean pitting Rick and a stand-in token against Morty and another token). It's very playable in this way but unless you've only bought the game as a diehard Rick & Morty fan, you'll probably want to take advantage of the universal crossover possibilities of the Funkoverse by mixing in characters from other Funkoverse IPs. In our Board's Eye View 360, for example, we've teamed Rick with Joker from Funkoverse: DC 100, and we've partnered Morty with Harley Quinn. Those with eagle eyes will spot that we've equipped Joker with Rick's portal gun but we've given Morty a batarang. The beauty of all the Funkoverse games is that the core rules are the same and the character-specific rules work with any of the set ups and scenarios. That means you can combine characters in any way that takes your fancy.
As with other titles in the series, this Funkoverse game comes with four alternative scenarios. They aren't vastly different but they do tend to promote different strategies. All are played as a race to be the first to amass a set number of points. In Leaders, you play with at least two characters on each side (a Funko Pop and a token, if you only have this Rick & Morty set). You earn points (green crystals) by knocking out rival characters and by interacting with the points markers on the board. This scenario requires each player to designate one of their characters as a 'leader' because that affects how the knock outs are scored, and, in this scenario, there are more points to be earned from 'Challenges' (ie: combat) than from chasing after points markers.
In the Control scenario, you score points by interacting with point markers and by having control of more of them than the other player. You score just 1 point for knocking out a rival character, so this scenario is more about good use of movement and positioning rather than focusing on knockdown 'Challenges'.
The Flags and Territory scenarios also both score just a point for a knockout, with a point for each interaction with a token. In Flags, tho', you also score when you have a character standing on or adjacent to your opponent's flag token. The rules say you need to satisfy this at the end of a round but this gives a significant advantage to the player who goes last in the round. In our Board's Eye View plays, we preferred to substitute our house rule that you had to be standing there at the start of your next turn.
Territory creates, in effect, a 3 x 3 square arena in the centre of the board. You score a point whenever you end a round with more characters than your opponent in this scoring area...
If you're a Rick & Morty fan, this Funkoverse game will probably be an automatic must-have purchase if only for the Chiba-style Funko Pop figures, but you're getting a decent game into the bargain. And if you're not a Rick & Morty fan, why in the multiverse not?