JUNK ART

I may not know much about art, but I know it when I stack it.  This could be the theme for Junk Art, a game from Plan B Games where 2-6 players compete in constructing their own artwork -- but it's trickier than that.

In Junk Art, players are competing to build their own unique artwork to earn fans in different cities; whoever ends the game with the most fans wins.  At the start of the game, there are four sets of 15 unusual-shaped wooden pieces, identical in shapes and in four different colors.  Each player also gets a square base -- about 1" x 1" -- to build their art on.

If the game were just about building the tallest art, this would be pretty dull, as the person with the best balancing abilities would win.  However, Junk Art mixes things up with multiple cities.

Every city has different rules for earning fans.  Usually, players pass cards, with a specific piece and color, to their opponent for them to add to their sculpture; sometimes players pass their whole hand of cards, sometimes just one.  Players usually work on their own sculptures, but sometimes they have to work together on the same sculpture, or move to another player's sculpture each turn.  There are different rules for what ends the turn, such as a player having a certain number of pieces fall off.  Earning fans varies as well, whether all remaining players get fans or the player with the tallest sculpture gets the most fans.  (There's a tape measure included for the latter.)  And after three cities -- with a new sculpture created for each city -- whoever has the most fans wins!

I really enjoy Junk Art.  While balancing the pieces on a very small base is key, it's also important to choose what cards to give other players, to try and get their sculpture to collapse.  The variety of cities and their accompanying rules mean no two games are the same -- even before the different cards are passed around.  And the rules are quite easy to teach.  Junk Art is a lot of fun.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch