The Haunted Roller Coaster is a tabletop escape game created by Exit: The Game.
Format
Style of Play: tabletop escape game
Required Equipment: scissors, pen & paper
No digital components needed! Unplug and play.
Recommended Team Size: 2-3
Play Time: 1-2 hours
Price: about $15
Booking: purchase and play at your leisure
Description
This game used the standard format for novice Exit: The Game installments. You have access to a puzzle book, clue cards, various “strange items,” and a decoder wheel for entering the solutions to puzzles. In the novice games like this one, the puzzle book walks you through one puzzle at a time. As in all Exit: The Game installments, you must embrace destroying various parts of the game to solve some of the puzzles.
Sarah Mendez’s Reaction
As a longstanding roller coaster fan, my overriding hope for this game was that it would finally be The Amusement Park Game that actually does justice to the theme. Alas, it was not; the story was roller-coaster-adjacent at best. There is a roller coaster, and it does contribute to a couple of puzzles, but then the story becomes indistinguishable from traversing a haunted house. So, don’t play this just because you like roller coasters.
That said, this had a surprisingly good onramping experience for players new to the series. More than some of the other novice Exit: The Game installments, this game does a decent job directing your attention to gameplay elements that are easy to overlook, and the hints walk you through how to think about the puzzles. I enjoyed the variety of puzzles even though they were easy, and I found them logical enough to share with my kids. As with many Exit: The Game installments, however, one of the later puzzles is rather unstable and overly vulnerable to imprecise execution, disrupting the momentum of the game somewhat. I also am not a fan of cutting intricate shapes out of the playing cards because that alone definitely halts the game. I wish these pieces were provided as “strange items” instead.
New to Exit: The Game? This game is fine! It represents aspects of the series reasonably well and helps you discover them. You’ll learn how the series works, do some fun puzzles, and decide whether some common frustrations are deal breakers for you.
Fan of Exit: The Game? This would be most fun to play with newer players. Otherwise, it didn’t have much novel to offer me as someone experienced with the series.
Cindi S’ Reaction
What could be more fun than being stuck on an amusement park ride with ghosts and goblins giving you the creeps? The Haunted Roller Coaster gets your attention right away with an engaging story and well-designed puzzles. Exit: The Game installments in general are highly creative and this one is no exception. The variety of the puzzles was impressive; some used logic, some were tactile, and there was more than one surprise to be discovered. While I would say this game is kid-friendly, the puzzles were still challenging and I needed a hint once or twice. This game is a standout among the Exit: The Game installments I’ve played.
Kate Wastl’s Reaction
The Haunted Roller Coaster was a great blend of a number of different types of game mechanics, the lion’s share of which were easy to follow and fun to work through. We found ourselves laughing as we played through the pages of the gamebook, with the art being particularly engaging and lending itself to the key aha moments in the game. This game is probably best played with two players; there is one very logic-heavy puzzle that is a bit long for bystanding players if you’re playing with more than two people. The same logic puzzle would have still worked if there was a bit less content to sort through. Overall, the hidden game mechanics are what makes this game so enjoyable and I would certainly recommend it.
Theresa W’s Reaction
The Haunted Roller Coaster was an awesomely cute low-level boxed game with adorable monsters and fun, tangible puzzles. Exit: The Game continued to absolutely amuse me with the many, many ways they were able to twist the typical rules of puzzle games and catch us unexpectedly. This game would be great to introduce anyone into the series, as the level of difficulty was low and the on-ramping was quite steady. The theme was way more cute than creepy, so don’t let the box art spook you! A small number of puzzles had us scratching our heads, but the majority were straightforward and charming. I really appreciate the after-game rewards Exit: The Game has been adding into their games, as they give a nice little activity to do post-game.
Disclosure: Exit: The Game provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.
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