Designer: Naotaka Shimamoto (Hatsuden, Moon Base, Tokyo Highway)

Artist: Yoshiaki Tomioka (Hatsuden, Moon Base, Tokyo Highway)

Publisher:  itten (Hatsuden, Moon Base, Tokyo Highway)

Genre/Mechanisms: action/dexterity, dice rolling, flicking, push your luck

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Crash Octopus is already fully-funded. Pledges currently almost 29x the initial funding goal with less than 2 days to go on the campaign!

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About: “Collect the treasures and escape the giant octopus in a flicking dexterity game from Japan.”

How It Works: “You are a valiant sailor determined to collect the treasures scattered across the ocean by skillfully flicking them using flags. Race to collect 5 types of treasure (including the Captain!) while hindering rival sailors by making use of attacks from the giant octopus.”

“Each turn, players choose either to Flick a Treasure or Navigate. Once the turn ends, Octo-Attack takes place depending on the Octo-Counter status.”

When a player Flicks a Treasure and hits their ship, they get to load that Treasure onto their ship. If they miss, their turn ends. However, players can’t Flick the Treasure closest to the ship, and they can’t Flick a Treasure-type already loaded on their ship. Also, if previously loaded Treasures topple from a player’s ship when hit, they lose those Treasures to the sea! But when a player loads a new Treasure onto their ship, they may also readjust the other Treasures on the ship.

After loading a Treasure, the Crab indicator moves past 1 bead on the Octo-Counter. If the Crab moves over a black bead (and there are more of these the further along the Octo-Counter the Crab has travelled), then an Octopus attack triggers. During an Octopus attack, each player drops an Ink Die onto the Octopus head once. Players may aim to target an opponent’s ship with the die bounce, hopefully knocking some Treasures off and into the glub-glub. If they miss contact with a ship, then the player may move the Octopus head is the die lands on the pink circle, on any one tentacle if the die lands on a blank face. In either case, the head/tentacle must be adjacent/touching the die’s final resting position when placed.

If a player instead chooses to Navigate, the player flicks their anchor, and after it finishes moving, repositions their ship so that it is adjacent/touching the anchor.

“If any player collects all 5 Treasure types, or if the Octo-Counter reaches the end, the game is over. The winnin order is determined by how many treasures have been collected by each player.” In the event of a tie, the types of treasures are evaluated to choose the winner, with the following hierarchy: Captain > Goblet > Gold > Gem > Chest.

Comparisons: Some other popular flicking games include Catacombs, Crokinole, Flick ’em Up!, Icecool, PitchCar, Terror in Meeple City, and Tumblin-Dice.

What Should I Pledge?:
$31 Crash Octopus: includes Crash Octopus.
$57 Crash Octopus + Moon Base: includes Crash Octopus and Moon Base.
$60 Crash Octopus + Cube Series: includes Crash Octopus, Kappa Base, and Nice Egg.
$90 itten Kickstarter Set: includes Crash Octopus and Stonehenge and the Sun.
$156 itten Bundle: includes Crash Octopus, Moon Base, Here Comes the Dog, Tribe, Ponkotsu Factory, Hatsuden.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
The Collector’s Edition, including the Collector’s Edition Box, Plastic Organizer Trays System, and stretch goals from both campaigns.

All-In Total: Assuming you’re only here for Crash Octopus, in the continental U.S. you’re looking at $31 for the Collector’s Edition plus $14 in shipping for a total of $45.

Crash Octopus completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, October 27th and tentatively ships in June 2021.