I apologize, as this post should have been automatically published on Friday. I’m not sure what went wrong with Wordpress, but it was probably operator error. Just pretend like it’s Friday as you read.

Well, it’s Friday, and with my new blog schedule that means it’s time for games! Friday is going to be our official day for talking about games of various types, from board to video, and our first game is entitled Cloud 9.

Here’s a look at the game contents:

Cloud9 Complete Game

At its core, Cloud 9 is a fairly simple betting game. Players take turns “piloting” a hot-air balloon by rolling the prescribed amount of dice, and “paying” the corresponding colour cards from their hands. At which point, the “passengers” have the opportunity to bail out of the balloon for guaranteed points, or risk crashing with it. If the player doesn’t have the correct colours, then the balloon crashes and someone else becomes the “pilot”. Because of its bright colours and easy to understand gameplay, we often use Cloud 9 as an introductory game for our “non-gaming” friends.

Kevin’s Ratings, your mileage may vary. All scores are out of 5 *:

Fun: *** (Average)
Learning Curve: ** (Easy)
Replayability: ** (Below Average - We mainly play it with “newbies” or people who aren’t gamers, but rarely with people who are into other games)
Cost: * (Cheap - less than 10 bucks on Amazon)

Off the box:

Number of Players: 3 to 6
Ages: 8+
Play Time (average): 25 minutes
Time to Learn: 5 minutes
Released: 2005
Publisher: Out of the Box Publishing
Designer(s): Aaron Weissblum

If you’re intreseting in picking up a copy of Cloud 9, you’ll probably either have to visit a local game shop, or purchase it online.

P.S. If you’ve played Cloud 9, let’s hear about it in the comments.