The child in my life is a pretty big Where’s Waldo fan. He’s not much of a finder, but he’s an enthusiastic searcher. Spotlight has the feel of a Where’s Waldo book or the Micro Macro game, where you try to find objects hidden among a thousand details. Spotlight has loads of clever features that enhance the concept. My five-year-old was interested in the search, but not at all in the game scoring or other mechanics.
The base game is a cooperative game for up to five players, rated for ages six and up, and taking 15 minutes to play. It’s designed by Lorenzo Silva and Hjalmar Hach for Horrible Guild. The art by Giulia Ghigini is intricate and simply fun to look at.
Game Overview:
The game includes five unique boards with a lively scene printed on the underside of a clear sheet. This sheet is laid against a black backing. Players slide their flashlight—a white cardboard circle with a handle—between the layers. This acts to bring the back-printed scene into focus by hiding the dark background.
Cards depicting figures (a cactus, a wizard, etc…) hidden in multiple places in the scene guide each round of searching. The backs of the cards show the rough position of the figures, so players can locate those tricky to find characters at the end of the turn.
The theme of the game is to out-race the moon. Players move up the score track based on how many of the figures they have managed to locate in the time allotted, followed by a moon phase where the moon pawn moves forward. Players need to keep ahead of the always creeping moon. Their final score is based on how far ahead of the moon the slowest player is.
Game Experience:
This game’s flashlight and back printed boards are an impressive part of this game concept. At this point, I was with the five-year-old, very intent on scanning the scene with my flashlight and nothing else.
When I finally played the full game, adding the timer, the moon die, the rush tokens, and player wheels, I was still impressed with the game. I think it would be a great game for a slightly older child who could manage the extra rules and features, say ages 7-10. There actually might be a short age window for this game, as I’d expect older kids to find it too easy.
The timer gives barely enough time to scan the entire scene, no matter what your search system is. I favored long sweeping passes while my partner searched quadrant by quadrant. The movement points earned by finding the round’s hidden figure don’t correspond to the number of objects found but are counted on player wheels that convert the number of figures found to movement; for example, finding 5 of the figures earns 3 movement points. Kids might need reminders of this conversion.
Each board’s scene is slightly different, which enhances replay value and discourages one player from simply announcing they’ve found the same number as the other players. The backs of the cards are keyed to each individual player board, showing where the figures can be found on each. The tokens, pawns and dials are simple and easy to use. The flashlights even have a low-power side, where the white circle is much smaller, making the search slower. In our play, this virtually guaranteed that players wouldn’t find all their quarry.
In cooperative mode, if any player is lapped by the moon, the game ends. The catchup mechanism that helps a player who lags on the score track will be welcome in a game with players of different ages.
Final Thoughts:
Spotlight feels like a perfect match for older children who aren’t yet ready for Micro Macro. The game is challenging yet fast paced, with just enough game mechanics to make it more than a simple Where’s Waldo search clone.
Source: Board Game Quest
