Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Woody Woodpecker's Up The Tree Game



I picked up this 1969 Woody Woodpecker board game from a thrift store for a couple of bucks, figuring if the game itself was a dud at least the graphics are pretty cool.
I was able to guilt PB into a round and boy howdy I think it will become a summer tradition for us.
The game is both frustrating and highly annoying.  For some reason those are two traits he and I enjoy in some games.
At first glance the game looks like it should take only about five minutes to make your way from the ground level trunk up the path to the tree top club house.
The colors on the spinner are only for figuring out who goes first and is really more useful as a how-may-spaces-do-you-move tool.  The game works a lot like chutes and ladders; land on a red space then you have to move to a blue.  Some are advancements and some take you back a few steps.  Not too bad, right?



The frustrating part comes in when you have to move back in a spot like the loop seen above.  It's just a few spaces but since the spinner goes no higher than 4 it can cause you to get trapped in those corners.  PB and I both spent at least 5 consecutive turns stuck in several loops.  And then for the annoying part...  As a player is moving to the blue spot "he must repeat Woody's song" Ha-ha-ha-hah-ha,  Ha-ha-ha-hah-ha, Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" every..single...time, or you lose a turn.

PB had never been exposed to the laugh so I had to pull up a Youtube video for him to know how to do it.  My word it is irritating.  It's irritating to do as well as listening to it.
I guess there in lies the draw for us with this game.  It's so annoying and frustrating that we must conquer it, while along the way reveling in the anguish Woody's "song" causes one another.


2 comments:

  1. You are much better than me and certainly deserve that Best Mom Award! I despised Woody Woodpecker as a child. Still can't stand him! I would have left that game right where I found it and, if by some chance I did buy it and try to play it, would definitely have drawn the line at doing the laugh/song! lol!

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  2. Woody Woodpecker is a definite form of torture! If it wasn't for my soft spot for old board games I would have passed it up. I didn't put hope in the game being any good. And it's only good because it's so bad!

    ~mary~

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