Bonkers! (game)

Bonkers!

Original 1978 Parker Brothers version of Bonkers!
Publisher(s)	Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley
Players	2-4
Random chance	High (dice rolling, card drawing)

Bonkers! (also known as This Game is Bonkers!) is a race-style board game designed by Paul J. Gruen and currently produced by Winning Moves, following previous editions by Parker Brothers and later by Milton Bradley. The object is to be the first player to score 12 points by adding instruction cards to the empty spaces in an attempt to move to several scoring stations. The game's slogan (for all versions) is "It's Never the Same Game Twice!"

Each game of Bonkers! comes with the following:

The board consists of a 55-space looping track. Most of these spaces have an outline of a track card next to it, the cards being played throughout the game; there are also three "Score" stations (one of which doubles as the starting point), a "Lose" space, two track spaces marked "Go to Lose", and one space marked "Back 15".

As the original Bonkers! was produced in the late 1970s, the board and game pieces accordingly had a disco styled text and motif. When Milton Bradley revived the game in the early 1990s, the board was made to appear as if the entire track and logo were made out of modeling clay; a few humorous caricatures of human faces (also made from clay) were placed in the logo and on the board as well. The game was also given a fluorescent color scheme, updated fonts, and different styled dice and pawns from the original. The 2016 Winning Moves reissue returned to the original disco motif.

The game starts with each player being dealt four track cards and a large "Go to Lose" card, and placing their pawns on the scoring space marked "Start". On a turn, a player rolls the dice, and moves the corresponding number of spaces shown. If the space is empty, the player places a track card in the outline next to that space and follows its directions; if already occupied by a card, the player follows the instructions on that card. A player's turn ends if landing on a space marked "Score" (scoring 1 point), the space marked "Lose" (deducting 1 point), or on an unmarked space after having already played one card. At the end of a turn, the player draws another card to replace any played during his or her turn, and the next player takes their turn.

Most of the track cards have a number between 1 and 6, in additional to 10 and 12, as well as the direction for the player to travel. The track is a loop; as pawns travel counterclockwise along the loop, "ahead" cards move the pawn forward, and "back" cards move in reverse. Other cards include "Roll Again", "Go to Nearest 'Score'", "Go to Start", and "Exchange Cards" (in which the player swaps the Exchange card for any other card currently on the track.)