Ben Lott
United States
Mason
Michigan
It's a gift...
...and a curse!
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I still find it shocking that a game I've only owned for about a year has so quickly become my most-played game. But that's what happened with FITS. It was such a perfect game for my taste and for my family. Of course, once you play a game 50 or more times, you're anxious for some variety. I never really thought I would get one of the print-and-play expansions because I don't exactly have the skill/patience/know-how to pull off something like that. But then Howitzer_120mm posted a geeklist offering to make print-and-play games for people. This gave me the chance to buy the official expansion as if it was a boxed expansion on the market. Did it offer the same enjoyment as the base game? Read on...
What do you get with FITS Official Expansion? You get four new boards numbered 5 through 8 for each color (so a total of sixteen boards.) There isn't a rulebook, since the rules are essentially the same as the base game.
How does FITS Official Expansion work? Well, I don't feel like rehashing the rules of FITS all over again. Basically, it's Tetris the board game. If you want more detail than that, check out my review of the base game. So let's just take a moment to talk about the look of these 4 new boards.
Board #5 = This board is played just like #2 from the base game. The difference is that all the point spaces are only 1-pointers. But there is a ton of them. The trick is to try and maneuver your pieces around so that you cover as few of them as possible, but it sometimes feels like they are everywhere.
Board #6 = This board is played just like #3 from the base game. The difference is that the positive points and negative points are all running alongside each other in a sideways V-shaped pattern. This makes it really challenging to cover all the negatives without covering some really good points.
Board #7 = This is another board like #3 from the base game. The catch is that all the positive points are arranged in 2 solid lines, so you absolutely have to cover at least one in each row. And all the negatives are up at the top, plus there are 2 negatives above the normal playing area. This makes it really difficult to cover all the negatives, especially if you pass on a piece or 2.
Board #8 = This board is similar to #4 from the base game. The difference is that there are 3 of each shape on this board. So you have to cover one of each shape, but you want to make sure you don't cover 2 of that shape. If you have 1 or 3 of the shape showing you will lose 3 points, but if you manage to only leave 2 of the shape showing you will score the 3 positive points for a pair.
What does Blott think of FITS Official Expansion? This expansion is simply more spectacular fun for one of my favorite games. The boards do seem a little more challenging, yet they don't add any complexity to the rules. This is exactly what I was looking for out of an expansion. Variety is precisely what this game needed to spice things up. And I love watching people stress out again like they did when they first played the original, because they don't know how to place each piece. I don't think I would play all 8 boards in a row (we usually just play either the originals or the expansions) the game is ideal with the 4-board playtime. It might even be fun to just randomly select 4 boards to play. But, no matter what, I'm really glad to have this expansion.
Who will enjoy FITS Official Expansion? Simply put, anyone who enjoyed the original game should enjoy this expansion.
Any parting comments about FITS Official Expansion? I thought I should share a quick note about Howitzer_120mm's print-and-play work. I paid for the most expensive version that he offered (printed on chip board.) These boards are awesome. They have been perfectly cut so that all the dots line up just like the original boards. They even have a thickness similar to the original boards. The only downside is that they can't fit in with the original boards. But that is a very small nit-pick. I would highly recommend that, if you don't have the ability to create this expansion yourself, contact Andrew. He does really professional work.
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