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This is an English translation of a review I did for the Danish board gaming website Germangames. The website is mostly targeted for non-hardcore gamers, and the review is written with that target audience in mind.
Also, bear in mind that English is not my first language, so I might have overlooked a grammatical- or spelling-error here or there.
Top-A-Top is most likely the dumbest game, I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
Strong words, without a doubt. But true words, nonetheless. Top-A-Top is a really dumb game - but at the same time, it's an incredibly fun game; maybe even because of the stupidity of the game. Top-A-Top is a game in which reflexes are extremely important, but not as important as the ability to remember actions, and knowing the difference of the cards in the game.
Is this a tube of Pringles?
The game consits of 85 round cardboardbits, you find in a tube resembling a tube of Pringles chips, or maybe a the tubes you often find Tennis Balls in. And that's what's in the game.
The "Cards" (round cardboard bits - almost beer-coaster-like in quality) are available in 3 variants - some with green, some with yellow and some with red borders. Depending on the difficulty you want in the game, you choose one or more of the colours to put in your game. Green cards are the easiest, red the most difficult, and yellow inbetween.
It's actually quite a good way to start the game with only the green cards, and then adding the more complicated ones as the game goes by. If you started out with all the cards, you'd most likely be confused and overwhelmed the first couple of times, you tried playing the game.
Slap the fly - not the poop!
Top-A-Top is one of those games that are so simple, you might wonder how the concept turned into a finished game. The cards you chose to add in the game, will be divided evenly amongst the players, and now the setup is done.
Quite simply put, the game is about doing specific tasks, when certain cards are shown. The player who's slowest at doing the right task, will pick up the card. When a player runs out of cards, the game is over, and the person who ran out of cards is the winner.
But what kind of stuff are you going to do? You see, when the image of the fly appears, everyone needs to "smack" the fly. The poop is smelly, and when this card is shown, you will need to plug you nose. Other cards ask you to yell specific things (The name of the game, for instance) or have a specific facial expression.
The funnest part of the game comes, when people mix up cards, and do stuff different than the rest of the players. Using the above example of the poop - everyone plugs their nose, except for the one poor player smacking his hand down on the poop. Hilarity ensues, as he realises he was confused, and mixed up the fly and the poop.
After a couple of beers..
Now, it's not my place to encourge people to partake in the drinking og alcoholic beverages...but a game like Top-A-Top is almost build to be played whilst imbibing. With that in mind, it's a really fun game - my memories of the game is filled with laughter and happy faces, albeit clouded a bit by the haze of alcohol.
Top-A-Top is one of the games that came out at the Essen Spiel this year. I haven't found it at my FLGS, and that might be because it doesn't have a lot of deep strategies to dive into, and the game isn't really one most gamers will grab that often. Once you do grab it, though, it is certain to be a game you'll have a lot of fun with - especially if you are in the mood for "something dumb" you can enjoy while drinking a beer or two.
As it is, I do feel a little sad that I didn't bring one home from Essen this year. I'm glad, however, that one of my regular gaming buddies did bring it home.
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Piotr Zuchowski
Poland
Lublin
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Thanks for the review, Peter!
Maybe, as I work for the company that published the game, I am not too objective and I shouldn't write this, but I agree with your opinions in 100% 
Never tried to play Top-A-Top after drinikng alcohol, but I'm pretty sure I would share your opinion in this respect as well  I only wonder whether Agnieszka designed this one really as a "beer game"...
One more thing - there are 85 cards in the box, not 58
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zucho wrote:
One more thing - there are 85 cards in the box, not 58 :)
That's right - fixed the typo. Thanks :)
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Piotr Zuchowski
Poland
Lublin
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Brichs wrote: zucho wrote: One more thing - there are 85 cards in the box, not 58 That's right - fixed the typo. Thanks
Corrected:
- the first printing of the game has 85 cards (sold out before Christmas)
- the second printing (available after Christmas 2011) has 90 cards, slightly thinner.
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Piotr Zuchowski
Poland
Lublin
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Hey Peter,
did you know that your review was quoted in one of the most popular Polish newspapers in an article about Top-A-Top?
Here exactly: http://katowice.gazeta.pl/katowice/1,35055,10849700,Karciana...
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Posted Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:03 pm
