I recently had the pleasure of receiving Around the World in 80 Days from a friend as a birthday gift. I have been on the lookout for 6 player gateway games for a while and decided to give this a shot with my family (who are predominantly non-gamers) and was pleasantly surprised by how well it was received.

Around the World is a simple race game where players are attempting to be the first to travel from London back to London in the least amount of days. Your days used are recorded on the scoring track on the perimeter of the board. Each leg of the journey requires one or a combination of modes of travel either ships, trains or in one case, an elephant. Travel is accomplished by playing the necessary type of card and advancing your token the appropriate number of days. When all but the last two players reach London the game is over. The last two players being excluded from consideration for victory ensures that a player will not sit in one place waiting for optimum cards.

The core mechanic of this game is excellent, and is the reason I feel that this is such an excellent gateway game. This is because it introduces the often confusing (to new players) concept of role selection in a simple, straightforward way. Each round, the first player places one random travel card in front of 6 game actions. Take the card, perform the action. These actions include:
-taking a coin (coins purchase new cards, or re-rolls in certain situations)
-using the balloon (the balloon, a d6, can replace one travel card this round)
-moving the detective (a black piece which costs each player ending his turn on its space 2 days)
-taking an event card (usually positive, but occasionally costing everyone their event cards and 1-2 days)
-becoming the next first player
-swapping up to 3 cards for new ones

Action track with travel cards.

Another great aspect of this game way that it keeps all of the players (for the most part) close right up until the end of the game. Each new destination has 2 bonus coins one of which is turned up for the first player to arrive, as well as for the last player to arrive. These contain bonuses such as gold coins, free action cards, lost days for other players and free travel cards. This is an incentive to move quickly, but also an apparatus for lagging players to get back into the game. The time-bending nature of this game also ensures that being the first around the board is no guarantee of victory. Players must constantly balance moving toward the goal in a timely manner and moving in the most efficient way possible. A win is secured if you are the player who reaches London with the fewest number of days used. If all players use 80 days, the first one there is the winner.

I think this game is an excellent, underrated gateway game. The concept of role selection in euro games is often difficult to teach and this game introduces in a very easy way. However, it is a very light game and will be too simple to keep groups of more experienced gamers interested. Also, with cards being such an important part of the core mechanic, luck is a large factor. 7/10.