Breno K.
Brazil
BrasÃlia
Distrito Federal
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Wow, what a surprise. Billabong is a fantastic game: it's a gamer's game, it's a family game, it's a kid's game, it's got it all.
The rules can be explained in a minute, or in a paragraph. Each player has 5 kangaroos, and the player that gets them all across the finishing line twice wins the game. In your turn, you move one kangaroo, either walking to an adjacent space or jumping over other 'roos (be them yours or another player's). When you jump over another kangaroo, you land the exact distance you jumped from (if you were 3 spaces away from the other kangaroo, you land 3 spaces in front of that piece). You can jump over many kangaroos in one turn. As an added charm, you place a referee-piece in the spot where your kangaroo was before all the jumps (so that you can remember, if you decide to change your course midway through your turn); but you can jump over that as well, if you want to. That's it.
Think of it this way: it's a racing game where the paths are dictated by the cars. Because jumping is where it's at, the one-square movement is just fine-tuning for your real advances.
It's a brainburner that can cause many laughs and surprises. There's a lot of planning and unexpected turns. It's got the elegance of the abstract, but a cute theme with cute kangaroo-meeples that keeps abstract-haters and even kids entertained. There's no luck factor, but there are so many possible moves that matches will hardly feel like the same thing over and over.
A match takes only about 30 minutes, but there are important decisions with strategic consequences all the way through. Since there are many possibilities in your turn, AP can set in sometimes, but you can spend your waiting time calculating your possibilities for your next turn
The only negative thing that I can think of is that the game does not support five players. That and the fact that the production went with a vinyl-esque board made the box size a little too big for what's in it (just the board, 21 meeples and a rules booklet.).
Snow tails, motorbike, Formula D, all these can't hold a candle to Billabong, this almost entirely forgotten little gem. Everyone should give this a try: heck, you can probably make a homemade version of this quite easily (only 21 pieces and a big grid for the board), if you can't find a copy.
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