" Make a movie not for the love of the art or to win the academy award, but to make a quick buck! "

      Title: Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel by Alien Games

      Format: Card Game

      Reviewing Monkey: Prof. Bobo

      The Hype: Hollywood, the land of dreams and heartbreaks. Where every year movie studios vie for the people's money as they release blockbuster films of every caliber. Thus, in Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel, you are an aspiring director who wants to make a movie not for the love of the art or to win the academy award, but to make a quick buck! No costs are spared as you hire some guy off the street dressed up in something that resembles a wool rug laying waste to a model railroad. Welcome to the world of making B horror movies and that is what is recreated in Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel or NOTITS (Humor, I get it.) for short.

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Playability: The object of the game is that you are trying to make the worst film in history and to do that you need to assemble a team of actors, sets, special effects, etc. to make your movie leap onto the silver screen. Each card has a star value (1 being worst and 5 being the best) and, seeing as how you are trying to make the worst movie possible, you want to have the least number of stars attached to your production. The person with the lowest amount of stars at the end of the game wins.
          The game has three phases: Filming, Release and End. During the filming phase you are attaching actors, plots, etc. to your movie. When you play one of the cards and attach it to your movie you play it FACE DOWN. And once the card is face down no one can look at it, not even the person that played it (so it does take a bit of strategy to play this game). There are also movie event cards, which can either help you or hinder other players. The filming phase ends when everyone has all the necessary cards attached to their movie. The release phase starts where people are trying to get one review attached to their movie and also playing Release events. When every movie has a review the game shifts to the end phase where all the cards are flipped up and the stars are tallied.
          This game is a definite blast to play! I had fun scheming against my opponents and trying to make the worst movie possible. It definitely captures the spirit of Hollywood and the cutthroat business of making movies. 4 out of 5

      Aesthetics: While the cards don't have an award-winning artist attached to them some of the images that are on the cards are quite funny. Also remember that the whole idea of the card game was to simulate low budget B horror movies and that would explain why clip art was used on some of the cards. It just adds to the flavor of the game! 3 out of 5

      Value vs. Cost: Night of the Ill Tempered Squirrel is definitely a game that everyone can afford. At only $7.95 it won't take a Hollywood budget to start making your own B movies and the game can be played with up to six people. 5 out of 5

      The Verdict:

      The Good: A cheap and fun game to play.

      The Bad: Some of the card art but that's the point of the game!

      The Overall Ugly: The movies that you'll make.. the horror… the.. horror..

      What it's Worth: Enough to start making your own horrid B movies.