Can't Stop Express: Review

Can't Stop Express: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Roll and Write,  Push Your Luck
Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 1 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 30 Minutes 
Game Designer & Artist: Sid Sackson

Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon  Games

Year Published: 1989

BGG Weight: 1.25
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

In Can't Stop Express, your aim is to use the dice effectively to mark off pairs of dice in a range of 2 to 12. Be careful though, until you reach the fifth repetition of any number, your total points for that number is negative 200. Even reaching the fifth repetition will make it equal zero, you should really aim for 6+ repetitions of rolling that number to make it mean something useful. Explaining this game, as well as playing the game, can be very confusing so hang in there, it’s worth it.

Your ultimate goal will just be to get a smaller negative number than everyone else; props to you if you can get a positive number.

How to play:

General:

To begin, each player receives a pencil and a sheet of paper. Every turn someone will roll all five dice and each player will choose to create two new numbers by pairing two dice together (there will be one die leftover). With these two new numbers, fill in one square on the leftmost space for each number. The fifth die will be entered into one of the three available spots in the section to the top right corner. Just like before the first space will now be marked.

The Fifth Die:

These designated spaces are special as they work as a time keeper for the game. Once a player has filled all the spaces for a number in this fifth die position, they are out of the game and can tally their score. The designated area for the fifth die can hold a total of three different numbers, there cannot be multiple of one number.  Once all three of these numbers are chosen, the fifth die left behind after choosing the pairs must be one of these numbers. So every single turn a player will mark one space in the fifth die section. There is only one exception to this rule; if the rolled dice do not contain any of those three numbers, you get a freebie and don’t have to take a fifth number at all. This ‘fifth die’ sounds like a real pain and may seem confusing but you can really make it work for you. You can choose to actively mark off all of one number so then when you are doing well in the game and have gotten closer to a final positive score, you can tap out and sit pretty while watching others TRY to take the win. The game will mostly end at different times for every player and if they just roll throughout the whole game without a true strategy, they can end up with some serious negatives during scoring.

Scoring:

For every paired number that was started but did not reach a value of zero or above (by marking them off 5+ times), they are worth -200 points. Even if you marked them off once or even four times, it will be -200. If a number was marked off 5 times it will be valued at zero points (a blessing in disguise). If it was marked off 6+ times, this is where the numbers to the left of the paired dice values come in handy. For every marked off space of above five, you will multiply by the left hand number. For example, the paired value of 7 is worth 30 points for every time you mark it off above the fifth mark. If you mark it off seven times, it is worth a total of 60, as the first five markings don’t count and 2x30 is 60.
The player with the highest score (the least negative score) will be the winner!

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Few components so it is easy to play in any location.
- Delivers a challenge in trying to obtain a positive score.
- Easy to play once you know what you’re doing.
- Maintains the essence of the original 'Can't Stop' game but in a more compact roll and write form.

Cons:
- Not a lot of variability in the form of alternate score pads.
- Can be hard to teach.

'Can't Stop Express' is a perfect filler game. It holds the essence of the original can't stop, with the push your luck mechanisims emerging strong when trying to keep the same pairs continuing. If you don’t want to start new rows you may want to end your game sooner than later in using a fifth die instead of gaining more potential negatives.
In this form though, it creates a much more accessible game with more accelerated playtime. 'Can't Stop Express' is currently hard for me to stop playing and attempting to beat my high score. For this reason and many more, it has earned a Go-To Golden Game Seal.

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Can't Stop Express on BGG
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