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Introducing “Reels & Deals: The Movie-Making Card Game”
Introducing “Reels & Deals: The Movie-Making Card Game”, one of our latest inductees to The Toy Man™ Product Guide. Reels & Deals is a family game that brings the entire family back into the same room, with laughter and creative atmosphere which these days in society seems long forgotten.
To play the game, players assemble casts of talent from over 60 unique Actor, Actress, and Director cards. What gives this game the added flair of creative flow in a game is the fact that each character is a parody on a pop culture figure and has its own full illustration. You will discover that Reels & Deals is far from boring and redundant in its game play; a quite exciting and stimulating experience. You will learn more about this later in this product evaluation summary.
Players select from 21 unique scripts and then develop strategies to raise funds and compete in Bidding Wars to hire the top talent. The game is suitable for ages 10 and up and has wide conceptual appeal. Children and casual gamers will enjoy the art and parodies, while more serious gamers will appreciate the game's smooth operation and strategic elements. “Reels & Deals” is an ideal game for a mixed level gaming group.
Having What It Takes
As the economy becomes an ever increasing pressure in regard to successful business ventures, it can be quite the challenge in developing a card game that has the right appeal to make it a hit. Reels & Deals may very well possess the necessary elements to face that challenge and get over the hump to success.
At first glance my own personal impression was nothing of substantial WOW!-factor, but you will quickly discover that with Reels & Deals, looks can most definitely be deceiving. My first proof of that fact came from the consumer hands-on segment of our evaluation of Reels & Deals. To my surprise, virtually every family that sat down to play the game made positive comments in reference to the game packaging ranging from "Interesting idea; I wonder what it's all about." to "Hey Dad, this looks really cool, can we play it?" The people were already drawn to the game but when they opened the box and discovered the interesting array of character cards held inside, that's when the excitement really began.
A Cast of Characters That Grab Your Attention
With each new game we evaluate we every so often find a game that is like a hiccup, never knowing when it is coming but that it is sure to pop up some time. Reels & Deals is a hiccup we can look forward to experiencing. The parody of characters you will discover as you see each playing card is an attention getter in itself for virtually any family member.
In the table below you have an opportunity to get a glimpse at some of the whacky characters you will work with to produce your film so to speak.
This cacophony of weirdness and comedy is a hilarious example of Hollywood silliness and personalities. I found it interesting what a screen writer from Hollywood had to say in regard to that statement when he read it and saw the images below. He was prompt to say, "The satire of this game is just how close to being an accurate parody of Hollywood film producing it really is!" The gent's comment just made Reels & Deals all the more interesting to evaluate. Having such an incredible collection of characters in the game and a good solid game play, Reels & Deals delivers a source if information which the entire family can enjoy. It provides a medium which stimulates the mind of each player and triggers competitive play. You don't just simply "play" the game, you have to think, strategize, plan, and execute your plans. This is especially important primarily for younger ages in regard to critical skill development as well as development of a sense of security and confidence as repetitive play has a positive cumulative effect for players of all ages.
Consumers Say It Like It Is
Consumers hold no punches when it comes to hands-on evaluation of a product. We have already seen all too many times in the past where products we have provided for consumer hands-on evaluation were literally blasted out of the universe with negative feedback. Let's see how Reels & Deals faired in our latest evaluation.
For consumer hands-on evaluation of Reels & Deals, we took it to a local multi-screen theater along with multiple other products to get hands-on feedback from consumers.
As stated earlier in this product evaluation summary, Reels & Deals was a game which had an excellent response from consumers. It is an interesting fact of how we as the persons performing the evaluation, in some aspects are a bit jaded in our personal opinions after seeing so many products each month. It is a combination of the established guidelines we have in our evaluation process combined with the consumer feedback that puts the balance back into the process to ensure a fair and accurate evaluation. It is the consumer feedback though that has the greatest impact.
Consumers gain nothing from their participation in our hands-on evaluation of products outside of being able to have an opportunity to provide their own personal feedback and experience the use of a product before they buy it. Sometimes it is before the product is even on the market! In the evaluation process of Reels & Deals, the consumer feedback served as a pivot to establish a strong pus towards a high score in many of the individual categories.
While you only see 6 primary individual categories listed in this evaluation summary, in actuality there are a vast number of categories and guidelines which are used to measure if a product truly has what it takes to pass our evaluation. Reels & Deals made it through the testing and this summary encapsulates a brief outline of the entire evaluation of this product.
There was no question about it, Reels & Deals drew the attention of plenty of individuals and families alike who were quite impressed with Reels & Deals. As a matter of fact, we had repeated queries if we had copies of the game available to purchase right there during the evaluation process! To add to this, we had an abundant number of consumer feedback forms filled out with nothing but praise with almost every single form. It was more than apparent that there was more than sufficient appeal to the consumers to make a substantial positive impact in this segment of our evaluation.
As already stated earlier in this product evaluation summary, virtually every individual or family that sat down to play the game made positive comments in reference to the game packaging ranging from "Interesting idea; I wonder what it's all about." to "Hey Dad, this looks really cool, can we play it?" The people were already drawn to the game but when they opened the box and discovered the interesting array of character cards held inside, that's when the excitement really began. Reels & Deals was a genuine hit in our consumer hands-on evaluation.
Your Opinion Counts
Your opinion counts whether you realize it or not. Maybe you were not on of the hands-on evaluation participants, but your opinion still counts all the same. We welcome you to share your opinions about this game or the product evaluation summary itself in our "Ask The Toy Man" Blog / Forum for others to see what you have to say.
A Breakdown On The Individual Category Ratings
While other organizations will define their ratings in a "blanket" method which simply defines each rating in an overall usage, we choose to take a different approach. Each individual rating that was assigned to this product, based upon our evaluation process, is briefly explained as to how that specific rating score was reached. The ratings for this product are listed below.
CRITICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: Rating Level 5 - The level of critical skill development for the players when playing Reels & Deals was not even close to being a challenge to establish. The game provides a substantial stimulation to emotional reactions, etc. and the actual amount of critical/cognitive skills stimulated was determined to be extremely intense. The level of impact in this category can depend upon the persons playing and to what degree they choose to use their brains in the playing of this game.
Now if you really look at the actual actions required to pick up the cards, read them, the visual stimulation from color and content of the game elements, you can begin to see that in actuality, there is a substantial amount of critical/cognitive skill being stirred. Far more than just a few particles of dust may be whisked off the lazy brain cells of the players. The end results of the game can also contribute substantially to positive growth in an individual or group playing Reels & Deals. The final analysis in our evaluation came to an perfect score in this category.
EDUCATIONAL VALUE: Rating Level 3 - The educational value for Reels & Deals was average in this category. Reels & Deals is not designed to be so much as an educational game but rather a game that provides challenge, stimulates creative thought, and has a strong influence on independent reasoning and understanding. Perhaps Reels & Deals can be seen as having a variety of contributing factors to educational usefulness in reference to skill improvement, but nothing more than an average level in contribution to education. In this category, the educational level is without question of average level and is more of a recreational game that is best used in the consumer group environment. The final analysis of our evaluation of Reels & Deals in this category was a rating of 3 out of 5.
FUNFACTOR™: Rating Level 5 - FunFactor™ was well up the ranking in scoring with Reels & Deals. The response from all participants in Las Vegas was nothing short of incredible. The laughter was so strong it brought the FunFactor™ level to a perfect score. Just what does this game have to offer which will cause consumers to desire to purchase it? FunFactor™ is the answer. Reels & Deals is without question fun, and informative at the same time. It clearly provided a positive addiction to the people who played it with the players having an incredible amount of fun and excitement. Reels & Deals pulled a perfect score in this category.
INNOVATION: Rating Level 5 - Reels & Deals is without question a game that can tout its incredible yet simple level of innovation in its design. It is instrumental in developing a fluid channel of communication between the players while stimulating a competitive spirit in the group simultaneously. Once again, the cacophony of weirdness and comedy with the characters developed in the game flow is nothing short of great as far as consumers are concerned. A truly innovative concept of game play; similar to others in some ways, yet unique unto itself in others.
MARKETING VALUE: Rating Level 5 - The marketing value of Reels & Deals is high as can be and promises very strong potential sales, especially so for specialty products. Whether being judged in comparison to all games as a whole or in comparison to specialty games only, it still holds the greatest value. What you have here is a game which draws attention and will cause word to travel from one person to another, conveying what an incredible time they had playing the game. In this category, Reels & Deals pulled a perfect score.
VISUAL APPEAL: Rating Level 5 - When it comes to visual appeal, Reels & Deals was well above average for everything from the packaging to the components of the game. The WOW in a person's opinion seems to come more so from the character cards more so than the packaging. The packaging possesses enough visual appeal to skate by with a high score, but it the character cards that really complete the circle. In our consumer hands-on evaluation, Reels & Deals proved to be quite an above average item in regard to visual appeal. When you combine the scoring from our own evaluation and the consumer feedback, Reels & Deals pulled a perfect score in this category.
| EVALUATION RESULTS - From evaluation for induction into "The Toy Man® Product Guide" | | Overall Rating: 5 | Seal of Approval: Approved | eco-Recognition
Seal: Not Eligible | Award of Excellence: Approved | eChoice Award: Selected |
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THE TOY MAN® SEAL OF APPROVAL
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THE TOY MAN® AWARDS
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