Base price: $17.
2 – 4 players.
Play time: 10 – 20 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy directly!
Logged plays: 2
Full disclosure: A review copy of Mega Jackpot was provided by Randolph / Hachette Boardgames.
I’m technically off to a good start today just purely considering my situation from Pacific Time. Did I accidentally forget to turn on my computer and upload my photos for next week? Yes. Can I physically access my desktop computer currently? No. Is this a problem? Maybe. We’re working on it. That’s the nature of photography, I suppose. If there aren’t any photos with next week’s reviews, you can assume that I failed. But speaking of pressing your luck, why not talk about Mega Jackpot?
In Mega Jackpot, players are playing the slots to try and win big! Some of this is at least to your advantage: you can see the face-down cards of the deck and they tell you which symbols could be on the card. Will that be the symbol you need? Who knows. So spin the wheels and see if you can pull a jackpot! For the riskier, you can spend your jackpot to take a shot at instantly winning the game! Will you spin and win?
Contents
Setup
This one actually uses the box, which is worth noting. Put the box top and box bottom out; they’ll be separate Money Trays:
Next, shuffle the cards and split them into three piles:
If you’re playing with the Mega Jackpot rules, shuffle up the Mega Jackpot Tiles and place them face-down near the three card stacks.
Give each player 3 1s and 2 2s of starting cards:
Flip the top three cards off of each deck and you’re ready to start!
Gameplay
Your goal is points! Each turn you’ll spin the slots and see what you get. Cash out for a Jackpot, or potentially spend that Jackpot to win a Mega Jackpot and take the game in one go!
To take a turn, choose 1 or 2 cards. Flip that many from the decks onto any of the three piles. If you flip 2 cards, they should be flipped onto different piles. If all three face-up piles match, that’s a Jackpot! You can either cash out and add the three cards to your score pile or risk it for a Mega Jackpot!
If you choose to risk it, discard the Jackpot to one of the Money Trays and then flip a Mega Jackbox Tile over. If it’s a Genie, you get a Mega Jackpot! You can clear out an entire Money Tray and add all the cards in it to your score pile. If you get a Mega Jackpot with three 7s, you win the game!
Otherwise, if you miss, you can pass your turn or spend your lowest card of a type you haven’t already spent this turn to take another turn! Note that you (should) burn a 1, then 2, then 3, then 5, then 7.
If a face-up pile is ever empty, flip the top card of its stack to replace it.
If no Mega Jackpot with 7s is hit, the game ends when one of the three Reel piles is empty. Players total their points and the player with the most wins!
Player Count Differences
Not really a ton, here, as you’d suspect. When you’re playing, generally, missing a Jackpot (especially a close miss) just kind of benefits the player who goes after you, and that doesn’t matter if that’s one player in a two-player game, or a different player in a four-player game. Otherwise, there’s not really much player interaction. In a lower player count game or a higher player count game, you’re still going to see cards go to the Money Trays, so … it’s not necessarily going to be more or less if you try to go for a Mega Jackpot, either. There’s something to the idea of it all, I suppose, but even if you’re adding more cards, there are more chances for other players to take the Money Tray contents with more players. Just kind of the way things work, generally. Not a particularly complicated game and not a lot of changes around player count.
Strategy
- The backs of the cards are helpful, but you still need to consider probabilities. Don’t fall into the thinking trap that each value is equally likely. Just because there’s a diamond and a genie on the back of the card does not mean you necessarily have a 50% chance of either. Consider how many cards of a certain value you’ve already seen, for instance. There are far fewer 7s than 1s.
- Burning cards gives you more shots at a jackpot, but the expected value of spending a card isn’t always the same. Burning cards essentially lets you take another turn! You can spend one of your lowest card type that you haven’t spent this turn to spin again. The problem is that means if you spend 1, then you spend 2, then 3, then 5, then 7. There’s an important bit of context to that. If you’re spending 5 to get a shot at a Jackpot of 1s (3 x 1 = 3 points), that’s a terrible trade-off. If you’re spending 1 then 2 to get a shot at a 5s Jackpot (15 points), that’s not necessarily bad. Consider what you’re spending and what you’re going after.
- Do you want 21 points or a 25% chance of winning the game? One is a better idea than the other, unless you win. I generally recommend going for the 21 points since that’s more durable and it still works in your favor. That said, if you get the 25% chance right and you pick the Genie and win immediately on a Mega Jackpot, you feel like the king of the universe, which is also pretty good.
- If you really can’t do much, you can either burn your cards or make the play area even less helpful for other players. The former is expensive, but the latter is rude. Both are the same level of utility though. Do you want to spend points to have extra shots at scoring something, or do you want to leave your opponent in the same position you’re in?
- I generally lean towards “flipping more cards is good”. Granted, that doesn’t apply if you’re trying to get the single card you need for a Jackpot, but otherwise if you’re burning a single point for a shot at 15, that’s a decent trade-off. You don’t want to do the bare minimum each round.
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- Straightforward press-your-luck game. You do love to see it, but the entire genre is one of my favorites. Sometimes you swing big and it pays off, and sometimes you get absolutely clowned.
- The speed of each turn helps a lot. Even if you have a bad time or a particularly uninteresting turn, well, onto the next one. You’re just flipping cards.
- Easy setup. Just shuffle some cards and you’re good to go.
- I like how they have you splay your points so it’s easier to track, add, and spend cards when needed. I think a lot of players do things like this when they’re playing other games, but having it here specifically also makes it easier for you to bet extra cards when you don’t get a jackpot or score cards quickly when you do. Both are helpful!
- Pretty portable. The box is pretty small, which is always a huge help.
- It’s fun when the box is part of the game. Use the whole bird or whatever. I think it’s nice to include the box in gameplay every now and then; I feel bad that it just has to watch us play with the contents otherwise.
- The game is very slot-core. It feels like a slot machine in how you’re flipping cards to simulate spinning the reels and such. It’s a nice bit of ludonarrative consistency.
Mehs
- I wish the theme mattered a bit more to gameplay. I think the art is fun! I’m just not sure if we’re doing an Aladdin thing with the genie and the monkey, and some of my players are very into game themes.
Cons
- I’d love a bit more control or influence beyond the luck element. It’s very much a slots game. The most you get to pick is where you flip the cards to. That’s something! But a little bit more depth would definitely go a long way for this game. It’s still fun, though! I just miss things like Jackpot Payout, for instance, that add on to that idea.
Overall: 7 / 10
Overall, I thought Mega Jackpot was fun! I think the major advantage that it has is its simplicity. For me, that makes up for the lack of depth, to some degree, by just being a game you can break out and play quickly. I’ve seen simpler games with more depth, though, so that’s not exactly a free pass. I will say that this is a pretty authentic experience for slot machine chaos, if that’s what you’re looking for. You’re flipping cards and somewhat accepting the consequences. A bit more chaotic I think would help the game feel more thematic and memorable, but that’s a designer / publisher preference, I suppose. I just think a bit more bombast goes a long way, especially when you’re trying to capture the glamor and terror of a big casino. That said, you can tell some design chops went into this: it’s small, it’s very tight, and the game plays very quickly as well. Someone sat down and designed this probably exactly how they wanted, and that’s great! I think this game sets itself in the party game category (despite only seating a max of four players) and that seems like a fair spot for it. Low rules complexity, highly chaotic, and a solidly good time. If you’re down for that, Mega Jackpot has bee pretty fun to try!
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