All is Bomb
You are a royal (and loyal) servant, dedicated to protecting the princess. That, and make her breakfast.
While she sleeps, it’s your task to prepare her breakfast. But there is a catch.
Everything (literally) is a bomb!
You have to:
– Consult with prophets to know the breakfast she’s destined to have before they explode.
– Prepare the dish for her before it explodes.
– Serve the dish to the princess, before she explodes!
Who knew the first meal of the day could get this dramatic?!
All Is Bomb is a highly entertaining one-player game, developed by Blaž Gracar, founder of Letibus Design. Be it for its quick pace, the drive to make you think ahead of time, or its sheer compactness in terms of size- it is a wonderful game to get introduced to in the world of print-and-play games. After trying out Escape of the Dead and Oh My Lair, let us walk you through everything you need to know about All is Bomb, and how you can make the most out of this game.
All you need to play ‘All is Bomb’
There is only one component in this game, 18 both-sided cards. So all you have to do is print 4 pages to print both sides of the cards. Which material you print the cards on, and how you assemble them really depends on your crafting capability:
Amateur
If you are a good old minimalist and a noob at crafting things at the same time, it’s ideal to color print the cards on A4 Papers, cut out the cards, and then assemble the front and back of the cards by using card sleeves. These transparent sleeves can contain both sides of the cards, most often accompanied by a support in the middle that will make the card more sturdy. For example- if you have a spare deck of cards lying around, then you can take a card and put it in the sleeve, then sandwich it by putting the front and backside of a card of All is Bomb on either side of it. So if you are going this route, you need to color-print four A4 pages that contain the card layout for the game, 18 card sleeves, and 18 spare cards from a deck. You can easily purchase card sleeves from Amazon, and as far as a decent printer is concerned- we recommend the Canon PIXMA G6020 Inkjet printer.
A Crafter
If you are a self-claimed crafter, then you can unravel your creative side by printing the cards on art cards, or cardstock papers that are quite thick. Once printed, you can go through the traditional route of cutting and assembling them inside card sleeves, or you can cut and glue the sides of cards together as well. Our team claims to be crafters, so we ended up printing the game cards on cardstock papers, cutting them out, and gluing them using Fevicol. We had a great time assembling the cards and felt the cardstock cards really added an aesthetic angle to the game experience, which we loved. We chose not to laminate the cards or add card sleeves and enjoyed how the cards were feeling on our hands. Our team is pretty careful with gaming components and tends not to bring food or drinks around them. But if you enjoy playing games while snacking, then laminating or adding card sleeves can be a wise option.
With the 18 cards ready to play with, all you have to do now is engage yourself with a detailed review. Do not rush to understand the game, take ample time. We believe it is not the kind of game that you can just start and expect to learn as you go. Rather, if you take a while to understand how to play this game, then the game experience will be much more enhanced. Sourcing a proper gameplay video was a tough ask for this game, but thanks to Pasyans Show we have unearthed a great one!
What we like about All is Bomb
Foreseeing the Outcome
Do you have a knack of sensing things ahead of time? In that case, you’ll love this game! The entire deck of cards is always at your disposal to look at, so you will always know what consequences you are about to face beforehand. With more game experience, you can even foresee two-three rounds ahead of time, and plan your strategies accordingly. The position of cards in the deck also plays a crucial role, so as long as your basic mathematical skills are good, you’ll enjoy this game a lot.
It grows on you
While playing All is Bomb for the first time, we felt that the element of luck is playing a crucial role, since the position of the cards in the deck is pivotal in this game. But after a few rounds, we realized how crucial it is to know the 18 cards well. For example- the game has two Mendors, which are crucial to bring discarded cards back into the game when ignited; enabling us to recover important cards that we lost during gameplay. Similarly, the game has a King card, which can be used to summon or Equip the Princess at any stage of the game. There are several cards that can be used to reorder the sequence of the deck; so once we got to know how each of the cards can be utilized, the game experience transcended to a whole new level!
So, in case you tried the game once and didn’t feel like it’s your type, play a few more rounds! It is the kind of game that grows on you with time. It is the kind of game where you can sit alone and play multiple rounds at-a-go; frowning as you explode the crucial cards, or giggling as you make the right moves!
PS- You know what else grows onto you while playing it? Hunger! Watching the croissant and pancake card will at some stage make you hungry for sure. So keep some snacks around while playing it!
Not as easy as it seems!
After we saw the tutorial video we were confident about mastering the game in no time; igniting a prophecy card and activating it, igniting the prophesied food, and making sure the ignited princess equips it. How hard can it be?! Ah well, little did we know!
Our journey of All is Bomb started with four consecutive losses, but in the fifth round we became more alert, and of course more experienced. We were smart with our moves and worked on our ability to see things ahead of time. The result was a very satisfying victory, albeit by a very narrow margin. We love PnP games that are more challenging, and All is Bomb definitely makes that list.
Compactness
Speaking of compactness, it might just be the most compact print-and-play game that we have played to date! It literally fits in the palm of your hand, hence extremely travel-friendly. It might be the kind of game that is a tad bit challenging to assemble (credit to both sided cards) but the portability definitely makes up for it. All you need is a small flat surface to place the cards while playing, and that’s it.
Expansion pack!
YES! All is Bomb comes with an expansion pack that adds more to the depth of this amazing game. As of now, we have only tried the basic game, but we are planning to play and review the Expansion pack very soon.
Where to get it from
So you want to try All is Bomb? Then let us drop the biggest bomb- IT IS FREE! You can download the game from pnparcade.com or itch.io. With Zero cost of purchase, little time needed to print and assemble the cards, and no additional elements needed at all- you are in for a treat! A big shoutout to Blaž Gracar for developing this amazing game, and we can’t wait to try the rest of the games that this amazing publisher has in the offering.
Overview | All is Bomb
Publisher: Letibus Design
Number of players: 1
Difficulty level: Easy to Medium
Rounds of gameplay needed to learn: 1 or 2 rounds
Game duration: 10 to 15 minutes
Price: Free
Download from: pnparcade.com and itch.io
Theme: Deck Manipulation
Number of pages and color: 4 (color)
Assembling difficulty level: Medium
Lamination: Recommended for longevity
Additional elements required: None
Time to learn: Within 30 minutes
Travel-friendly: 10/10
Shelving friendly: 10/10
Rating from PnP Time: 9/10
Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.
