The Warriorsfirst hit theaters in 1979, and while not an immediate success, it has since gone on to become a beloved cult film. The story of a street gang accused of a murder they didn’t commit and having to fight their way through various specially-themed gangs prowling New York City is a thrilling concept, and so it’s no surprise thatThe Warriorshas found itself well-represented in the gaming world. There have been multipleWarriorsvideo games, most notablyRockstar’s beat ‘em up from 2005, and there is now aWarriorstabletop game for fans of the film to check out as well in the form ofThe Warriors: Come Out to Playfrom Funko Games.
The Warriors: Come Out to Playis a cooperative strategy gamefor up to four players. Participants take on the role of the Warriors from the film as they attempt to travel across New York and get back to their base at Coney Island. Everything plays out on a board segmented into different areas of New York City, with players having to utilize weapon cards to fight back against rival gang members.
The titular Warriors are represented by smallcardboard pieces. The gang leaders have their own color-coded miniatures, which unfortunately feel cheap.Warriors: Come out to Playplayers will want to be careful with the miniatures as it feels like they could easily come off their base, and while most of them resemble their character’s likeness, the Lizzie figure has a way different hairstyle than her card, which can lead to some confusion.
Some hardcore fans ofThe Warriorsmay also be confused by the lack of Ajax, who is left out of the lineup of playable characters. Players can choose from most of the titular Warriors featured in the movie, but Ajax is relegated to a Bopper card cameo. It’s likely Ajax’s predatory behavior in the movie is what caused him to be left out of the lineup, but it still comes across as a strange omission since the board game is reflecting the events of the film. Fox is used instead of Ajax, and that doesn’t make much sense for reasons that fans of theWarriorsmovie will understand.
Once players have selected their character and have the board set up, it’s time to play the game. The gist of it is that players have to make their way across the board, getting in fights with rival gangs along the way. Players have weapon cards that they can use to fight back against the enemies they come across, with victories changing each gang’s ranking. Higher-ranked gangs are more difficult to defeat, whereas lower-ranked games are easier.
Rival gangs inThe Warriors: Come Out to Playhave their own weapons to take into account, not to mention special rules that help make each encounter unique. Location cards also help shake things up, as each location has different requirements players must meet to win any given fight. Then there’s the Bopper cards, which consist of “coast is clear” and “threat” cards. Coast is clear cards mean nothing happens, but if players wind up drawing three threat cards from the Bopper deck, they have to deal with whatever the card dictates.
There’s more toThe Warriors: Come Out to Playon a granular level, and while it may seem fairly straightforward at first, it is somewhat confusing in practice. It’s not nearly as complicated as other strategy tabletop games on the market, but trying to teach multiple people how to play it at once can be a chore, especially sinceFunko’s video instructions are as unwieldy as the physical manual. These videos are usually a great deal of help when figuring out how to play a board game for the first time, but this time around it only adds to the confusion. Regardless, once players have a grasp of the basic rules and how they are supposed to handle moving across the board and participating in fights, it clicks and becomes a fun way to spend an hour with friends.
The Warriors: Come Out to Playmakes solid use ofThe WarriorsIP and successfully translates the movie’s plot to board game form. Some fans may be underwhelmed by the pieces, particularly the gang member miniatures, but it does at least put the franchise’s grimy 70s art style to good use with the card art. Big fans ofThe Warriorsfilm will get a lot more use out of it than those who are simply looking for astrategy game to play with friends, but anyone can have fun with it. The $29.99 price is a little steep for what it comes with, butThe Warriors: Come Out to Playis definitely something board game fans should consider when it’s on sale.
The Warriors: Come Out to Playis available now. Game Rant was provided a copy of the game for this review.
