Sonic Knock Thoughts From Gen Con 2026 Review Flick around Sonic at a 10-15 Year olds birthday

0:06 What does that even mean, Bowers Game Corner?

0:07 Well hey there, YouTube. We're back again today for more Gen Con and explosion love coverage here live at Gen Con 2026 with my good friend Adam. I wasn't expecting you to pronounce that nearly as long as I did, did you, Adam?

0:24 Did not.

0:25 Well, hello.

0:29 I've been about 13 of these, but right now I'm excited to be talking about Sonic Knock from Thames. It's for two to eight players, taking 30 to 45 minutes to play. And this is a dexterity Sonic game. Behind me, there's going to be some B-roll, but I can run you through it. It's really quite simple. You're going to have a handful of cards, you're going to mix them up, and on each one of those cards is going to be a target. Those targets are going to be Sonic, or Knuckles, or the alligator guy, or go to a specific spot. You'll have the same cards, except for you don't have your own card. And then on your turn, you know what you're going to do? You're going to flick your little puck, and you're going to try to go to location on your card, hit the person, go to the spot. You might collect the cool power-up cards. They're reasonably cool little things to do. You might You might get to one of the spots where you have to lose rings, or you might land in the corner where you collect rings. What you're trying to do is get rid of all your cards, and then get exactly two rings of every color, and then flick [snorts] your way up this cool ramp and off the board. And that's the basic game.

1:32 First impressions. What do you think, Adam? We played it two players, probably the weakest player game by far.

1:39 Mhm. Uh I think that it's an okay flipping flicking game. It's a a mechanic that's used in a fair number of other games. Uh and I They did it did it good for what it is, but I don't know. There's I think that the amount of gameplay is weak.

2:01 I agree. I think that there are two different perspectives to how I would recommend this game. If you're coming at this as a Sonic fan who doesn't play a lot of board games, I think you're going to think this is just hunky-freaking-dory and you're going to have a fun old time and we can I personally would recommend this game to you. Would you agree with that?

2:21 Yeah. Yeah.

2:22 Now, if you are not Mr. Sonic fan who has an important as a Sonic fan or whoever Sonic fan you might be a freaking dog, I don't know. Like Sonic or play Sonic. And you play a lot of board games including flicking games, I think you're going to think exactly what Adam felt, which is I wish there was a bit more here. Now, that being said, I think this game does make up for it in the fact that it can go eight players. So, a game like this, I think being able to accommodate up to eight players is fantastic. I think you could easily play this game at a 10 to 15-year-old's birthday party. Would you agree? It's just

3:04 Sure.

3:05 Like if it was just kids

3:06 Sonic themed party.

3:08 No, but I mean it's it's You know what? Actually, I don't think you'd want to do that. I think it would slow down because I do think the game outstays its welcome. Because we're talking about pros and cons now. The escaping with exactly two rings thing, you know what? It it slows it down.

3:25 Man, jeez.

3:26 Christmas at eight players is freaking terrible.

3:28 I guess if it was like, oh, if you can't get a direct line of sight to uh one of the pogs, you'll flick it in there and get the coin. But, the exactly thing is like, oh, I have I got too many, so I got to lose one?

3:44 Yes. Now, the reason I think it's there is because it adds an extra aspect to the game where there's well, cuz normally you'd be like, oh, if you if you had to have two or more, you could just flick over to the blue spot and you can get the blue coin or two blue coins, it doesn't matter. But if you happen to land on exactly the gold coin, you get two. And then then it be But now we did have a rules question.

4:04 Was it Was it if someone knocked you in there, did you also have to do it?

4:07 I think that was what I think we had a rules question or two that I don't think we answered cuz I remember both of us going through the rule booklets cuz it was with that obnoxiously large square. They insisted on like, "Oh, let's make it the same size of the box." And see, it's just got to stop cuz it folds out this way. It's just like, "What was it?" No, like legitimately, I was looking for a piece of information in a specific spot. I was like, "Where is it?" And they're like, "Oh, it's on the other side." And it's just like it's not Who likes those? Who likes those? Do you like those?

4:36 It doesn't bother me.

4:38 But do you like them?

4:39 I don't know that I like it.

4:41 Okay. Well, there you go. Uh the rules I think could have been a smidge bit better. Um it feels mass market-y, but it also feels like it straddles the the hobby game market. And I think if you know what that means, you know what that means, right? Like I think it is good enough to fit in both worlds, but the more I think about it, the more I think an eight-player experience of this would be freaking miserable because you really can kind of screw some people over in this game. And if you look like you're clearly about to win and there's seven people in between your turn, like you can literally put a gigantic ramp in front of them so they can literally not get to the end.

5:20 It'd be like playing Munchkin.

5:23 Yes, it would. And I don't And that I take back my 10-to-15-year-old birthday party comment. That was a great compliment.

5:32 Or you're just trying like get them in into the the coin thing and just get them trapped in there so they repeatedly lose and lose and lose coins.

5:44 I mean, yeah. It's like And then I

5:47 I could see it. That would be That would be really

5:51 Would it?

5:52 For the first 20 minutes.

5:54 This is a 30 to 45 minute game, but I think on the website it said 30 to 60. You do not want to play it 60 minutes.

6:00 for 30 minutes?

6:01 I don't know if we did.

6:02 I don't think we played it for 30.

6:04 I think but that's cuz it was two players. The best possible experience I think. Well, one of the No, I think three four. I think three four. I I I just don't Would you like to play it, Budders?

6:15 No.

6:16 Okay. Do you agree with why I said that it would just become down to people just like it would be

6:24 I I think I don't want to be around table that has eight people around it. Like that's just too many people.

6:30 But would you say that for a party game?

6:33 Well, are you Are you going to play this as a party game?

6:35 Well, oh, cuz you're saying everyone has to be pretty You have You've got to be reached. Okay, I see what you're saying.

6:41 yeah, I guess you could have it on a little table so you can walk around it or whatever.

6:45 I see what you're saying cuz I have a table that has accommodated 10 people before. There would be no good spot to put this with where every like where everyone Yeah, that's a that's Yeah.

6:55 And it's Yeah, sometimes it's a space thing, you know.

7:00 I also feel like there is one cool thing in the game and then there could have been more cool things and they're just like, you get the one cool You get the one little ramp where you can go through and it's kind of cool.

7:15 Yeah.

7:15 And it's not super cool. It's kind of cool. Are we going through the camera here? And then they're like, no, but like the spikes are they're neat, but they're not cool. The cards are neat, but they're not cool. I really and going up to like even the basic concept like the first time you read about how you're supposed to go off the ramp. Like cuz there's certain times where it's like, all right, you have to move the ramp that you're supposed to like escape from to a different spot, put it on the side of the box, and then your natural impression like, "Oh, I got to slide it down into it or flick it down." And then it's like you put it down at the bottom and then you flick it. It like it felt like they took

7:51 And like they argued with you about it. I was like, "There's no possible way they would ruin that for me."

7:55 And it's worded weirdly, isn't it? But I'm pretty sure that's the way it's supposed to be. And it feels like, "Why?" Like, "Why?"

8:02 Yeah, cuz I had a card that said, "Do a slide in." And I was like, "Of course like slide in."

8:06 Yeah, like like you don't think Sonic would like "Woo!" Uh so, I feel like there definitely could have been cool, but once again, that would probably cost more of more play. No, it wouldn't. No, it would not. You could easily make ramps out of cards. You could get creative. Just go look at a bunch of other flicking games.

8:21 Yeah.

8:22 And that, I think, is really like what right right what we said at the very beginning. If you've played a lot of flicking games, you will probably be like, "Man, this could be a lot better at an expansion if I don't play it at a 10-to-15-year-old's birthday party."

8:39 And

8:39 times I've said that?

8:41 But if you are opening this at a birthday party for a kid who just like Sonic and they don't have a lot of board games and they're going to play this two to four to five players with family or just for fun, I think the toy factor on this is good. It's not great. It could be great, which is a bit disappointing, I think. But at the end of the day, good variety of cards do help a lot. I think this is a very good game as long as you're going to play it not eight or seven or players.

9:19 I mean, I think it would be if you had a like a small table or something and you had eight seven to eight people that actually wanted to play this game, like yeah, you could do it. You just walk up to the board with your friends.

9:31 about the logistics. I'm talking about trying to win the freaking game with seven people in between your turn.

9:38 I you can get the card. be

9:39 fun.

9:40 You know what?

9:40 bunch of people crowded around there and they're like uh you know, like no, no, no, you got to hit him. You got to make this one. You got to get it.

9:48 I take it back. I take it back because I think there's cards in there like you take another turn. I take it back. I'm being a curmudgeon. I think I'm underestimating the variety of cards in the game. There were steel cards. There was a good deal of cards in the game. And I did I said I think it is very good. I think it's a very good the good game. I wanted more though. But I think you're not going to be as disap- Like and this is I feel like the truth with a lot of Sonic games both of the video games. You're not going to be as disappointed as you potentially thought you were going to be and you'll be like, you know what? This one's pretty darn solid.

10:23 Yeah. Nothing that's super impressive, but nothing that's super terrible.

10:28 Yeah. And but I think good bones nonetheless. Very good bones to build on and I hope they do build on because if you start to spread so you go like high school and you start to have multiple boards potentially set up and you could ramp to different boards. There's There's no shortage of things. So hopefully it sells well because yeah, I I do think at the end of the day I think most people find this good to very good and potentially all the way up to great to very great. I can see this.

10:53 Yeah. I

10:54 Especially if you're a kid.

10:56 Yeah. Mhm.

10:58 Come around now.

10:59 Yep.

11:00 Sonic not the rule booklet. Make it make it better not so obnoxious though.

11:05 We join the contest please be sure to click on the subscribe button down below and in the comments below let me know what's your favorite Sonic game of all time. I'm going Sonic 2. I used to have a Sega Genesis in my room. I played it a lot.

11:18 Um God, I don't

11:21 [snorts]

11:22 I don't think I've ever played a Sonic game through all the way through.

11:25 Okay. Well, did you enjoy any of them?

11:29 I'm not a huge Sonic fan to be honest with you.

11:32 Okay.

11:34 Uh was there one where they were like driving cars?

11:37 Yeah.

11:38 I think that one was

11:38 Sonic & All-Stars Racing

11:40 There you go.

11:40 There you go. It's a good choice. It's a good choice. Who that all the the Sonic fans in the place?

11:47 Special shout out to Sonic on the Wii U. I don't care what you say, it's buggy, but it's fun co-op. And if you enjoyed the content, do the thing. Bye-bye.

11:56 Sonic for life.

11:57 Actually

11:58 Yeah, until not for life.

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