First impressions is the box and pieces are all very colourful and the theme is just great.
Players take the role of a villager whose task is to race to the top of Tiki mountain and sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the villagers from the Angry Volcano God.
Each turn a player has the option to Discard/Draw cards so that they have a hand of 7 cards. In their turn they can play item cards, Tiki magic cards or climb(climb better cards)
Climb cards allow you to climb the mountain but you can only play one per turn but you can play a climb better card with it which improves the climb card. There are several tracks up the mountain marked with arrows pointing the way up.
Item cards can be placed on the colourful players mat in either hands (x2) or feets spots. So at any one time a player can not have more than 3 active items. If they want to add another they must discard one already in play. Item's in play are active even when it is not that players turn. Items add different abilities to your villager like better climbing, protection from obstacles or means to avoid disasters.
Tiki magic cards can be used to lay down obstacles like Mudslides, Rock Slides, Gas Vents and Lava flows to hinder the other villagers on their race up the mountain. You can also use them to swap places with other villagers on the mountain and other nice/nasty tricks. To power Tiki magic some cards require you to spend Totems, but you will need 1 of each totem (Fire, Earth and Water) in order to sacrifice yourself to the Volcano God.
At the end of your turn you use a spinner to determine how many totems you collect. Play then passes round the table, certain cards can be played out of your turn (mostly blocking, defensive Tiki Magic Cards). When play gets round to the player to the right of the Angry Volcano God Cards he turns over a Angry Volcano God Card after his turn, the effects of the card happens to all players unless they have cards or items that can help.
Play continues in this way until someone makes it to the Lava pit, to make a sacrifice the player has to end his move in the pit, sacrifice one each of the Totems and then turn over the top Angry Volcano God Card this time they only effect that one player, if they can avoid the effects and when they read the "Is Tiki Worthy" Section and they meet the conditions they WIN.
This was a really fun game and I was impressed how well balanced it was with 6 players as despite it looking initially that one person was racing ahead the mechanics of the Tiki Magic cards, obstacles and Angry Volcano God Cards made it so the end game nearly everyone was at the volcano top and ready or nearly ready to sacrifice themselves.
I would definitely play this again and it has that element of trying to get one over on each other as you race to the final goal.
It's very simple to pick up the rules, but a little longer to work out what are the best items, tiki magic cards to use and when.
Overall very enjoyable and will definitely be dragged out when I raid the cupboard again.
