Blockbuster Returns to Tabletop Gaming as Big Potato Games Creates a Sequel

Big Potato Games has created a sequel to its 2019 hit The Blockbuster Party Game. Designed using [...]

Big Potato Games has created a sequel to its 2019 hit The Blockbuster Party Game. Designed using imagery from Blockbuster Video and using movie trivia as its core content, the game has been a huge hit at Target stores over the last year and change. Now, Blockbuster Returns is available to purchase at the same chain. And if you already own The Blockbuster Party Game, you can use Blockbuster Returns as a supplement. Otherwise, Blockbuster Returns is playable as a stand-alone game. And, yes, you should be able to get this one at the Blockbuster Video in Bend, Oregon, where the Blockbuster Party Game has been available for purchase if you're out that way.

Like the other game, it is packed in retro packaging reminiscent of a VHS you could get at Blockbuster. In this case, the game's packaging is designed more to look like the VHS case Blockbuster's blank tapes would come in, rather than a rental clamshell. You can check out the official description of the game here:

"Gather your movie-loving crew to flex their knowledge on all the best moves from the past decade, as the game features four brand-new categories of Movie Cards (Heart Warmers, From Another World, Not for Kids, and Remakes & Reboots) and new Head-to-Head Cards.

"To play, open up your VHS box, flip open the gameboard, and split into two teams. First, face off in the Head-to-Head Buzzer Round. One player from each team tries to think of a movie title to match the description on the Head-to-Head category card (e.g. 'Movies where someone got lost') before the 15-second timer runs out, hitting the buzzer to put the ball back in their opponent's court. The first person to run out of time loses this round.

"Next, in Triple Charades Jeopardy, it's time to see how well you know your movies! Each player gets three Movie Cards and has 30 seconds to get their team to guess all the movies using one of three methods — using just one word, quoting a line from the film, or acting it out. When a team gets one right, they add the card to their collection. The first team to grab two cards from all four categories wins!"

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(Photo: Big Potato Games)

Back in 2000, Grand Isle Games released The Blockbuster Movie Game. That game involved putting a movie in your DVD player or VCR, pressing play, and watching a minute, then playing a round of recall trivia. There were dice, a pad, and tokens that had to be collected each time you rounded the board. While versatile -- you could do it with any movie, and people are watching in real time so there is no built-in advantage to having seen a bunch of films -- it was also cumbersome, and came at a time when customers were not overly fond of the Blockbuster brand. These days, though, nostalgia is bringing people back to it.

Even before Target was carrying the Blockbuster Party Game, they have been carrying t-shirts bearing the image of a Blockbuster store from the outside and featuring the chain's onetime slogan, "Make it a Blockbuster night." ThinkGeek also has Blockbuster t-shirts. Marvel's Captain Marvel sparked a lot of nostalgic conversation about the video rental industry in general, and Blockbuster in specific, when a Blockbuster store was heavily featured in the first trailer for the movie, which takes place in the '90s. And before all of that, there was a pop-up Blockbuster store in London that stocked only copies of Deadpool 2 -- but it was a digital download code in a Blockbuster rental case, not a real VHS.

A pair of documentary filmmakers, meanwhile, are preparing to release The Last Blockbuster, a documentary film about Bend, Orgeon's sole surviving Blockbuster. While the chain went out of business years ago and Dish no longer offers franchises, existing franchise stores have been allowed to continue under the Blockbuster banner. The Bend store made headlines when it was the final Blockbuster in America, but in the year or so since that happened, the company's foreign stores have shuttered as well, leaving Bend as the sole survivor.

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