BONK
Designed by: David Harvey
BONK (also published as Rollet) is a two v two team game of trying to score points by knocking a wooden ball into your opponents’ goal. How? By rolling ball-bearings at it, of course.
The game consists of a convex wooden board with a wall around the perimeter. The wooden ball begins in a small nick at the centre. Each player occupies a corner with a wooden ramp in front of you that rotates on an axis. Everyone starts with three ball-bearings in their corner of the board too, and after a double-high-five with your opposite number, play begins at a frantic pace. The idea is simple: roll ball-bearings down your ramp to knock the wooden ball in the direction you want it to go: away from your goal, and into the other teams’. But the game can be played different ways – your partner can play offensive while you play defence, or you can take responsibility for one side of the board. You can both go high-velocity attack but run the risk of having the opponents end up with all the ball bearings (there’s also a cannonball variant, where you can actually make getting all the ball-bearings at your opponents end of the board a goal – hugely risky, but fun)
The game when a team reaches five goals, or – if the other team is on four goals – establishes a two-goal lead from that point.
Sam says
A first play of BONK (or Rollet) doesn’t give too much away – it seems like fast-moving sphere-based carnage, and that’s not too inaccurate a description. But repeat plays reveal there is more here than first meets the eye. The fastest hands help but they’re no banker if you rush your shot. Anticipation is a key aspect too, not to mention the management of the ball-bearings: ending up with none at all is exceedingly dangerous, so scattergun fire may only take you so far. As well as being a lot of fun, the Rollet board (we haven’t seen the BONK version in the flesh) is also a beautiful object to look at, hand-crafted in India with profits returning to help improve living standards. A lot of fun, and a big hit with us.
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Take That!
Plenty, but not of the arbitrary kind.
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Fidget Factor!
Zero
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Brain Burn!
Zero
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Again Again!
Plenty! After a few games you might need to sit down, but it's the type of thing that could make frequent appearances over the years and become a family favourite.
