Review: Acquire 60th Anniversary (Renegade)

Sixty years is a big anniversary, whether it’s for a company or your favorite couple. Given how quickly tastes change and how often game designers invent new ways to play, celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of a board game feels like an even bigger deal.

If any designer’s game was destined to reach this milestone, it had to be Sid Sackson’s classic Acquire, which celebrates its 60-year anniversary in 2024. In honor of that, Renegade Games Studios released a deluxe new version of the game, the Acquire 60th Anniversary edition.

Let’s cut the cake, pour the bubbly drinks, and raise a toast as we look at the top five things you need to know about this celebratory anniversary board game.

Starting with the Basics

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The 60th Anniversary Edition builds on the excellent work Renegade did with their updated Acquire in 2023.

You get the same chunky tiles and sturdy game board, topped with easy to read graphics — a dramatic improvement over previous editions released since the early 2000s.

The game also includes the new double-sided stockholder info cards showing payouts for the game’s Classic Mode (paying the top two stockholders) and new Tycoon Mode (paying the top three stockholders). It also has the double-sided player aid card outlining the steps in the turn order and the process to conduct a merger.

Upgraded Tabletop Experience

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From that starting point, Renegade’s team started deluxifying the game. Those changes begin on the outside, with updated box art and foil-imprinted accents, but that’s only the beginning.

The game board’s front and back panels received small additional graphics announcing that you’re playing the 60th Anniversary Edition. The seven headquarters buildings get a new pearlescent finish. They look positively luxurious on the board. The stock cards also get an upgraded look with card back art that echoes the new box image.

You also get to bid farewell to the draw pool of facedown tiles on the table that always seem to flip over when you reach into them. The 60th Anniversary Edition replaces the loose pile with an embroidered bag for the tiles. This saves table space while making the tile drawing process a lot easier to handle.

Cashing in with Chips

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A long time ago, we switched from paper money to poker chips for most of our games. Chips keep the game moving more quickly while adding a delightful tactile effect and making a very satisfying table presence.

The 60th Anniversary Edition takes that one step further by including weighted custom poker chips and a custom storage tray that fits perfectly into the box. The chips improve the mixture of denominations in the game by adding $10,000 chips to the original mix of $100, $500, $1000, and $5000 values.

Classic Gameplay

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Of course, the whole point of buying a game is so you can play and enjoy it. The 60th Anniversary Edition delivers all the classic Acquire gameplay you loved in earlier editions, along with the improvements from Renegade’s 2023 update.

Start the game by mixing the building tiles in their new bag and by choosing whether to use the classic or tycoon merger payout option. (The tycoon options is our favorite.) You can also decide if you want to add the “Special Powers” variant — more about that in a moment.

Gameplay continues exactly the way you remember: Play a tile from your hand, buy up to three shares of stock, and draw a replacement. The game ends when a player announces that either all hotel chains are safe or one chain contains more than 40 tiles.

Super Special Powers

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The 60th Anniversary edition also includes Sid Sackson’s “Special Powers” variant. This variant first appeared in German versions of Acquire, then migrated back to some Avalon Hill versions of the game during the 1990s.

Each player gets a deck of five Special Powers cards. Three of the cards affect stock; the other two work with tiles. Every player’s deck contains the same mix of cards.

On the stock side, the cards let you receive one turn’s stock purchases for free, buy up to five stocks in a single turn, or perform three two-for-one stock trades in a turn. The two tile cards let you draw five tiles (giving you 11 tiles total) or play up to four tiles on a turn.

You can use each special power only once during the game, and only in the appropriate part of your turn (playing a tile, buying stock, or drawing a tile).

Verdict

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In a lot of ways, Renegade Acquire 60th Anniversary Edition truly is the ultimate version of Acquire. Everything is deluxe about this — the board, playing pieces, custom poker chips, embroidered tile bag, and update card art. The addition of the Special Powers variant is like an extra scoop of ice cream atop your favorite cake.

If we could change anything, we wish Renegade used stronger plastic for the storage trays, especially the tray for the stock market. It’s functional as it is, but for something that’s going to be removed from the box, actively interacted with on the table, and then returned to the box, the plastic is thinner than we like, especially given the number of times we play Acquire.

The Acquire 60th Anniversary Edition is a marvelous version to own and play, with a great table presence supporting the gameplay you know and love. Collectors and hard-core Acquire fans will want this game, as will anyone who likes owning the premium collector’s edition of a classic product. We love this edition of the game, and we’re sure you will too.