Review: Vegas Showdown (Renegade Games)

The glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip is legendary. Each hotel casino offers a unique brand of magic based on their designers’ choices around betting, entertainment, and food.

In Vegas Showdown from Renegade Games, you develop one of those famous hotel casinos according to your tastes. Will you focus on slot machines and lounges? Go deep into table games or install a futuristic sports book? Or do your tastes lean toward restaurants, buffets, and entertainment venues?

Get ready to bring your real estate vision to life as we look at the top five things you need to know to take home the win in Vegas Showdown.

Meeting a Classic

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The original edition of Vegas Showdown was named Games Magazine’s “Game of the Year” and earned two other award nominations. Renegade’s version builds on the classic game’s foundation with updated art, a significantly improved player mat design, and clearer rulebook.

The game supports 3-5 players, although fans created several 2-player variants over the years. A quick online search will lead you to them if you find yourself one player short.

Starting the Game

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Each player begins with a hotel casino board, one color of playing pieces, and $20 in chips. An oversized dealer button acts as the first player marker.

Arranging the the stacks of room tiles takes a couple of minutes. Green-backed tiles are basic slots, lounges, and restaurants. These are available every round until they sell out. Red-backed tiles are premier versions that get randomly drawn to fill the auction spaces on the game board. For three players, use three auction spaces; four or five players use all four.

Sort the red premier tiles according to the tiny A or B in the lower right corner of the tile’s back. A’s go on the top of the stack; B’s on the bottom so they’re available later in the game.

Getting into the Turns

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Each turn begins with lowering the price of leftover tiles, earning income, and randomly adding new premier tiles to the auction spaces, if necessary.

You earn income equal to the lower number of either revenue or capacity. Every room you build can add space for more people (capacity), improve your income generation (revenue), or grant victory points. Some tiles, like the Space-Age Sports Book, do all three at once.

Event cards tell you which size tile to add to the auction. They also present a bonus or a complication that affects the current round.

Finally, players can choose between the three main actions for their turn: working the press for publicity, remodeling their hotel casino complex, or bidding on a tile. Publicity gives you one victory point. It also helps you save money to purchase fancy (and expensive) room tiles in the future.

Remodeling lets you take up to two tiles off your hotel casino board and place up to two tiles back onto your board. This makes space available for big tiles you purchase, like the glorious night club you bought for a song.

Bid Well, Make Money

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Auctions are central to every round of play. Auction price tracks run next to each of the tile spaces on the game board. All tile spaces have one auction track except for slot machines, which has two.

The graphic design of the game board makes the auction mechanic easy to follow. To bid, you place your auction marker on top of the amount you want to bid for the room next to the track. The next player does the same thing, and so on.

If someone outbids you by placing their marker on a higher number, you must move your marker elsewhere, although you can immediately outbid the other player. This process continues until everyone either has a successful bid or puts their marker on publicity or remodeling. Finally, the players finish their action, and the game moves ahead to the next round.

Rolling in the Points

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Vegas Showdown runs on victory points. You get some points during the game by building specific tiles. You can also earn points at game end by carefully playing some premier tiles so the“theme bonus” triangles in the corners and on the edges match with their mates.

At the end of the game, you also earn points for filling your casino and hotel with tiles, for filling your entire board. Being able to trace an unbroken path from your hotel entrance to your casino entrance earns you some more points. And, since it’s Vegas, money gives your victory points as well.

Verdict

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There’s a lot to love about this new version of Vegas Showdown. The fun and strategic challenge of base game will appeal to players who love economic games. The upgraded artwork, better board design, and improved rules make it an easy purchase decision for current fans.

The current printing has a few rough edges worth mentioning. First, the two “Slot builders on strike” cards should call for small premium tiles, not medium ones. It’s easy to fix this on the cards with a black fine point pen.

The red “theme bonus” diamonds appear in two different sizes on the medium and large tiles. They’re big in the corner, but tiny along the side. Still, it’s easily fixed with a red marker.

Finally, to improve your game experience, we recommend using actual poker chips instead of the cardboard coins. The game just feels better that way. Recommended!