Thunderbirds Danger Zone: The Game - First Play!

2nd April 2023

Sunday afternoon is here and we're in Basingstoke for some gaming fun.

Hiiighhhwaaaay to the danger zone.
Riiiiddddee into the danger zone.

What happens when Supermarionation meets Top Gun? Well I have no idea to be honest.
That brings me to Thunderbirds Danger Zone: The Game, a cooperative card game about saving the day as International Rescue and foiling the schemes of The Thunderbirds' nefarious nemesis; 'The Hood'!

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What's in a game?

• Cards: Thunderbirds Danger Zone: The Game uses several different types of cards.
  Danger zone cards: The game's titular cards, these represent the missions which players are attempting to overcome. Each mission consists of 3 cards and there are 7 missions in total, all of which are themed after episodes from the TV show. Each danger card will display how much of each of the game's resources are additionally required to 'complete' it.

The 'End of The Road' mission is recommended as the beginner mission.

• Journey cards: As well as danger cards, players will also need to overcome journey cards. Essentially, they are added to missions to increase the requirements for victory. Similarly to danger cards, each journey card will display how many of each resource is required to complete it.
  Additionally, each journey card has a blank square on which to place a journey token - more on these below.
  

A journey card & danger zone card, both showing what resources are required to complete it.

• Resource cards: These cards each contain an amount of each of the game's 4 resource types which players will be able to spend to complete objectives.

Resource cards have 1-4 in each of the game's 4 resource types.

• ​Tracy Island cards: These are used as 'countdown' timers and track every instance of the player's failing a task.
• Tokens: There are also several types of card tokens.
  Character tokens: These feature all the man protagonists from Thunderbirds, they are used to indicate who is active during a mission.
  

Jeff!

• ​Hood tokens: The Hood had to turn up at some point! When these tokens are added to a journey card, it essentially increases the 'cost' of fulfilling one of the resources.
• ​Journey tokens: These square tokens are added to journey cards and change their conditions, they come in 2 types.
• Resource tokens: Conversely resource tokens will add to a resource on a card, making it 'cheaper' to meet that resource's requirements.

A journey token with 2 tech, Virgil and a Hood token with a penalty of 1 tech & 1 knowledge.

• ​​Completion tokens: These round tokens display the International Rescue logo and are used to track progress during a mission.
  

The component quality throughout Thunderbirds Danger Zone is average, that is to say it is the quality we've come to accept from modern games which means pretty good. The cards feel OK and the tokens seem sturdy enough. Nothing bad here.

For its art, the game sources what seem to be stock photos and stills from the TV episodes that inspired the mission cards.
It's usually at this point I would accuse the game of looking cheap for using photos instead of producing actual art.
However, this style works for Thunderbirds Danger Zone and I think it looks completely acceptable. Partially because marionettes and models look different enough from bland photos to look good and partially because those marionettes and models were part of the TV show's unique aesthetic and what people would expect from a licensed game.

The only icons used in the game are for the 4 resources, they will be easily learnt and each one looks distinct in shape and fits its theme, a cannister for fuel, a computer terminal for knowledge and so on.
Except for tech; no matter what anyone says, the icon for tech just looks like a drain to me!

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How's it play?
Note: The setup and rules description below are for games with 3+ players.
​Additionally, the setup and rules are for the beginner mission - End of The Road. Later missions introduce more cards and more rules.
​Setup

• Mission: First choose 1 of the 7 available missions.
  Danger zone cards: Take the 3 danger zone cards associated with the chosen mission and place them in a row, thus forming the top row of 3 columns of cards.
  Journey cards: The mission's difficulty will determine how many rows of journey cards should be used, typically 1 or 2. Players can theoretically choose to vary this to alter the mission's difficulty.
  The journey cards should be shuffled into a face-down deck, cards should be dawn from here and placed beneath the danger zone cards to form 3 columns.
  Character tokens: The mission card will determine which characters are used. Place each character token below the bottom of their specific column.
  Journey tokens: shuffle all the journey and Hood tokens and randomly deal one on to each of the journey cards. Finally deal a journey token to each character token.
  Tracey Island card: These cards count as a countdown timer, the lower count on the card used, the harder it is to successfully complete the mission. Players can decide on which of these countdown cards to use, they are numbered from 4-10.
• Players: Players have the following setup.
  Resource cards: Shuffle the resource cards into a face-down deck and deal 3 to each player.
  First player: Determine a starting player, give them the 'Jeff' character token.
  This player becomes the.... 'Jeff player'!

The 'End of The Road' mission has been setup.

On to play
​Thunderbirds Danger Zone is a cooperative card game where players are attempting to collaboratively play an exact amount of one of the game's 4 resources. Doing this correctly will complete an objective and move the players closer to succeeding at the mission.
There are however, some twists and complexities to doing this.

The game does not use a typical turn order, instead, during a round, all participants more or less act simultaneously.

• Jeff: Whoever has the the Jeff token is first player and essentially will 'lead' the round.
  Objective: The Jeff player will choose a resource on one of the cards and announce it to the other players. 
• Play cards: Now all other players must choose a card from their hand and play it face-down.
  Players are attempting to both match the resource type and its exact value as chosen by the Jeff player with the cards they play. Players must also remember that a Hood token may be modifying the required amount.
  I will add that players cannot converse and discuss which journey cards they can play.
• Jeff again: Once all the other players have placed their cards, the Jeff player now picks any 2 of the face-down cards and flips them face-up.
  Success: If the combined value of the relevant resource across both cards is exactly equal to the value of the resource which was chosen by the Jeff player, then the players have successfully completed that resource, place a completion token on that particular resource to mark it as complete.
  If all the objectives on a journey have been completed, the character token, along with their journey token are moved up to the next card. Flip the journey card to indicate it is completed.
  If a danger zone card has been completed, flip it to indicate so.
  Jeff modifies: If the combined value of required resource on the 2 cards does not exactly match the value shown for the objective, then the players have potentially failed. However, the Jeff player has a couple of options to try and rectify the situation.
  The Jeff player can swap out one of the revealed cards with a card in their hand, thus possibly altering the required value to succeed.
  Additionally, the Jeff Player can choose to spend relevant journey tokens to also modify the score.
  Failure: If after any modifications by the Jeff player, the resource's value still does not match the objective's value, the players have failed the objective.
  When this occurs, move the countdown timer down by 1.
• Next round: Regardless of the outcome of the objective, play then progresses to the next round.
  New Jeff player: The Jeff token is passed to the player on the left, who will become the Jeff player for the subsequent round.
  Draw cards: All played cards are discarded and all player's other then the Jeff player should draw cards until they have 3 in their hand.

There are some other rules regarding the use of character tokens which have special abilities that can come into play but that's the basic's of the rules. Other missions also include equipment and 'pod' cards.
There are also rules specific to 2 player.

Endgame
If the countdown timer reaches 0, time has run out! The players collectively lose!

If the players manage to flip over all 3 danger zone cards, then they are triumphant and collectively win!

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A journey card has been completed and the others are underway despite a couple of failures.

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Overall
I know why resource values have to be matched exactly mechanically - otherwise it would be too easy a game. Thematically though, it feels a bit strange that players might have too much team spirit or knowledge.
Other than that, Thunderbirds Danger Zone feels quite strong thematically. I like how the game sends specific characters to deal with specific danger zone cards which I imagine mirrors what occurs in that episode. I like the that idea characters can also provide some assistance.
The art direction also makes it feel quite like playing a Thunderbirds episode which is exactly what you'd want from the game.

Mechanically, I feel Thunderbirds Danger Zone is a bit of a mixed bag. This is particularly true of the slight asymmetrical gameplay.
The Jeff player is faced with a somewhat meaningful decision when choosing which objective to target. They'll want to pick one which they have the most options and flexibility in modifying if required.
Luck will also play a part in the Jeff player's role when they pick 2 cards to flip, frequently they will need to adapt to what is revealed.
For the non Jeff players it will feel less meaningful. Basically; if the objective has a low value, players will want to play cards with a low value in the required resource and vice versa if the objective resource has a high value. Since players will not know what other participants will be playing, luck will play a not insignificant part in this.
To be fair, there is a bit of higher level play in remembering the resource value on a journey card that the Jeff player picks up in a swap and such knowledge can prove advantageous in later rounds.

I will add that this kind of luck particularly bad luck is fairly typical in cooperative games to keep them challenging.
Luckily (SIC), the game provides the Jeff player will some tools to mitigate bad luck when it occurs.

Thunderbirds Danger Zone is straightforward for a cooperative game which is a advantage. Many games of this type of game tend to have fairly elaborate rules to manage the boards turn, there's none of that here.

Although that does bring me to complexity/difficulty. Thunderbirds Danger Zone sits in a bit of nebulous middle space here.
The game clearly has some scope as a family game but can be a bit overly complex and challenging for beginners or casual players. Conversely, I found the sometimes lack of meaningful decisions and swingy luck a bit frustrating and engaging, I also feel that most seasoned gamers would find this to also be the case.

If you're a fan of Thunderbirds and are in the market for a licensed cooperative game, this may float your boat, or if you're looking a more approachable cooperative game to play with more causal players or the family, it's also worth a look.
​Not one for me though.