Crash Canyon

When I was a little girl, my stepbrother wanted to go slot car racing for his birthday one year. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but over the years I've managed to gain an appreciation for miniature models and hobbies like that, and perhaps that's where my enjoyment for things like this came from. Not that that was my only exposure to toy cars, mind you. I also had a small collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox - which were the lesser cool console wars of the day, frankly - because, unlike other girls my age, I liked stuff like that and also my dad, on the rare occasions I saw him, gave me a lot of them.

So when you match those points up with my adoration for board games, specifically the 3D modeled board games with set pieces, then what you have is something entirely unique, like Crash Canyon. Crash Canyon, published by our board game overlords Milton Bradley, was released in 1989, the very year I was born. Designed for 2 to 4 players, the description is as follows:

"This off road racing game uses a large three dimensional board very similar to Fireball Island. Players race their 4x4 vehicles with the roll of a special six sided die without a 1 pip but it has a star instead. Rolling a star allows you to move opponents cars and roll again. Cars can roll freely on the board and possibly roll off the board or crash. When movement ends, you must release your 4x4 and see if it "free wheels." Rolling off the board or crashing means the loss of a turn while you get your 4x4 back on the road. Seven boulders on the road (placed at the start of the game) stop movement, but are removed from the game when first encountered. Light hearted and fun, especially with younger players."

So, as it states, it's very much like Fireball Island (which we've covered) and the design of the board really hammers that home. Crash Canyon is kind of unique in the sense that there's not a lot of board games based around cars, so this is sort of one of a kind in its way. It was designed by Jim Keifer who, surprise surprise, has been featured here before! He's also the man behind Screaming Eagles, Wonderful World of Disney Trivia (both of which we've also covered) plus two other games called Thunder Road and Monster Jam, so the guy seems to have his niche, and frankly, bless him for it. He was doing things nobody else was doing. And the design of this board is pretty great, honestly. Look at the ridges and the greenery and the water added in. This thing is a truly sculpted work of art. And that's part of what I appreciate most about these 3D boards, is how intricately designed they are. It's almost like doing miniature set building for old scifi movies. It takes a remarkable amount of skill, effort and most of all patience to get these things done and I cannot commend these sculptors and designers enough for their efforts.

As with every game, though, the design work doesn't end just at the board. Let's take a look at our tokens and other assorted game devices that come with it, shall we?

Pretty basic pieces, and actually kind of boring when you consider how well designed the board was, but hey, something was bound to give during the design process. Not everything can be 100%. But the player tokens, oh MAN.

The player tokens for Crash Canyon are perhaps some of the coolest I've seen thusfar while doing this blog, and I'm happy to say - despite not covering the other titles mentioned that Keifer worked on like Thunder Road and Monster Jam, though we will get to them now, I promise - the tokens for all the games similar to this are excellent. These are straight up micromachines, and that's so goddamned cool.

They could've phoned in any part of this, when it came to the tokens, as a lot of board games often do, especially when they have an expertly designed board. They could've just had your standard cardboard cutouts of cars on a standee or some little metal trinket like the tokens in Monopoly, but no, they decided that wasn't good enough for Crash Canyon. Crash Canyon deserved better, and it got it. These are so cool that any kid playing this board game would love it for the tokens alone, and I know I certainly would've flipped my shit had I seen this growing up. Unfortunately when this game released, depending on the exact date, I was either unborn or just recently born, so I had no lid to flip because babies don't understand concepts like board games. Except those super genius babies, you know the ones I mean. The ones plotting to end us all.

I'm happy to report after all this that for once, perhaps the only time this has ever happened in the history of this blog, the artwork on the box and the items contained within the box actually match up. What you see on that front cover is what you get, more or less, and that is not only so cool but also so rare. Crash Canyon may not have the legacy that Fireball Island has, and it may not have the uniqueness of some other standout 3D boards, but it really is a solid little package brought together by the artistry of Keifer and the folks at Milton Bradley. This is definitely one of the best board games I think I've come across design wise, in and out in every aspect, and that always makes writing these fun. Hell, even the artwork on the box is fantastic, and I think that's something I'd like to eventually add to this site is a gallery of just the box artwork for everything featured here, because it's usually excellent stuff and it deserves to be remembered and archived. These people weren't just making games, they were making art, and it seemed like Keifer especially understood that.

Now I can't wait to view the other things Keifer has done, because if his work on both Screamin Eagles and this are as good as they are, who knows what we're in store for here.

So that's Crash Canyon, a surprisingly excellent little board game that I think I would actually enjoy for a change. It's got a unique concept, a really well designed board, fantastic player tokens and overall I think it's by far one of the neater games featured on the blog thusfar. I for one know that the next time I'm behind the wheel of a 4 wheel all terrain truck, I'm gonna say screw the road, and drive that son of a bitch right off a mountain.

It can only end well, right?