Game review 76: Podium
Get a multi-sports fix tinged with corporate greed and excess between Olympic events with this tabletop version
It’s the Olympics. The Olympics are here!
And with the 2024 games being held in Paris, for a sports fan based in the UK, it means marvellous timing - no need to stay up until 3am only to be confronted by three hours of dressage.
However, Olympic-watchers on the BBC will have, thanks to Team GB selfishly collecting a larger than usual haul of medals over the past few years, grown used to seeing very little sport over the 16 days the Olympics are held, replaced instead by a near-constant stream of replays of medal-winning celebrations and interviews with delirious family members.
So how to get my multi-sports fix tinged with corporate greed and excess when the Beeb runs the same interview with some bronze medallist’s gran that they’ve repeated for the third time in an hour? Well, that’s where this growing board game collection can help out a little.
In the main, Podium plays as a fairly bog-standard roll-and-move; get your team of six “athletes” around the board and on to the podium. The team/player achieving the most points on the medal table at the end the winner.
Some limited strategy based on lifestyle cards ensure that your team can only compete when they have trained and dieted appropriately for an elite athlete.
The game does come into its own thanks to its second board, where the medals are mainly decided. Sub-games representing swimming, basketball, equestrian and cycling add a bit of much-needed action to proceedings.
It isn’t a perfect game. But it is simple and pleasant enough, and fun to play with younger children, who, like mine, will be desperate to get involved with the actual sports.
Game facts and stats
Year published
2006
Publisher
Invicta
Designer
Ania Bhandari and Kasia Hugo
Player count
2–6
E’s review
What do you like about the game?
“It’s bad and good. I just love it because of that board. Because it has different sports.”
Is it difficult?
“It’s really tricky”
Marks out of ten?
“Gold”
My review
Advised age range
8+
Set-up time
Two or three minutes
Price
Pretty cheap. It doesn’t appear to be on a lot of collectors’ radars. I got this one for under a tenner online.
Practicality
The box is fairly chunky, but small by standards from 15-20 years ago.
Fun for parents
It can be. Though you’re waiting for small bursts of entertainment when you get some actual sports away from the build-up. Much like the TV coverage of the Olympics.