Knit Wit – The Unboxinating!
Today’s Unboxinating spotlights a game from Z-Man Games called Knit Wit (Rules here). I don’t understand Z-Man game’s business model, I have many more games embranded with their logo than they have in their inventory. Way many more games. I don’t know whether they only keep the newest games in stock and jettison all games that are X years old or if I just have a lot of really old mothballed Z-Man games. Knit Wit is from 2016 which doesn’t seem that old but it’s not listed in their database so I guess for Z-Man it is.
Number One: That packaging. I applaud the box design (even as I am a little grumpy about it because I keep forgetting that it’s a sleeve and not the usual lift off game box). First off, it’s squarish which is great when I go to stack it with the other square games, yet it’s unusual in that it’s a flip up box that is sleeved in another box. Opening it up reveals the parts all laid out nice and neat and organized. It reminds me of my craft box, only with way fewer googly eyes.
Number 2: Maybe it’s just me but I love those spools. They are wooden (niiiiiice) and a good size and I think maybe I just love spools. I am looking forward to playing with them in whatever capacity the game tells me to. In fact, a lot of these components are nice…the buttons are solid wood and the clothes pins look like they would actually stand up to pinning clothes on a line.
Number 3: The score pad is a limited resource, which I hate, but they give you a master to photocopy when you run out of black notepad sheets. Hold up though …black notepad sheets? Whaaaaat??? BLACK NOTEPAD SHEETS! I almost forgive them this limited resource because black pads with white pencils are really cool .
Number 4: I like the art style to this game, from the block print cover art to the old timey feel of word tag prompts. I’m not sure I like that the tags have drawn on holes because I believe you clip them to the clothes pins rather than string them on the lines, but I guess they want the feel of little tags you might attach to a project to tell you about that project. Very county fair.
Number 5: What’s not to like? I thought there was nothing particularly bad in the initial unboxinating but then I read the pre-play instructions. They want you to unwind the rope bits from the spools and then tie the clothes pins onto them before play begins. My inner OCD looked at those directions and cried, “But…but…the elegant packaging! Where are you going to put those clothespin ropes now? How are they gonna fit so tidily in the box? Do they want you to unhook the pins and rewind the ropes every time?” to which my inner lazy said “Oh HELL no! Once those pins are secured that’s the way they are gonna stay for time immortal.” Since I wasn’t playing the game right then, I just closed it up and put it back sans initial set up. I usually like to get a game play ready but I just can not with this one.
Lastly :
