In the expansion review series, we take a look at a game expansion to discuss whether it is a necessary purchase/addition to one’s collection.
This breakdown is for the real-time tile placement game Jetpack Joyride, and its expansions: Vehicles, Lucky Barry, and Party.
The Vehicles expansion adds several new cards and tetromino tiles to the gameplay. When setting up to play, the new Mission and Gadget cards of this expansion are added to their corresponding decks. Players are dealt Lab cards as normal, but will swap out their Standard Level 2 Lab card for one of the Lab cards from the expansion pack. 3 random Vehicle cards will be selected and placed, with their matching tetronimo tiles, in the center of the table. Now the game can begin! The difference in gameplay with the Vehicle expansion is that when a player covers the Vehicle symbol on their new Lab card, they may choose one of the available vehicles in play and collect its tetronimo tile. They now may use that tile at any time during the remainder of the round, wherever they so choose! Vehicles have special abilities too – they can cover obstacles without penalty, collect coins in adjacent spaces, etc. So use your Vehicle wisely! At the end of the round, all Vehicles are returned to the center of the table, and are available for use in future rounds.
Lucky Barry adds some new cards to the gameplay, as well as a die roll! Shuffle the new Mission and Gadget cards into their corresponding decks, just like in Vehicles. Players are dealt their normal Lab cards, but will now swap out their 3rd Lab card for one from the expansion. The gameplay in general is the same as the base game. However, at the end of the round, if a player has covered a Spin Token symbol on their 3rd Lab card, they now get to roll the die! The die can either earn player points for end-game scoring, coins for purchasing Gadgets, a randomly drawn Gadget card, or nothing. This die roll is where the ‘luck’ part comes into play.
The Party expansion simply consists of more tetronimo tiles, Gadget cards, and Lab cards to accommodate 2 additional players. The base game is for 1-4 players, but adding the Party expansion lets you play with up to 6. And if you added a second Party expansion, you could play with 8, and so on. The gameplay is identical to that of the base game – you just get to have fun with more players!
Overall, how do these expansions affect the gameplay? Let me go ahead and say that the Party expansion changes nothing about the game, it merely lets you play with more people. So that one really depends on how many people you want to be able to play the game. The Vehicles expansion adds a unique element to the gameplay in the fact that Vehicles can grant you special rules/abilities during play. What is the best placement for your Vehicle tile to achieve maximum reward? If you want to add a bit of luck to your gameplay, the Lucky Barry expansion does just that with the die roll. The nice thing about this roll is that there really are no negative outcomes possible – you just might get nothing. It is possible to play with no expansions, a combination of them, or even all 3 at once! Each expansions adds new strategic elements to consider under the pressure of the real-time gameplay.
Are these expansions necessary for total enjoyment of Jetpack Joyride? Not really. Obviously if you want a larger game, the Party expansion is a must. But the other 2 just add some new elements and twists to the gameplay that could increase the challenge level.
Official recommendation: Jetpack Joyride is based on a video game of the same name, and the gameplay is pretty true to the original. The Vehicles and Lucky Barry expansions merely incorporate more of the original video game elements into the board game version. I personally think the base game alone provides lots of fun and replayability, but if you’re looking for the 100% authentic video-game-to-board-game translation, then consider picking up these expansions.
