Is M really short for Colonel Mustard?

Controversy in the world of board games sounds like a storm in a teacup, but when Hasbro updated Clue (the UK and Ireland are the only places where is still called Cluedo) last year from a tale of murder in an Christie style English country manor in the 1940s to a mansion on the Hollywood Hills filed with starlets and celebrities there was a (small) kerfuffel. Well expect a shout. And a way for Hasbro to squeeze money out of its players after the game is sold.

By the way, I’m pretty sure I should be mucking this up with tm and copyright notices, shall we just assume that they are there for legibility? OK?

In the new Hasbro game CLUE : Secrets and Spies, only available in the US for what will soon be obvious reasons, all the characters have become a but younger, sexier and the political correctness of their titles isn’t an issue any more, as they are all now agents for C.L.U.E. (Criminal League for Ultimate Espionage). Their aim is to take down Agent Black (Mr Black in Clue plays the role of Mr Body in Cluedo).

Yes folks, its a spy game barely connected with the theme of Cluedo (or clue) where the agents go on mission across the world, or at least the cities on the board game. Instead of the usual set of cards and weapons there are Activity cards, Secret Identity cards (only one for each player, so there might be some interesting costumes), Secret Meeting cards, Mission cards, and Quick Rules cards and spy light. This is a simple ultra violet LED torch which can be used to reveal
hidden messages on the cards in the game. Yes folks, this is a game branded as Clue, that has practically nothing in common with Clue.

So far, apart from the UV bit, so normal. Well here is the kicker, each player can get 6 additional random event cards via SMS . If players text the word “SPY” to 90445 they then start to receive 6 messages in total the course of a game. Participating mobile operators are AT&T, T-Mobile US, Nextel, Boost, Virgin, US Cellular, NTelos, Dobson, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Cincinnati Bell Wireless (no European telcos here); the cost of text messages are not included in
the game’s price.

Since you can’t play this game alone, either both (or all) players should be getting these messages for fair play or no one. The text message element is optional, but this is a high tech version (actually low tech, SMS servers aren’t really bleeeding edge, but this is a paper and cardboard board game) of the old Atmosfear video (VHS) based
board game, with the games master messing with the play.

And these messages cost money. So you can extract payment out of a game that’s already been bought. Hasbro don’t seem really confident about this, how long is the mean time between game purchase and it heading to the attic after all, and they are only committing to keep the SMS servers going until December 2011. If it works in the states,
expect to see a version over here.

To be honest, the game doesn’t sound that good, but the hook from the games company to your wallet is new. Expect to see others try to do the same. But what other games would something like this work for? There was a Swiss edition of Monopoly where chance cards could be texted in, but not much more.