Johann Sebastian Joust: Play Folk 11

Group shot with the EGREGIOUS EXCEPTION of class-act Erin Dean, who had to scram before we remembered to get a photo.

Seven is a magic number. Seven is the maximum number of players that Sportsfriends can support playing J.S. Joust; seven is how many Sony Move controllers I was able to win via eBay auctions; and seven is how many people came and attended Play Folk 11. Seven and eleven, baby. They rhyme and can describe a convenience store, so you know what that means. It's late as I'm writing this blog post.

We had so much fun playing this game. On a rainy night, when 2/7 of us had driven from Anaheim to be there. When Maclen lost his perfect attendance. When I had accidentally paid a babysitter to sit on the front step for an hour and spilled a glass of water on my laptop. When Willa's room was so messy. Etc., etc., etc. We needed some fun and games. We got it. Thank play, as intern Adam used to say.

Joust is amazingly simple. Turn on your controller; don't jiggle it too much. When the music is fast you can move faster. When it slows down your controller is more sensitive. Bump and abuse the other players until their controller turns red and they are out of the game; last man or woman standing is the winner.

I had played this game before - loads of times - and in the first two games I won handily. But after that, my advantage evaporated, and we all won a few times. Even Dash. Doug pointed out that his years in marching band came in handy: firm footsteps and very steady hands. That guy is like a tree: very tough to jostle. But everyone had their skill moves.

Then we started playing with the extra settings. We gave everybody a second life: that was a huge game changer. We tried playing with teams, but the game is actually a bit buggy, unfortunately.

The best part of this game is that, when it ends, everybody powers up again and it's time for a new round. You're only ever out for a couple minutes at the most. A couple strangers passed through the alley, including a woman taking her dog for a walk, and we involved them in the game as well.

Glitch City was incredibly kind to give us their space on such short notice: thanks Glitch City! But those guys were working so hard, only one of them even took a few minutes to come out back and play with us. Sort of sad, really, but maybe they've all played Joust so much that they've moved on or something. It's a terrific game though. And one you'll have another chance to play with us in March, except you'll have to come to the Getty Center. Which is awesome.

See you soon!