It’s always nice when something surprises you. Well, it’s always nice when something surprises you in a nice way. Like a snake in the toilet isn’t a nice surprise. Unless you’ve lost your snake.

Anyway, this week’s Thursday find is just that - a surprise. It’s a game that clicks and fizzes in some interesting ways, that blends action and strategy. And the surprise is it’s based on a boardgame.

So here’s why Colt Express is worthy of your attention, even if you don’t like boardgames. Or the Wild West. Or finding snakes in your toilet. Actually probably not that last one.

Colt Express

Usually when you see someone talking about a boardgame that’s won awards you think of big rule books. You think of massive amounts of chits. You think of things like Settlers of Catan. And then you fall asleep.

Well you don’t have to think about any of those things with Colt Express. What you have to think about is fun, a bit of silliness, probably some hijinks, and lots and lots of cowboy hats. All of which are good things.

Essentially the game is all about cards. You’ve got a deck in your hand and you need to lay them down to perform actions. You’re playing a bandit who’s on a speeding train, and the aim of the game is to steal more stuff than the other bandits.

They’ve also got decks of cards, and they’re moving around the train trying to nab as much stuff as they can as well. So far so blah you might say if you’re fond of saying things like that.

But the twist is you all play your moves before you make them. Which means your incredibly clever plans can be thwarted by someone doing something you didn’t expect.

It makes for a game of cat and mouse, but on about three different levels. When you play your cards, when you make the choices those cards offer in the next chunk of the game, and when you need to reevaluate those choices because someone legged it with the strong box.

There’s a lot to do here as well. You’ve got multiplayer modes, games against the AI, and a story mode that gives you a variety of different objectives for each of the different characters you can pick from.

This is a fun and fast boardgame that gets its tutorial out of the way in a couple of minutes. And you don’t have to hop back and forth perusing the rules either. Grab some cash, shoot some bullets, and hope that there’s someone standing in the right place to get hit by them.