E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Light Years from Home Game Review

Work together to send E.T. home in the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Light Years from Home Game. Play as Elliott, Gertie, Michael, and Greg as you bike through the neighborhood, avoid federal agents, and collect items that E.T. can use to call his ship. If you get E.T. to the clearing before his heartlight fades, everybody wins!

Each player completes three steps each turn. First, you take up to three basic actions (such as moving, taking candy, or picking up an item or device) and any number of free actions (such as dropping an item or device, moving E.T. with candy, picking up or dropping off E.T., using an E.T. power card, teaming up, and building a device). The second step is to phone home using the device dice in the forest clearing on the board. And the third step is to move the enemies by rolling the enemy dice. Moving the enemies might bring them closer to E.T. or a kid. If E.T. or a kid gets caught, turn the heartlight dial down one. If E.T. becomes too weak, all players lose the game. If all three cop cars reach the forest clearing and block it off, all players lose the game. But if the Mothership reaches the forest clearing and E.T. is at one of the four nearby spaces, everybody wins.

To call the Mothership, you’ve got to phone home, and in order to do that, you need to build device dice, and in order to do that, you’ve got to build a device, and in order to do that, you’ve got to pick up four items of the same color and drop them in their matching-colored zone on the board. (For an easier game, change it to three items, and for a harder game, change it to five items.)