1960: The Making of the President
You are Senator John Kennedy! You are Vice-President Richard Nixon! 1960: The Making of the President is a superb 2-man board game from Z-Man Games. Z-Man Games did a great job creating an intense and fun head-to-head game. You travel the country campaigning, buy media advertising, engage in debates, manipulate public perception of “the issues,” cause various intrigue and above all engage your adversary in shameless politics in an attempt to win the 1960 presidential election.
Max von Fischgeist and I had at each other via this board game recently. He played the part of Kennedy (quite convincingly) and assumed the heavy Nixon mantle. The tide of the game tipped back and forth all night until finally on election day Kennedy delivered a dash cunning, last-minute political maneuver that caused me to loose the election…well caused Nixon to lose the election.
One of the greatest thing about this game is how all of your political wiles and guiles are based in historical incidents. So Kennedy doesn’t just reduce Nixon’s popularity in Michigan willy nilly, Kennedy plays the “Nixon Egged in Michigan” card to add embarrassment onto injury. And if Kennedy wanted to give himself a edge over Nixon he could play the “High Hopes” card indicating that Kennedy palled around with Sinatra and Rat Pack to gain a little extra favor with the electorate. Invoke all the topics and personalities from the 1960 election to help your candidate and hinder your opponent: Sputnik, Cold War, Kruschev, Nelson Rockefeller, Martin Luther King, Jr., Volunteers, Peace Corps, Nixon’s Knee (Broken!), brand new voters in Hawaii and Alaska (their first election for president)… The game is really well thought out and loads of fun.
