Exit: The Game Advent Calendar – The Missing Hollywood Star
Designers: Inka and Markus Brand
Publisher: Kosmos
Players: 1+
Time: 5-10 min/day x 24 days
Played with review copy provided by Thames and Kosmos
Amazon Affiliate link – https://amzn.to/3XNrSu4
Advent calendars are a well-entrenched tradition in Germany. Each October when I head to Essen for SPIEL, the stores are already jammed packed with Advent calendars of all types. The first printed Advent calendar originated in Germany in the early 20th century with Gerhard Lang. When Gerhard was a little boy his mother made him a calendar with 24 small candies attached to cardboard, one for each day before Christmas. Lang grew up to operate the Reichhold & Lang printing company where he printed the first Advent cardboard calendar with 24 little pictures. A few years later, the company printed the first calendar with the little doors that everyone loves to open. The first chocolate Advent calendar appeared in 1958, but it was in 1971 that Cadbury joined the race and launched its own version in the UK. Cadbury produced Advent calendars intermittently from 1972 to 1986, but it wasn’t until 1993 that they finally became a mainstay.
Admittedly, I’m most familiar with the chocolate types as a child, but as I have grown up, I have also found calendars that provide a craft beer per day or perhaps a dram of whiskey? In any event, you can make an advent calendar out of just about anything, so long as it can hide behind a paper door… So, the geniuses at Kosmos figured out that maybe they could hide a puzzle a day in a calendar? This calendar originally came out in German, Thankfully, it has been translated and is already available on the market. In fact, last year, they also managed to translate and produce the second and third Exit advent calendars. With this newest entry in the series, people in the EN market now have four to choose from!
The story behind this challenge: “Your part-time job as a pizza delivery driver was pretty boring — until today! You are about to deliver pizza to one of the most famous film studios in the world. Shooting of the new Christmas blockbuster should be in full swing, but when you arrive, the set is dark and deserted. Something is very wrong here. Where’s the film crew? Oh, and where is the Hollywood star you were desperate to get an autograph from? All you find are spooky footprints in the fake snow that lead straight to a gaping hole in the studio wall.
Do you have the courage to follow the trail and go deep behind the scenes of the film studio? This advent calendar is an EXIT game and an adventure story in one: To find the missing star, you must open a little calendar door every day. Behind each, you will find an exciting new riddle, the solution to which will help you to move onto the next day. Only if you follow the clues and solve all 24 riddles, will you uncover the secret and save the Christmas blockbuster.”
Each EXIT Advent Calendar is an EXIT game and a 24-day-long adventure in one. Each door in the calendar reveals a unique room containing an exciting new riddle. Solve one day’s riddle to determine which door to open the next day. These games are completely card-based and unplugged. They include a decoder board, story (riddle) book, and riddle cards. There are also a number of surprises that you will only find once you open up the doors!. There is also a helpful hint booklet that will help you along if you happen to get stuck.
This advent calendar is both an EXIT game and adventure story: in order to free yourself from this predicament, you must open a door of the calendar each day. Behind each, you will find a new exciting puzzle, the solution of which will help you to move onto the next room. Only if you follow the clues and solve all 24 puzzles will you find the thief and the book … and save Christmas.
The puzzles are fairly quick, taking us as little as 20 seconds thus far to upwards of 5 minutes. Like many of the other puzzles in the EXIT series, sometimes you simply see the answer quickly while others require a fair amount of brain power. We currently have two people living here at my place, and we’ve made it a nice little tradition to open the door after our nightly meal, and we see if we can solve it together. Overall the puzzles are on the easier side, but this is in line with the Beginner difficulty rating found on the front box cover.
Like the regular EXIT games, the decoder strips help you determine if you have the right answer, and when you get the right answer, the symbols on the decoder will direct you to the next door to open. Though we haven’t finished the entire calendar yet – it has definitely been enjoyable, and we’re going to take a break and finish this EXIT Advent calendar starting on December 9 this year (since we’ve already done the first 8 days)
I would highly recommend this for puzzlers or families who like to work together. This one was a bit on the easy side so it would be a good starting point. It has been a great experience – though we did it all in one sitting for review purposes, but one that I think would be an enjoyable daily experience during the holidays. There is still plenty of time to get a copy of this and have it ready for the start of December!
Affiliate links for the advent calendars:
- The Golden Book – https://amzn.to/3Qi7rDi
- The Ice Cave – https://amzn.to/3Qcyj7w
- The Silent Storm – https://amzn.to/3rHr1zl
- The Missing Hollywood Star – https://amzn.to/3XNrSu4
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
