Break the Safe: Teamwork...In a Board Game?

By Jonathan Berohn

Since the Spy Kids movies made such a big splash, my kids-and all their friends-have been into anything spy-ish, spy-like, or even remotely associated with spying.

Capitalizing on this fad, Mattel has come out with Break the Safe. The premise of Break the Safe is fairly simple. As the name suggests, you break into the enemy complex and open up the safe. What you find remains left to your imagination.

To speed you along your way, the safe has a 30-minute timer (you set the clock for less time for games with fewer than 4 players) that the players have to beat. To beat the timer, you must collect all 4 safe keys while avoiding both a roaming guard and guard dog.

What sets this game apart, though, is that all the players work together to break the safe. You either win as a group or lose as a group. And make no mistake, winning takes definite teamwork. Each of the keys is guarded by a booby trap. The players have tools to defeat these traps (and foil the guard and dog), but they have to share these tools to successfully defeat all the traps. Some traps even require two players to work together.

Finally, when the players have collected all the keys they must all assemble at the safe to open the lock. Again, the players must work as a team to make sure everyone manages to elude the guard and dog and make it back to the safe room. It's really quite refreshing to find a game where the object isn't to beat you little brother or sister but to help them win with you. My kids have great fun with the teamwork aspect of the game and really enjoy helping each other. The added excitement of the ticking clock and time pressure just makes the game that much more fun.