Perfection (board game)

Perfection, originally produced by the Minnesota company Lakeside, is a game by the Milton Bradley company. The object is to put all the pieces into matching holes on the board (pushed down) before the time limit runs out. When time runs out, the board springs up, causing many, if not all, of the pieces to fly out. In the most common version, there are 25 pieces to be placed (the holes form a 5x5 grid) within 60 seconds.

Gameplay

Players, taking alternate turns, must be the quickest to place all 25 shapes into the holes on the game tray. First, all shapes are placed next to the game unit, in a mixed order, with handles facing up. Next, the timer is set for the full 60 seconds and the pop-up tray is pushed down. As soon as the timer starts, the player will quickly start fitting each shape into its matching hole. If the player completes this before the time is up, he/she pushes the STOP button and records the time. If the player fails to place all the shapes into the tray and hit stop before the time is up, the tray will pop up, scattering the pieces around the game tray. The next player then takes a turn. The winner is the player to complete the tray full of shapes in the shortest amount of time.^[1]

Original 1973 version

The original Perfection game consists of a red and yellow board with 26 shapes. Its "pop-up" mechanism was an ejector plate situated under the shaped holes and lowered by a PUSH button. The board also included a scoreboard with four stackable pegs of different colors. One point was scored for each shape properly placed in their correct holes; if all 26 shapes were inserted before the allotted 60 seconds, one point was also scored for each remaining second left on the clock. For tie scores, pegs were stacked on top of one another.

The original version also included red "block-out" squares that were used one of two ways. For beginners and younger players, a chosen number of holes were covered and their corresponding shapes were removed. For advanced players, a chosen number of holes were covered but ALL shapes would be kept in play.

In 1975, the game was changed to its current "pop-up tray" format in which the scoreboard and pegs, red block-out squares and four-point star shape were removed.

Game variants

• Superfection (1975): In this advanced version of Perfection, the object is to put sixteen two-piece puzzle cubes together and in the pop-up tray within two minutes.
• Challenge Perfection (1978): Two to four players play against each other to be the first to fill their base of 18 shapes first. However, the bases are different so that one player could take a piece needed by another player. This version does not feature the pop-up mechanism.
• Head-To-Head Perfection (1987): Two players compete to insert 25 shapes (in a format similar to Superfection) in their pop-up tray first and in the shortest time. Each player has a pop-up bar in front of their base; whoever completes their board first presses the bar to pop-up the opponent's tray and scatter the pieces.

Popular piece names ^[2]

1. Six-Pointed Star

2. Five-Pointed Star

3. Plus Sign

4. Hexagon

5. Half Moon

6. Pentagon

7. Octagon

8. The X

9. Equilateral Triangle

10. Asterisk

11. Inverted S

12. Diamond

13. Boat Propeller

14. The S

15. Square

16. Pizza Slice

17. Kite

18. Rainbow

19. Hot Dog

20. Circle

21. Square Triangle

22. Trapezoid

23. Rectangle

24. Short Parallelogram

25. Tub

Rereleases

In 1992, the game was relaunched with a new jingle for television advertisements, "Pop Goes Perfection", to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel".

In 1996, the game gained a new look, and was advertised on Nickelodeon, then on YTV.

International distribution

A Japanese version of the game, which is known as Time Crash (タイムクラッシュ), has a wider board that contains more pieces.

References

• Perfection at BoardGameGeek
• Perfection at TV Cream