Now, I’ll start this off by saying that I don’t endorse hunting. Guns freak me out. And I’m completely squeamish about blood. However, I love Big Buck Hunter. For those of you who have never played the game*, it’s exactly what you think it is… You travel around the country, shooting deer, caribou, and elk, competing against up to three of your friends at a time.
Which doesn’t sound that crazy exciting, except that it is the perfect bar game: Each turn takes about a minute to play, so there’s plenty of time between rounds to go get a drink. In addition, if you each put three dollars in the machine, and you have four people, a game can stretch upwards of 45 minutes. That’s at least 40 minutes longer than most arcade games, and again, plenty of time to grab a few drinks while you murder a few deer.
Adding to the obsession, Play Mechanix (creators of the game) just added an online scoring feature, so you can see how you stack up against Buck Hunters across the country, while playing for cash prizes. You can also join a hunting party**, and check your stats online.
This isn’t a game… It’s a lifestyle. Okay, it’s just a game, but a game that I find myself playing with my friends a whole lot.
The other night, after a three awesome rounds of Caribou, we got to talking… What would it take to get our own Buck Hunter machine? Assuming we spend $3 each, and play about three rounds a night, end up doing this once a week, and a machine costs approximately $5000… Okay, it would be worth it after 139 weeks of playing on the machine. But, you know. It would also be really cool.
Anyway, this led me to do a little research on how to get your own Buck Hunter game. There’s a lot of them available online, but not necessarily through Play Mechanix itself. The game is available on Amazon, but that’s an older version with no online play. At that point, you can get a the same, older unit off of eBay for about $2000 cheaper.
And then there’s the news that they’re releasing a new version, Big Buck Safari, at the end of the month… Maybe we’ll just wait for that.
For those of you who CAN’T wait to own your own Big Buck Hunter (and I have to imagine that’s all of you, based on this post), info is below.
[Approx. $4000, eBay]
*Which probably means you don’t fancy yourself a Brooklyn hipster, but I could be wrong.
**Buck Hunters of NYC, represent!
