Borderlands Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party review — A party worth joining, even if it does begin to get a bit dull after a few play sessions

Borderlands Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party is a fun, albeit extremely simple, card game for two to five people in which players rush to build their own Claptrap while attempting to sabotage the other player’s builds. While it won’t top any game of the year lists, Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party still does prove itself worthy of being added into game night rotation by allowing players of all ages to pick up and play within minutes, especially on those days when you don’t want to invest time in a more intricate game.

The entire game is housed in a small box, which contains 80 cards. Those cards break down into 5 Claptrap body types, 54 part cards, and 21 action cards. While the box is a nice addition, it is unnecessary, as you can easily just toss the cards into a small container or baggie and carry them around with you to game nights. 

To set up, each player chooses one of the five available Claptrap bodies and places it near them in clear view of all other players. The style of the Claptrap body chosen determines the skin of the Claptrap that the player must build. Claptrap designs include pirate, wizard, sheriff, gentleman, and CL4P-TP. Each skin corresponds with matching part cards, including arms, wheels, and hats. The goal is to be the first to finish building a Claptrap, accomplished by attaching two arms, a hat, and a wheel to your Claptrap skin. While simple in theory, building is complicated by action cards, which often allows players to interfere with each other’s Claptrap builds or speed up their own.

Once a body type is chosen, you discard any body cards which are not in use and then shuffle the remaining cards and place them in the middle of the playing field. This will serve as the stash pile which all players will draw from. Next to this deck will be the discard, or scrapyard, pile, which will grow as play progresses. Each player is then dealt three cards. These cards may contain parts or actions. Parts cards are distinguished by icons in the corner which indicate their type and skin, providing quick reference as to whether a specific part works with your chosen body type. 

Each turn has three phases. The first phase involves either attaching a part card to Claptrap or playing an action card. During the second phase you will discard any number of part cards in your hand which have the same skin or type, along with any action cards you no longer want. Finally, you will then draw from the stash until you again have five cards in your hand. Aside from the first round, you should always have five cards in your hand. If you have more than five by the end of your turn, then you must discard your additional cards.

Action cards are self-explanatory, you merely do whatever action stated on the card. Action cards may involve scrapping parts of another player’s Claptrap, stopping a player from playing one of their cards, diving into the scrapyard for parts, flipping over the top seven cards in the stash and choosing one to attach or add to your hand, etc. A few of these cards are labeled as bonus actions, which can be used at any time, not necessarily during your turn and are best saved to use when another player is about to complete their Claptrap. A few wild cards do exist and come in arm, wheel, or hat form, which can be used on any skin type.

Play continues until a player completes their Claptrap build. Normally this takes around 10 minutes, provided players play aggressively and aren’t afraid to sabotage each other’s builds, but I’ve had games as short as five minutes and as long as 15. This is a game meant to be played several times in a row, and does remain surprisingly fun on repeat playthroughs, though eventually you will begin to wish there was a bit more complexity. Still, for a cheap and easily transportable party game, Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party is worth adding to your game night roster, as long as you keep your expectations in check and use it as a filler between more intricate games.

Unless otherwise stated, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.

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