The Rival Networks, or The Television Network Parody Duel

I’m a sucker for board games with unique themes. Considering that, and all of the laughs and smiles from humorous cards, Gil Hova’s 2016 television network game, The Networks, was a hit with me.

The Rival Networks is a new 2-player standalone version of The Networks from Gil Hova and his publishing company Formal Ferret Games, which has been streamlined to play in 30-45 minutes, in comparison to its predecessor which typically plays in 60-90 minutes. Having played both versions since Gil was gracious enough to send me a copy of The Rival Networks, I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts and impressions.

Here’s a rundown of how The Rival Networks plays as described by the designer/publisher:

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The Rival Networks is a standalone two-player version of The Networks. Much of the original's gameplay is preserved, but streamlined so that it plays in 30-45 minutes. You and your opponent each have a display of 3 Timeslots, and at the start of the game, they show your starting 3 (terrible) Shows. There is also a Goal Card showing for the current Season, with 3 Goals available to hit (like winning a particular Timeslot, or having more Stars on your Shows than your opponent).

On your turn, you will pick one new Show from a display of 3, and use it to replace one of your existing Shows, which moves to your Reruns. You'll score Ratings Points for the new Show, scoring higher ratings if you put the show in its correct timeslot.

Next, you select one Star and one Ad from their corresponding display. Stars and Ads are displayed as pairs, so when you take one, you must take its matching pair. These go into your Green Room.

Then, you may attach as many Stars as you want onto a single Show (usually the Show you got this turn, but not always), as long as the Star has an icon matching the Genre of the Show. Stars add to your Show's Ratings.

You'll track Ratings for each of the three time slots independently. There are various points on each Ratings track with Viewer icons (usually between 3-5 Ratings Points). Every time you pass one of these Viewer icons, you'll score a Viewer by placing a chip into your secret bank.

Ads are worth money depending on various situations - usually whether you're leading at a given time slot. You'll pay the Ads in order to buy Network Cards (which are now marked with costs). Network Cards are one-time use power cards, similar to the Network Cards in the original game.

If you ever get at least 3 Shows of the same Genre between your Lineup and your Reruns, you'll score a Genre Bonus. Genre Bonuses are different for each Genre, but usually get you Stars or Ratings Points.

The deck of Shows has one Genre of each Show per Season. Once these are all out, you'll see an "End of Season" card. A player may take this card on their turn to trigger the end of the Season when their turn is over. They won't get a Show, but they'll still get a full turn otherwise (taking a Star and an Ad, placing Stars on Shows, and buying Network Cards with Ads).

At the end of a Season, the player leading in more time slots scores 1 Viewer for each time slot they're leading in; the other player draws 1 random Star. Then you'll look at the current season's Goals. The winner of each Goal gets Viewers or Stars depending on the goal.

The game ends after 3 Seasons. The player with more cards in their Green Room scores 1 Viewer. Then, the player with the most Viewers wins.

If you’re already familiar with The Networks, you’ll feel right at home with The Rival Networks as it also features Travis Kinchy’s delightfully fitting, comical artwork combined with Heiko Günther’s clean graphic design.

While I’ve never played The Networks with only 2 players, I definitely think the overall gaming experience feels very similar between both games. However, there are some streamlined aspects of The Rival Networks I thought worked well, and perhaps enjoyed even more than the original game.

In The Networks, you choose one of six actions (i.e. develop a show, sign a star, land an ad, take a network card) per turn, whereas in The Rival Networks, you take three actions per turn, which not only allows the game to progress faster, but it also makes each turn feel more meaningful.

While The Rival Networks is a lighter game, it manages to offer a decent amount of interesting decisions throughout the game. First off, I think it’s really cool that you compete in each of the three different time slots. This is reminiscent of games like Twilight Struggle or Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes where you constantly have to evaluate how much effort to exert in each area.

From there, deciding which show to develop can be a tough choice since it’s not necessarily just about choosing the show with the most ratings. You have to also consider where you want to slot the show, and if it’s worth canceling the show that’s currently in that particular slot since it’ll reset your ratings score in that particular time slot.

When deciding which show to develop, you’ll also be considering the set-collection genre bonuses, similar to The Networks, for having 3+ shows with a similar genre. The bonuses for each genre are pretty juicy, but there may be some you’re going for over others.

There are also different Awards cards that have multiple objectives that score at the end of each season. There are six different Awards cards for each season, but each game you only play with one card per season. This adds replay value to the game and also incentivizes players to vary their strategies from round to round, game to game.

In The Rival Networks, there’s also no actual money in the game and I dig it. Instead you spend/discard ad cards you’ve acquired to purchase Network cards. The value of the ad cards vary depending on how you’re doing in a particular time slot. For example, the Reflux Orange Juice ad is worth $4 million if you have the most ratings points in the 10 PM time slot, but if you don't, it's only worth $1 million.

At the end of the day, The Rival Networks is all about getting those viewers (victory points). I like that there are lots of different ways (i.e. Network cards, genre bonuses, Awards cards) to gain viewers and it's not solely based on the ratings of your shows. I also like that the viewers you earn during the game are secretly stowed away in your own little house, so it’s hard to tell who’s winning while you’re playing the game, and it has the added bonus of suspenseful scoring at the end of the game.

My only gripe with The Rival Networks is that each game you play with all of the same show cards, and I can see this getting stale over time, especially if you mostly play with the same opponent. Considering there are few expansions for The Networks, I’m hoping we’ll also see some expansion decks for The Rival Networks so we can keep our laughs and smiles fresh.

Whether or not you’ve played either version of The Networks, The Rival Networks is worth checking out if you’re interested in a fun, quick-playing, unique-themed 2-player game that feels competitive, yet doesn’t take itself too seriously. Plus, even if you don’t play the game, reading through the cards is likely to make you smile and chuckle if you ever need a laugh on a rough day.