A Fresh Prince of Bel Air board game is coming to turn your life upside down
Summer, summer, summertime.
Hang with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in an upcoming board game based on the beloved 1990s sitcom.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Summertime is a quick card game inspired by the award winning 1991 song that was released alongside the Fresh Prince of Bel Air television show. In the tabletop game, players are invited to sit back and unwind with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the titular Fresh Prince at The Spot. However, an afternoon of relaxing and dancing is interrupted when the players are challenged to prove whether they are worthy of joining the rappers’ crew.
In the game, two to four players take turns to play cards in order to gather the most cool points possible. Every round begins with the top card of the spot deck being revealed, before players choose a combination of energy and action cards from their hand - should they have a boost card, then players will be able to use those on top of what they play to gain more lighting bolts. When choosing an energy card, players will benefit from playing one that matches the vibe of the current spot. For example, the players will want to be maxin’ if the spot dictates this.
Action cards can enable players to perform a certain action, as long as it is not cancelled by another player. Players place their action and energy cards facedown, before revealing them all at once. Certain actions will cancel others and provide the player with a benefit on top of that. For instance, a cruise card cancels groove cards and boosts the player’s chances of acquiring the current spot card. Once all actions have been played or cancelled, players compare how many lightning bolts they have collected via their energy and action cards, with the player holding the most lighting bolts taking the spot card.
After eight rounds, players then total their cool points by checking the amounts on the spot cards they’ve collected, as well as adding any cool points gained by collecting the right combination of spot card types. Players can also get cool points by gathering spot cards with vibes that match those of their player character, whose identities will be revealed at the end of the game. Whichever player holds the most cool points is the winner.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Summertime was co-created by Omari Akil and Hamu Dennis, who have both previously worked together on Rap Godz and Hoop Godz, with Akil designing the two games and Dennis creating the artwork for them.
Wizkids is the publishing company responsible for releasing DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Summertime, a studio that’s otherwise most well known for launching tabletop titles such as the horror board game Fury of Dracula: Fourth Edition and the miniatures series Heroclix.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is a television series which aired between 1990 and 1996 starring Will Smith, James Avery and Janet Hubert-Whitten. In the show, Will Smith played a fictional version of himself as a teenager who is forced to live in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bel Air in Los Angeles, after being sent from West Philadelphia by his mother.
The show, which ran for over six seasons, is best known for its catchy theme song, alongside the various other songs that were inspired by it. A reunion episode which reunited the original cast was released in November last year, with a reboot based on a fan film currently in development.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince: Summertime is set to be released sometime “soon” at a retail price of $19.99 (£14).