BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany, offers visitors 11 rounds of game-playing with a selection of more than 100 minigames. The new recreation facility opened in early December. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
When my wife and I clash in our mutual gaming hobby — be it board games, card games or the occasional video game — we treat it as a no-holds-barred rumble.
It was no different when a rare date night away from our toddlers recently brought us to BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, where we engaged in cutthroat competition through almost a dozen minigames in a venue of more than 5,000 square feet.
The colorful interior design of BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany, is reminiscent of Nintendo's "Mario Party" game series and the Korean Netflix drama "Squid Game." (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
Minigames are smaller, shorter activities that complement a larger gaming experience. The little battles at BashParty unfold in about 10 different rooms or arenas housing equipment like ladder ball sets, dominoes and dart boards.
After check-in, a tablet guided us through a menu that included our 11 games that appeared to be randomly generated from a list of more than 100 possibilities.
Jakkolo is a shuffleboard-style game requiring players to slide disks through tight openings to score points. It is one of over 100 minigames offered at the BashParty Minispiele play arena in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
Guess the Colors is one of the games in the quiz room arena at BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany. Players have only a few seconds to memorize a color and then use a color wheel to find the closest match. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
The first event was at the front desk. From there, we were free to complete the additional challenges in the order of our choosing.
The variety of games tested skill, dexterity and mental prowess. I enjoyed Jakkolo, a shuffleboard-style game, that required precision and finesse to slide wooden discs through tight openings to score points. My wife bested me in one of the games that was a time-based challenge themed on the children’s puzzle book “Where’s Waldo?”
Falling Sticks is one of the more challenging games at BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany. Players must react quickly to grab 10 foam batons that drop in a random pattern. (Judith Heimboeckel/Special to Stars and Stripes)
We had a great time and quite a few laughs while failing miserably at the falling sticks game, which required seemingly catlike reflexes. We didn’t feel so bad when we saw other groups struggle as well.
Nothing was so physically demanding that my wife, who is well into a pregnancy, couldn’t manage, but it did seem like I was advantaged from the start with a couple of the games.
To even the playing field, the tablet’s scoring system has teams assign a point score from 1 to 11 for each game, adding an additional metagame to the experience and keeping the scoring exciting throughout.
Players use an app on a provided tablet to keep track of their games and scores at BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany. The app also provides video instructions for each game in German and English. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
BashParty opened at the beginning of December and updated its services in the past few weeks to include English translations. The website says the ideal group size is two to nine players divided into two or three teams.
After making my reservation, I received an email confirmation with a link to an online app that allows groups to divide players into teams ahead of time.
Going from room to room in the colorful play space dominated by blue, pink and yellow designs reminded us both of “Squid Game.”
BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany, will host a BashParty Games week from Feb. 24 to March 3. The event will feature games that fans of the Korean Netflix drama "Squid Game" may recognize. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
Coincidentally, BashParty is hosting an event from Feb. 24 to Mar. 3 themed around the popular Korean Netflix drama that saw contestants compete in children’s games with deadly consequences.
While a few popular games from the show will be included in the lineup, I’m sure the stakes won’t be quite as high.
The price is on the upper end of what we would normally budget for entertainment, but we felt like we got our money’s worth.
BashParty advertises the duration of the experience at around two hours, but we were quite efficient and completed our games in just under 90 minutes.
Players at BashParty Minispiele in Wiesbaden, Germany, have to navigate a series of moving colored tiles in the Active Floor game arena. (Bradley Latham/Stars and Stripes)
Although the head-to-head competition with my wife there was fun, we agreed that the gaming is probably better with a few more people. While players of all ages are welcome, we’d pass on taking our kids, ages 2 and 4, until they are a bit older.
BashParty’s convenient location close to parking garages and Wiesbaden’s main train station also makes for a great jumping-off point for an extended day or night out on the town.
latham.bradley@stripes.com @BradLat24 BashParty Minispiele
Address: Bahnhofstrasse 53, Wiesbaden, German
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 2-10 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.-midnight; Saturday, 10 a.m.-midnight; Sunday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Prices: Adults, 25 euros; students, 23 euros; kids up to 5 years old, free. Discount rates available for families and scheduled party events. Drinks, 3-5 euros.
Information: Phone: +49 61188006210; Online: bashparty.de; Email: info@bashparty.de
