Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After a 30 year hiatus from Stratego, I was SO excited to break open this classic and show my kids. Sigh, what a disappointment. The title of the game "Stratego Original" suggested that, well, this would be the original game. Unfortunately the pieces and art are not original, and what you get instead is a blurry and indistinct game board, and obtuse little round plastic pieces with nearly identical stickers (that you need to put on yourself). But the real problem with this game is that the numbers on the stickers (which are the essence of the game) are tiny, and nearly illegible against the background. In particular, the white letters on the "3", "5", "7", "8" vanish into the light blue background. This game is first and foremost about placing a large number of pieces on a game board, and dynamically adjusting to your opponent's position and play. If you can't see the value of your own pieces, it makes the game difficult to get into. The original had cute little castle shaped pieces with gold letters on red or blue background: nice an easy to read. I will now be spending my evening writing in black permanent ink the values of each piece so that I can enjoy this game. Sad.