Crossfire is a board game created by the Milton Bradley Company

Milton Bradley Company

The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...

in 1971. The object of the game is to score goals by pushing one of the two pucks into the opposing player's goal. This task is accomplished by shooting small metal ball bearings at the pucks using the attached guns.

The earliest version of the game featured a flat board, where the new board is dome-shaped. This causes the ball bearings to roll into the players' bins more easily, but can cause the pucks to indefinitely rest at the edges of the board.

Gameplay

The two pucks are made of plastic and rest on a central metal ball bearing. The bearing can spin and roll within the plastic mould allowing greater puck movement and responsiveness to hits. One of the pucks is shaped like a triangle and the other is star-shaped.

Marketing

In the early '90s, the first television commercial that ran showed two boys playing Crossfire under an orange, sunny sky, while a vocal jingle that included these lyrics was heard in the background: "Crossfire...you got to win it in the fire, fire...Crossfire" and "the action's getting hotter, really heating up, first you got to win it before you can stop." Crossfire has achieved a small cult following mostly centered around the next commercial (which was memorable) and jingle that ran later in the same decade. This commercial features two young boys "sometime in the future" -- amidst smoke, lightning strikes, and a roaring crowd -- being introduced to and playing the game, ultimately resulting in the loser being spun off a life-sized Crossfire arena into oblivion. Unlike the jingle of the first commercial, the jingle of the second one was highly stylized, featuring a funky baseline and fewer lyrics than the previous commercial's: "Crossfire... you'll get caught up in the... Crossfire" repeated, eventually ending with a dramatic yelling of the game's namesake (CROSSFIYEAAH!) and a deep moan. There are no more commercials made to advertise the board game.

External links

• Cracked.com on Crossfire
• 1990s Commercial
• Another 1990s Commercial