Sanity Test for Retro Manic!

Well-organized and clearly labeled.

Play time and ages should be added.

A nice little story with a bit of humor. One quibble: "they’ll do whatever it takes to stop these gnarly time travelers." The residents don't like the time travelers, so I don't think they would call them gnarly (good.)

Rather than just an objective, the intro should give a quick overview of what gameplay is like. Will we roll dice, draw cards, etc?

Fine but not exceptional.

Card pictures appear later in the rules, which is fine. A picture of the portal closure mat could be added.

Component Setup: You could specify before the "first" play, though it would be inferred.¶ Game Setup: "write the questions and answers down on a small piece of paper": Do you write both question and their answers on one piece of paper or questions and answers separately or front and back?¶ "Determine the order of play" tied players presumably reroll.

Not needed.

Starting the Game: Nitpick, "the die roll determines the amount of spaces," "amount" should be "number."¶ The wording of the description of initial movement is overly complicated. The part about rolling a portal presumably applies not only to initially exiting the portal, so it should simply say if you roll a portal, you do not move, but the portal moves one square instead.¶ This paragraph: "At some spaces along the board, there will be “arrow” images..." is misplaced. It should come after the full description of movement. Also, it is not entirely clear what the arrows mean. Apparently you can choose either direction, but what does "help direct the player along the board" mean? (From looking at the board I see there are single arrows that simply point out that you must go a certain way at an intersection and double arrows that give the player a choice. This distinction should be more clear in the rules.)¶ Trivia Card: Nitpick: "the player who’s Player Pawn" should be "whose." What happens if you draw a color that nobody is playing? Do those need to be separated out before play?¶ Raid Spaces: Do you actually move into the building or just stay on the road?

The pictures that are there are good. You could add a picture of the single arrow, along with a description. The picture of the Jail should either be next to the Law Enforcement card or labeled.

"If all Point and Portal Cards in the deck are drawn, the game ends." Do you finish resolving the last card drawn?¶ "The player with highest number value wins." This is a weird way to say this, to the point that I second guessed what was meant. The second paragraph really should go first. You could combine it all into: "If the portal closed, any players not within it are eliminated. Each remaining player adds up the total of their Merchandise cards. The player with the highest total wins."¶ Good tie-breakers.

A couple of points are clarified by looking at the components. Otherwise it is clear.

Only a couple of minor errors.

Basic layout is not unappealing.

The characters in the front may be too small to really see properly, and they obscure the game's name perhaps too much. You might try a version with only one or two of the characters and blocking the text less. The tagline is fine, but you could add something about gameplay, e.g. "in this [something] game...."

I'm honestly not a fan of the art style, but it is laid out well.

Good.

The choice of shots and posing is great, but the overall quality has minor issues. There is glare on the box and board. Some of the pictures of cards have square corners and are apparently just the image files, so they look fake. Either actual photos of the cards or using a program like BoxShot could give better results.

The thematic introduction is good, but there is nothing about the gameplay. A person looking at your game wants to know what kind of game it is, what happens on a player's turn, etc.

None.