‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ or ‘I am too little’. These kinds of hits all pass by on Thursday evening during the very first Dutch Hitster Championship in Breda. The chaotic game won a place in the game cabinets of many Dutch people in the past year. Party café De Dokter in Breda therefore thought it was high time for a real championship.
The NK Hitster is an initiative of Bartender Bas Wouts, among others. “You normally play Hitster at home on the couch,” he said at radio program Keeigoeiemorgen. “So I thought: I think it will only be nicer if we do that in a pub, with a large group of cozy people and a snack and a drink.”
At Hitster, participants must place known and less well -known hits in chronological order on a timeline. You will get extra points if you know the title and artist or if you know how to hijack a ticket from another team. And that is not nearly as easy as it seems.
Almost forty participants participate during the first edition of this NK. According to Bas, it is ‘the real diehards’, and rightly so, it is a championship after all. The teams come from all over the country, but most from Brabant. “I can’t really say it, but of course those are the nicest participants,” says Bas.
One of those participants is Ilse (24) from Zevenbergen. You would expect that she has already practiced considerably and that she has all the extensions of the game at home. Nothing could be further from the truth, because Ilse has never played Hitster. “I just thought it would be nice to do something with my colleagues so we are participating, but I have never played it,” she laughs.
“I don’t know how good the music knowledge of my colleagues is, but they are party animals.”
She knows the design of the game and she is one all -round Music lover. “It goes from Bizzey to Michael Jackson. I also love Acda and De Munnik, especially their older songs,” she says. “I don’t know how good the music knowledge of my colleagues is, but they are party animals, so they probably know something from going out. And it is mainly about fun.”
In addition to eternal fame, the winners get a beautiful cup, great prizes and of course a drink to celebrate the victory. “The intention is that this will be an annual tradition,” says the bartender. And Bas himself? He would rather keep organizing. “Don’t call me, I’m really bad at Hitster,” he laughs.
This is how Hitster works
Hitster is a music game with cards. On the top is a QR code that you can scan with a special app. On the other side the title, artist and the year in which the number appeared. After scanning the QR code, a song is playing.
The one who’s turn must guess where the card belongs on his or her timeline. In this way, every player creates an increasingly extensive timeline from the oldest song to the latest song.
As a bonus you can win extra sheets if you know the title and artist. With these tokens you can steal cards with opponents if you think they have placed their ticket in the wrong place in their timeline. The person who first has a timeline of ten tickets wins.