Saturday 22 August 2020

Video Review - Candy Chaser

Designed by Masao Suganuma
Published by Iello
For 2-4 players, aged 8 to adult


Candy Chaser is an incredibly quick filler game about toddlers smuggling candy. In this video review, we find out if there's anything here to sink your teeth into.




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Thursday 9 April 2020

Review - Castle of Mind

Designed by Torok-Szabo Balazs
Published by the Fontanus Scientific Methodology Research and Education Center
For 2 players, aged 8 to adult


Castle of Mind


Have you ever played "Pan in the Sink" before?

I bet you have. You may not have realised it. But you have.

You know after you've eaten dinner, and you're washing up, and there's that one pan left? You know the one. The one with the really crusty, baked on black stuff. The one that's going to take about half an hour to clean.

Sure, you could scrub it. But you don't. Instead, you fill the sink with water and drop the pan in there. If anybody asks, it needed to soak.

And soak it will.

For how long depends entirely on how good you (and the people you live with) are at playing "Pan in the Sink."

You see, the aim of the game is simple: Don't be the one that actually cleans the pan.

It's really just a waiting game. Seeing whose will breaks first.

How stubborn can you be? How determined are you to keep the pan sitting there?

If you win, you get the joy of not having to clean the pan. But if you lose...

Losing is the worst, because not only do you have to clean the pan, you also have to clean all the other stuff that has built up beside the sink while the pan was stewing. It's a chain reaction. A domino effect of cleaning.

And you may be wondering why I bring up "Pan in the Sink" at all. Well, besides the fact I'm currently the reigning champion, and in the middle of a game as I type, it also reminds me very much of Castle of Mind.

Let me explain...

Sunday 6 October 2019

Review - Caper

Designed by Unai Rubio
Published by Jumbo
For 2 to 4 players, aged 12 to adult


Caper, a card drafting game for thieves

As a father of two, I spend a lot of time playing with LEGO (and yes, I'm going to neatly sidestep the fact I'm using my children as an excuse for playing with LEGO as if I didn't play with it before I even had kids). Children have a very particular way of playing with any kind of construction toy. They like to build towers; but they aren't towers that just go up. They go up, and out, and around. Bits hang off, the sides, and extra bits get bolted wherever they fit, often in complete defiance of gravity. The result is something unique, experimental, incredibly fragile, and messy. If it stands up, it's a bit of a miracle.

Caper, which was kindly provided for review by Jumbo, reminds me very much of playing LEGO with the kids. It's a two-player card game (with tagged on rules for three and four players that significantly change how the game works) combining set collection, card drafting, resource management, gotcha mechanisms, and area control. And it's all smothered with a thick layer of incredibly obscure language-independent iconography that requires it's own supplemental rules book to explain.

It's a LEGO tower. It's a bit of everything. And the fact it still stands up is a testament to the designer.

Tuesday 16 July 2019

Review - Overbooked

Designed by Daryl Chow
Published by Jumbo
For 1 - 4 frequent fliers, aged 8 to adult

Overbooked board game box art


I'm not a frequent flyer.

I mean, to the point where I had to check it wasn't spelled "flier." Which it is, apparently. Apart from when it's not.

I got confused.

It's not that I hate flying. There's something incredible (magical isn't really the word) for that moment you hurtle down the runway, and the plane leaves the ground, and every fibre of your body is screaming, "This is against God." Flying is, perhaps, the ultimate testament to humankind's achievements.

But flying comes with its own baggage, and as someone with anxiety issues, I can't think of anything more stressful than airports: Dragging your case into the overcrowded foyer, the sinking feeling you get the moment your luggage disappears from sight on the conveyor belt, the pre-flight, nerve-killing, slightly overpriced drink at the bar, your last desperate patting of pockets to ensure you have your passport, and the waiting.

Just so much waiting.

Every step of the process is an individual agony to endure.

And so it's with some surprise that I can report someone, somewhere, somehow, has managed to take this most arduous element of any adventure and transform it into something truly enjoyable. That someone is games designer Daryl Chow. The somehow is his really rather lovely game, Overbooked. And the somewhere is my house (since I received a copy from the publishers for review and sometimes the world is awesome).

Sunday 30 June 2019

Review - Detective Stories Episode 1: The Fire in Adlerstein

Designed by Alexander Krys
Published by iDventure
For 1 or more players, aged 13 to adult

Detective Stories Episode 1 The Fire in Adlerstein


Sometimes people ask me why I love board games so much. To this question, I invariably proffer a raised eyebrow and a vaguely dismissive response along the lines of, "Everything."

And "everything" is true, of course.

But the one thing that really makes board games so special for me is their capacity to tell stories, or more accurately, their provision of the tools you need to craft your own stories.

The notion of a game as a storytelling device usually suggests a strong theme, and I absolutely love thematic games; but the simple application of theme alone isn't the same as good storytelling. Reading a few lines of text off an item card, or flipping an "event" card as you enter the next room of a dungeon, is only the window dressing. The story isn't what you read or see or do; it's what you feel. A truly great game knows this, and weaves narrative within the mechanisms, making them so intrinsically linked it's impossible to play the game without truly experiencing the world the game seeks to create.

When I think of games that blend story and gameplay seamlessly, I think of Tash-Kalar, Dungeons and Dragons, Winter TalesFireteam Zero, and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. And I think, perhaps in time, I may be able to add Detective Stories to the list.