Ever fight a big floating nose or a gazebo? Neither had I…that is, until I played Munchkin for the first time a few nights ago. I first saw the game when browsing the “TableTop” videos, which are hosted by Wil Wheaton on Geek and Sundry. I enjoyed watching Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Steve Jackson (Munchkin’s creator), and Mister Wesley Crusher himself backstab their way to victory. As someone who is a fan of lighter dungeon games, it didn’t take much arm twisting for me to buckle down and order it.
Board Games
Tycoon games are probably my favorite games to play, mainly because I have a crippling need to control everything. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve obsessed over my theme park in Roller Coaster Tycoon. I would sit there for hours changing colors, making the prices just right…it got so bad that even the park guests began waving at me as if to remind me to take a shower. Hotel Samoa reminds me a little of Hotel Giant, another tycoon game, but dumbed down and simplified to make for a quick fix on family game night.
I’ve never owned a game where I got to activate an actual laser to kill enemy pieces. You can imagine my surprise when I heard that such a game existed. I first discovered it a few years ago on ThinkGeek and later ordered it on Amazon…I wasn’t disappointed.
I was fortunate to grow up playing games like Monopoly, Scrabble, and Battleship…just to name a few. I’ve recently realized however that a lot of those classic board games would look relatively new to an eleven year old. I looked in stores to try and find a newer print of the board game Clue, but the version I tended to find had revamped the weapons and characters…it was almost as if I had come across a Clue: 90210 variant. I’m not going to knock it since I haven’t played it, but I instead chose to order the classic edition from Amazon and keep with the characters and weapons that I remember.
I was on the fence when I discovered this game for the first time on Board Game Geek. I enjoy a good city builder game but the reviews were fairly mixed. I also had to consider that the name, “Alan R. Moon” was on the box…the same person who designed Airlines Europe and Ticket to Ride, both of which I own and love playing. I then discovered the game on sale on Tanga* for $12.99 and I figured I’d take the plunge and see what it was all about. It’s…interesting to say the least.
I’ve played a lot of video games that involved zombies (Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, etc.), but I never actually played a zombie themed board game until a few nights ago. This was actually one of the first board games that I ever purchased online, which led me to a lot of others that I didn’t even know existed. Chalk one up for Amazon’s “Customers who bought this also bought” section…it’s how I found out about new games (in regards to what I’ve heard of) before I discovered Board Game Geek.
It’s always been a dream of mine to at least see the day where mankind reaches beyond their own backyard and is able to settle down into the great unknown. Having been born in 1981, I can only imagine how the hopefuls and dreamers felt when they watched Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon surface in 1969. As such, I’ve always been interested in watching or playing anything science fiction themed…and I was equally excited when “Alien Frontiers” arrived unexpectedly in the mail a few days ago.
Spaceships? Check. Lots of alien races with individual powers? Check. Deal making? Check. Technology to research? Check. Sci-fi themed battles? Check. Worlds to colonize and conquer? Check. Attractive visuals? Check. Fun? Keep reading to find out.
I mentioned in a recent review that Carcassonne was the first tile laying game that I’ve ever played. It just so happens that I’m now writing about a game that was my first deck building game. A deck building game, to put it simply, is a game where players start off with a small amount of cards and use said cards to acquire more from a pool of purchasable cards. Each player’s deck is constantly growing in size throughout the game until a specific condition forces the game’s end.
Carcassonne, named after a well fortified town in southern France, is a tile laying game that is a lot more strategic than I initially gave it credit for. I have to admit that this was the first tile laying game that I ever played…in fact…this game is what inspired me to take a look into the board game, Acquire.
It’s been a while since I’ve played a dungeon crawler themed board game. The last one I remember playing was HeroQuest, featuring that menacing barbarian on the front of the box that looked like he had skipped his regular morning dose of Zoloft. I don’t recall ever playing that game correctly either…I just enjoyed making the plastic figures fight each other. I’ve always wanted to get into D&D and other RPGs, but as I got older, I found myself losing patience for things that were overly complex in nature. If I had to spend days understanding the three hundred page rulebook, I tended to just file the game away to be addressed later…much, much later.
It’s Armageddon for real this time, and Bruce Willis is nowhere to be found…what can be done? Well, for starters, you can take control of a major spaceship corporation and charge an arm and a leg to ferry customers off of Earth and onto other habitable planets. I know, sounds cruel…but the Ferengi’s 22nd Rule of Acquisition states that “A wise man can hear profit in the wind” and Star Trek hasn’t let you down yet. It’s a dog eat dog galaxy, and you’re out to be the biggest asteroid in the belt.
Most, if not all of you, have heard of this little game called Monopoly. Okay, maybe it’s not so little. Anyway, the main complaint that I’ve heard against the original Monopoly board game is that it took too long to play, assuming that you played to be the last man (or woman) standing. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of Monopoly, mainly because it was the first board game I remember playing as a kid. I liked the idea of owning property and charging other players rent…but heck, I really hated that income tax space…I land on it EVERY SINGLE TIME. Even when I am one space away from it, the dice somehow break the laws of physics and I end up paying the two hundred bucks that I just earned for passing “Go.”
Pop Quiz: What is the longest river in the world? Whether you pulled the information out of cobwebs from within the deep recesses of your brain or looked at the title of this article, you probably guessed it to be the Nile River. In ancient Egyptian agriculture, the Nile was essential in providing water to grow food as rainfall was scarce throughout the region. The lands near the Nile on either side were known as the floodplain, where the soil was the richest for farming.
Before “Say Anything!” was brought into our house, “Apples to Apples” was probably the most requested game to play on family game night. That is extremely high praise seeing as how we have over fifty board games in our living room closet. I’ve often referred to this game in previous articles, but today we’re actually going to address it.
Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re hosting a party and that the guests of honor should be arriving any minute. You’ve got your Star Trek DVDs locked and loaded, you’ve got your favorite Hanson album blasting away, and the eighteen topping pizzas that someone is sure to be allergic to are on their way. You’re confident that Captain Kirk can keep your guests actively engaged throughout the evening, but you’re thinking of bringing out a party game just to be sure.