It seems like “Codenames” is causing quite a stir among the gaming community as of late so needless to say I had to try it out. In this spy-themed game, you’ll be trying to figure out which code names belong to the agents of your color before the other team can do the same with their own agents. While the game is designed for four or more players (who break up into two teams), you can play a purely cooperative game with simply two people. So queue up the “Get Smart” theme and ready the “cone of silence”, for only the most clever team will find their agents first.
Mana? Check. Spell cards? Check. Creature cards? Check. Life points? Check. Elements? Check. Yes, friends…today we’re going to don our wizard robes and have at it via “Spell Book”, a 2-4 player fast-paced spell casting card game. The core game comes with 100 different spell cards, though expansions exist that add even more cards to the mix. Before we take our wizard robes to the dry cleaner to prepare for our upcoming battle (as wizards are wont to do), I’d like to thank Game Designer Peter Jank from CnD Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.
Dice. City. Two little four-letter words that tell you almost everything you need to know when looking at it for the first time. “Dice City”, as you probably figured out by now, is a dice rolling game to where the dice values indicate which buildings within your city will activate (similar to “Machi Koro“). What’s different here is that the buildings are laid out on a grid and can be replaced with other buildings one may purchase from the supply. Besides gathering resources and gaining victory points, you can attack other players and lock out their buildings. I’m a sucker for city-builders so this was a must-grab for me, but did I like it enough to come back to it again? Keep reading to find out!
“Linko!” (a.k.a. “Abluxxen”) doesn’t discriminate when it comes to card values and scoring. You see, every card you collect, regardless of its value, is worth one point. Collect the most cards and you win, simple as that. Or is it? After a few minutes, you’ll realize that keeping the cards in your pile is actually a lot harder than it looks. Let’s take a quick peek at how this particular card game plays, shall we?
I don’t know what it is about train games, but I have yet to meet one that I didn’t like. “Ticket to Ride“, “Sid Meier’s Railroads” on the PC…even “Continental Express“, as simplistic as it is, isn’t bad. “The Last Spike” is a bit more economical, tasking players with cooperating to build a continuous railway from St. Louis to Sacramento. Those who accumulate the most money by acquiring the right land cards at the right time in order to get big payouts, wins the game. I’d like to extend a quick thank-you to Grant Dalgliesh from Columbia Games for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
Oh, politics…no matter where I turn, you’re there to remind me that the system currently employed by the US Government is broken. I could be browsing the net, walking down the street, or cooking dinner…it doesn’t matter. Hey, don’t hate…I’m not the one who let Donald Trump get as far as he has. Money talks, I suppose. ANYWAY, we’re not here to talk about my political views (or lack thereof)…rather, we’re here to look at “WAR for the White House”. It’s a card game that essentially plays out like “War”, but with a political twist. Before we get started, I’d like to thank John Kaiser III from GPAC, LLC. for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
While some people may not agree with me, I found “Grand Ages: Medieval” to be an extremely fun & relatively peaceful economic simulator. Sure, you occasionally have to send your armies out to deal with panthers or bandits, but most of your time is spent thinking about resource production. My love for this particular gameplay feature is what prompted me to pick up “Concordia”, a game set during the rule of the Roman Empire. Here, players will be trying to earn victory points in a number of different ways using a combination of resource management, deck building, and by colonizing land.
I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic games. There’s just something about the idea of man’s creature comforts being taken away to see how one would truly survive in such a setting. Despite what you may think though, not all post-apocalyptic games have to involve zombies. “RONE”, a game seeking your support on Kickstarter, is one fine example. In this card game for 2 or 4 players, you’ll be recruiting an army consisting of soldiers, battle machines, and super-mutants and then equipping them with some interesting technologies.
In “Dead of Winter”, you and a group of survivors are trying to survive the harsh winter in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Players will be receiving a secret objective that they’ll need to complete, on top of the colony goal chosen each game. Some secret objectives even involve being a hidden traitor, tasking owners to throw the game any way they can without being discovered. To top that off, your group of players are also responsible for more people than just yourselves…meaning you’ll have to endeavor to keep your no-named colonists fed each round while being sure to clean up the trash afterwards (literally). Only the strong will survive…maybe.
Raising shields and locking phasers never gets old, though I don’t get to do these things as often as I’d like. “Starship Battles”, as the name implies, is all about the “pew pew” without the hassle of trying to talk things out first. Each player commands their own starship with their ultimate goal being to destroy their opponents. Oh, and there’s a drafting mechanic with regard to the ship’s compartments so you’ll almost never have the same twice. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank Brian Schaeflein from Dwarf Cove Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.
I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us “Ghostbusters” fans are starved for content, so seeing this game come out really got me excited…excited enough to splurge and pick it up. The last “Ghostbusters”-anything I played was the PC game, which is totally awesome and worth picking up. It’s as close to “Ghostbusters 3” as you’re going to get (what with the actual actors voicing the characters) and is probably going to be better than the upcoming movie with the all-female cast. “Ghostbusters: The Board Game” is a cooperative game that puts players in the shoes of Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston as they attempt to bust some ghosts. Will bustin’ make you feel good, or will you cross the streams resulting in life as you know it stopping and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light?
I said a lot of great things about “Love Letter: Batman“, so I took a chance I picked up both “Cypher” and “Lost Legacy: The Starship” on a whim as they seemed to be somewhat similar. I have yet to play the latter, but “Cypher” appears to be like “Love Letter” in the sense that each character has special abilities that have a synergy with the others. However, “Cypher” takes it to a whole new level as it introduces a class system and gets rid of player elimination, among other things. Let’s have a look!
“Arboretum”, put simply, is a game about trees. Lots and lots of pretty, colorful looking trees. Your goal? Score the most points at the end of the game by creating the best looking & most luxurious arboretum. To do that, you’ll have to place cards in front of you in a grid-like fashion which will ultimately create various paths that will be scored at the game’s end. However, players have to earn the right to score a specific tree type in the first place based on what’s in their hands. Will you bark up the right tree and succeed in making something glorious, or will you make a like a tree and “get out of here”? Sorry, I watched “Back to the Future” recently…I couldn’t resist.
It’s been a while since I’ve played air hockey at the arcade…heck, it’s been a while since I’ve BEEN to an arcade. The ReplayFX event was a rare exception, but you generally won’t find as many arcades as you could twenty years ago…at least in my area. “KLASK” is similar to air hockey, but uses magnets and rolling balls instead of forced air. Before we touch on the rules and gameplay, I’d like to thank Kristian Ahjopalo for reaching out all the way from Finland and providing me with a press copy for review purposes.
“Planes” is essentially “Mancala” with cards in an airport…I’ll let you wrap your head around that for a minute. Players are tasked with moving the cubes of their color to the matching plane. Cards exist to not only allow you to take special actions, but to give you a way to score extra victory points. Are YOU crafty and agile enough to get your party to the right terminal, or will you miss your flight? Either way, you’ll be pleased to know that you won’t have to be frisked at security nor will you have to deal with baggage claim hell.
01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101111 01100001 01110010 01100100 00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00101110