Lost Cities board game review

Full disclosure: I only managed to play this game once at the UK Games Expo so this review is just my first thoughts on Lost Cities.

You are explorers. Questing into the unknown for great treasures that you can (slightly problematically) take home to earn great fame, fortune and prove to your family that you aren’t a disappointment just because you didn’t become a doctor.

Lost Cities is a two player board game where you aim to collect the most points by the end of the game. To do this you must place down different coloured numbered cards (from 2-10) in rows of ascending order with the total of the cards you placed being your score. However, each new row of different coloured cards gives you -20 points so you need to think carefully before committing to a new row. Some special cards can actually multiply all the cards in one column by 2 to give you the extra boost you need to win.

If you are asking yourself how the rules, I described above, even vaguely resembled going on an expedition… I’ve put some thought into it… And I still have no clue. This games theme is so lightly smeared on that, take away the mediocre artwork, you’ve got a game about putting different coloured numbers into rows which sounds about as dry and unexciting as my Grandmother’s chocolate cake.

However, to give this game credit where credit is due, the rules are very simple. Even at a convention
when I had spent the last couple of hours running after my little cousin (who I think secretly drinks 542 cups of highly caffeinated coffee in the morning before anyone else gets up) I could still push through a tiredness induced haze to easily understand the rules.

Unfortunately, that is where my praise for this game comes to an end. For this game commits a cardinal sin so massive that I think it may be the most sacrilegious board
game I have ever seen. What heinous crime is this game guilty of? What foul act has it performed which shocked me so much?

It made me do maths.

The end scoring for this game feels actually like I am back in school and slaving over some complicated maths equation. I think you could probably get a good chunk of the next game in before you have finished adding and subtracting all the numbers you need to just find out who won.


So, although the rules may be simple, there are many more, much better two player games out there (for example the excellent Patchwork) that don’t require you to crack out your calculators.

Rummikub family game review

Rummikub is a game where you make lines of different coloured number tiles and then group them into pleasing patterns. No, you haven’t been transported back to preschool but you are playing the brain burning family game Rummikub.

In Rummikub you must get rid of all the tiles in your hand, which have a number from 1 to 13 and a colour (either red, green, blue or black). To get rid of tiles you must place them into the communal centre of the table by putting down sets of groups or runs, that are at least three tiles big. A group is a set of tiles that all have the same number on them all with different colours but a run is where you have a group of consecutive numbers all in the same colour. If you can’t do anything on your turn you have to take another tile from the bag and your turn is over (a punishment so bad it almost rivals standing on Lego). However not all hope is lost as, if you can add tiles on to the pre-existing sets in the centre of the table or shuffle all the tiles about to make new sets of groups or runs that you can add to, you can escape this terrible punishment.

This game does one thing very well, the feeling you get when figure out how to shuffle all the tiles, into new groups or runs ,to let you add more tiles from your hand, is amazing. This game gives you the power to feel very clever and at the end of the game when more people have put down more tiles, you have even more ways to organize them to your liking. This however can sometimes slow the game down to a standstill as people are overwhelmed by all the different methods of manipulating the tiles that they could take.

However, this is slightly overshadowed by the fact that if you want to even start shuffling tiles around (which is the fun part) to start with, you must collect tiles at the start by randomly pulling out of a bag to make sets and runs that add up to 30 points or more. This means almost every game one person is unlucky enough to not get the tiles that lets them get to the 30-point threshold and so have to sit most of the game out just drawing tiles.

Also, while Rummikub excels in the mid-game it can really loses its pace towards the end. The game leads up to a slightly anti-climatic end where everyone is trying to get rid of those last few, hard to place, tiles in their hand and so everything stagnates. Like me in a running race, it starts of strong but by the second lap it can barely crawl across the finishing line.

But Rummikub’s saving grace is how simple and accessible it is to teach and play. I have many fond memories of playing this with my Grandma who would normally not touch board games with a barge pole. It is a game that practically anyone and everyone can learn to play which is a major plus in my books.

Overall, while not the best game in the world, Rummikub shines through with its easy to play nature and gives you the tools to craft incredible gaming moments. If this review appealed to you then I would definitely give Rummikub a go and see where it takes you.

The Final Empire book review

The Final Empire is the first book in the widely acclaimed fantasy Mistborn series. This novel set in a dystopic world where the dark lord has already won and now rebels must fight back with unique magic powers, a small degree of political skulduggery but most importantly a selection of names that would get them teased so much in primary school that the parents might want to consider home schooling.

The first thing that drew me into this book was how intriguing the setting was. With a unique magic system and a captivating world, once the book starts revealing its secrets… I was hooked. The most exciting thing was how wizards in this world can ingest metals to access magical powers that they can use to, for example, sooth other people’s emotions or push psychically against metal objects to launch themselves into the air. While this magic system sounds like a very dodgy, pop-up ad that advertises huge body-building gains by only consuming 20 grams of iron a day, it is actually one of the things that separates this book out from the crowd of thousands of generic fantasy titles.

The only minor complaint I had with this book is that I didn’t feel like the characters were described in enough detail to let me fully picture them in my head. This led to the unfortunate situation where I imagined that the tyrannical dictator of the world looked like Lord Buckethead (see pictures of Lord Buckethead here). By the time the book got around to telling me what the Lord Ruler actually looked like, I couldn’t get the image out of my head so now the Dark Lord forever more has a large black bucket over his face.

But that small problem didn’t stop me getting hooked and losing my entire social life while I romped relentlessly through this book (not that I have a social life to lose anyway, what can I say my hobbies are board games, reading books and writing blog posts…). This book gets you addicted with almost perfect pacing and makes you care about the characters so you never want to put the book down.

Overall the Final Empire is an interesting fantasy book with a fascinating concept and world building that drags you in time and again. If you are a fantasy fan then it is almost certainly worth a gander but even if you aren’t, I would still recommend at least giving it a go.

P.S. Don’t trust any adverts saying that you can get ripped if you just click on the link below and start taking 20 grams of very expensive iron flakes which you can buy exclusively from their company. Your wallet and more importantly you stomach will thank you.

Codenames pictures Board game Review

In Codenames pictures you all are secret super spies who probably have twenty-seven cool looking guns back at home and have almost certainly terminated at least seven heads of state. Now out on a field mission, you must locate your other sneaky companions with the help of a Spymaster before your rival organisation locates theirs.

Codenames pictures is a game where you play in two teams of two or more people: one person in each team is the Spymaster and the rest normal field operatives. In the middle of the table you place a 4 by 5 grid of surreal pictures (like a dinosaur riding a penny farthing) which each represent the location of different coloured spies (red for one team blue for the other) or regular citizens - only the Spymasters know which ones are which. Each turn the Spymaster must give a one-word clue to guide their field operative teammates to the pictures representing the location of the spy. They also give a number to indicate how many spy locations this clue will reveal. The Spymaster’s teammates then guess which picture represents the location of a spy from their team. If they guess correctly, they place down one of their spy tokens on that picture and can have another guess, but if they guess wrong, they have to stop and their turn is over. Whichever team can find the location of all their spies first wins.

Codenames pictures isn’t actually the first ‘Codenames’ game, with the original title in the series having just words on the cards instead of pictures. I, for one, much prefer the pictures version as instead of 4 by 5 grid of cards just having words on them and looking like you’ve wandered into a seriously geeky literature festival, you get to enjoy the black and white surreal art that makes you wonder if someone has slipped something in your drink. The addition of pictures both makes everything look much cooler and is more open to interpretation than the words, making it a great improvement on the base game.

However, having a major improvement still doesn’t mean this game is going to be amazing. This game often suffers from massive pauses where the Spymasters legitimately struggle to think of a clue that could even point to one or two of the spies hiding places. Even I would prefer the mind-numbing boringness of German lessons (let me tell you they were painful) to the extensive silent periods in this game as you wait for a Spymaster to think of a clue.

But even with these big pauses the rest of my family still enjoy the problem-solving element of the game and have fun trying to puzzle out what clues to give or what picture cards could relate to the word ‘circus’. Personally though, I find these interesting decisions too spread out for my own liking.

Finally, this game makes pulling back from a loss very tricky (even more tricky than understanding German grammar, which is why to a native speaker of German I probably sound like Yoda). If your team isn’t doing well at the start of the game, probably due to having cards that have no natural link between them, this isn’t going to change meaning your team will stay behind.

Overall, if you liked the first game (Codenames) then you probably like this game but it is practically the same and therefore probably not worth picking up.  However, if you are a newcomer to the series, I would probably give this a pass. This game ends up leaving you not feeling less like the swish and cool James Bond and more like Dave who works alone in a darkened room as a part time secretary for a small branch of the MI5.

Deep Sea Adventure Board game Review

Warning: dark humour involved

What’s better than a diver? ... A dead diver! But what’s even better than one dead diver? … Lots of dead divers. In the board game Deep Sea Adventure, you can drown repeatedly with your friends before diving again to collect the treasure dropped by your previous diver’s corpse. What could be more fun?

In this blackly comedic board game, each turn you roll two dice and, starting from a submarine, advance along a communal track of treasure tokens. When you have moved you can choose to take the treasure token you land on for points but this will mean that you will move slower and you will use up one oxygen from the shared tank at the start of your turn for every treasure you have. At any point you can choose to go back up to the surface but beware, if you leave this too late and don’t get back to the submarine before the oxygen runs out then your diver will drown. However not all hope is lost, as during the next of three rounds, you can go down to collect your previous diver’s bounty that is placed end of the track of tokens (and you know maybe even say hi to their dead corpse while you’re down there).

With the right group of people who like this kind of dark comedy (read dead inside) Deep Sea Adventure can be a total blast with everyone laughing when you all drown (just like in water polo lessons in PE, but with more laughing and less paperwork). However obviously not everyone will find this hilarious (read still has a soul) and so you just have to be a bit careful before playing or
buying it for someone.

One of this game’s biggest strength is its size, as you can easily tuck the box in with whatever else you might have in a backpack or bag so if you ever have a spare moment you can easily crack it out and play a game. You could even take it on your diving trip to Hawaii and play it with all your friends (actually as I say it that it sounds like a lot less of a good idea).

But hidden under all of the game’s clean aesthetics and surprisingly tiny box is an underlying problem. That is that the most optimal strategy to play this game, one that will let you win most of the time, is actually the least fun way to play. The game shines when you are taking big risks and then drowning with all your friends before and laughing as you all get zero points. However, if you want to even get some points you are probably going to have to play it really safe and turn back almost immediately for fear of running out of oxygen, which is no fun. I find myself often taking risks that I know will probably lose me the game but are going to be more fun than just poking my toe into the water each round.

Overall I would say that if you are the kind of person that likes dark humour and repeatedly dying with your friends then this the game for you and otherwise congratulations for still having a soul.

Ticket to Ride Board game Review

Ticket to Ride is a fast-paced train board game that sees you laying down trains and inadvertently getting in everyone’s way as you race to complete train routes. Although it can’t help sort out the crippling public transport issue in Britain (a problem that has been said to make several experts quit their jobs and move to Hawaii) it can be a chuffing good time — you see what I did there, yeah, I’m not proud.

The aim of Ticket to Ride is to earn the most points by completing routes between the cities shown on your secret ticket cards. You build your routes by putting down trains on the different coloured tracks. On your turn you can either claim two colour cards from a communal selection or by picking hidden cards from the deck. The objective is to collect the same number of colour cards as a section of track on the board, at which point you can claim this track and put down your trains. 

Ticket to Ride is a classic and for a reason. It has supplied my family countless hours of fun because it manages to do so much with so little rules. Every decision you make is   very simple as you aren’t overwhelmed with options, but can also be excruciating as you have to choose between taking more useful cards and claiming routes early. Having low amounts of rules also means that anyone can play it, making it a perfect introduction for anyone into the hobby of board gaming.

Near to the end this game  it can get very animated (sometimes making people more excited than train spotters when they see a vaguely old locomotive) as everyone races to connect the cities on their secret ticket cards. The feeling you get when you realise someone else is trying to  put trains down on the same section of track as you and then racing to try to beat them to it have created some of the most tense moments of my life (almost paralleled by waiting for the hosts to announce the winner on the Great British Bake Off).

The only small problem with Ticket to Ride is sometimes you can lose to bad luck as some people get easier combinations of cities to link together (sometimes being able to do it all in one simple train line) while other people have to criss-cross across the board in a spaghetti-like mess of trains.

Overall I would say that Ticket to Ride is a bona fide classic and is one of the first games I would suggest to anyone, whether they are looking for a way into the world of board games or are just interested in a great game. Or maybe just want to see how hard setting up a transport network can be (harder than it looks apparently).

NMBR 9 board game review

NMBR 9 is a board game where you must place down multicoloured numbers on top of each other to score points in what sounds like the board game equivalent of a maths teacher’s fever dream.

In every turn of NMBR 9 a card is flipped from a shared deck showing a number from 1 to 9 and then everyone must take a corresponding number tile and choose where to place it down to create your own pile in front of you. However, to get points you must stack numbers on top of other ones but this is harder than it sounds, as you can’t place a number over an empty space in your stack and it must cover at least two other number tiles. At the end of the game each number on level 2 is worth its value, every number on level 3 is worth twice its value and so on.

 

The first thing you notice about this game is its sleek looks, like an Apple computer was forcibly shoved into a box before being painted into a selection of pleasing colours. This is only increased when you have finished the game and you get to see your

hard work pay off in something that looks like a creation of a child that has acquired the power to vomit perfectly geometrically in all the colours of the rainbow.

As you get into the game, it provides just the amount of brain burning action to keep it interesting while not becoming like chess where you have to plan out the entire game before you’ve even laid out the pieces. This is because only one card is revealed at a time, so you only need to think about this one tile and where you should put it and not have to worry about the rest of the game.

However, a small gripe I have with NMBR 9 is the scoring system which requires you to all get out your calculators and have to struggle (slightly embarrassingly) to remember what 3x7 was. This is a shame as once you’ve played one round you immediately want to play again and the wait for that last player to finish rechecking all their point values is about as bad as a queue for the loo when you

really, really need a pee.

But this is practically countered by the sense of mastery you get after a few games. You will soon find out all the hidden strategies lurking just beneath the surface like a professional athlete who is at the top of their game and improving all the time. Soon you will be turning 20-point games in to 80-point masterpieces like making record breaking jump or javelin throw (it almost makes me forget my complete lack of skill in any sport whatsoever).

Overall, I would say NMBR 9 is a great and satisfying game: it is easy to teach, fun to play and rewarding to learn. So if you have the spare cash lying around, this is definitely a worthy and great addition to anyone’s collection.

Chameleon Board game Review

In this party boardgame, you must use your general trivia knowledge to either hide in plain site as the chameleon or root out the colour changing lizard by cleverly choosing words in a funny battle of wits between the whole table and the singular phony hiding in your midst.

In each round of chameleon everyone is dealt a card which tells you either that you are the chameleon or the secret phrase for that round. Then everyone says a word describing the phrase (so if the phrase was buffalo you might say hairy) with the chameleon trying to pretend they know what is going on. After that has happened, everyone votes on who they think didn’t know the phrase and was therefore the chameleon, with the camouflaged lizard winning if the blame is pinned on someone else.  However, even if the chameleon is caught, they can still win by guessing
what the secret phrase was, using the what everyone else said as clues. This means you must choose words that are specific enough to show you aren’t the chameleon but vague enough to stop the chameleon from using it to figure out the phrase.

First off, this game is extremely fun. The feeling you get when you manage to think of a great word to describe the phrase is phenomenal, and it gets even better if someone else understands what you meant. Add to that the chaotic fun that you get after the round has ended as the chameleon celebrates slipping through everyone else’s fingers or as you laugh at your friend who thought the best word to describe cake is ‘camel’.

A point of note is that the Chameleon is a British game, so the references on some of the topic cards (which are used to determine the secret phrase) may be lost on people from other countries. However, because there are so many topic cards, you can just flick through them until you find one to your liking, making this problem easily avoidable.

Is Chameleon a good family game?

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t suggest this game to a family with young children, as a big part of the fun derived from this game is coming up with creative and clever word choices to subtly hint at the secret phrase, which is actually quite tricky. If full grown adults struggle at this part of the game, then younger children will find this nearly impossible, especially when there are pop culture references involved.

Is Chameleon a good party game then?

This question however, is a resounding yes. The quick nature of each round lets players drop in and out quickly without much disruption as people go of to get drinks or want to join in. Also, its fairly simple rules make it quick to teach, so you can get into the fun straight away. The raucous fun of the conversations after the round ends fits in perfectly with the party setting as well.

Overall, while the Chameleon boardgame may not be great for families, it is definitely worth picking up if you are in need of a game to play during your next social gathering for a great time.

Six of Crows book review

Six of Crows is a teen fiction novel, following six criminals trying to infiltrate the secure fortress of the Ice Palace, in a mash up between a fantasy and heist book that delivers. Unfortunately, I must warn all you bird lovers out there, this book does not include any crows (I know, I was disappointed too).

My favourite part of this book is the characters, they are by far some of the most interesting that you will find (apart from the Minions in Despicable Me, who are truly masterpieces of our era). I think my favourite character would have to be the protagonist Kaz Brekker, who is this ruthless gang leader that trusts no one. But as you start to learn more about him (through flashbacks to before the heist) you start to uncover the human behind the mask.

This book lingered on in my mind for a long time after reading it because of the deep and complex
themes it explores. For example, it talks about what crime does to people and racism in a very refreshing way that doesn’t seem forced at all. With all this extra baggage going along with the characters, it makes them extremely memorable and gives the story lots of layers to unpick. Though, as I said earlier, it doesn’t discuss the theme of ornithology in the book which is very disappointing (for those that don’t know, ornithology is the study of birds, don’t ask me how I know that).

However, my one small grumble with Six of Crows is that the very start and very end of the novel to the rest of the book are like what the prequels are to the main Star Wars story (I still have flashbacks to Jar Jar Binks *shudders*). The start can leave you confused about who people in the book are, what a ‘Grisha’ is and what is even is going on (I think I read some sections of the chapter at least three times before giving up and just going with the flow). The ending also feels very contrived, predictable and anti-climactic compared to the wild uncharted story that had come before it.

But the start and the end are by no means representative of the rest of the book. The plot switches between flashbacks and the heist and drip feeds you information that leaves you craving for more (like me after I have eaten a chocolate bar, Toblerone are my favourite). It feels almost perfectly planned, with things that you thought weren’t important coming back to be pivotal plot points almost like a detective story.

Like I have said before (and I will say it again to anyone I can find), I really really love Six of Crows. I think it is one of the best heist let alone fantasy novels I have ever read, and I will sing its praises from the rooftops. So, if you haven’t gone and bought this book after all of this, then what are you doing?
P.S
See, I have made it easy on you, this link will take you straight to Waterstones so you can buy the book straight away
P.P.S
I promise, I wasn’t payed to make this review. I promise…
P.P.P.S
Still annoyed there wasn’t any crows in the book.

Settlers of Catan - Board game Review

You have just arrived at an uninhabited island which you name Catan and start to build your home on. However, news of the island spreads fast and now the island is crawling with other settlers. You must compete (and sometimes even trade) with them to gather resources in a bid to build the greatest civilisation on Catan.

In the excellent classic of Settlers of Catan you win by getting 10 victory points. These are acquired by building roads and towns (and upgrading your towns into cities) on the hexagonal board you play
on. To build these structures you must pay resource cards (which are sheep, brick, wood, grain and ore). You get these by having the result of two die, that are rolled every turn, match the number on the correlating hexagon you have a town or city placed on the corner of. However, if you don’t have enough resources (which is almost certainly the case) then you can trade with other players to try and collect that one last ore that you need to upgrade your town into a city or that wood for the road.

Well, one of the main things that makes this game so darn good is that it packs so much into to its easy to learn mechanics. While it takes only a brief explanation to learn, even small parts of the game
give you a lot to think about, like how to best barter with you opponents for that wood resource card you need or where to build your next town. These decisions are easy to make though, due to the intuitive design which lets even new players who have no idea what they are doing pick it up and play with minimal help.

The games simple mechanics are further helped by the fact that you always have something to do (so no more waits that make you drift of and start contemplate the meaning of life, before you get to do something again). Each turn, two dice are rolled and then everybody who has towns or cities on the corners of spaces which the sum of the two dice on them collects a resource card. This means, that everyone round the table will be intently looking at those dice to see whether they get anything this
roll, even if it isn’t their go. Couple this with turns that go at a galloping pace and you have got yourself a game where there is never a dull moment.

My only small gripe with Settlers of Catan is that sometimes players can be left behind if by unlucky chance the numbers on the spaces that they have towns next to never come up. While for some people won’t mind that, others will definitely find this exasperating.

Overall, this game is a bona fide classic, that rewards our in-bread sense of satisfaction with feeling like we are building something that we all love. I would suggest playing this with practically anyone, from people who haven’t sat down to play a board game in years or for youngsters who want to take a step on from the monotony of snakes and ladders or other kids games. Settlers of Catan is a timeless classic, and I think it deserves a place at anyone’s family get togethers or board game night.

Bang and Twang family board game review

*This game was kindly provided to me by handiwork games as a review copy for free, but that has not changed my blog post/review

In Bang and Twang you join a folk band of questionable musical taste that, while not being attacked by dragons or making way for a vigorous bongo melody, must try to match the rhythm of the song in this musical family game.

You start the game with three central cards on the table, each with Bang on one side and Twang on the reverse. The aim of the game is to match the order of the Bangs and Twangs on the table with those on cards in your hand. On your turn, if you have the matching ‘melody’ on your card, you can bank it in your personal stash, collecting points as you do so. More likely though, you will need to first move or flip one of the central cards, hopefully now making the cards play to your tune so you
can bank your card. However, if you are lucky enough to have one in your hand, you become
the start of the show by playing a tune card, these have special effects like shoving everyone else off the stage and forcing them to listen to your three-hour long kazoo reprisal.

The first thing you notice about this game is the art. The cards are illustrated in a childish cartoon style which in my experience is more controversial than which type of Dorito is the best (my Mum really liked it, but ,my friend hated the style of art). Children will love it, but for others it will really turn them off as the don’t want to play a ‘kid’s game’ whereas games with a plainer style like Uno can be enjoyed by everyone. That being said the optional coins you can get with the game are
universally lovely (like spicy Doritos which everyone loves, and if you don’t you are bad and wrong).


But once you get past that and have pushed past a mildly confusing rulebook you get to, if I am being totally honest, a rather boring game. The main act of shunting around the middle of the table can get old very quickly, especially if you play more than one game at a time. Add to that, that the special tune cards are so few and far between that you can spend turns not doing something exciting and when you do get one, some of them don’t do that much (like just getting a few extra points). This leads to a game that is less like Beethoven’s symphony and more like the car alarms that wake you up in the middle of the night.

However not all hope is lost, as after playing several games we found an easy fix. If you add another one of the many sets of special tune cards to the deck, it improves the game tenfold. Now it is much more fun and significantly crazier, with interesting things happening every single turn, like you’ve added put the original game into hyperdrive.

Bang and Twang is, if you add in the extra tweak above, a pretty good family game. The fast, easy fun of Bang and Twang will definitely work for ages 7 - 12 (especially if you don’t use the more complicated special tune cards). However, I think for everyone else there are just some better other options of simple party games (like Dungeon Mayhem) that are a lot more enjoyable.

Book review: Tintian and the King’s Claw

The Sci-Fi thriller ‘Tintian and the King’s Claw’ follows the crime fighting footsteps of Leigh Tintian and the reformed alcoholic Millesabord as they try to uncover the shady dealings and track down the crew of the ship Shikahogh (which sounds like a Lovecraftian monstrosity but sadly isn’t) in a joyful but slightly forgettable romp through space.

I managed to read this in about a week and enjoyed coming back for more each time. This was due to several reasons, like the quirky natures of the characters. A favourite of mine was the drunk Captain Millesabord who decided after a small drink to start a fire in a star craft in the middle of space (showing that she can hold her drink about as well as a teenager who has only had Doritos to eat for the last 24 hours).

Another reason, was the fast rate that the book progresses, with not a word in the book slowly meandering to the point but cutting straight to it. This keeps the book going at a galloping rate, never leaving you in a dull moment.

With two strong female leads, it nice that this book includes a healthy dose of female empowerment in it which is much appreciated in this era of story book characters generally being men, with women being pushed to the supporting roles.

However … while this book has its good points, it certainly is no classic. The pacing of the scenes sometimes felt a bit wonky leading to me not being on the edge of my seat in action scenes and some of the character’s development was poorly implemented and brought you out of the experience. It also had completely average world building, nothing stood out to me as a particularly imaginative or things that I hadn’t seen before.

Not every book though has to be a work of art to be enjoyed.  I would say reading this novel is a lot like eating popcorn, while there is not much substance there, you’ll munch it down happily before you maybe move on to something more fulfilling. I would definitely recommend you to read this if you are between books or maybe want to get back into reading with something easier to digest.

4 things to look out for in games

After reviewing quite a lot of games, I think some things have stuck out as things that turn a game from just average to amazing, the things that separate the crème de la crème from the rest of pile. So, if you want to know what to keep a look out for in games here is my list.

Simplicity:

Simplicity is king when it comes to game design, with more simple and elegant systems making games much less confusing to play and learn, so the fun doesn’t get bogged down by fifteen different trackers or rules that take ten years to read. This principal is well shown in the games like Dungeon Mayhem and Snake Oil, where the rules can be explained in a few words and can provide entertainment for even the most rule-phobic person.

Mechanics tied with theme:

When the mechanics of a game perfectly align with the theme, something magical happens. It no longer feels like you are just playing a boardgame, it feels like you are actually there in the game’s world. This makes you much more invested as you can visualise what is going on in the game. A great example of this is in Flamme Rouge, which makes you feel like you are actually managing a team of cyclists, and has mechanics that perfectly represent professional bicycle racing while still keeping it simple.

All of the game being engaging, not just your turn:

Only having fun on your turn, is no fun at all. Most of the time in board games it is not your go so having what other people do affect you is a great way to stop it from getting boring as you are engaged even when you aren’t directly doing anything. A good example of this would be King of Tokyo where other people are constantly affecting you, making the game tense and exciting. Ticket to Ride is also great in this sense as it gets tense as your planned routes get cut off during other people’s turns.

Presentation does matter:

Having a great looking game and well-made pieces can really add to the pleasure, and can help entice other people to play the game (because what’s the point in having a game if no one will play it with you). But art isn’t the only aspect of presentation, the games rulebook really matters too. Because if it explains the rules well then you can jump straight into playing and not have to worry about playing the game wrong due to a misunderstanding. A great game that is a marvel to look at is Tokiado, whose simple iconography and great rule book let you jump straight in and wonder at the unique Japanese inspired art.

So, there you have it, now a game can still be great even if it doesn’t hit all these criteria but if it combines all of these together you can be sure that you’ve got an instant classic.

Kodama: The Tree Spirits Review

You are a caretaker of a forest, growing trees with flowers, mushrooms and fireflies all inhabiting the little slice of nature that you preserve. But this is no ordinary forest, this forest is special. This forest is inhabited by Kodama. You must try to pander to these magical creatures by shaping your trees to meet their very specific and picky needs to become the greatest Kodama carer of all time.

In the game Kodama you must place tree branch cards down to build a tree, getting points from connecting rows of features (flowers, fungi, stars etc) along your tree. At the end of each season you can get extra points by having met certain conditions on Kodama cards. The person with the most points by the end of Autumn wins.

 

First off, this game is great to look at. It has beautiful art and all the Kodama cards are drawn with a really cute cartoon style. The act of building your tree adds to this visual masterpiece, as each turn you get to see your tree get bigger and bigger until you can look back on it at the end of the game and see what you have made.

In this game, you will be constantly working towards Kodama cards, which give you more points as you fulfil their requests more to their liking. These cards make you think carefully about how you might want to shape your tree, along with what features you want to focus on trying to accumulate. However, if you have nothing to do to advance towards one of your Kodama cards you can always collect points by chaining together the different icons that come up on each card, meaning that you can always do something. With several different options for tree branch cards which can be placed on multiple different spots on your tree, it can lead to over analysis as you cycle through all the different options you could take and how many points they would give you, which I find a bit boring.

My main problem with the game though, is the components, with such good art it feels tragic to

waste it on flimsy and thin cards, tiny counters and a point tracking board which is way too small. This is reinforced with a poorly written rulebook that is unclear and takes several read throughs before you understand what counts as a legal move. Personally, I think having a higher price to get some nicer pieces would definitely be worth it.

However, Kodama do include custom made Kodama scoring cards for children, which are in groups that are specially designed to be simple to play together. Each group has a specific focus, so younger players don’t have to try and think about getting all the different icons on their tree but just a few like mushrooms and caterpillars. This a really good addition which can make the game nicely accessible for smaller ones and lets them properly compete with their parents.

Overall, Kodama is a beautiful game that lets you grow your very own tree and while it does stumble a bit it is still fun to play. While I wouldn’t say it was a must buy, for those who are enticed by the                                                          art or want to play with children, this is definitely good purchase.

Tokaido: Crossroads expansion review

You've walked the Tokaido road from Kyoto to Tokyo many times. You've fallen in love with the gentle and relaxed pace that it has offered you and now you want more. You have decide that you might look into an expansion for the game Tokaido but don't know if it would be good for you. Well you've come to the right place.

I have reviewed Tokaido before and if you want to add something extra to the game you can get the Crossroads expansion. With the expansion you get new characters to play, and whenever you land on a space you can choose between two actions instead of one. You can see the cherry blossom instead of painting, gamble instead of working at the farm, get a legendary item instead of just going to the normal gift shop and so on. Basically there is a whole bunch more stuff to do.

So, I must say that the new characters have much more powerful abilities, which makes them feel really exciting and fun to play, and give them each a unique personality, although this is traded for less staring money. One of my personal favourite added character is 'Nampo the gourmet' who gets extra victory points for eating expensive food or 'Gotozaemon the souvenir seller' who gets money from selling things every time he lands on a painting space but starts the game broke. All of these are enriched by beautiful art which really makes the characters come alive. They feel as if each of them has had a lot more though put into them than in the original game and so are a excellent addition.

While giving players so many new options can be interesting and exciting, I often found that it took away from the easy going feel of the game, as you had to think about double the options than what you had to in the original game. Having to think about legendary items which offer new effects, when to play a amulet card or how to effectively use calligraphy cards to get the most points just adds a bit too much in my opinion and disturbs the relaxed flow of the game. I wish that instead of making completely new mechanics like calligraphy or lucky amulets, the expansion built of what was already there maybe adding more people to meet (as the selection of people you can meet is pretty repetitive).

A interesting new addition to the game is gambling, which instead of getting three guaranteed coins by working at the farm, lets you pay two coins and roll the fortune die to see if you could double, triple or even quadruple those coins or just lose them all. This can create great moments as you roll the dice and turn two coins into eight but most of the time it is a bit anti-climatic. This is because half of the time when rolling the die you would actually be better of just working in the farm and for the rest of the time it only gives you one or two coins extra. Instead of feeling like an all or nothing tension fest, it feels like sometimes all or sometimes nothing, but most of the time uneventful.

I do enjoy legendary items though, which you can choose to take one and pay for its cost instead of going to the normal shop. The legendary items each have cool effects which are powerful and fun to collect but not complicated in the slightest and really just help add to the souvenir system which is already there. Personally, I particularly liked the 'Shodo' and 'Emaki' which gave you an extra point for every souvenir you had now and carrying forward, which is super satisfying as now you get even more points for souvenirs. Although do be aware, if someone collects both, it is almost too powerful as each item they acquire will give them two extra points plus the ones it would have normally got them.

Overall, the Tokaido Crossroads expansion gives a bunch of new ways to play and things to do in return for taking away some of that relaxed feel of the original game. I think my family will probably sometimes play with it but for when we just want to walk down the Tokaido road and not have to worry about anything else, we might revert to the purity that the original game holds.

Tsuro board game and app review

Tsuro is a relaxing game where you lay down tiles to make a track for a counter to follow, trying to disrupt other players plans while staying on the board yourself. There are two different versions: the game in its physical board game form, but it can also be found on the app store on a Ipad or Iphone for a fraction of the price. In this review I will talk about both versions, weigh up their merits before giving my final verdict.

In both versions, Tsuro is a laid back, easy going game where each turn you place a card and have the satisfaction of watching your player piece snake along the path you have laid for it. These simple rules make it prefect to pick up and play with practically anybody, especially friends and family.  With loops being especially satisfying to pull of, it is fun to see the board crowd up and as you try to not run yourself into the edges of the board.

My one problem with the game, is that how you draw cards which you lay down is unnecessarily complicated ,which slows the pace of learning and playing the game down considerably. When I got to try out the physical game at a convention with my Dad, it made us lose the flow of the game every time we drew a card. Luckily the app automates all of this card drawing, so you can just sit back and play which is one of the reasons why I like the app version so much.

While having physical counters that you can touch is nice, the cards do get knocked pretty easily in the board game, disrupting the game as you scramble to put them all back where they should be. This however is once again solved in the app as the cards slot neatly into place with zero effort on your part.

The one problem I have with the app compared to the physical board game is that if you are playing with your family (which I often do), you have to pass round whatever device you are playing the game with, meaning that you can only really see what is happening on your turn. However in the actual board game everyone can see everything that goes on making it much more inclusive.

My favourite feature by far of the app is that it draws a line showing you where your piece has been, so you can look back at what a wiggly mess you have created when the game is over. It takes the satisfaction you get from when you make a loop in the normal game and multiplies it the the nth degree by playing a little chink sound when you cross back over you line (and do not even not get me started about when you chain several loops in a row).

Overall, with a price several times smaller, better features and a more fun playing experience, I would definitely recommend buying the app for Tsuro, as the board game is just not as good due to all the reasons I have talked about. It looks like the digital revolution has come to even board games, so I suggest you sit down, download the app and play of a game of Tsuro.

Never Let Me Go book review

This is a book review on Never Let Me Go although before I go ahead with this review, I must say that I studied this book in English and had some spoilers going into it from my teacher. Therefore my experience with this novel my be different to yours. I tried to keep spoilers here to a minimum but there will be some minor ones.

Never Let Me Go is a book about a group of three students: Kathy, Ruth and Tommy growing up in a twisted reality like our own but as the book goes on you realise how alien it really is. It explores the ideas of friendship, love, death and our human nature, so on the whole, a pretty hard hitting book. It is written by Kazuo Ishiguro a Japanese born English writer who is known for books like 'The Remains of the Day'.

This book does not push the intricacies of the story into your face, but is subtle much like our own lives. The relationships develop in this book in a way that gives the characters more than one aspect and leads along with the narrator Kathy as you try to figure out whether you like someone or not. You can really appreciate this fact once you have watched the film, which goes out of its way to let you know THIS IS A LOVE TRIANGLE OK, unlike the book in which this aspect of the story is a layer which is not pushed down your throat but is one of the many shades that make this book whole.

However, at some points in the book my immersion was broken by some really obvious metaphors that did not fit what was actually going on in the story at that point in time. It was like Kazuo really wanted to have a certain image in the book but couldn't think of a good place to put it in, so he just awkwardly shoved it in. Fortunately, this is easy to look past and so did not present too much of a problem.

One thing you can give Ishiguro though, is that he understands humans better than many people, if not most. This makes the characters feel grounded as they go through the complex emotions that you experience when you are growing up and going throughout the rest of your life. You can understand why a character would do something and relate to them. Unfortunately, some people don't come to stories to see a perfect reflection of life but one with characters that break the norm and fight back against injustice. If you count yourself as among those, then this book may not be a good fit for you but then again this kind of writing might be the holy grail to someone that likes these aspects in a book.

This is the three characters in the film of Never Let Me Go.

With these relatable characters it is impossible not to be moved to some degree by certain moments although different people will be moved by different parts of the book depending on how your life has unfolded. For example people with less life experience like me at 14 years old, some bits won't be as poignant. There is a heavy theme of caring running through the book and for someone like me who has had the luck of not having to care for someone, will find it less powerful.

My final word of warning is that there are some pretty explicit points in this book and the subject of sexuality is a thing that returns time and time again. So if that would make you uncomfortable, I suggest that you don't read this book but pick up one of a plethora of other great novels (like Of Mice and Men).

Overall, if this book sounds good from what you have read above, I definitely recommend sitting down, getting comfortable and then giving Never Let Me Go a go.