Latest Game Reviews
A Little Wordy – Board Game Review
I've talked about a couple different word games on this blog. Mostly in the context Paperback and Paperback Adventures. Word games hold a special place in my heart, as my wife and I played a lot of Scrabble online when we were in a long distance relationship. My...
Re;Act: The Arts of War – Board Game Review
Re;Act: The Arts of War is a fast-paced, anime-inspired dueling game where clever card play and tight movement create high-stakes tactical showdowns. Its reaction chain system demands foresight, and each asymmetric character brings fresh challenges. Beautifully produced and deeply rewarding, it’s a must play for fans of head-to-head strategy who crave mastery over mayhem
Forest Shuffle – Board Game Review
In Forest Shuffle, designed by Kosch, with art by Toni Llobet and Judit Piella, and published by Lookout Games in 2023, players are competing to gather the most valuable trees and attract the best fauna to those trees, creating a mutually beneficial point generating engine.
The Gang – Board Game Review
The Gang, designed by John Cooper and Kory Heath, art by German design studio Fiore GmbH, and published by KOSMOS in 2024, is cooperative poker.
Yamataï – Board Game Review
Yamataï, designed by Bruno Cathala and Marc Paquien and released by Days of Wonder in 2017, is a game in which players are placing ships between a dense archipelago, and either scooping up the coloured resources that are littered across most of the islands, or, if the island is empty, building one of the buildings to earn victory points and money.
Gizmos – Board Game Review
There’s something inherently satisfying about watching spheres cascade down a gentle decline. Potion Explosion taps into that feeling with its five rows of marbles colliding and chaining together. Gizmos seems to promise a similar experience at first glance, with its eye-catching marble dispenser, but the games themselves are very different experiences.
Crash Octopus – Board Game Review
Flicking bits of wood is a simple pleasure, and Crash Octopus is a quintessential example of a good dexterity game. A little push your luck, some space for the hail-mary clear across the table shot that gets everyone shouting and standing in their chair when you manage to land it, and some delightful spite when you use octopus to attack to knock your opponents hard earned treasures back into the ocean. Also, the instant karma when you accidentally smash your own ship with the die. It’s so simple, so pure, and so much fun.
Doomlings – Board Game Review
Doomlings at the end of the day is inoffensive. The tableau building aspect gives faint hints of satisfaction that engine building games so wonderfully evoke, but Doomlings doesn’t hit the same highs as other tableau building games, such as Wingspan or Race for the Galaxy. Nor does it really lean into the evolution theme, like Evolution does so well.
