Some games fire me up. They make my hair stand on end and my heartbeat. This isn’t Lacuna. Lacuna makes everything still. It imparts a serene tone that emphasizes play above competition. And it does so in a non-traditional way. Everyone likes to point out this game comes in a tube. Yes, tubes are weird…
Attribution is a tricky thing. It shouldn’t be, really. But continually, we hear stories like a Wings of Glory nod being cut from the X-Wing rulebook late in development. In the ideal world, Star Trek: Away Missions would credit David Sanders and the Warhammer Underworlds system as this new release is clearly an influenced work.…
This is a tough moment. Like when a parent takes a knee to tell their child a disappointing revelation. Usually, it’s about facts and reality not aligning with magic and brilliance. Sometimes you’re both left grieved. This is one of those times. I’m being a little unfair. It’s not that bad. It’s just frustrating and…
Find Muck is the delightfully bizarre expansion to Jenna (formerly Jim) Felli’s hottest release – the seismic Cosmic Frog. That’s the nutty game where you control a two-mile-high god-polliwog that devours land mass and then spits it up into a trans-dimensional hidey-hole. It’s a wonderful blend of efficient resource gathering – effectively set collection –…
Look, Kasper Lapp’s Fun Facts is nominated for the prestigious 2023 Spiel Des Jahres, but it’s not going to win. That doesn’t matter. A loss doesn’t diminish this absolutely fantastic release. Similar to Repos Productions’ previous breakout hit, Just One, this title slots into a very rare category of cooperative party game. It also happens…
“At a certain point, we will build machines that are smarter than we are. And once we have machines that are smarter than we are, they will begin to improve themselves. And then we risk what the mathematician I. J. Good called an intelligence explosion – that the process could get away from us.” –…
Trials of Tempus is such a magnetic design. It’s also a game hindered by the circumstances of its release. I saw the announcement and it took some effort to overcome the malaise associated with the Dungeons & Dragons license. It required even more work to move past my confusion on why Wizkids would release another…
There is a sound of winding. Out there at the edge of the light where everything is blurred and consciousness falls away. A toy made by crooked hands and born under the shade of the devil. A winding. Billowing clouds of black unfurl towards the sky like decrepit beings breaking apart as they escape. Trees…
Shem Phillips’ Legacy of Yu has captured my attention. I’ve been playing a lot of it lately. It’s a stylish board game from Renegade that is unique in the designer’s oeuvre in that it’s only playable solitaire. It bears Sam Phillips handsome illustrations, and it looks like it’d fit right in with all of Shem’s…
Disney Animated portends magic. It’s the upcoming title from the design studio of Prospero Hall, a mercurial group of individuals that smuggle hobby board games and their broader philosophies into the mass market. This one has the players cooperating to illustrate, compose, and produce classic Disney films. You’re animators, pressured by a deadline to complete…
Player Elimination 