Amongst the board gaming elite, there are few words that draw more ire and disgust than “Monopoly.” The first real board game most of us learn as a kid, it’s simple dice rolling, property-buying, four hour sessions of free market economy really seem to rub some people the wrong way. In fact, this quintessential American classic scores no higher than a 4.5 average on BoardGameGeek. Yeesh.
It would seems serious gamers have a real hate on for Rich Uncle Pennybags and his thimble full of fun. Despite all of this, I’m here to sell you on a little card game called Monopoly Deal.
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Earthly elements have long played a role in card games, whether we’re talking Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon. But while water, fire, air and rock types in those titles tend to represent symbolic groupings, there aren’t too many games out there that simply address the blunt force of these elements. In the simplest way possible, Eleminis has stepped up to fill this void.
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We’re big fans of Looney Labs round these parts. There’s something refreshing about simple fun to play card games. It also doesn’t hurt that the company obviously loves what it does, and that love bleeds through to all the products they release.
Primarily known for their line of Fluxx games (we’ve reviewed both Martian Fluxx and Pirate Fluxx here before) they made waves this year with their Back to the Future card game which actually just won an award at Origins and is based on their inventive Chrononauts game system.
Seven Dragons is completely different from all those other games however. Featuring big beautiful artwork and a simple game mechanic, it’s low price point makes is a perfect inclusion in just about every game collection.
So, with that said, let’s play some Seven Dragons!
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It’s a game that most nerds have been taking part in for their entire lives without realizing it. It usually starts with a benign but ridiculous question like “Who would win in a fight, George Clooney’s character in From Dusk Till Dawn or Han Solo?” Or whatever, there are literally an infinite number of combinations out there. What then happens is an all too in-depth debate about the ins and outs of the battle and who would clearly win.
I can vividly remember a large group of friends very recently getting into a much heated argument about who was the better comic book hero, Batman or Superman (clearly it’s Batman). Voices were raised, movies/comics/tv shows were cited as evidence and sometimes accepted, sometimes discarded. Clearly we’re the target audience for a game that takes that concept and adds scoring to it.
It was probably only a matter of time before someone took this typical debate setup and turned it into a game, and Gamewrigh has done it. In Who Would Win? you’ll debate your friends to decide which famous people/characters would win in various silly competitions.
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(This game was discussed at length in Episode #00025 of the Perpetual Geek Machine podcast.)
Feels like it’s been awhile since we’ve taken a look at an analog game, feels good to get back in the saddle! This week we’re going to take a look at a game that’s been burning up the charts in the board game world, the card development game 7 Wonders!
In alot of ways 7 Wonders is like Civilization (the PC game) the card game. You can try and acquire victory in different ways, such as through as military or scientific means. There are tech trees involved that allow you to build up in areas when you specialize the types of structures you focus on. And, like it or not, you end up fighting with your neighbors. So yeah, it’s an awful lot like Civilization except for one glaring difference. 7 Wonders is super easy to learn and only takes about 30 minutes to play (as opposed to the 5 hours that the PC game does). It’s been awhile since a game is blown me away as quickly and as thoroughly as 7 Wonders has. Not since Dominion have I fallen so head over heels for a game, but 7 Wonders is very quickly rising to that level in my collection.
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The deck-building style of game has certainly taken the analog game world by storm. For a type of game that didn’t even really exist a few years back it’s all but exploded since Dominion hit the scene. Here in this column alone we’ve look at both Dominion and Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, but there have been loads more.
Newest out of the gate is Nightfall, a game of vampires and werewolves and all the dark things that seem to fight for the night. The big twist to this game is that it’s entirely offensive, which is a big departure from Dominion and others that are largely solitaire group experiences where you’re all taking turns just trying to build the best deck, with limited interaction between players. In Nightfall it’s kill or be killed, and all your moves and card drafts only serve to help you hit the other players harder and faster than they’re hitting you. It’s certainly different, but is it good?
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At this point Fluxx may be a familiar term to you if you’ve been in the board/card game scene for a bit. Looney Labs has released a bunch of different versions of the game focusing on everything from Monty Python to Zombies. They’re all based around the same basic rules but each brings a new wrinkle to the table. They’re similar enough that you can actually combine decks at your whim and they mesh together perfectly, but each one offers enough variety to stand on it’s own.
After Zombie and Martian versions of the game I suppose it’s not a huge shock that they decided to go with Pirates next. So, what’s Fluxx and what makes this edition the best version yet? Read on!
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Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is a new deck building game, which means you’ll be acquiring cards to build a powerful deck over the course of the game. Each player will start with the same weak 10 cards that they’ll use to buy new cards in-game to enhance the power of their deck and use those cards to kill monsters. The game is similar in setup and execution to the very popular Dominion, in that you’ll buy and use cards to acquire more cards. It’s kinda like Magic: The Gathering but instead of buying booster packs of cards for real-world dollars you’ll buy cards in-game with game resources.
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