Everybody likes “The Wizard of Oz.” Everybody. They might not love it, but they, at least, enjoy it to some degree. Whether it’s the girliest of girly-girls, your grandparents, or the fry-bag dude that lived in your dorm that showed it to you with the sound off while having it synched-up to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” I don’t know anyone that has a prevailing negative feeling about this movie. Then again, if you do, I don’t really want to know you anyway.

That being said, when a “Wizard of Oz,” edition of the card game Fluxx came to my attention, I knew that it would be something that would gain a fair amount of interest in my circles, so giving it a whirl was definitely in order.

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Shopping for geeks at the holidays is hard, luckily we’re here to help! Alot of people think board games live and die with Monopoly and Clue, and that’s a real shame. There’s a whole plethora of fantastic games out there just waiting to be played, wonderfully crafted and ones that appeal to any age group and interest. Below is a list of our favorite games from 2011.

Whether the geek on your list is a Sci-Fi fan or a Fantasy nut, likes role playing or just rolling dice, there’s something on the list that they’d love to see under the tree!

Thanks for looking and don’t forget to check out our previous gift guides, all about Books and Sound & Vision!

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What a fine week on Perpetual Geek Machine. New board game reviews, new podcast and some new videos! We’re going to try and do more of those moving forward so we hope you all like them.

Let’s get to the recap of the week that was….

On Monday, to celebrate Halloween we took a look at the comic book inspired board game based on The Walking Dead.

On Tuesday we took a look at the ever changing card game Star Fluxx.

On Wednesday we released the latest episode of our podcast which has gotten all the way up to Episode 37.

On Friday we released a double shot of videos. One all about the Saints Row: The Third character creator and one where we play the fantastic Steam/Xbox game Renegade Ops.

For our random old post this week we’re going all the way back to the party word association game “Word on the Street.”

Have a great week everybody!

If you’re a fan of the site at all then you’re probably at least passingly familiar with the ever-changing-rules card game Fluxx from Looney Labs. It’s been around for years and has been released in quite a many different flavor to appeal to just about any sect of nerds or gamers. In addition to the basic game there’s been decks themed around Zombies, Eco “Green”, Pirates, Monty Python, Stoners, Martians and more. In the past we’ve looked at the Martian and Pirate themed games. Now we’ve got Star Fluxx, and while it doesn’t really add anything to the Fluxx landscape it’s still worthy of the line because it appeals to those of us out there who’s interests lie in the Sci-Fi world.

But on the off chance you’ve never played/heard of Fluxx, let’s talk about exactly how the game works.

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There are games like Dominant Species or Conquest of Nerath that require a dedicated group of people getting together for the expressed reason of playing that particular game. The rules are a bit dense, and you need to concentrate on what you’re doing. Then there are the middle of the road games like 7 Wonders and Small World Underground where the rules are definitely there and you kinda need to concentrate but there’s more of a social “hang-out” thing going on.

Then there’s the 3rd group of games, where there’s only a few simple rules and are better played while socializing. Zombie Dice (and to a much much lesser extent Cthulhu Dice) is the epitome of this game. You take your turn, pass the cup to the next person and go back to socializing and ignoring the game in general until it comes back around to you. We’ve done this with large groups at the bar and at PAX and it’s perfect. Ice Dice isn’t quite as simple as Zombie Dice, but I’d still put it in the same category and will definitely be packing it the next time we’re at PAX or another con.

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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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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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It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Back to the Future had a decent impact on my life. The movie came out when I was 7 years old and still remember my parents taking me to see it in the theater. I also remember demanding to sleep in my clothes that night cause McFly does it in the movie. Sadly there was no eccentric scientist living nearby or I’m sure I would’ve befriended him as well.

So it’s safe to say I was more than a little excited when I found out the Back to the Future card game that was coming out near the Blu Ray release of the trilogy. It’s from the folks at Looney Labs who’s most popular game to date has been the Fluxx series though that’s not all they’ve done. We’ve also taken a look at Chrononauts which is a card game about time travel and lends quite a bit gameplay wise to the Back to the Future game.

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