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Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Eat Poop You Cat: A silly, fun, and free party game

You wouldn't know it from the title, but Eat Poop You Cat (yes, that is the name it is known by), is a game that is the drawing equivalent of the game "Telephone."

What may start out as the caption "Karen reads a lot of books" can end up as "A man presenting a girl with a snowman for her birthday" once it has traveled down the line. It's silly, it's fun, it's absolutely free, and I would play it over Pictionary any day of the week.

If you are dead set on paying money for the game, the game has recently been published under the name Telestrations, but this is a public domain game you can easily make yourself. By the end of today's review you'll know how to play, have seen a sample round of drawings, and have a good feel for if this is the sort of game for you.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: 10 Days in Europe: A game worth putting on your itinerary

Today's reviewed game, 10 Days in Europe, is a game that, while it doesn’t try to be educational, helped my wife and I figure out where in the world Moldova is. This, primarily, seems to work best as a family game. It works with two to four players and takes about 20 minutes to play.

The game is about moving tiles around in a rack so that you create a 10-day trip itinerary across Europe. If you like Rack-O, this game is similar, yet better.

While this game certainly isn’t going to suit everyone, my wife and I have logged a good number of plays over the past year. Let’s have a look and see if this is the sort of game for you, or if you'll want to send it packing.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: A year in board gaming: Logging which games I played most

There’s a certain degree of nerdiness required to be someone who writes a board game review column, but today we’re going to ratchet up the nerd level a few clicks. Over the past year, I’ve logged every single board and card game that I played.

So yes, if you’ve read this column regularly, you probably know what games I think are good or bad, but when it comes down to it, these are the games that I spent the most time playing this year. We’ll also look at the mass-market games that I play the most, and I’ll talk about games I wish I played more.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Munchkin: a game that, love it or hate it, has stood the test of time

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

There are plenty of silly card games out there. Every year, game companies put out a huge number of card games that hit the market and vanish into obscurity before the year is through.

Munchkin, on the other hand, is a game franchise that came out in 2001 and still, 10 years later, is going strong. Last year, it brought in $2.6 million dollars for its publisher.

Today we're going to take a look at Munchkin, a lighthearted fantasy card game with cartoony artwork to see what the big deal is. I'm also rolling out a new review scoring system for games to better help you see if you'll want to be welcomed to Munchkin land or if you'll find it as painful an experience as being crushed under a house.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Blokus: A classic abstract strategy game

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

I normally begin my board game reviews with a brief overview of how a game works and lead things out with some sort of tease so that you the reader, will click to view the full article. This time, however, I’ll jump right to the chase: Blokus is a great game and everyone should give it a try. The rules are simple and yet, in your first game, you have a moment of realization where suddenly you realize how everything fits together and works.

Because it’s easier to explain how the game works by showing you, join me for my first video explanation of rules where we'll get an overview of the rules in two minutes and 10 seconds. I'll follow it up with my thoughts on the game (spoiler alert: I like the game).

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Pirate Fluxx: the best edition of the random, easy-to-learn card game

I have to admit, I didn't hold out a lot of hope for the new card game Pirate Fluxx being very good. I like its original version, Fluxx, and so I bought Zombie Fluxx a number of years back and found that it just wasn't as good as regular Fluxx. So when I heard that a new version of Fluxx was coming out, I knew it was a try-before-you-buy situation, since there's really no point to owning the same game twice in the same way that you wouldn't buy Monopoly: Grand Rapids and Monopoly: Detroit.

After playing, however, I'm happy to report that Pirate Fluxx is the best edition of Fluxx that I have played. For the Fluxx uninitiated, let's see how this card game works, and for the Fluxx veterans, let's see what makes this version better than the original.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Dixit: a game of clever clues and surreal art

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

Dixit is the board game that won Game of the Year last year in Germany. While that’s great for Dixit (and, I’m sure, its sales numbers), I feel like there is no better accolade for a game than for someone to play it and then for someone to say, “That was great, we should buy this” — something a friend of mine said after her first play.

For today’s review, we’ll go through one or two sample hands of Dixit to get a feel for the flow of play and see what makes this clue-giving art game such a hit. I’ll also use the phrase “gutting deer” for the first time in a review, so if you’ve been waiting for that moment, today is your day.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Trust 'Betrayal' for a fun, slightly random game experience

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

Not all great board games are fun. Not all fun board games are great. While I wouldn’t say that today’s game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, is a game worthy of greatness, it certainly is a lot of fun. If you wanted to pick apart some of its design choices, you could, but regardless, I think this is the most fun new game that I’ve played in a while.

Betrayal is a game in which the players explore a haunted house until a traitor among them is revealed. Each side then reads their respective parts of one scenario — one of 50 scenarios — develops a plan and goes forward trying to accomplish their goal before the other team. Let’s look more closely at how the game plays to determine if this is a game you'll want to explore further or whether it will send you running for the exits (spoiler alert: they locked behind you).

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Nuns on the Run: An unconventional game of stealth (in a convent)

If you set out to make a board game out of the best elements of capture the flag, hide and seek and the sneaking elements of Metal Gear Solid, you would come up with Nuns on the Run. In this game, one player plays two head nuns, while all of the other players play novices looking to sneak around the church and back to their rooms without being seen.

This makes for quite a game experience. Because all of the information is hidden, novices will have the excitement of watching the head nuns move right past their position where they might be hiding around the corner. Hidden information also means that everyone has to have a good grasp of the rules or they’ll give themselves away. Let’s take a look at the game play so that we can see if this game will make you vow to play again or if you'd rather donate it to The Salvation Army.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Triviathon: A party game best played with two players

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t care for most party or trivia games, but Triviathon is a game that interested me nonetheless. The best way to explain Triviathon is to show you an example question. [answers will be at the end of the post]

One answer will move you three spaces, one will move you two spaces, one will move you one space, and one no spaces.

Triviathon claims to be a trivia game where you don’t have to necessarily know trivia and can expect to pick up a few weird facts along the way. Let’s take a look at how the game plays to see if the question cards make the game:

A) Fun

B) Too random

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Resolve to play better casual games with Carcassonne

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

For those of you that have been looking for me to review more family games, I’m happy to report that a few years down the road, I’ll be able to start giving you some: my first daughter was born earlier this month on Dec. 6. Today I am ending the baby-induced hiatus that my reviews have taken and looking at Carcassonne. Though my daughter is years from playing it, Carcassonne is a good family game. As you may remember, I named Carcassonne the second best game for couples in my 2010 holiday gift guide, but I have never given it the full review treatment.

Carcassonne is a tile laying game. As players pick tiles up, they place the tiles anywhere that the edges match, making the features of the map appear over time. As they create features, players can place wooden tokens (called meeples) on those features so that they score when the cities, roads and churches are built. I'll start out by teaching a few aspects of the rules followed by an actual review of the game.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Saboteur: A quick, fun card game with secretly assigned teams

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

I’ve recently been on the lookout for games that allow players to play on teams rather than an every-player-for-himself game or fully cooperative games. Saboteur is a game that pits a crew of gold-digging dwarves against the Saboteurs among them that would seek to sabotage their progress and take the gold for themselves. While one team tries to push forward, the saboteurs hide their true nature until the perfect moment arises to cause a rock slide, blocking the path to victory.

Let’s take a look at how the game plays to determine whether Saboteur is a dynamite experience or a few nuggets short of a full load.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Give cardboard, not plastic: Holiday Gift Guide 2010

It's that time of the year when board game reviewers use the holidays as an excuse to write just one more time about the games that we've loved over the past year. While tastes vary from person to person, I've assembled a list of games of different categories that, hopefully, should appeal to someone on your list. So if you're looking for something different than just giving another plastic gift card in a card, consider taking a chance on one of the following games.

Let me first be clear. This is by no means a list of my favorite games. Yes, these are some of my favorites, but first and foremost, I’ll only be suggesting games that I think will appeal to many sorts of people.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: We Didn't Playtest This at All: the short, fun game with the long name

I’ve highlighted games with easy-to-explain rules before, but this marks the first game that I can explain in the first paragraph of its review. The rules to We Didn’t Playtest This At All are simple: Get two cards to start and, on your turn, draw a card and play a card. Shoot, the game’s rules are almost shorter than the game’s title.

With rules that simple, it’s no surprise that the game takes one to 10 minutes to play. The goal of We Didn’t Playtest This At All is to win and you win the game by not losing (i.e. staying in the game as others get eliminated until you are the last player left). We already know the one rule of the game, but let’s take a look at a few of the things that can happen when you play cards in this silly, large-group game.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Incan Gold: a great gem of a game

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

After two weeks of reviews about games that aren't my type of game, I'm excited to have the opportunity to talk about Incan Gold. Incan Gold is a game about trying to loot an Incan tomb of its treasures without falling victim to its many hazards. As the explorers get laden down with jewels, they have to weigh their options: should they bring their treasure back to the safety of their camp, or should they travel further and risk losing all of their treasure to a mummy?

Let's take a look at the game play to see how this theme gets translated into a game and what it is that makes this game so fun.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Snow Tails: A racing board game that plays like a puzzle

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

Two weeks ago, we looked at Formula D, a racing game that involved rolling dice and taking risks to try and pull into the lead. Today we look at a different sort of racing game: Snow Tails. Snow Tails was designed by the Lamont Brothers, two guys known for making games with unique mechanics.

In Snow Tails, players design their own track with modular board pieces and then race their sled teams across it, trying to guide their team through obstacles and around turns. Where Formula D is a total dicefest, Snow Tails plays more like a puzzle. Let’s look at how the game plays to see if that’s a bad thing.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Red November: Fun, but little more than surface deep

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

Red November is a cooperative game in which players have to survive in their sinking submarine for 60 in-game minutes until rescue comes. Each player controls a gnome who will, over the course of the game, run into flaming rooms, fix engines, and make sure there’s enough oxygen to go around. There are a lot of co-op games to choose from, so let’s dive into how this game works and see if it sinks or swims (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Formula D: More fun than getting stuck in football Saturday traffic

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

It’s always frustrating when you expect that a drive should take a short time, only to find out that it’s going to take far longer than expected. I’m sure you can attest if you’ve ever accidentally found yourself outside of the stadium during a football Saturday.

Formula D is a game that, initially, took too long. I would have people nearby ask “you’re still playing that?” as we were just finishing our first lap. But over time, I discovered that that the game can easily be fixed with a few tweaks. Is that enough to take Formula D out of the pits and into the pole position? Let’s have a look.

In Formula D, players each control a car participating in a three-lap race. Each player has a little gearshift that stays in front of him that shows what gear he is in and how much more damage he can take. As the player shifts gears, he’ll get to roll dice that get higher and higher results. First gear gives results numbered from 1-2 while 5th gear can send your car as many as 30 spaces. But this isn’t a drag race; there are turns to maneuver through.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: Death Angel, behind a poor theme, is a surprisingly fun co-op game

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

From looking at the box of Space Hulk: Death Angel; The Card Game you might think that someone took a junior high school boy’s notebook and turned it into a card game. The space marines in the game have gigantic, over-sized armor and wield things like a crackling power sword, lightning claws, and giant miniguns. This, along with the cheesy title, kept me away from Death Angel.

Yet, as much I tried to ignore the game, I kept coming across reviews saying what a surprisingly great game it was. The first printing of the game has gotten hard to find, and already a reprint is scheduled. Let’s take a look and see if the game is worth the money or if you’ll want to crush it under your power fist.

Board Game Reviews

Critical Hits: 'Magic: the Gathering': The absolute best game I won't recommend to you

Mike Hulsebus | Contributor

Despite what the Richard Connell short story may suggest, the most dangerous game is not man, it is "Magic: the Gathering."

If you’ve been inclined toward nerd things at all in the past 17 years or so, you’ve probably heard of "Magic: the Gathering." It’s the game that, despite spawning all manner of copies, still remains the number one customizable card game out there. I originally played when Magic first came out, and then picked it up all over again about three years ago. Let’s take a look at what keeps people interested after all these years and why, despite loving the game, I wouldn’t recommend it to you.