My gamer friends and I have been discussing the release of the massive new board game Rising Sun. Developed by a group of successful game designers, it’s described by the publisher thusly: “Rising Sun is a game about honor, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (kami) have returned to rebuild the empire… Rising Sun claims Diplomacy as its distant ancestor. Tackle negotiations, alliances, and war. Capture hostages and commit seppuku….Read More

James Mathe really hit on an interesting worker placement theme when he created the original Manhattan Project. Players are competing to build atomic bombs, which means you have to manage workers to mine and produce yellow cake, then refine the yellow cake into uranium. Scientists + Engineers + uranium lets you build bombs and earn points. Someone else getting too far ahead? You can bomb their facility or even steal resources from them. My friends…Read More

You and your mates are Gods, but being a God in contemporary society isn’t what it was back in the heady days of yore and your powers are a bit less than they used to be. Turns out if people don’t believe, you don’t have quite the amazing abilities you remember from when you first came on the scene. Worse, Death is afoot and he’s ready to do some serious malevolent things to the world…Read More

Harry Potter continues to be a global phenomenon and even though you might have thought we’d left Hogwarts and the gang behind after the resolution of the Deathly Hallows, the franchise continues to entrance the public with new movies, new books, a stage play and even board games. It’s the latter that I’m writing about today, a deck building co-op board game that the team at USAopoly sent for review called Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. Deck…Read More

I read lots of discussion groups and Facebook groups about board gaming. It’s a hobby and social activity both, so knowing good games and having friends ready and able to play is always a win. Some groups I’m in lean more towards the Cards Against Humanity sort of party games while others are into role playing or strategy games, even those that take 3+ hours per game. And some of my friends – and children –…Read More

There’s a magical intersection of complexity and fun that board game designers all seek to attain, a game where it’s enjoyable to play and also challenging enough to require your brain to be engaged too. Long term strategy, short term tactics, and the occasional laugh or moan as you realize you took a wrong turn somewhere along the way, that’s all manna to us gamers. Other games are so complex that there’s no space for…Read More

Traveling to that remote research facility deep in the Siberian tundra sounded like a great idea back in July, but now it’s the beginning of the winter and you’re stuck without hope of rescue. There’s a monster storm heading your way, and like the scientists in the classic horror film The Thing, you have no idea what beasts might show up and try to kill you. Your goal: survive the storm during the long, long…Read More

Ever wonder what it’d be like to be a dog out and about in town? Left to fend for yourself, subsisting off the generosity of restaurant owners and food you find in trash cans, even as you do your best to avoid being grabbed by the dog catcher? That’s the premise behind the amusing and very family-friendly board game A Dog’s Life from designer Christophe Boelinger. It’s an update and reprint of a game of the…Read More

Hasbro knows games. In fact, the company has been around since 1940’s (starting with doctor and nurse toy kits during WWII) and is the third largest toy maker in the world, with revenues of over $4 billion. The company’s best known products include Monopoly, G.I. Joe, Furby, and My Little Pony. Want more? How about The Game of Life, Twister, Clue, Battleship, Trouble, Hungry Hippos, Operation and Scrabble. All told, it’s unlikely that you haven’t…Read More

Remember shoving matches on the playground back in elementary school? They never seemed to devolve to actual punching or violence, just kids shoving and trying to show who’s tougher. Now, imagine that you can capture that in a board game that’s goofy fun and silly both, and you’ve got the basic concept behind PWNs: A Game of Strategic Mayhem. (pronounce it “pones”). Well, sort of. Because in PWNs you actually are trying to K.O. all…Read More

So you think you’re so darn smart, do you? Good at trivia and extraordinarily well informed about world events and contemporary history? Then Hasbro and Haywire Group have the perfect game for you and your mates to test your trivia savvy: Box of Rocks. Yes, it will answer the age old question are you smarter than a box of rocks?? In fact, it’s a really simple trivia game perfect for families or for when you’re sitting…Read More

Another Monopoly game? Really? One of the most successful board games in the world, Monopoly has a colorful past and hundreds of variants and custom editions. Who hasn’t played this ubiquitous property trading and dice rolling board game, possibly for hours beyond when you would have liked it to end? What’s interesting is that the game was originally designed to highlight the dark side of property ownership and monopolies, but has ended up celebrating all…Read More

Satellites and GPS devices have spoiled exploration; before all these fancy devices it was man versus nature in a completely visceral and life-threatening adventure. If you wanted to explore the jungle, you needed a machete, a native guide and a lot of luck, because it was a sure bet that you were going to encounter dangers that you didn’t anticipate. Explorers of the 19th Century and even into the early 20th Century were constantly traveling…Read More

I’m a writer with an excellent vocabulary but for reasons I can’t explain, I’m pretty darn poor at word games. I’m surprised when I break 100 in Scrabble and even word jumbles can leave me feeling baffled and wondering if it’s “CAT” or “DOG” that’s going to win. I persist anyway and just try to avoid people who are ridiculously good at word games. You know who I’m talking about they’re the people who drive you to…Read More

I seem to spend a lot of my game time with really complicated games that have hundreds of parts and rule books that span 5-10 pages or more. Lots of fiddly bits, as gamers say, and it can be really fun to play a game like Dark Souls, as I did last weekend, but there’s also a certain joy you can find in a simple game that doesn’t aim to consume four or five hours…Read More