I’ve written about the terrific game Zombicide before [my review of Zombicide], talking about how it’s a great dungeon crawler game with lots of splendid miniatures and a board comprised of a dozen or so 12″ x 12″ tiles that let you set up quite a few different scenarios either directly from the instructions or based on your whim. It’s a fun play and while it can get harrowing at times when there are lots…Read More

My kids and I love arcade games, video games, pinball and even computer games. Each of us has our favorites, of course, and my youngest even indulges in carnival-style games that generate tickets for the winner, tickets that can then be redeemed for various toys, candy and other prizes. Me? I’m a classic pinball guy and still enjoy a few games of using the flippers to get that heavy metal ball bouncing into just the…Read More

Zombie-themed games. Not only are there lots of games in this genre (many of which I have on the shelf) but there are even multiple zombie dice games on the market. When USAopoly highlighted their own The Walking Dead themed version of the popular Bang! The Dice Game, I couldn’t resist, even though I already have the Peter Jackson Games “Zombie Dice” in the glove compartment of my car. Turns out they’re dramatically different and Bang! The Walking…Read More

You have to go back a long way in video game history to understand the appeal of the new Super Mario Bros edition of Monopoly from the team at USAopoly. In fact, it was 1983 when a game called Mario Bros was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. And it was a monster hit. So much so that it spawned a sequel (of sorts), Super Mario Bros. The hero of the Super Mario Bros series…Read More

There are more versions and variations of the classic board game Monopoly than any other. From national versions in dozens of languages to versions themed around animals, industries, and even movies, there’s an entire cottage industry of companies and designers producing variant “opoly” games. We know because our favorite version of Monopoly is actually themed to the Nintendo universe, featuring Mario, Bowser, Princess Daisy and more. What the best opoly games do is a fairly…Read More

Just about every game I play has a necessary element of randomness to work and be interesting. Sure the randomness can be an opponent, like in chess, but that’s mostly a deterministic game (the better player almost always wins) and therefore not much interesting to me. Add a random element, however, and ya just never know whether Lady Luck is going to smile upon you or not. That’s why so many games have stacks or…Read More

I don’t know if it’s fair to say that I’m obsessed with zombies and the zombie mythology, but I have watched The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, read the book and watched the movie World War Z, and even seen the classics Night of the Walking Dead and Dawn of the Dead, among so many other books, graphic novels, movies and TV series that feature the gurgling, shuffling undead who seek you out as…Read More

It’s the turn of the 20th Century and electricity is big, with inventors just transitioning from steam to the magic power source. It’s the golden age of invention and none other than genius Nikola Tesla has challenged inventors from around the world to create their own fantastical machines and race through the Swiss Alps, winner to take the crown of World’s Best Inventor. Are you ready for the challenge? That’s the premise of the delightful Steampunk Rally,…Read More

I think it’s only appropriate to start this game review by saying that at various times both of my daughters have sworn that they’re going to grow up to become that weird cat lady in the neighborhood with vast numbers of cats roaming their homes freely. We do have four cats (only two of which live with me, fortunately) at this point, and they also have three dogs at their Mom’s house too, so it’s…Read More

I’m lucky that my children are all into my gaming hobby, at least somewhat. A-, at 19, still enjoys a quick game of Cribbage, while G- is always up for Monopoly (a family vice), Cribbage, Rummy or his two new favorites Bullsh*t and Presidents, and my youngest, K-, has fallen in love with Lords of Waterdeep, a fun, light worker placement game from the same development team as Dungeons & Dragons. Indeed, “Waterdeep” is a…Read More

I’m a history buff and read lots of history books, fiction and non-fiction, so it’s no surprise that I gravitate towards historical board games too. To be fair, most of them are only loosely themed for a historical era so playing the game isn’t exactly like attending a graduate lecture about the era. Still, there’s something compelling about building games themed around, well, building, whether it’s entire civilizations evolving from the stone age thru the information…Read More

I really like LEGO building blocks, and have done since I was a kid. All three of my children have had various LEGO sets and kits through their childhoods and while there have been bursts of interest, I’ve always been a bit disappointed that none of them really got into it. Heck, I’ve sat and chatted with more than one Master Builder from LEGO and am still convinced that’s one of the cooler jobs in…Read More

I have buddies with comic book collections, penguin collections, computer collections and even sock collections, and my youngest is racing to collect every possible stuffed animal in existence, but I have to admit, I never got the bug, I’m not much of a collector. But I can appreciate really interesting memorabilia and collectibles and have definitely enjoyed perusing online auction catalogs and exploring thrift stores throughout the country. The problem with collectibles nowadays is authenticity….Read More

It’s a perfect match, right? A board game from the Depression era about monopolizing resources and winning by forcing the other players into bankruptcy and a mythic evil creature that’s older than mankind and has dark, horrific desires. Cthulhu, in case you aren’t aware, is a fictional creature imagined by the dark mind of early 20th century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft in his 1928 short story The Call of Cthulhu. It’s evil. Really, really evil. He…Read More

Research firm DeltaDNA has released some interesting data about gender and gaming, split across the four categories of action, strategy, puzzle and social/casino games, and the results might just surprise you. Now by “games” the company is talking about online and computer games, with a healthy sprinkling of casual games targeting smartphones and tablets too. What most jumped out at me is that while 75% of “action” gamers are male, 82% of puzzle gamers are…Read More