Bob Pazehoski, Jr.    As family boxes go, Flashback: Zombie Kidz was a load of fun. Building on the world and story of the similarly enjoyable Zombie Kidz Evolution, the mystery box breathed even more life into an already fantastic intellectual property. The team from Le Scorpion Masque is at it again, this time with...

K. David Ladage    Cosmic Encounter is a classic. It is a bright and shining star in the history of board game design. When I introduce the game to new players, I have encountered a few who hear variable player powers’ and begin to doze off. I get it. The idea of an asymmetric game allowing players to break the...

Tom Franklin    caption id attachment align aligncenter width City of Crowns: The Box caption Shem Phillips is a remarkable game designer. Since , he has published games, not to mention the many expansions for some of those games. That the majority of these are well respected,...

Justin Bell    Can I speak with you for a moment I was at Gen Con last year when someone from the CrowD Games booth grabbed me; he saw that I had a media badge on. I was at the booth because CrowD had released City of the Great Machine and reviews were spectacular for the one versus many steampunk game. I was...

Andrew Lynch    I’ve never played anything quite like The Light in the Mist. I’ve done dozens of escape rooms and escape room games, and I’ve played a handful of games that were narrative driven. The résumé is strong. None of them have managed to combine the two in the way that designers Rita Orlov and Jack...

Thomas Wells    The First Tzar: Ivan the Terrible’s cover evokes a period where life was nasty, brutish, and short. As far as the gameplay goes, however, it should be called Ivan the Extremely Balanced and Minimally Punishing. caption id attachment align alignnone width The open. caption To...

Tom Franklin    Project GIPF is a series of eight abstract strategy games designed by Kris Burm. Each game features a hexagonal playing area and involves a dwindling of either pieces or playing area mechanic. The way they approach these elements is not only unique, but combines what I feel are the best qualities...

Andrew Lynch    El Grande is back. Hosanna. For those who are unfamiliar, El Grande, The Big itself, is one of the great canonical games in our hobby. Every podcast, list, and forum that extends beyond the Cult of the New considers it one of the greatest games ever published. That’s for good reason. El Grande is,...

Justin Bell    TaÄ mento Justin Bell An card wargame in the vein of microgames from publishers like Button Shy Games and Matagot, TaÄ mento arrives courtesy of NAC Wargames. Using objective cards to set up a series of puzzles, players will re enact various conflicts from Spanish wars of the th century....

Bob Pazehoski, Jr.    I imagine design teams the world over work very hard to determine how you will feel the second time you play a cooperative game. Oh sure, they must pour themselves into first impressions, everything from the communication of the box, the first crack of the shrink, the setup, the rulebook, and the...

Justin Bell    In my continued efforts to remind people that there are in fact games older than minutes ago, I stopped by the Red Raven Games booth at Gen Con last year to see if the publisher would provide review samples of their older games. Sure, was the one word response I got from the staffer at the...

Tom Franklin    caption id attachment align aligncenter width Catan: Starfarers The Box caption In , Klaus Teuber introduced Settlers of Catan, to the world. It won the Spiel des Jahres that year and, without a trace of hyperbole, changed board gaming forever. Four years later, Teuber...

Andrew Lynch    Bacon is a climbing game, a genre of card game in which the goal is to empty your hand by playing increasingly powerful sets of cards. The specifics change from design to design, but the basic principle stays the same: if you play a pair of ’s, I can beat that with a pair of ’s. The most popular...