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Author Archives: Craig (shigadeyo)
Review of Slide Blast
Slide Blast Designer: Evan Song & Samgoo Publisher: FoxMind Players: 2-6 Ages: 7 and up Time: 30 minutes Times Played: 5 Game provided by the publisher for review purposes. Introduction Slide Blast is a tile laying game in which players … Continue reading
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Review of Escape Room The Game – Welcome to Funland | Escape Room The Game – Murder Mystery (NO SPOILERS)
Escape Room The Game [OG Review] is a cooperative “escape the room” game from Spin Master Ltd. that was released in 2016. The base game contains four different Adventures for teams to explore and experience. Plays must work together to solve several puzzles before time runs out. Verifying that each puzzle has been solved correctly requires the use of an electronic Chrono Decoder and associated Keys. The Chrono Decoder is unique to this game system and is used in several ways, including: it’s the game timer, it contains various ciphers needed to solve puzzles, and it verifies the code – entered by inserting Keys into the device – for each part of the Adventure. Shortly after the release of Escape Room The Game, two separate expansion packs were also released for the game: Welcome to Funland (Difficulty 3.5/5) and
Murder Mystery (Difficulty 3/5). Continue reading
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Tagged Escape, escape room, expansion, Expansions, Family games, funland, murder mystery, Puzzles, review, reviews
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Review of Dairyman
Roll Dice! Milk the Cow! Make Cheese & Ice Cream!
Dairyman is a push-your-luck dice-rolling game in which players compete as dairymen trying to collect fresh milk everyday, fulfilling orders, and making cheese and ice cream. Players take turns rolling, locking, and re-rolling dice to create sets of two or three dice with a total value of 10 to produce milk and then use it to claim milk tiles for points. Failure to produce milk may result in spoilage and the loss of a previously earned milk tile. There are opportunities to flip a tile to turn the milk into cheese for extra points or to freeze it into ice cream. This action provides an extra ability that can be used each turn. Flipping a milk tile also prevents it from being lost. The player with the most points on their milk, cheese, and ice cream tiles at the end of the game is the winner. Continue reading
Review of Pups
Pups is competitive trick-taking card game in which players are dog trainers using their packs of loveable pups to complete in a series of legendary canine showdowns to become the top dog. During each of seven rounds, trainers will receive a pack of seven Pups, bid on how many showdowns can be won during the round, complete in a series of showdowns by playing Pups with the highest valued one winning, and then collect Reward Treats for successful bids or Penalty Poos for failures. The trainer that has earned the most overall treats wins and is declared Top Dog! Continue reading
Posted in Kickstarter, Reviews
Tagged card game, Card Games, Cards, dogs, Family games, Kickstarter, Pups, review, reviews, Trick Taking
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Review of Blend Off!
Blend Off! is a real time game in which all players are frantically rolling dice to collect fruit, blending smoothies, and filling orders to earn gold stars. Makes total sense, right? To best understand the theme and mechanisms of the game, it’s important to know the backstory. Here it is as told in the rules…
Blend it Like Becca — a small-town smoothie shop sensation! It’s been a slow night. Becca the shop owner, Kevin the runner boy, and the Master Mixers – including you! – have started closing up shop. One minute before close, the door swings open. Outside, you see parked school buses and a line of people all the way to the street corner! The high school girls’ volleyball tournament has just gotten out, and everyone is craving a smoothie for the ride home. Becca cuts a deal: whoever blends the most smoothies tonight gets free smoothies for a month! The Blend Off has begun, and only one can win. There’s just one problem: Kevin. Skittish at best on normal days, he flies into a frenzy, grabbing fruit for you from the fridge at random. Take the fruit Kevin brings, complete the orders Becca calls back, and blend your way to victory!
In the game, players represent the Master Mixers who are competing to blend the most smoothies. Each Master Mixer rolls a Fruit Die representing Kevin\ and the random fruits he retrieves from the refrigerator. The deck of Blender Cards represents Becca who is continuously calling out smoothie orders to be filled. Unlike many games, there are no individual turns. Players are all playing and taking actions simultaneously until the game ends (when Becca is out of orders). The player that earned the most gold stars from blending smoothies is the winner. Continue reading
Posted in Kickstarter, Reviews
Tagged Blend Off, Cards, dice, dice game, Family games, Kickstarter, kids, kids games, review, reviews, smoothies
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Review of Codinca
Rival treasure hunters (i.e., players) have discovered the Temple of Codinca while exploring the Yucatan rain forests. To open the Temple and find the great treasures contained within, players must use various mechanisms to manipulate a grid of sixteen carved Symbol Tiles to match specific Key Patterns. The first player to match their own Symbol Tiles to their four Key Patterns will unlock the secrets of Codinca.
Codinca is an abstract strategy game that combines skill and chance. Players take turns using various actions (e.g., flipping, swapping, and shifting) to manipulate a common grid of tiles to create patterns that match their individual Key Cards. The game is meant to be fast-paced and tactical.
Codinca was first available as a pre-production release at the Essen Game Fair (Spiel) in 2012. Only 150 copies were available and it sold out. A Kickstarter campaign was launched in September 2013 to fund a full production release, but it failed to reach the necessary goal. The game largely disappeared until it re-debuted at the 2016 UK Game Expo in new pocket edition. According to the announcement from the publisher, “the mechanics have been streamlined, the tiles made substantially chunkier, the rules include six languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish & Polish), and it all comes in a very pretty pocket sized magnetic closing box.” This review is for the new 2016 release of Codinca. Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Cards, codinca, Family games, Kickstarter, Puzzles, review, reviews, tiles
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