Widget Ridge Review

Widget Ridge is a game by Ian Taylor and Shawn Martineau, published by Furious Tree Games. It is for 1-2 players. In this game, players take on the role of inventor in the world’s biggest science fair during the Festival of Three Churches in the city of Widget Ridge, a Steampunk Mecca. Unfortunately the statue of the first mayor has been activated and is running amok. Players will have to create bizarre and imaginative devices in an effort to overload the statue with as much Spark as possible. Of course their opponent will also be trying to garner as much Spark as possible as well. In the end, the first player to collect 100 Spark will be declared the winner and the Engineer Laureate.

To begin, each player is given 1 Prime Widget, 6 Basic Widgets and 3 Gadget cards. These are shuffled together and form the player’s starting deck, which is placed facedown in front of the player. They are also given 2 Spark Tracker cards, which are used to keep track of each player’s Spark during the game. The Marketplace deck is shuffled together and placed facedown between the players. The top 6 cards are drawn and placed faceup in a row beside the Marketplace deck. This row forms the Marketplace. At this time, if this row contains only cards with a cost of 7 or more, then all 6 cards are shuffled back into the deck and 6 new cards are drawn to replace them. The first player is chosen and then draws 3 cards from their deck, while the second player will draw 5 cards. Once both players have drawn their starting hands, play now begins.

The game is played over a series of alternating turns, with each player taking a turn consisting of 4 phases; the Ideas phase, the Discard phase, the Draw phase and the Full Construct phase. The first phase is the Ideas phase. In this phase, the player is able to perform any number of actions, in any order and as often as they can. They also may choose to perform no actions, moving on to the next phase. The actions available to be performed are to play cards, use gold, place or replace a card in the Workshop and clean out their Workshop. To play a card, the player must simply place it face up on the table in front of themself. These cards may be Widgets, Gadgets or Inventions. Widgets and Gadgets will give the player Gold, Spark or a combination of both. Inventions have 1 of 3 subtypes; Augments, Devices or Accessories. Augments and Accessories will trigger their ability once their card is played, while Devices will trigger when Connected. Once played, these cards can be moved to a player’s Workshop, which is the area in front of the player. A Device can then be connected to an Augment, an Accessory or both. Once connected then the Device can be activated. However to connect any of these together, then there must be a connection path. A connection path is symbolized by the different symbols on the side of the cards. At least one of these symbols must match up with the correct symbol on the other card. One thing of note, Augments and Accessories can not be connected to each other. They both require a Device to connect to. Gold can be used to purchase new cards from the marketplace by paying the amount of gold shown in the top right corner of the card that the player wishes to purchase. Finally the player can choose to discard all the cards from their Workshop to clean it out. It should be noted that a player is only allowed to have 1 Augment, 1 Device and 1 Accessory in their Workshop at any time.

The next phase is the Discard phase. In this phase, the player simply places any cards remaining in their hand and any non-connected cards that are in play or have been played to their discard pile.

This brings us to the Draw phase. In the Draw phase, the player will draw 5 cards from their deck to their hand. If a player’s deck is empty, then they must shuffle their discard pile and place it face down, creating a new deck.

The last phase is the Full Construct phase. In this phase, if a player has connected an Augment, Device and Accessory together in their Workshop, then they are able to activate the Full Construct ability of each card starting with the leftmost card and moving to the right. Once the ability has been used, the player may not activate it any more times during that phase. They will then lose any remaining gold obtained during their turn. Once a player completes their turn, play passes to their opponent.

The game continues with players going back and forth taking turns until one player reaches 100 Spark. The first player to do this is the winner.

There’s one last thing that I wanted to note, some cards contain the terms destroy and/or melt. Destroying a card simply means that the card is placed into the player’s discard pile. Melting a card means it is placed in the melted pile, basically removing it from the game.

COMPONENTS
The game comes with a fairly good sized stack of cards. This includes several jumbo sized cards for solo play and for changing up the goals. The artwork on each card is very thematic and fun. The Steampunk style theme comes through in each card and I really like the feel of each one. Some have a bit of a silly side to them while others are a bit more in line with a more serious tone. The Spark Tracker cards are really quite unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them before. It’s a really ingenius way of using two cards to keep track of a player’s points. The cards have a nice finish to them and they shuffle quite easily. I do think that I will most likely need to sleeve them though as it appears that they can get scratched up fairly easily. The box for the game isn’t very large which makes this game easy to carry and highly portable. To be honest, there’s not much else to say. The game looks great. The cards are really good quality and the theme comes through quite nicely. Overall I’d call this a win, as far as components go.
8 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook for this game is fairly small, almost palm sized. There aren’t a whole lot of pictures or examples in the book, but what’s here is done well. The book begins with a nice backstory for the game to set the scene before playing. From there the book goes into setting up the game and follows that up with step by step instructions for a player’s turn. The book includes nice pictures for setting up the game and showing how the Spark Tracker cards work. The book also includes variations on gameplay which includes solo play and how to play with 3 or 4 players. Of course to play with more players, you’d need another core box to play with. In general I think the rulebook looks pretty good and does a good job of explaining everything. I did notice several typos throughout the book but it’s nothing to really concern yourself with. The rules are still easy enough to understand, even with the misspelled words. Overall I found the rulebook to be quite good and one that doesn’t take long to read or overstay it’s welcome. Once more, I’d call that a win.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
What a truely unique and fun deck building game! I love deck builders and have played lots of different ones over the years, so to come across one that does things in a different way is rare. Having played this one as both a 2 player game and a solo game, I can say that I enjoy both. The 2 player game is simply you and another player trying to reach a goal of 100 Spark, while the solo version has you facing off against the 3 Mechanical Bison and then the statue of Lord Covington. For the solo game, you start off by trying to gain enough spark to stop the 3 rampaging bison. In the second half of the game, you’re facing Lord Covington in a race to 100 Spark. With the bison, each round they wipe out the marketplace so you’re racing to stop them before the marketplace runs out of cards. With Lord Covington, you have only 10 rounds before he blows up and destroys everything. Needless to say, the solo version has a lot of charm and fun. Just like with the 2 player game, you’re basically racing to get enough Spark to win. This is done by playing cards to create strange and wondrous Steampunk devices. In one game, I created a foot powered battle corset with cooling vents. Sounds odd, I know but it provided a lot of Spark. One thing to be aware of is that when buying cards from the market, you really need to think about how those pieces will connect with other pieces you’ve already bought or that are in your workshop already. That means not only do you need to look at the connectors on the sides of the cards but you really have to read the effects to see how they will all work together. That’s if you really want to maximize your Spark output. Of course, the same thing is true for playing with 2 players. Buy cards, create devices and make Spark to win. I can honestly say that I haven’t had this much fun with a deck builder in a long time. This is one that deck building fans like myself will really enjoy. That’s why I highly recommend this game. It’s a great 2 player game and an even more fun solo game.
9 out of 10

OVERALL
Widget Ridge is a Steampunk style deck building game that can be played with 2 players or solo. It can even be played with up to 4 players with a second copy of the core game. The game isn’t a very long one. Most game sessions last around 30 – 45 minutes. With 3 or 4 players, I could see it taking closer to an hour. The cards are lots of fun and have some really great looking artwork on them. The one issue is that they seem to scratch up fairly easily, so card sleeves might be a necessity. The rulebook is easy to read through and understand, despite a few misspelled words here and there and a lack of any real examples. I do however like that there are lots of variants including playing the game solo. This is a real bonus in my opinion. The game itself is a fresh and unique take on deck building. It’s a lot of fun creating new devices and using them to gain Spark, the victory points of the game. There are some cards that will affect your opponent but many times, like with most deckbuilders, it’s just about making the best deck that you can. I really enjoy this game quite a lot. This is one that fans of deck building games will really enjoy, especially if they enjoy playing solo as well as against an opponent. This is one that I highly recommend. So break out your goggles and tophat and get ready for a Steampunk delight. This one is jolly good.
9 out of 10

 

For more information about this game and to purchase your own copy, please check out Furious Tree Games at their site.

https://www.furioustreegames.com/

 

 

 

Dale of Merchants Collection Review

Dale of Merchants Collection is a game by Sami Laakso, published by Snowdale Design. It is for 2-4 players. In this game, players will take on the role of animalfolk merchants as they attempt to complete their merchant’s stall. Players will need to learn new techniques, trade goods and manage their stock if they hope to be the first to finish their stall, thus becoming the greatest merchant of all time. In the end, the player that is able to fill their stall first will be declared the winner.

To begin, players choose a number of animalfolk deck equal to the number of players plus one. Players may then decide to use the optional trap cards and/or character cards. For more information on how to include these during setup, please check the rulebook. Players will then create the bank and supply by placing gold and tokens that the chosen animalfolk decks require. Each player will create their starting deck by taking one card from each of the animalfolk decks that are valued at 1. They will then add a number of junk cards to their decks until they each have 10 cards. Each player will then shuffle their deck. Any of the unused value 1 animalfolk cars are returned to the box, not to be used. The remaining 2-5 value cards are shuffled together to form the market deck, which is placed face down in the middle of the play area. The market board is then placed next to the market deck. The top 5 cards are drawn and placed face up one by one on the board starting with the last space on the right of the board and then moving toward the left. This creates the market. The remaining junk cards are placed face up near the board to create the junk pile. Each player will now draw 5 cards from their deck to create their starting hand. The first player is chosen and play now begins.

The game is played in a series of turns, with each player’s turn consisting of 2 phases; the Action phase and the Cleanup phase. The first phase is the Action phase. In this phase, the player is allowed to perform one of four actions. Those actions are a market action, a technique action, a stall action or an inventory action. The market action allows the player to buy a card from the market by paying it’s price using the cards from their hand and/or any acquired gold. Each card has a cost that is equal to it’s value plus any added cost printed on the market board above the card slot. Once a card is purchased, it is placed in the player’s hand and the cards used to purchase it are placed on the player’s discard pile.

The next action is the technique action. For this action, the player is able to play a technique card from their hand by simply showing the card and then performing it’s effect. The technique card will then stay in front of the player in their schedule, until they are fully resolved. Once this happens, the card is then placed in the player’s discard pile. If the clock is being used, then the clock’s hand is advanced one space clockwise. If the technique card has any bonus actions, these are performed at this time. These bonus actions can be any of the four usual actions.

Next there is the stall action, this action allows the player to build a stack of cards in their stall. Each player’s stall has room for 8 stacks of cards with ascending total values. This means that each stack must be 1 number higher than the one to it’s left. So for instance, the first stall must be exactly 1 card. The next stall must be 2 and so on. To build a stack, the player chooses a number of animalfolk cards from a single set in their hand whose values add up to the required amount. These cards are then placed in front of the player in their stall. Only cards of the same type may be placed in each slot. This means that you can’t use 2 different types of animalfolk cards for a specific stall.

The final action is the inventory action. For this action, the player may discard any number of cards from their hand, including 0. This will make it possible for the player to draw more cards during the next phase.

Speaking of the next phase, that would be the Cleanup phase. This phase consists of 2 steps. The first step is for the player to draw cards from their deck one by one until they’ve reached their hand size. If a player has more cards than their hand size, normally 5, then they do not draw any extra cards nor do they discard the extras. Once a player’s deck runs out, they will shuffle their discard pile to form a new deck. If both a player’s deck and their discard pile run out at the same time, then they will simply draw junk cards from the junk pile to fill their hand back up to their hand size. Once this has been completed, they will move on to the next step which is to move the cards in the market to the rightmost empty slot one by one, starting from the right. The player will then draw a new card from the market deck for each empty slot, filling it with the drawn card. If the market deck runs out of cards, then the market discard pile is shuffled to form a new market deck. If both the market deck and discard pile run out at the same time, then the market will only be filled with whatever cards are available. Once this has been completed, play passes to the next player in turn order.

The game continues until one of the players builds their 8th stack in their merchant stall. At this time, the game end immediately and that player is the winner. It should be noted that some character card’s effects may make a player ineligible to win, even after building their 8th stack. In this case, if the player is able to get rid of the condition preventing them from winning, then they will immediately win the game.

COMPONENTS
This game comes in a very large box that has lots of room to add all of the different expansions and versions of the game along with promos. It’s also got plenty of room for future expansions. The insert holds lots of stuff and has places for each and every piece. This particular collection comes with 8 different animalfolk decks and a large stack of additional cards. Each animalfolk deck has 15 cards in total. The other cards include junk cards, deck selection cards, trap cards and specialty cards. There are also some extra large cards that include character cards and specialty cards. The artwork on all of these cards is quite nice and each card has a linen finish to it. The artwork has the look and feel of a painting. Each design and animal on the card is presented in a very warm way with a touch of country charm. If you’ve ever read Wind in the Willows or saw a movie based on it, then you’d probably get that same vibe here. The game also comes with several tokens and coins designed in thick cardboard with the same linen like finish. Also in cardboard there is a large cardboard clock that is used by the mongooses and bats. The game also comes with a couple of green dice, the double sided market board and some card dividers for keeping things sorted out inside the box. The dice are engraved wood and are in 2 shades of green, a light colored die and a dark colored one. The market board isn’t all that large and has a single fold right in the middle of it. On one side is a normal looking market and on the other is more of a night time feel. The card dividers are just like the cards and have a linen finish like the cards. Honestly it’s hard to find anything that looks bad with this game. Each piece is well designed and is very high quality. The artwork looks amazing and the theme really comes through in each piece. Needless to say, this is one that looks and feels great. I love it.
9 out of 10

RULEBOOK
This games comes with a really well designed rulebook, as well as an extra animalfolk compendium. Both are really well designed on thick heavy shiny cardstock. The rulebook contains instructions on each of the entries into the Dale of Merchants series, including Dale of Merchants 1, 2 and even the unreleased third version, as well as the Systematic Eurasian Beavers mini expansion. Each card type is explained in thorough detail as is each piece used in the game. New rules exclusive to this collection are highlighted in green boxes with green text throughout the book. Everything from setting up the game to step by step instructions on playing it are all explained in great detail. The rules also include a section for playing a 4 player game where players are on teams. It also explains how to use the optional trap cards and/or the character cards. The book also includes a section on keywords used in the game. There are also plenty of pictures and examples throughout the book to help you really get a feel for the game. As for the animalfolk compendium. This book is basically just 2 pages front and back that explain each of the different animalfolk decks as well as explaining keywords and the clock. This is really a nice player aid that is quite useful when playing the game. Unfortunately there are no pictures in this little book, but that’s ok. It’s not like it really needs any anyway. Both books are very easy to read through and understand the instructions and basics of gameplay. Overall I’m quite pleased with both and think that they both look very nice.
9 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
If you’ve read either of my reviews on the first or second Dale of Merchants games, then you’d know that I found them to both be quite refreshing and a very interesting take on the genre of deck building. This collection simply adds more content and some new keywords and animalfolk to use in your game. It does introduce new concepts of trap cards, character cards and even the clock, which introduces a day and night mechanic. The main concepts of the game where players need to build their stalls and be the first to finish all 8, is still present. I really like how that each deck gives the game a different feel. It’s very interesting to see how the cards play off of each other and how that you really have to consider each play of the cards. I like that some decks will have a lot of player interaction, such as the Gulls and the Tasmanian Devils, while others like the Tuataras simply rely on what you can do yourself. I also like the interaction with the clock used by the Mongooses and the Bats. I like that during certain times you’re able to do more things, that time being daytime for the Mongooses and night time for the Bats. I also really like the optional character cards which can be used to more specialize your play style. Of course I haven’t quite worked my way up to using the ones with the more complex abilities yet. I’m still messing around with the green and yellow ones so far. Needless to say, there’s a whole lot to like about this collection, especially if you have or at least have played either of the first 2 Dale of Merchants game. This is one that fans of deck building games that are looking for a new type of challenge will really enjoy. I like the additional new elements that this brings to the table and like that it can be added to either or both of the core games. This is one that has a very unique appeal to it that I quite like. It’s very refreshing and a lot of fun. I recommend this one.
8 out of 10

OVERALL
Dale of Merchants Collection is a deck building game that adds to the series of Dale of Merchants games. The game isn’t a very long one. Most game sessions last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour based on the number of players. The cards and other components look really great. The artwork is very unique and captures this magical world of animalfolk quite nicely. The rulebook and compendium are both well written and do a great job of covering all the rules and giving the players everything that they need to choose decks that suit their play styles. The game itself builds onto the rules and mechanics of the first two games in the series. It adds several more decks to play with and introduces several new mechanics and ways to play. This makes the game highy replayable and a lot of fun. Fans of deck building games, especially the first 2 games in the Dale of Merchants series, will enjoy this one a lot. This is one that players can grow into with the use of character cards that increase in difficulty. Overall this is a really good game that I would recommend. Deck Building games have always been my favorite and this is one that does marvelous things with the mechanic. I completely approve.
8 out of 10

 

For more information about this and other great games, please check out Snowdale Design at their site.

http://snowdaledesign.fi/boardgames/

 

True Frenemies Review

True Frenemies is a game by Derek and Lucy White, published by Mount 21 Productions. It is for 3-8 players. In this game, players will be trying to reach the Tree of Life along with their Secret Friend. Of course, they will have no idea who their Secret Friend is until they both reach the end of the path. Along the way, they will learn what it takes to become a believer. In the end, the player that can reach the Tree of Life first with their Secret Friend, will be declared the winner.

To begin, the board is placed in the middle of the play area. Each of the four different decks of cards are shuffled and placed in separate stacks next to the board, based on their type. This includes the Bible Says, Say a Little Prayer, Face the Music and SinTakes cards. The Submission tokens are separated into 5 different stacks according to their type; Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess and Baptize. Each player will then draw 3 cards from the Face the Music deck, without looking at them. These cards are then placed face down in front of the player. A number of gem pieces equal to the number of players is placed in the middle of the board. A Secret Friend token for each matching gem piece is placed face down in the middle of the board and mixed up together. Each player will then pick one of the face down tokens. Without showing it to any other players, each player will then look at their token to see what color is their Secret Friend. Players will then place their Secret Friend token face down in front of them. Players will now choose a gem piece that is different from the color of their Secret Friend token. If a player is forced to choose a gem piece that matches their Secret Friend token, then the previous steps of picking Secret Friend tokens and gem pieces is redone with all players. This is repeated until each player is able to obtain a gem piece that is different from their Secret Friend token. Each player will then take a This is Me token that matches their gem piece and places it face up in front of themself, to represent their colored gem. Each player will then take turns rolling the dice. The player with the lowest roll becomes the first player and play now begins.

On a player’s turn, they will roll both of the dice. They will then choose from 3 options; they can move their player piece forward, they can move another player’s piece forward or they can move another player’s piece backwards. The first option is for the player to move their own piece forward. To do this, the player simply moves their piece forward the amount of their roll and then follows the rules for the space that they land on. The next option is to move another player’s piece forward. The same rules apply here. The player simply chooses an opponent’s piece and moves it forward the amount of their roll. That player will then follow the rules for the space they landed on. The last options is to move another player’s piece backwards. To do this, the player chooses an opponent’s piece and moves it backward the amount of their roll. In this case, the player does not do what the space they landed on tells them to do. The player that rolled the dice must then choose one of the Face the Music cards in front of them and do what it says. If the player has no Face the Music cards in front of themself, then they may not move another player’s piece backwards. They are also not allowed to move another player backwards if they have a Baptize token, more on this in a bit. It should also be noted that a player may not move their opponent’s piece if they are still in the Your Story village. One more thing of note, if a player does not wish for their piece to be moved, either forward or backward, they may block the other player by discarding an extra Submission token. A player must retain at least one of each type of token and may only discard an extra token. Once the move has been blocked, the opponent does not get to choose another player’s piece to move instead.

As player’s move their pieces and other player’s pieces along the path, they will encounter the 5 Gates. These gates can block a player from moving forward if they don’t have the correct Submission token to move ahead. This means if the player does not have the required token, their player piece will be bounced back to the beginning of that particular stage. The player will then collect the correct token, making it possible for them to move through the gate the next time they attempt to move ahead. This can be used to bounce another player’s piece to the beginning of a stage if the player chooses to move another player’s piece forward through a gate that they don’t have the required Submission token for. It should be noted however that a player may not bounce another player off a gate if they have a Baptize token. Each gate is at the end of a stage. Those stages are the Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess and Baptize stages. The gate at the end of the Hear stage is transparent and does not require a Submission token to move past. The second gate is at the end of the Believe stage and requires a Hear token to move past. The third gate is at the end of the Repent stage and requires a Believe token to move past. The fourth gate is at the end of the Confess stage and requires a Repent and Confess token to move past. It should be noted that if a player is bounced back to the beginning of the Confess stage, they will receive a Repent token, not a Confess token. The final gate is at the entrance to the Tree of Life and requires a Baptize token to move past.

When a player moves their piece forward or their piece is moved forward by another player, they will land on a variety of different spaces. There are 9 different types of spaces; Safety, All About Me, All About Others, Say a Little Prayer, Bible Says, Challenge You, Who is Your Friend, SinTakes and Submission spaces. A Safety space is just that. It’s a space that acts as if the player doesn’t exist. That means they can’t be moved forward or backward by other players. They also can’t have their Secret Friend guessed by other players. The Your Story village and Tree of Life are also Safety spaces.

An All About Me space allows the player to take another turn. This means that the player can choose to either move themself or their opponent, just like during their regular turn.

An All About Others space allows the player to choose another player to take a free turn. Once that player has completed their free turn, play moves to the next player.

A Say a Little Prayer space allows the player to draw a card from the Say a Little Prayer deck and follow the instructions on the card.

A Bible Says space allows the player to answer a multiple choice question about the Bible. When this happens, the player before them in turn order will draw a card from the Bible Says deck and read aloud the question along with the multiple choice answers. If the player answers correctly, they will be able to choose to either receive the next Submission token in sequence that they don’t already have or receive another Submission token that they already have. If the player answers incorrectly, then they must draw a Face the Music card from it’s deck, read it aloud and follow the instructions.

A Challenge You space allows the player to perform the same action as if they landed on a Bible Says space, except that when they answer the question correctly, they may then attempt to answer a second question. If they get it right, they may attempt to answer a third question. If they get all 3 correct, then they receive any Submission token that they want, as long as it’s one they already have or is the next token in sequence that they don’t own. They are also given an extra turn. Just like with an incorrect guess for a Bible Says space, the player must draw a Face the Music card and follow the instructions on the card if they guess wrong on any of the 3 questions.

A Who is Your Friend space allows the player to choose another player that has not already revealed their Secret Friend. The player will then attempt to guess that player’s Secret Friend. If they guess right, then that player must turn over their Secret Friend token for everyone to see. That player must then move back 20 spaces. If the player guesses incorrectly, then they must draw a Face the Music card and follow the instructions. It should be noted that if the player guessed incorrectly, then the chosen player may then flip over their Secret Friend token anyway making it impossible for them to be chosen in this way again. One other thing of note, any player at the start of their turn has the option of flipping over their Secret Friend token for everyone to see, keeping them from being chosen on later turns.

A SinTakes space forces the player to draw a SinTakes card, unless they hold a Baptism Submission token. The first time the player draws one of these cards, they will receive the benefit on the card. The player must then place the card face up in front of themself. From that point forward, any time another player lands on a SinTakes space, the player will then be forced to Pay the Price, following the penalty on any face up SinTakes cards in front of themself. It should be noted that if the player is on a Safety space and another player lands on a SinTakes space, they do not take the penalties of any SinTakes cards. It should also be noted that a player may use an extra Submission token to protect themself from the Pay the Price penalty when another player lands on one of these spaces. Once a player receives a Baptism token, then all the SinTakes cards in front of that player are placed back into the SinTakes deck. That player will no longer be forced to draw a SinTakes card when landing on this space. It should also be noted that other players do not have to Pay the Price if a player with a Baptism token lands on a SinTakes spaces.

Finally there are the Submission token spaces, of which there are 5 different ones. Those spaces are Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess and Baptize. If a player lands on one of these spaces, they simply take the token that matches it from the supply, even if they already have another of that same type. There is one simple rule though, each token must be obtained in sequence. If a player lands on a Submission space for a token that would be out of sequence for them, then nothing happens. They do not gain a token.

Once a player has completed their turn, play passes to the next player in turn order.

The game continues until a player reaches the Tree of Life. Once that happens, they must then wait for their Secret Friend to reach the Tree of Life. Once a player and their Secret Friend have both made it to the Tree of Life, then that player is the winner. It should be noted however that two or more players may reach the Tree of Life making more than 1 player the winner. In cases like this, players will perform a Bible Says standoff. Each player will take turns answering 5 Bible Says questions. The player that answers the most questions correctly is the winner. If there is still a tie, subsequent rounds will consist of 3 Bible Says questions until only 1 winner remains.

COMPONENTS
Let me start off by saying that I am very impressed with the look and feel of this game from first time publishers, Mount 21 Productions. They have made a really gorgeous game with some high quality pieces to it. Let’s begin with the most obvious piece, the game board. This thing is an absolute monster of a board. It’s HUGE! In the box, it’s like 10 inches by 10 inches. It unfolds and then those pieces unfold 2 more times each so that there are 3 unfolded parts on the top and 3 on the bottom. That makes the board around 30 inches by 20 inches. Like I said…HUGE! It makes me think of the game board for Scythe, which is also pretty huge. The artwork on the board is gorgeous. The different twists and turns on the path, the gates, the village and the Tree of Life itself are all displayed in glorious detail. I really love the detailed artwork and the feelings that I get from just looking at it. There are some really amazing details on this board, from cows and sheep roaming the fields to graveyards and volcanic lava pouring down the side of the mountain. Each little detail really pulls you into the artwork.

Next there are a variety of different tokens from Secret Friend and This is Me tokens to the 5 different Submission tokens. The Secret Friend and This is Me tokens are little round cardboard tokens with either the words Secret Friend or This is Me written on the back. On the front there is one of the 8 different colored gems pieces. As for the Submission tokens, there are from 15-25 of each of the 5 different types. These are also cardboard tokens but instead of being round like the others, these are rectangular. Each one has the name of the Submission token it stands for and some artwork behind it, like the path that corresponds with that token’s stage. These are quite nice, just like the board and are good representations of each of the different paths.

The game also comes with 2 six sided dice and 8 large plastic gem pieces. The dice are quite nice, as are the gems. The one thing that I might would have done different was to use cardboard standees of different characters instead of the gems. I felt that there was something missing without a more human touch. That’s not to say that I don’t like the gems. I like them a lot. In fact, I will give kudos for not going the route of using stupid plastic pawns. While I would have understood the choice , I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed looking at the game as much.

Finally there are all the different decks of cards, of which there are 4 types; Bible Says, Say a Little Prayer, Face the Music and SinTakes. On the back of each colorful card, there’s an odd little emoji. On The Bible Says card its a blue emoji reading a Bible with bright rays of sunshine behind him. On the Say a Little Prayer card it’s a yellow emoji with a halo on it’s head while it’s eyes are closed in prayer. The Face the Music card is a green emoji with headphones on it’s head and music notes all around it. The SinTakes card has a black emoji with a wicked look and horns on it’s head. Each card looks really nice and the deigns on the backs of the cards are quite amusing. The text on the front is a little bit small in some cases but not on all the cards. That said, the design is actually quite nice, so I’m not complaining. The card stock is a little bit thin as well, but it’s not too bad. Actually it’s better than some of the more well known games that I’ve played. Again, not a criticism just the facts.

Overall I have to say that I’m quite surprised by just how nice each of the different components is for this game. I honestly thought this was going to be cheaply made and one of those Christian games that after about 4 or 5 plays, would be falling apart. Thankfully that is not the case with this game. It’s well made and the pieces are actually very good quality. This is one that I enjoy looking at as well as manipulating the pieces of.
8 out of 10

RULEBOOK
Like the components, the rulebook for this game is also very good quality. Each page is lovingly represented in vibrant color. There are lots of really nice pictures througout the book, mainly of the game itself or it’s components. The rules for setting up the game are very easy to follow and don’t take but a couple of minutes to have everything ready to go. From there the book breaks down the rules briefly and explains the different spaces on the board. After reading through all the rules, this would be what you’d most likely return to to refresh your memory, if you needed it. Pretty much what you need to know to play the game is in this section. However, for the next two pages the rules get explained even further and in greater detail, under the header of the So Serious Rules. Honestly I think everything could have just been rolled together into one rules section and that would have been that. I don’t really think that there was any need for separating and even doubling up on explaining some of the rules. A simple straight forward walk through would have sufficed. Still it does get a little more detailed on certain issues that may need some more clarification. Next up in the book is an explanation of the five gates and then all the different spaces on the board, as well as a section for the submission tokens and their spaces. Once again, I think all of this could have been combined together in a very straight forward walk through, but that’s really neither here nor there. In any event, everything is explained quite well and quite thoroughly. I don’t think there’s anything here that should be difficult to understand. Finally the book closes off with how players win the game. In my opinion, I think the book does a fine job of explaining the rules. I think, while not exactly concise, it’s pretty clear and simple to understand. Overall I have to say that I like the rulebook. It gets the job done.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
Growing up and over the years, I’ve played a lot of board games. I’ve played everything from Bible Trivia and the Armor of God to Commissioned and Noah, My Poor Dad. I’ve also played lots of main stream games like Ticket to Ride and Monopoly, as well as lesser known games like Zero Hour and Monumentum. In the end, I’ve usually found that most Christian games aren’t very good and aren’t a lot of fun. A lot of the time these types of games are memory based or trivia oriented, like the first 2 games I mentioned. Needless to say, when I come across a Christian game that actually looks good, like Commissioned, I jump on the chance to play it. Such was the case with this game. I had seen the game on Kickstarter and thought that it might actually be fun, so I reached out to the designers who were more than happy to send me a copy to play with the family. Let me just say, I’m glad that I did. This is an excellent game that is a lot of fun for the whole family and it teaches as well as it entertains. My kids have grown up in a homeschool family where they’re taught about God on a daily basis. We have family devotions almost every night where we pray for our family and others that are hurting or in need of prayer. That means that my kids have heard a lot of Bible stories and know a good bit about the Bible for their ages. The thing about this game is that it gives you opportunities to learn as well as rewarding you for what you already know, which is great.

At the heart of the game, it’s a simple roll and move style game. You roll the dice and move either your own piece or one of your opponent’s pieces. You’ll then follow the rules for whatever space you or your opponent lands on. Sometimes you’ll earn tokens that will help you move through the gates on the board. Other times you might have to draw a card and answer a multiple choice question or simply move ahead a couple of extra spaces. Of course you have to be careful of the dreaded SinTakes spaces. Those will cause you to draw a SinTakes card which is helpful when you draw the first one but can really hurt you later on, kind of like real sin does in our everyday lives. I have to say that I really liked how well thought out these cards were. They could have just been cards with negatives that your drew, but like in real life, sin is sweet to begin with. It’s only afterwards that you realize the true price that you’ll pay for that sin. Wonderfully executed! One other thing I’d like to touch on are the Face the Music cards. As you draw these, sometimes hilarious actions will occur and sometimes you’ll have a meaningful question to ponder. They’re so varied that you never know exactly what you’ll get and what you might have to do. These I really love too.

About the only real negative that I have about this game might be the ending, how a player wins. I get what the designers were going for here. In the Christian faith, we want to bring everyone we can to Christ so that we can all experience Heaven together. However as a game concept, I’m afraid that it can be a bit convoluted and difficult to figure out. So you’ve arrived at the Tree of Life first, now you have to wait for your Secret Friend to get there too. But wait, now one of your opponents has made there to the Tree of Life and it just so happened that you were their Secret Friend. That makes them the winner and you lose. Huh? Ok so maybe it helps you learn how to be a good loser or it could be a lesson on how things aren’t always what they appear to be. Either way, that can be a little bit frustrating especially for the younger players. Everything else about the game I love. I just wish there was a better way to end the game and still have the same meaning behind it. In any event, this is a really good game. It’s one that the family have really enjoyed, even more so than I have and that’s saying a lot. Needless to say, it’s a family friendly game that Christians and Homeschoolers can play with their kids while teaching them about God and the ABC’s of how to be saved. This is one that I’m happy to break out any time the kids want to play it. It’s quickly turning into a go to family game for us. This is a game that I highly recommend checking out, especially if you’re tired of all those boring Christian games. I guarantee, it’s not boring.
8 out of 10

OVERALL
True Frenemies is a beautiful and fun game that teaches as well as entertains. The game doesn’t take a very long time to play. Most games sessions are only about an hour long. The components are very nice and look fantastic. The artwork is gorgeous and the pieces are great quality. I do wish the playing pieces had been character standees instead of plastic gems, but I do think they’re better than pawns. The rulebook is very well designed and also looks great. I do think that there’s a bit of duplication that was unecessary, which makes the book a bit longer than it needed to be. The game itself is very well designed and is a lot of fun. It’s family friendly and one that everyone can enjoy. The questions aren’t overly difficult and the multiple choice answers makes it possible for everyone to have a chance at answering correctly. The simplicity of just rolling and moving a playing piece makes this one that even the youngest of players can understand. The game does spark some real conversations as players draw a Face the Music card in which they might have to tell the dumbest thing that they’ve ever done or you might have to explain why you’re actually one of the mean girls. Needless to say, you’ll be laughing out loud at some of the silliness. I do like how well the Bible scriptures have been worked into the various cards, as well as explaining the path to salvation by collecting submission tokens. In my opinion, this is one of the best Christian games on the market, if not THE best. I truly love how everything works together and how much fun the game really is. This is a game that I highly recommend checking out. It’s a fantastic game that my family and I have definitely enjoyed playing. I look forward to playing it a lot more.
8 out of 10

 

For more information about this great game and how to get your own copy, please check out Mount 21 Productions at their site.

https://www.mount21.com/

 

 

Astronomy Fluxx Review

Astronomy Fluxx is a game by Andrew Looney, published by Looney Labs. It is for 2-6 players. In this game, players will not only be playing cards in an attempt to fulfill the current goal and win the game, they will also be learning. In this educational version of Fluxx, players will encounter the planets, galaxies and asteroids, as well as learning about the Hubble Telescope, the first Space Walk and other moments in NASA history. Of course like any game of Fluxx, the player that can deal with the changing rules and have the correct Keepers in place to fulfill the goal will be declared the winner.

To begin, the Basic Rules card is placed in the middle of the play area. The rest of the cards are shuffled together to form the deck. Each player is then dealt 3 cards. The deck is then placed face down next to the Basic Rules card, in the middle of the play area. The first player is chosen and play now begins.

The game is played over a series of turns. Each player will take a turn consisting of 2 steps. At the beginning of the game, those 2 steps will be to draw a card and to play a card. As the game goes on, New Rule cards will be played which will change the way the game is played. This could mean drawing more than 1 card per turn or playing more than 1 card per turn. These New Rule cards will take effect as soon as they are played. Sometimes these cards will even enforce a hand limit, meaning that the player may have to discard cards at the end of their turn to comply with this Rule Card. Besides the New Rule cards, there are also 3 other types of cards that player can play on their turn. There are Keeper cards. These are played face up in front of the player and remain there unless another card removes them. These are used to win the game by fulfilling the Goal card. Goal cards, when played, are placed face up into the middle of the play area. If there’s already a Goal card in this area, it is discarded and replaced with the new Goal card. The Goal card will tell players exactly which Keepers that they need to have in front of themself in order to win the game. Finally there are Action cards. These are one time use cards that when played must be followed and then discarded. Once the player has drawn the appropriate number of cards, played the appropriate number of cards and discarded down to the appropriate hand limit, as dictated by New Rule cards, then the player’s turn is over. Play will then pass to the next player in turn order.

One thing special about this educational version of Fluxx is that some of the cards have abilities that allow the player to draw an extra card for performing a certain action, such as naming a constellation. One particular Action card, when played, has each player to look through their hand for a Goal card with a date in the lower left corner of it. The player then covers up the date with their finger and shows the rest of the card to the other players. In turn order, each player will then try to guess the correct date, until someone is correct. The Goal card then goes into play. This continues for as long as players have dated Goal cards.

The game continues with players following the steps of their turn until someone is able to fulfill the conditions of the current Goal card. The first player able to do this is the winner. Players are even able to win if they’re able to meet the current Goal on another player’s turn.

COMPONENTS
The game contains 100 cards. The cards for the game are really great quality and unlike other versions of Fluxx, have a black background. This concerns me a little bit as I’m afraid that with repeated play it might start to show more so than the white background cards of the other versions of Fluxx. That said, the dark background is pretty darn cool looking. The finish is very good which makes the cards easy to shuffle. The artwork on these cards are all photo quality pictures of the various planets and other space related items. Each one looks amazing and is very impressive. I really like how everything looks and it’s very pretty when the cards are laid out on the table. Overall I think the quality of the game is very good and the cards were well thought out. I’ve very pleased with the overall look and feel of this version of the game.
8 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook for this game is a large double sided sheet of paper that is folded several times in order to fit nicely inside the box. When unfolded, the sheet is rather large but folding it up, it fits nicely inside the box. There are a couple of pictures on the sheet including a sample of a game in progress. There’s also a very large picture of the other educational Fluxx games on the back of the sheet, including Anatomy Fluxx, Nature Fluxx, Chemistry Fluxx and Math Fluxx. The rules include only a few examples to help you understand the game, but that’s fine as the rules are quite simple anyway. The sheet has a few notes on things that may occur while playing the game, such as what to do if the deck runs out of cards. The rules are very simple to read through and understand. I’m pretty sure that no one will have any problems understanding them. Overall I think the rules do a good job of explaining everything in a very concise and easy to learn way. Once again, I’m pleased.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
It’s no secret that my family and I have enjoyed playing Fluxx for years. It should then come as no surprise that we enjoyed playing this one as well. As Homeschoolers, we’re always looking for new games that we can play with the kids to not only have fun with but that can also help teach them too. This version of Fluxx, as part of the educational series of Fluxx games, looked like something that would fit the bill quite well. I will say that the extra cards that have players naming constellations or trying to guess the year of a major space related event are quite fun and do have a touch of learning to them. That said, I found that there were really too few of them to actually be considered as an educational game. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy playing the game, like always. I just felt that if it is going to be dubbed as an educational style game, then it should have more educational value to it then what this one had. Of course, the game is solid as all versions of Fluxx are. I did appreciate the attempt at making education fun. However the few cards that have educational value to them just don’t appear near enough to make this what I’d hoped for it to be. I will say that I love the photo quality images and the cards looks amazing. This is a game that we will enjoy playing. It just won’t be one that we will incorporate into our science curriculum as I’d hoped to be able to do. In any event, it’s still a fun game with or without the educational tag.
8 out of 10

OVERALL
Astronomy Fluxx is a family friendly card game that is a part of the educational series of Fluxx card games. It’s very quick to play. Most game sessions last about 10-15 minutes. The cards are really nice to look at. The photos used on the cards looks great but I have concerns that with repeated play, that the dark backgrounds of the cards will begin to show wear fairly quickly. The rulebook is well designed and easy to follow as usual. The game itself is a fun game that faintly touches on the educational aspects of space and NASA. The few cards that have educational value to them, don’t show up near enough to actually be able to call this an educational game, in my opinion. That doesn’t mean that the game isn’t fun. It is and it’s family friendly which means that all ages can play. While I don’t recommend this as an educational game for all my Homeschool families, it’s still a game that I would recommend, especially if you’re like me and have a love for space. In any event, I think fans of Fluxx will still enjoy this one. Overall it’s a good game.
8 out of 10

 

For more information about Fluxx and other great games, please check out Looney Labs at their site.

http://looneylabs.com

 

 

Flipology Review

Flipology is a game by Rachel Reilly, published by Cheeky Parrot Games. It is for 2-8 players. In this game, players will be flipping cards face up and face down as they try to earn the most points possible. Of course they’ll have to be careful as their own cards may get flipped over by their opponents causing them to lose points. In the end, the player with the most points after 3 rounds will be declared the winner.

To begin, the first player is chosen. That player is then given the Lioness tile and 3 counter tokens, which are placed on top of the tile at the beginning of each round. The Clearing cards are removed from the deck and placed in a stack within reach of all players. Players decide whether they’d like to include or remove the Moon card from the deck. The 2 Wolves cards may also be removed if playing with younger players. The rest of the cards are then shuffled together. Each player is then dealt 9 cards face down. Each player will then choose 7 of these cards to keep and arrange in a horizontal row facedown in front of themself. Players may arrange the cards in any order that they wish. The 2 cards which were not kept, are placed into a facedown discard pile. Once all players have completed this task, play now begins.

The game is played over 3 rounds. Each round each player will take a turn, beginning with the first player. On a player’s turn, they will flip over one of their cards in their row, either face up or face down. If a card was flipped face up, then any effects listed on the card are applied. This may cause other cards to be flipped over. A few things should be noted, first cards to the left or right of a card are considered to be adjacent. This also includes any cards at the end of an opponent’s row that is seated next to that player. Next, any cards that are flipped face up because of a Wind, Sun or Rain card, does not apply it’s effect. Lastly, when the Monkey card flips over 2 cards, if both cards have effects then the player must choose only one of the two to use it’s effect.

There are 3 types of cards in the game. There are animals with active effects, animals with passive or no effect and environment cards. The animals with active effects include the Dog, Frog, Hawk, Mole, Monkey, Parrot, Snake, Wolves and Hermit Crab. These cards usually flip other cards, but some will remove cards in play or even mimic another card’s effect. The animals with passive or no effect include the Cat, Sloth, Koala, Panda, Kiwi, Snow Leopard, Okapi, Giant Tortoise and Quokka. Some of these cards only score points if they’re face up, while others like the Sloth and Koala score negative points if they’re face up. These 2 only score positive points if they’re face down. The environment cards include the Clearing, Moon, Rain, Sun and Wind. When an environment card flips a card face up, it’s effect is not activated. Clearing cards are used to fill in spots when a card is removed and the Moon scores points but also makes it where the player with the least amount of points wins the round, if it’s face up at the end of the game.

Once a player has completed their turn by flipping over a card and applying it’s effect, play passes to the next player. The game continues until each player has had 3 turns. Once all players have completed all 3 of their turns, the game ends and scoring begins. Players score points for all of their face up cards, including any negative points for having either a Sloth or a Koala face up. Players score positive points from these 2 cards if they’re face down. Each player adds up their points and the player with the most points is the winner, unless the Moon card is face up, then the player with the least amount of points wins.

COMPONENTS
This game comes inside a small magnetic close box and contains a stack of cards, some tokens and a first player marker. The tokens and the marker all come on a small punchboard and are thick cardboard. The first player marker is that of a lioness lying in the tall grass, which looks absolutely beautiful. On the back of the marker is a baobab tree with 6 spaces for the baboon token to be placed on. This side is for the Great Tree variant, which I will explain in the gameplay section. The baboon token is a round token with a small baboon on it. There are also 3 floral tokens, each with a number of flowers on them, that indicate which round it is. These are used with the Nature basic game. Finally there are the cards. These are all a good size and have a nice finish to them. The artwork on these is absolutely stunning, much like that of the first player marker. I’m telling you, each piece of art is a rich and beautiful painted piece. Several of the cards have different versions, such as the cat and frog. The effect is the same but each card has a few pictures of one design and a few of another. I’m really happy about that. While it would have been easy and probably cost effective to simply make one design for each animal type, the designer chose to have a nice variety so that the game didn’t start to look stale or boring. Not that this would ever happen with such a gorgeous looking game. As you can see from the pictures, the wording is simple and easy and each card is pretty much self explanatory. The cards are easy to read and dare I say it again, they look beautiful. The quality of such a small little card game is off the charts and really impresses me. Needless to say, this is one of my all time favorite games when it comes to the look of the game. Definitely a grade A++.
9 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook is a nice sized book. It’s 8 pages long and has plenty of pictures and examples throughout. Every step of the game, from setting it up to scoring, is explained in detail. All of the different types of cards are also explained in great detail as well. The book also has 2 variants; the multi game variant for the nature basic game and then the great tree variant, which I’ll describe in more detail in the gameplay section. The multi game variant is basically a first to 100 points, but give players extra points for winning the round or for having a moon card face up. The great tree variant is a multiple row game that like the Nature game awards the player with the most points the victory. Needless to say, the book does a pretty good job of explaining the rules without taking up a lot of time. It’s just the right size to fit inside the box, when folded up. The one negative thing that I can say about the book is that there were a couple of things that weren’t exactly clear. Such as when one of your cards allows you to flip a card in another player’s row. The rules state that you can peek at any of your facedown cards whenever you like, but what about your opponent’s cards? If you have to choose a card, do you take it on random faith or are you able to make an informed decision by looking at your choices like you would in your own row? I do wish things like this had been a bit more clear. In any event, I can say that overall I’m pleased with the look and feel of the book, minus the small omissions of information.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
This is a really great little card game that plays really quickly. Basically there are two ways to play this one. There’s the normal Nature version and then the Great Tree variant. So I’ve already covered how the Nature version is played. There’s no need to rehash it here. Simply put, it’s the quickest way to play and it’s light and fun. I like the quickness of it and how simple it is to play. It’s one that even the youngest of players can easily get into without any problems. As for the Great Tree variant, it takes a little bit longer to play, more like 30 minutes. While that’s a big difference, it’s not that big a deal as the game is still fairly short.

So when playing this variant, the Rain and Hermit Crab cards are left out and the flip side of the first player token with the Baobab Tree is used. The first player uses this side, along with the baboon token to mark off the two turns that each player gets per round. Each player is dealt out 5 cards from the shuffled deck, which they’ll arrange into a facedown row in front of themself, much like in the Nature version. Each round players will flip a card and resolve it’s effect. Once each player has had 2 turns, the round ends and players are then dealt another set of 5 cards. These cards are then arranged in a new facedown row above their previous row. The player with the highest score at this point is then given the Baobab Tree tile, moving the baboon to the third space. Once again, players take 2 turns just the same way as described above. Players are only allowed to flip cards in their current row but the effects can move into previously placed rows due to adjacency. That’s because now adjacency also counts for directly above and directly below. Once players have completed the second round, players are dealt a final set of 5 cards to arrange like before. The Baobab Tree tile goes to the highest score once again and players take their 2 final turns. Once this third round ends, each player counts up their score and the player with the most points is the winner. Ties are broken by comparing the number of different face up animals.

For a more strategic game, I really like playing this variant. It takes a bit of planning and thought in each row’s placement and in each flip that you make. While I enjoy the Nature version, I honestly prefer the Great Tree variant. Regardless of which way you decide to play, both are great and are family friendly so that the whole family can enjoy. For me, the Nature version is great when you just have a few minutes but want to play something quick or if you’re playing with small children. The Great Tree variant is for everyone else but takes a few more minutes to play. Both are a lot of fun. Fans of games like Sushi Go, Flip City or Love Letter should really enjoy this one, both for it’s cuteness and the ease of play. This is a game that I highly recommend. It’s one that should be in everyone’s collection, as it’s a great game for new players and children too. It’s also great fun for veteran gamers, especially when playing the variant. Overall, this is a game that I’m glad I took a chance on. It’s been so much fun and is one that will be in my collection for a long time.
9 out of 10

OVERALL
Flipology is a fast and fun little light weight card game that is family friendly. It doesn’t take long to play. Most game sessions last between 5 minutes and 30 minutes, depending on which way you decide to play. The cards are absolutely beautiful and look like a painting. It’s a lot of fun to discover all the different card types. The rulebook is fairly well written but does leave a few minor questions unanswered. Hopefully there will be some clarification so that things will be a bit more clear. The game itself is a lot of fun to play. The cuteness of the cards and ease of gameplay make it one that will appeal to the whole family. Everyone from small children to veteran gamers can enjoy this one. Fans of games like Sushi Go, Flip City or Love Letter will find something to love about this one too. This is a game that I highly recommend. You’ll flip out over it.
9 out of 10

 

For more information about this and other great games, please check out Cheeky Parrot Games at their site.

http://www.cheekyparrotgames.com/

 

 

Call to Adventure: The Name of the Wind Expansion Review

Call to Adventure: The Name of the Wind is an expansion for Call to Adventure by Patrick Rothfuss, published by Brotherwise Games. It is for 1-4 players. In this expansion, based on Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicle series of novels, players will tell the story of their lives by developing their character and following different paths in the world of Kvothe, Denna, Auri and Chandrian. Along the way, they will be able to learn Naming magic that will help them on their journey. In the end, the player with the most Destiny points will be declared the winner.

For more information about Call to Adventure and how the game is played, please check out the link below.

https://jlnelson73.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/call-to-adventure-review/

Setting up the game with this expansion does require quite a bit of change. There is a huge list of cards that must be removed from the core game from the Destiny, Adversary Qeusts and all three Acts. For more information on exactly which cards are removed, please check page 2 of the rulebook. The cards in this expansion will be used to replace those taken out of the core game. There is one more thing that is added by this expansion. That’s the Naming Rules board and Name Tokens. These should be placed out on the table within sight and reach of all the players. The rest of setup is done exactly as explained in the core game rulebook.

So what exactly does this expansion add to the game? The answer is 3 things; a new story icon, Naming and new cards and adventures. First there’s the new story icon. This would be the Music icon. When playing with this expansion, the Nature story icon is not available. Just like in the core game, having more than one copy of a story icon will earn you extra Destiny points at the end of the game.

The next new thing is Naming. In this expansion, a player can learn the name of the Wind, Fire and Iron. Players can attempt to learn a name once per turn after they fail a challenge. First they check to see if they have any bonuses to aid them in the attempt. The Naming Rules board lists the 2 ability icons for each name that give the player a +1 to their attempt. Players can also gain an additional +1 to their attempt for each corresponding Name icon already in their story. Players may also apply the Bind With Iron, Command the Flame and Call the Wing cards to their attempt. These come from the Hero/Antihero cards. Once the player has finished determining their bonuses, they cast the core runes. It should be noted that the player may not add Dark runes or Ability runes to their attempt. They also are not allowed to draw a Hero or Antihero card if that rune surfaces in their results. The player will now check the runes and if their attempt is 4 or higher, then they learn that Name. Learning a Name provides the player with 3 points at the end of the game. It also allows them to automatically succeed without casting a rune for a challenge of the same type as the Name. Each Name may only be learned once.

The final thing that this expansion adds are new cards and adventures. With 83 new cards there’s a lot of new adventure to be found here. The game gives you 9 new character cards, 53 new story cards for all 3 acts, 16 new hero and antihero cards and 5 new adversary quests. Each one follows The Kingkiller Chronicle story and adds lots of new content.

Of course winning the game is the same as for the base game. At the end of the game, the player with the highest Destiny score is the winner.

COMPONENTS
This expansion adds a lot of new content to an already great game. As noted above there are 83 new cards. There are both tarot sized cards and regular sized cards. The tarot cards include the 9 Character cards and the 53 Story cards. Within the Character cards are 3 Origins, 1 Motivation and 5 Destiny cards. The Story cards contain 12 cards for Act I, 20 for Act II and 21 for Act III. The regular sized cards include 8 Hero and 8 Antihero cards, as well as 5 Adversary Quest cards. Each card is very thematic and the artwork is really amazing. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the actual stories that the expansion is based on, so I can’t comment on how well the theme fits with the novels. That said, it does intrigue me enough so that I may have to look into reading the novels to more understand the expansion. Even so, the artwork of this fits in perfectly with the base game so it doesn’t feel disconnected regardless of your familiarity with the novels. Along with the cards there is a small punchboard of Name tokens and a Naming Rules board. These tokens have the same symbol as the different names on the Naming Rules board. All of these are thick cardboard and the symbols also match up with those on various cards from the expansion. The board, even though the rulebook calls it a card, is a nice addition and helps players remember the rules for each of the different Names. The tokens are just visual reminders of which Names a player has earned throughout their adventure. Overall I really like the look and feel of the expansion. It fits in perfectly with the game without adding too many complex rules to keep up with. I am very pleased with everything included in the box.
9 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook for this expansion isn’t very thick. All total it’s only 6 pages long. It only has a few pictures in it which mainly consists of a view at the different components and then some icon examples and a card example. Inside the front cover is also a nice thematic picture that looks really nice. The rules aren’t complex, as it mainly describes how to incorporate the expansion into the base game. A few odd and end rules for the new Names and Naming Rules are also included. The last 2 pages are a series of frequently asked questions. The game also comes with a reference sheet which includes some errata to the base game’s rulebook. This is nice to clarify some small details that were wrong in the orginal book and to look at for reference while playing. Honestly there’s not a whole lot here, but that’s fine as there’s not much that changes either. The book is really quick and simple to read through and the new rules are very easy to learn. Overall I think that the book and reference sheet are really good and they get the job done nicely.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
If you’re familiar with the base game, then this expansion won’t add much that you’re unfamiliar with. However for players attracted to this based on the source material, then it might be a whole other story. As mentioned earlier, the expansion adds the new Naming rules which make it possible to try to earn something even if you didn’t succeed in completing a challenge. If you earn a Name, then you’re more able to earn certain types of cards for your story a bit easier. This is definitely one concept that I liked a lot. While playing the core game, several times I’d lose at a challenge and be unable to add that card to my story. With this new addition to the rules, I still am able to do something even though I failed. It’s like a consolation prize for losing. The new story icon doesn’t really change much so there’s not a lot to discuss there. The main thing that this expansion does though is add new adventures, challanges and stories to the game. If the core game was getting a bit stale and you’d played it so much that you’d seen pretty much everything, then this expansion will feel like a breath of fresh air. Each of the different card decks gets some additional material and is apparently linked to the source material of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicle. Honestly I wouldn’t know how accurate that is though, as I’ve never read any of the books. I am familiar with the author and knew that the books were out there based on a review I did for the game Tak, a game that’s based on a game inside the novels. Apart from that, this was all new to me. As I mentioned earlier though, it has gotten me pretty intrigued at what the actual stories are all about. From what I’ve seen just playing the expansion with my limited knowledge, there’s a lot of fun and excitement here. For me, I really enjoyed all of the new content. I think fans of the source material may really enjoy this one. I know that fans of the base game, like me, will enjoy it. While it’s not something that I think is an absolute must have, as there’s plenty to enjoy with the base game. It’s one that fans of The Kingkiller Chronicle will most likely have to have. Overall the new content and additional rules provided here are enough to keep me going for a good bit longer with this game. It’s one that I would definitely recommend.
8 out of 10

OVERALL
Call to Adventure: The Name of the Wind is an expansion for Call to Adventure based on The Kingkiller Chronicle from Patrick Rothfuss. The expansion adds a lot of new cards and a new mechanic to an already great game. However it does add any additional play time. Most game sessions are still around 45 minutes to an hour. The components are really well done and of course the artwork is stellar, just like the base game. The rulebook isn’t that big but it covers what changes in the game quite well. The rules also included frequently asked questions and a rulebook errata sheet for the core game. The expansion itself is really good. It provides players with a few more options if they’re unable to complete a challenge. It adds plenty of new cards with lots of new options for players to choose from. Unfortunately I’m not familiar enough with the theme to say just how spot on the theme is, but it’s still a fun adventure in my book. Fans of Call to Adventure should really enjoy this one, especially if they’re a fan of The Kingkiller Chronicle set of novels from Patrick Rothfuss. There’s a lot to like with this one. It’s definitely one that I would recommend. That said, I don’t feel that it’s a must have unless you’re starting to get tired of the same material from the base game or really love the theme. As it is, this is one that I enjoy a lot and look forward to even more adventures in the Four Corners.
8 out of 10

 

For more information about this and other great games, please check out Brotherwise Games at their site.

http://brotherwisegames.com/

 

 

Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid Review

Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is a game by Jonathan Ying, published by Renegade Game Studios. It is for 2-5 players. In this game, players take on the roles of the Power Rangers as they battle Rita Repulsa and her army of monsters. Players will need to work together as they defend Angel Grove from the neverending swarm of Rita’s Putties. Of course their powerful Zords will be there to help turn the tide and form the mighty Megazord. In the end, if the players are able to withstand Rita and her onslaught, the world will once again be safe and they will be declared the winners

To begin, each player chooses one of the Rangers to play as and receives the corresponding Ranger miniature, character card and character combat cards. Each player is also given 2 action tokens and 1 energy token. Players shuffle their combat cards to form their combat deck, placing it face down in front of themself. Players will now draw as many cards from their deck as they wish, up to their hand size of 5 cards. The Command Center board is placed in the middle of the play area. Each player places their Ranger miniature on the Command center and 3 energy tiles are placed alongside the figures. The 4 location boards are placed randomly around the Command Center board. The combat dice, hit tokens, panic tokens and energy tokens are all placed in separate piles near the main boards to form the supply, along with the lead Ranger token and all the enemy figures. The power board is placed near the main boards with the power marker placed on the 0 space on the bottom of the board. The Megazord token is placed near the board. The regular Zord cards are shuffled together to form the Zord deck. The Megazord card is placed on the bottom of the shuffled deck. The deck is then placed face down onto the power board. The foot soldier deployment cards are shuffled and divided into 4 face down piles of 5 cards each. Two monster deployment cards are chosen randomly without looking at them. One of the two cards is shuffled into the 2nd stack and one into the third stack of cards. The boss deployment card is shuffled into the 4th stack. The stacks are then placed on top of each other to form the deployment deck with the first stack on top of the second, then the third and finally the fourth with the boss card in it. The enemy decks for the different types of foot soldiers are shuffled separately and placed face down nearby, along with the enemy decks. Play now begins.

The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round consists of 2 phases; Deployment phase and Action phase. The first phase is the Deployment phase. In the Deployment phase, there are 5 enemy deployments. This is done by revealing the top card of the deployment deck. The revealed card determines the number and type of foot soldiers that are taken from the supply. the back of the next card determines which location the figures are placed. Once a deployment is resolved, the revealed card is placed face up in a discard pile next to the deployment deck. If at any time a location contains a number of enemy figures equal to it’s figure limit, it becomes panicked. This is shown by placing a panic token on the location. It should be noted that if a monster or boss deployment card is the next card in the deployment deck when revealing the top card, then it is also revealed and placed along with the previously revealed foot soldier. The location these figures are placed is determined by the next card in the deployment deck. When this happens, it only counts as 1 deployment. The boss or monster’s enemy deck is shuffled and placed face down near the other enemy decks. The monster or boss card is then removed from the game. Also of note, when a boss or monster figure is placed on a location, the location automatically becomes panicked. A panic token is then placed on the location. However, if a monster or boss figure is to be placed on a location that is already panicked, the monster or boss figure is instead placed in the next clockwise location that is not panicked. One last thing of note, if enemy figures are to be placed in a location that is already panicked, the additional figures are deployed to the next location clockwise that is not panicked. Once all 5 enemy deployments have been resolved, the foot soldier cards from the discard pile are shuffled together and placed on the bottom of the deployment deck face down.

The next phase is the Action phase. In the Action phase, each Ranger will spend their action tokens to perform actions. Each time an action is performed, the player flips over one of their action tokens. There are 3 types of actions that a player may take; move, battle and recover. The first action is to move. When the move action is chosen, the player may move their Ranger figure to any other location, regardless of distance. They may even move back to the Command Center to power up. To power up, the player shuffles all the cards from their hand and their discard pile back into their deck. They will then draw a new hand of up to 5 cards. They will then take 1 energy token from the supply, if they don’t already have one. It should be noted that powering up does not count as an action. It is a free action.

The next type of action is to battle. When performing the battle action, the player initiates a battle between the Rangers and any enemies in the player’s current location. The player that initiates the battle, will take the lead Ranger token. They will then follow 4 steps to resolve the conflict. First, the rangers must prepare. Players start by adding 2 energy tokens to the power board to create the shared energy pool. If a player has less than 5 cards in their hand, they are then able to draw as many cards as they would like, up to a hand size of 5. Players do this 1 card at a time and may stop when they wish or continue to draw more.

Next, the enemy prepares. This is done by counting the number of foot soldiers in the current location, then for each foot soldier, an enemy card is drawn from the matching enemy deck. As the cards are drawn, they are placed in a face up row from left to right. This is known as the combat sequence. If a card with the keyword “FAST” is drawn, it is placed at the left end of the row. It should be noted that during battle, there can never be more than 4 foot soldiers in a battle. If there are more than 4 foot soldiers in a location, then the lead Ranger chooses which 4 to battle and draws an enemy card for each one. If the location has a boss or monster figure on it, then the player must draw 4 cards from it’s exclusive deck. As these cards are drawn they are placed in a face up row as well from left to right, above the previous row in the combat sequence.

Once this is done, it’s time for the Rangers and enemies to take their turns. Combat will alternate back and forth between the Rangers and the enemies, with the Rangers normally taking the first turn. However, if at least 1 enemy card as the “FAST” keyword on it, then the enemies will take the first turn instead. On the Ranger’s turn, players choose one Ranger to be the active Ranger. That player will then play a combat card from their hand, spending energy tokens from the shared energy pool equal to the card’s cost. The card is then resolved and the player places the card into their own discard pile.

There are 3 different types of cards. They are attacks, maneuvers and reactions. Attacks are played against an enemy and the player chooses an enemy card as the target of the attack. If an attack roll is required, then the player will roll the number of dice shown on the card. Hits are dealt to the enemy based on the number of hits rolled and any special attacks or abilities from the card. Any hits dealt are represented by placing hit tokens on that enemies card equal to the amount of damage dealt. If an enemy has hit tokens on it equal to or greater than it’s health, then the enemy card is defeated and flipped face down in the combat sequence. When a foot soldier is defeated, one of the matching foot soldier figures is removed from the current location and placed on the experience track of the power board. Monsters and Bosses are a bit different. To defeat a monster, 4 of that monster’s cards must be defeated. At the end of a battle, if there are 4 or more cards in the monster’s discard pile, it is defeated. The monster and any remaining foot soldiers on the current location are returned to the supply. To defeat a boss, 6 of the boss’s cards must be defeated. At the end of battle, if there are 6 or more cards in the boss’s discard pile, it is defeated and the Power Rangers win. Maneuvers, when played, will normally provide energy or special ways to manipulate cards in the player’s hand, deck or discard pile. If a player gains energy, they will take the indicated number of energy tokens from the supply and places them into the shared energy pool. It should be noted, Rangers that participate in a battle may add their own stored energy tokens to the shared pool at any time. They may also spend any unused actions to gain energy by adding 2 energy tokens for each stored action token flipped. Reactions may be played out of turn in response to a certain event or circumstance.

On an Enemy’s turn, the cards in the combat sequence will be resolved, starting with the leftmost and topmost card in the combat sequence that has not been resolved yet. To resolved an enemy card, all the effects listed on the card are carried out. The card is then rotated 90 degrees to indicate it has been resolved. It should be noted, if a card has already been defeated and is turned face down, then no effects occur when it is resolved. Enemy cards have 3 different keywords that should be noted. They are FAST, GUARD and PASSIVE. FAST, as noted earlier, places the card at the beginning of the row of enemy cards and it allows the enemies to take the first turn in battle. GUARD protects any cards adjacent to it horizontally or vertically in the combat sequence. This means that Rangers may not attack those adjacent cards until the card with this keyword has been defeated first. PASSIVE contains an ongoing effect that is active until the card is defeated.

When an enemy card deals damage, the players must choose a Ranger participating in the battle to suffer the damage dealt by the card, unless otherwise specified. When a Ranger suffers damage, they must reveal the top card of their deck for defense. They will then compare the shields along the bottom of the card to the damage dealt by the enemy card. If the number of shields is greater than the amount of damage, then the card revealed is placed back on the bottom of the player’s deck face down. If the number of shields is equal to the amount of damage, then the revealed card is discarded. If the number of shields is less than the amount of damage, then that much damage is absorbed by the shields and the revealed card is discarded. The Ranger must then reveal the deck card from their deck and compare it’s shields to the remaining damage that wasn’t absorbed. This continues until the number of shields is greater or equal to the remaining damage. It should be noted, that if a Ranger’s combat deck is ever empty, then the Ranger is defeated. The player must then remove an energy token from the Command Center. If there are no energy tokens remaining in the Command Center at this time, then the Power Rangers lose. Otherwise, the player will then place their figure back at the Command Center. The player will then shuffle all their cards from their hand and discard pile together. They will then draw a new hand of up to 5 cards. They will also take an energy token from the supply, if they don’t already have one. If the player defeated was the lead Ranger, then the lead Ranger tokens is passed to another Ranger that is still in the battle. If all the Rangers in a battle are defeated, then players proceed to the battle cleanup step of the battle. Also of note, some enemy cards may drain energy. To do this, the number of energy tokens indicated on the card are removed from the shared energy pool and discarded back to the supply. If there aren’t enough energy tokens in the shared energy pool to equal the number drained, then stored energy tokens from Rangers participating in the battle must be used to make up the difference. If there aren’t enough there, then for each remaining energy that would be drained, a Ranger participating in the battle must discard a card from their hand.

One last thing of note, when Rangers defeat enemy foot soldiers they are placed on the experience track. Each time the experience track fills up with defeated foot soldiers or a monster is defeated, then the Rangers may summon a Zord. To do this, the players will reveal the top card of the Zord deck and advance the power marker one space forward on the power track. If the Zord was summoned due to the experience track filling up with foot soldiers, then those soldiers are returned to the supply. When a Zord card is summoned, the card is placed in front of the corresponding Ranger. The Ranger may then use the Zord’s ability by exhausting the card, rotating it by 90 degrees. At the end of each round, all exhausted Zords are readied, rotating them back upright. The Megazord is always the last card in the Zord deck. When the power marker reaches 6 on the power track, the Megazord is summoned. At this time, the Megazord card is revealed and placed near the power board. Any Ranger may then use the Megazord’s ability. When it’s ability is used, the Megazord token is placed on the the location affected. Once the Megazord is revealed, no other Zords may be summoned. Defeated foot soldiers are no longer added to the experience track.

Rangers and Enemies will continue going back and forth taking turns until the last enemy card in the combat sequence has been resolved. Once this happens, the Rangers get 1 final turn, then the battle ends. The battle can also end if all the enemy cards are defeated. This will then takes us to the final step of battle, the battle cleanup step. At this time, if there are any remaining energy tokens in the shared pool, then the Rangers that participated in the battle may split them up evenly among themselves. It should be noted that a Ranger may only store 1 energy token at a time. Any excess tokens not able to be taken by Rangers are discarded. All of the foot soldier, undefeated monster and boss enemy cards are removed from the combat sequence and shuffled back into their respective decks. Defeated monster and boss enemy cards are placed in face up discard piles next to their respective enemy decks. If the current location was panicked, but there are no more enemy figures in the current location after the battle, then the location is no longer panicked. The panic token is then removed from the location.

This takes us to the third type of action, recover. When performing the recover action, the player will choose cards from their discard pile with a total of up to 6 shields on the bottom right corner of the cards. These cards are then shuffled back into the player’s deck. They will then take an energy token from the supply, if they don’t already have one.

Once all players have taken all their actions, the round is over. Players will then flip their action tokens face up and ready any exhausted Zord cards. A new round will then begin.

The game continues until one of three different things happens. If all 4 of the locations around the Command Center are panicked at the same time, the game ends and the Power Rangers lose. If a Ranger is defeated when there are no more energy tokens at the Command Center, then the Power Rangers lose. If the Rangers are able to defeat the boss in battle and survive until the end of that battle, then the Power Rangers win.

COMPONENTS
The components for this game are Morphenomenal! Let’s just start with the parts that everyone wants to play with…the miniatures. These things are absolutely huge compared to other miniature games. While the sculpting on them isn’t the most detailed in the world, each one is super easy to tell apart from the others. The Rangers figures are all color coded. That means the Red Ranger is red and the Yellow Ranger is yellow. How cool is that? The putties, monsters and Rita figures are all a light shade of gray and each one looks ready to be painted. Oh yes, these bad boys want to be painted. As a matter of fact, this may end up being the game that gets me back into painting miniatures again. I was never great at it, but I was good enough to get the job done. Back to the minis, each one of them looks like it was ripped right from the show and is ready to battle it out on your table top. Next there are all the different cards. There are character cards, enemy cards and deployment cards for bosses, monsters and foot soldiers. There are also combat cards and zord cards. The artwork on these is absolutely amazing. If you’re familiar with the more recent version of the comics from artist Dan Mora, then you’ll recognize the art style here. Each piece of art on each card and throughout the game and rulebook looks like it came from the comics. I absolutely love the art style and have enjoyed reading the comics, so for me this is a huge win. The game also comes with several boards and tokens made of thick cardboard. There’s the power board, the command center and the location boards. Once again, these contain artwork with the same artistic style. Then there are the tokens, there are energy tokens, action tokens, panic tokens, hit tokens, the Megazord token, lead Ranger token and power marker. The Megazord token has a nice art piece of the Megazord, while the lead Ranger token has the lightning bolt design representative of the show. The hit tokens, action tokens and panic tokens are simple designs of blasts, arrows and exclamation points, while the power marker looks like the outline of a power morpher from the show. Finally there are the dice. These are really nice quality but a little bland looking with their sort of white see through look. Thankfully there are some nice replacements available to purchase that give you 2 of each of the main colors, including green and white. These 2 work with the green and white ranger that were available in the Kickstarter but should be available in retail eventually as well. In any case, I’m completely overwhelmed with the sheer amount of coolness that comes in this box. If that wasn’t enough, there’s lots of extra expansions and bits like the dice that can be purchased and added to the game to give it even more to love. Needless to say, this is one that absolutely love everything about. Two thumbs way up!
9 out of 10

RULEBOOK
The rulebook for this game is actually quite good. That starts with a 2 page spread of how to set up the game with some great looking pictures. Speaking of pictures, the rulebook has plenty of pictures and examples throughout it. In fact, the examples are really good at explaining some of the more difficult rules to understand. Not that the rules are hard, just that some things might be a bit more unclear without the examples to help out. The gameplay is explained in very good detail. However, I wish that the rules had been a bit more streamlined. As it is, the rules will introduce a concept and then a page or more later it will explain that concept, which will then introduce another new concept. You get the idea right? By the time you understand what was first discussed, you have to flip back several pages to get to where you were to begin with. The main example of this is in explaining the battle action. The action is introduced on page 8 which directs you to the next page which then begins to explain battling until page 10 where you’re directed to page 12 for more info on ranger and enemy turns. I think all this could have been as easy as 1, 2, 3, instead of forcing you to jump through the book. That said, the rules are quite clear and easy to understand and the jumping around is simply a minor inconvenience. When I need to look up a particular rule for clarification, it’s been pretty easy to find. The rulebook also includes special rules for playing with less than a full compliment of 5 players. There are rules for anywhere from 2 -4 players included near the back of the rulebook. The rules also include information on the location effects, which I didn’t mention in the overview. This involves the B side of the location boards and are for more advanced players with a higher level of difficulty. Also included in the rulebook are rules for adding in any of the expansion content found in stores or from Kickstarter. The back page of the rulebook has a great gameplay reference sheet that quickly explains various aspects of the game like the round structure and ranger actions. It also references the different icons found on the cards for both rangers and enemies. Overall the rulebook does a good job at providing all the pertinent information to play the game with very little fuss. I’m quite pleased.
8 out of 10

GAMEPLAY
Let me simply start off by saying, this is an insanely fun game. I have really enjoyed playing it. In a lot of ways, you feel like a power ranger fighting Rita and her army of putties and monsters. However in a game sense, it’s feel more like a tower defense game…kind of. I mean, like a tower defense game, you’re trying to keep the bad guys out of your castle. In this game, you’re trying to keep the putties and monsters from panicking too many locations. In both cases, you lose if the bad guys get into where they’re trying to get to. So the idea is to not let this happen, of course you have to make sure that you have the right cards when you need them. That relies heavily on hand management. You have to know when to draw another card and when is the right moment to use that card in your hand. Some times your actions will pretty much be decided for you ahead of time. Such as when a location gets panicked, you’ll want to clear out that area or at least keep any other areas from getting panicked in the meantime. I have to say that using the character’s combat cards as their life is an ingenious way of dealing with health points. I don’t think a card with a couple of tokens thrown on them to indicate hit points would have had the same effect that this does. Every time you use a card, you have to be thinking about how that’s gonna affect your character down the road. Is it really worth losing a card from your deck and thus a bit of your life force simply to take down this single putty patroller? These are the struggles that you’ll discover when playing this game. It really forces you to weigh your options heavily and it can be stressful, but in a good way. I like that this game really makes things tense, especially when Rita comes out and you’re then fighting for your life. Needless to say, this has become one of my favorite games to come out this year. I always loved watching the power rangers back when I was younger and with the advent of Netflix, I’ve been able to share the show with my daughter. Guess what, she loves it too! As a matter of fact, last Halloween she dressed up as the Pink Ranger. Imagine my surprise! As for the game, she has really enjoyed playing this one with me. However it seems that shes become more taken with the Yellow Ranger now, go figure. In any event, this is a great game and it’s one that can bring father and daughter together in a love for giant monsters and super powered monster fighters. Fans of tower defense games like Castle Panic should enjoy the feel that this game gives players. This is also a game that Power Ranger fanatics like myself will absolutely love. This is a game that I highly recommend. It’s great for families and it’s great fun.
9 out of 10

OVERALL
Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is a cooperative game of super charged martial arts fun where players get to take on the forces of Rita Repulsa and her army of baddies. The game isn’t too long. Most game sessions last around an hour or so, however the first couple of times you play may take a bit longer. The game looks amazing with some really huge miniatures and awesome looking artwork on every card. The cards and boards have some truly amazing looking artwork that I absolutely love. The rulebook, while it does jump around a bit, is pretty easy to find what you’re looking for and it does a great job of giving you all the required information to play the game. I especially like that the rules provide for playing with any number of players, changing up the gameplay a little bit each time. The game itself is a whole lot of fun. In some ways it makes me think of a tower defense game with a bit of hand management thrown in. The tension that this game provides is intense. Many times I found myself struggling with my next move as I was afraid of letting down the team, much like any good Power Ranger would. For me, this game truly makes you feel like a Power Ranger and each character plays different than the others making for lots of replayability. I love this game and so does my daughter. She loved playing it and likes that we work together instead of playing against each other. This is a game that fans of the Power Rangers will absolutely love, as I did. I also think that fans of games like Castle Panic or any other tower defense style games will also enjoy this one. This is a game that I highly recommend. It’s definitely one that I look forward to playing again and adding in some of the expansion materials, once I get my hands on them. Needless to say, this is a great game and it is a family friendly one to boot. I can’t wait to play it again. So as the Power Rangers say, “It’s Morphin’ Time!”
9 out of 10

For more information about this and other great games, please check out Renegade Game Studios at their site.

https://www.renegadegamestudios.com/