In Up or Down?, you build ascending and descending rows of cards, trying to place as many cards of the same color in a row as possible. Card rows with many cards of the same color score lots of points.
You and your family have lived in the marshlands for generations. But your hometown is getting crowded and you’ve heard of a group of villages to the west, in a landscape of azure lakes, where the constantly flowing water has created a maze of watery caves, sinkholes, underground streams, and porous bedrock. There’s opportunity to start a new life there, catching fish, living in a stilt house on the lake, and exploring the deep sinkholes for rare ingredients and rusty treasures. You’ve packed up your favorite fishing pole and strapped the baby to your back, ready for a fresh start. If only you’d known about the ghosts, you might have stayed where you were.
Above and Below: Haunted is a standalone sequel to Above and Below (The character tokens are compatible between editions), planned to release on the 10th anniversary of the original game. As in the original game, players compete to build the best village by recruiting villagers, constructing buildings, and exploring the caves below ground. Above and Below: Haunted features new stories and explores a new setting in the world of Arzium.
The village of Buttonville is undoubtedly the most glorious village of all time aside from one small problem: There’s no one there! In The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville, you slip into the role of a guild master and recruit new residents — quirky inventors, cunning traders, and fearless guards — to transform the sleepy little town into a place full of life and laurel wreaths.
Each round, you take two cards, whether directly from the market or blindly from the deck. Once you’ve gathered enough like-minded people, you lay down a set: three gossiping bards grant a song of power sounds, while four nimble blacksmiths provide a discount boost for additional recruits. Your sets provide instant effects, enhance each other, and ultimately yield victory points. Timing, a knack for probability, and a touch of luck with the cards are the key to your triumph.
What’s special about these cards? The synergies grow like ivy: the larger a set, the stronger its effect. Should you spontaneously play three identical cards or eagerly wait for the fourth? Add to that the modular market system, which sets up each game differently. Thanks to 25 different villagers, no game will be the same. Grab the guild flag now, recruit your troops, and secure the glory Buttonville deserves!
Stand your ground in the East Australian Current where you have to make your way as a sea turtle! You have a chance of winning Australis only if you have a wide range of strategies. Choose the right dice cleverly to form growing schools of fish and settle corals on different coral reefs. At the end of each phase, you will compete with your dice in an exciting contest. Which of you will be the best in this ecosystem of incredible diversity?
Point Galaxy takes the same simple concept of drafting cards and building the best combinations, and adds new layers of sequence building, set collection, and racing towards objectives to the mix – making the game easy to learn, but challenging for everyone!
Rules are simple: Take any two cards from the dynamic market and add them to your expanding galaxy. As you place cards, create solar systems by arranging planets in numeric order and earn bonuses by collecting suns, asteroids, moons, rockets, and research projects to score the most points!
There are over 140 unique double-sided planet/space cards, so you can create a completely different galaxy each and every time you play!
Last one from me for the year so let’s cover some 2025 stats:
– 310 new-to-me titles
– 424 different titles
– 818 plays
– SETI was played for the most minutes
– The Crew: Mission Deep Sea was played the most times (all on BGA)
– Faraway and Harmonies were played the most f2f (these are also available on BGA)
New-to-me games played recently include …
 | tikflash on My 20 Favorite Trick-Taking Ga… |
| tikflash on Imhotep (Game Review by Chris… |
 | james bongla on Feierabend (Game Review by Chr… |
 | Dale Yu on Dale Yu: Review of Point Galax… |
 | Phil D. on Dale Yu: Review of Point Galax… |
| Terra – GameAr… on Review of Terra by Friedemann… | |
 | Mark Jackson on Walking the Paths in Arydia |
 | Jacob on Walking the Paths in Arydia |
 | Bob McClaren on Talia Rosen: Fall Mini-Reviews |
 | Louisa Berry on Dale Yu: Review of Formidable… |
