Dale Yu: Review of Pinched!

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Pinched!

  • Designers: David Gordon, Jonathan Gilmour-Long
  • Publisher: Mighty Boards
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 60 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3ZcfNzP
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

As the wealthy flaunt their valuables, with their infinite money and privilege, the less fortunate of us are left to scheme on how to skim a bit off the top. You are not wealthy. You call your esteemed profession: “Wealth Redistribution” or, in layperson’s terms – burglary, ah – but burglary is such a harsh word – pinching, merely, and you’re darn good at it. Unfortunately, so are your “friends”.  Each turn, one player (burglar) becomes “The Mastermind”, planning their perfect, infallible Heist. In the meantime, the other burglars in town have been busy trying to guess where the break-in will be. If The Mastermind manages to go alone, they will take all valuables in that location for themselves, but if the other burglars guess correctly, and show up in the right place, they will be able to pinch some Valuables from The Mastermind’s Heist! The player who steals and sells the most Valuables, and hence “Redistributes” the most wealth is the winner.

 

 

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Dale Yu: Review of 7 Wonders Dice

Posted on February 12, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

7 Wonders Dice

  • Designer: Antoine Bauza
  • Publisher: Repos
  • Players: 2-7
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 25 minutes 
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/480ZMlC
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Guide one of the seven largest cities of antiquity to prosperity in 7 Wonders Dice. During the game, you will construct a wonder that defies time, make scientific advances, develop commerce, manage your resources, and handle your gold reserve prudently — all while keeping an eye on neighboring cities since ignoring them has a heavy price!  A game plays over a series of turns during which you will use dice to construct your city. At the end of the game, count up all of your points to see who has the highest score.

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Beastro

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Beastro

  • Designers: Matteo Uguzzoni, Jason Corace 
  • Publisher: Hello Mountain Games
  • Players: 3-6
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to Beastro, where mythical beast chefs compete to make the best dishes! Beastro is a team-based trick-taking game with hidden roles where you have to figure out who is in your team and outsmart the others, collecting as many tricks as possible for your team.  Each round you: (1) wager to become the Head Chef and select your Secret Chef teammate, (2) Cook crazy dishes in order to win the most tricks for your team, (3) Play special cards to ruin dishes and get bonuses at unique Restaurants!  Every game you will play as of the mythical Chef and use their beastly power only once to turn the odds in your favour.  Beastro is played over a series of three round and the player with most point at the end will be the winner.

 

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Carnuta

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Carnuta

  • Designers: Yohan Goh, Hope S. Hwang, Gary Kim 
  • Publisher: Repos Production
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 25 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to the annual ceremony that brings together druids from distant lands! Eight secret ingredients have been selected, and your task in Carnuta is to combine them carefully and assemble your runes to create an exceptional potion.

 

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Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2026 (Part 7)

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

New-to-me games played recently include …

SEERS CATALOG (2024): Rank 4270, Rating 6.9

Hand shedder where each player is dealt some secret powers to help shed. Which aren’t enough to help a bad hand and they slow things down a bit while people process but hey, the game was fine, playable, just not elevated.

Rating: 6

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Dale Yu: Review of EXIT: Adventures on Catan

Posted on February 8, 2026 by Dale Yu

EXIT: Adventures on Catan

  • Designers: Inka and Markus Brand
  • Publisher: KOSMOS
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 1-2 hours on the box (92 minutes IRL with our group of 4)
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4rEcP3j
  • Played with review copy provided by Thames&Kosmos

The EXIT series was one of the original puzzle-game franchises to hit the market when the escape room game craze took off a few years ago. To date, my family and I have been able to play all of the ones released here in the US, and this is a series that we continue to look forward to future installments. While there are many worthy competitors in the genre, the EXIT series is possibly the best known of the bunch – due in part to the initial set of games being awarded the 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres award.

 

I received this EXIT adventure right near the end of 2025, and it had been awhile since our last experience with this franchise.   We did have to wait a week to make sure that everyone in our regular group was available because these escape room games (like all their other EXIT predecessors) can only be played once. Once you know the puzzle solutions, you really can’t play the game again. Additionally, the game may require you to destroy or deface some of the components, and that also makes it hard for someone else to play with a copy which has already been used.

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