As always, the Restoration Games booth is a dangerous land of nostalgia, likely to drain your pocketbook if you’re not watching carefully. What I find interesting, is that I never played many of their “restored” games but I feel like I would have wanted to, giving me a sort of funny nostalgia of things I never played. Would that be ghost nostalgia or perhaps nostalgia deja-vu, the feeling that you’re nostalgic for something you’re just now playing? Regardless, the Restoration booth was firing on all cylinders showing off games heavy on “fun” and light on “serious.” The strategy level varies but many lean towards smashing things together (with rules of course) and seeing what happens. On the light end of the spectrum was the new stand alone release, Thunder Road Ignition, with slightly lighterweight rules than the base Thunder Road game. More Unmatched titles were on hand, with Unmatched: Stars and Stripes selling out and other releases being announced. The display with the most presence (possibly of the show) was the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Kings Gambit.

Continue reading →

If I had to pick one adjective for Devi’s booth, it would be colorful. From the rainbow pie pieces in the party game, One Round? To the wildly colorful Gaudi (not gaudy, though!) and its rondel, to the clay craftspeople (worker placement) of Nijar, and the over-the-top centerpiece of Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock. Each provides a riot of color (of which I’m not complaining, I’m a big fan of color…) Sure, the Rock Hard 1977 expansion Ear Candy isn’t exactly a rainbow. The goofy potion art of Risky Mixes has some color, but the moody, dark dice-battler 7th Seal isn’t going to show up on the color-o-meter. Overall, I felt like I was in a boardgame world of stained glass. But while the colors are nice, what about the games?

Continue reading →

The blue tables of Thames & Kosmos were busy with folks clamoring for more of what they like. The newest title in The Crew line, Journey to the Ends of the Earth and the deluxe version of The Gang were sold out every day. In addition to more in the Exit series (family, kids, holiday calendar, and regular versions) there was the new hot-potato-ish word game, Oh My Word and the co-op tower-rotating Temple Twist. Rounding out my booth visit was a mention of the “spicy-ish” party game Realtalk: Fourth Wing and the not-spicy flower-growing game, Wildblooms.

Continue reading →