Dale Yu: Review of Ace of Spades

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

Ace of Spades

  • Designer: Benja Amorin
  • Publisher: DEVIR
  • Players: 1-2
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 40 minutes 
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Your path of vengeance has led you to Sweet Haven, Arizona. You know that the necromancer who has ruined your life has taken over the cemetery as his base of operations and you are going to finish him off at all costs. You face Lord Overkill, a supernatural being, but your prowess as a gambler goes beyond sleight of hand.  Channel your magic through poker plays to take out Lord Overkill’s minions one by one and descend into Hell itself to duel the monster who ruined your life. Ace of Spades is a single-player game, or a two-player game if you prefer to play it in co-op mode, that uses poker mechanics to resolve dangerous duels against the worst spawns from Hell.

 

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Dale Yu: Review of Diceocracy

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

Diceocracy

 

  • Designer:  Tobias Hall
  • Publisher: All or None games
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 90 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher
A futuristic urban scene depicting a vibrant cityscape with neon signs, including 'DICE CRACY', viewed from a stylish indoor setting. The image features several stylized characters observing the city through a large window under rain.

Ever since you were a kid, your mama told you that you’re destined for grand things! So you’re pretty certain that things can only be better with more “you” in it! Well, it’s finally time for more YOU …in the name of democracy! It just so happens there is an election in the city of Dicetopia coming up! As one of the promising stop-for-nothing candidates, you call for change and aim to enlighten the public of your magnificence… and you know, also make some stuff… better! It’s only one teeny tiny little ”problem” – Democracy is kind of up to the people, and the people are in this particular case… well, DICE!

In Diceocracy, you will use your political skills to attract voters from different districts and introduce them to your jaw-dropping politics by ”any means necessary”, you know, as long as you can get away with it anyway. The goal of the game is to get the most votes by just being YOU, with a fair bit of stern persuasion and political tricks.  Throughout the game, players will send out their representatives to recruit followers and influence the political landscape with different clever actions. Players will manipulate dice values and positions, take control over districts and shift representatives around. They will fundraise, advertise and use their dice followers to achieve populistic goals for increased popularity. By the end of the game, votes are counted from successfully pulled off political stunts, secret agendas, controlled districts and popularity among the different demographic groups!

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2026 SdJ Nominations Announced

Posted on May 19, 2026 by huzonfirst

The Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) jury announced the nominated games for the SdJ, Kennerspiel (“connoisseur” games), and Kinderspiel (children’s games) awards earlier today and I think it’s safe to say that nobody had these titles on their Bingo cards. For each award, here are the nominated games and the recommended games, together with their designers and their publishers.

SdJ Nominated Games

  • Cozy Stickerville (Corey Konieczka) – Unexpected Games
  • JinxO/Dito! (Martin Ang) – Tabletoys Games/Game Factory
  • Morty Sorty Magic Shop (Markus Slawitscheck) – Schmidt Spiele

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Dale Yu: Review of Purrramid

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Dale Yu

 

 

Purrramid

  • Designer: Renier Knizia 
  • Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3PcZi55
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Your grandma loves cats – but she’s adopted so many that she can’t keep track of the mischievous furballs who refuse to settle down at bedtime.  Your mission? Help Grandma stack the kittens into the purrr-fect pyramid so they can finally get some shuteye. Roll dice, assign results to the board and decide: push your luck or play it safe? In this wacky, family-friendly game, you’ll need a combination of wit, strategy, and a little bit of feline furrrtune to claim victory.

 

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2026 Jogo do Ano Nominees Announced

Posted on May 15, 2026 by huzonfirst

One of my favorite annual game awards is Spiel Portugal’s Jogo do Ano (which is Portuguese for “Game of the Year”).  What I like about it is that the nominated games are all heavier ones and titles like that often don’t get much love from the more traditional awards, where accessibility has become increasingly important.  I also feel that they make excellent choices of which games to honor.  Just check out the games which have won the JdA this decade:

2020 – Barrage
2021 – Imperial Struggle
2022 – Imperial Steam
2023 – Carnegie
2024 – Nucleum
2025 – SETI

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Solo Gaming 2026: The First Four Months

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Mark Jackson
A collage of board game covers, each with unique artwork, showcasing titles like 'Perseverance', 'Kingdom Legacy', 'Tenby', 'Dead Reckoning', and 'NEOM'.

The new era of well-designed automata and solo modes for multiplayer games, coupled with excellent new solo game designs, is actually quite heartening to someone (me!) who finds something very satisfying about physically playing a game: shuffling cards, moving pieces, seeing it all spread out in front of you. (I will note that the new era has also brought some really weak solo modes for games that probably shouldn’t have had a solo mode in the first place, but I’m trying to focus on gratitude rather than griping in 2026.)

Solo gaming is now a decent-sized chunk of my gaming experiences – while I still play a lot of games with friends and family, 20% of my gaming in the first four months of 2026 was solo. Last year is was over 30% for the first few months, so this is a bit of a drop-off. For comparison, the yearly total for 2025 was 24%, the yearly total for 2024 was 31%, 2023 was 20%, 2022 was 22%, 2021 was 33%, 2020 was 19%, and 2019 was 6%. I’ve actually more opportunities for both online play (BGA and playtesting games on TTS) and in-person play this spring.

So, what follows are my thoughts on the twenty-five (25) different solo games I’ve played so far in 2026 – ordered by the number of times I’ve played them. (Note: this is not necessarily how much I like a particular game for solo play – for example, I think Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is an excellent solo game design but I haven’t played it [yet!] in 2026.)

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