On my penultimate day I was working my way back from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City for the flights home the next day. It’s 7 hrs of driving, add on break times. One of my google searches for the 10 best things to see in Idaho mentioned the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, which turns out to be not exactly the most picturesque town on my trip. But still, it’s approaching lunch time as I’m getting closer to Blackfoot so … right, let’s do it, you’re only here once. But only after I’ve braced myself with a burrito bowl because I kind of suspect what I’m getting myself into. Especially as one of the other items in the ‘10 best things to see in Idaho’ was the Japanese Garden in Idaho Falls which turned out to be a smattering of bushes and paths on a 50 metre strip wedged between a 6 lane main thoroughfare through the city and a rusting metal rail bridge. Now I’ve been to Japan and seen some amazing gardens, and I’ve seen arguably the best two in Australia (Toowoomba of all places and Cowra, which I understand, both being sister cities to Japanese cities) and I’ll have to admit that the Idaho Falls version may have struggled to provide the serenity and beauty one may have hoped for. Anyway, having this as a measure of the best 10 things to see in Idaho, I was prepared and expectations were set.
In a nutshell, the museum masterfully reproduced Wikipedia text and pictures on the walls so I did not lack for reading matter. I’m now familiar with the Maine man’s collection of 500+ potato peelers which he had spent a lifetime collecting, a portion of which was graciously donated to the museum. And I’ve been on a virtual reality tour of a potato harvester in action. Sadly I didn’t get to sample any of the 20 different potato-focused items on the café menu given the burrito bowl was still fueling my journey.
The best bit? The museum is nestled in the old railway station. As I was leaving, a huge train horn blast rent the air and along the train came (probably after trundling over Idaho Fall’s rail bridge, swelling the serenity in the Japanese garden). It bore two engines, both proudly bearing the name “Union Pacific”. One of my earliest purchases when I first started gaming in 1999 was Union Pacific, designed by Alan Moon, who started the Gathering of Friends. I smiled at the lovely punctuation point it provided for my gaming trip.
New-to-me games played recently include …
BELRATTI (2018): Rank 2025, Rating 7.0
One team choose a bunch of picture cards that match as best they can to the target picture cards. Throw in some random cards, shuffle, and the other team have two shots at correctly weeding out the non-randoms. It was kind of fun in that Mysterium / Dixit kind of vibe, trying to work out what facets of each picture might plausibly have been used to help get a match. The more fun the group, the more fun it is but, ultimately, picture matching doesn’t really sate my gaming lust.
Rating: 6
BOMB BUSTERS (2024): Rank 342, Rating 8.0
It’s like an all-grown-up Coda, but now with substance and theme. Which is a good thing. You need to guess exactly where the tiles are on other player racks that match your tiles. You start with a bit of knowledge to get things going, and with each guess you can gradually work out new tile knowledge. I enjoyed the quiet and careful process of elimination … and the satisfaction of a mission well played as it all unfurled. Clearly it’s best when every player at the table loves this stuff, are paying attention, and are good at it, and you’ll be rewarded with missions that get more and more challenging. With a table of players who care less, it’ll be a lesser experience.
Rating: 7
CALIMALA (2017): Rank 1413, Rating 7.2 – Lopiano
One of the most abstract Euros I’ve seen in a while. The action spots are on a grid and you choose which two adjacent actions you’d like. This generates interesting decisions. You want a spot that others will soon use as well because then you get to activate again. Choose an unpopular spot and there’ll be no soon-after bonuses. Once there though it’s a procession of getting resources, spending resources to get stuff out faster, and filling out the 15 area majority spaces as fast and smart as you can, concentrating on those that will score earlier during the game. Look, it all worked well, it plays solidly. However I’m ok doing abstract for a quick game but for 90 minutes … it just doesn’t pull me in.
Rating: 6
DEEP DIVE (2023): Rank 3422, Rating 6.6
Push your luck – take the initial tile you flip over or move to the next deeper level for the chance of getting a higher scoring tile but at greater chance of crashing with nothing. That’s it. Repeat. Duration is appropriate, there’s some cheer/groan, and you can egg people on which is all fine but don’t come here if you’re expecting a game any deeper than that. (NB: 3 designers, hmm.)
Rating: 6
FIT TO PRINT (2023): Rank 1099, Rating 7.3
Simultaneously in real-time flip and take tiles from the centre, take, take, take. Ok, I think I’ve got enough that will fill my board and satisfy placement requirements. Stop. Start the clock for everyone to finish. Fill your grid with your tiles. Score. Finding the right tile mix of ads (which can’t be placed next to each other), photos (which score for colours next to each other), and news stories, all with the right sizes and shapes to fill your grid without going over is tricky and challenging. I enjoyed the one-off exploration play, and that the 3 rounds finished in 30 mins, but not being a fan of time-pressure games means I likely won’t go back.
Rating: 6
FRUITOPLAY (2023): Rank 9356, Rating 6.8
It’s a simul-reveal trick-taking game, where the winner will be closest to the card in the display. If your cards aren’t same suit or near-value to anything in the display, good luck. By the end, add your remaining cards to your won tricks and your score is your longest suit times your shortest suit. It’s basically play and see what happens, try your best, and then lament that simul-reveal mostly sucks and the cards meant you never had a chance. A little more agency would be nice.
Rating: 5
MISTBORN: THE DECKBUILDING GAME (2024): Rank 1817, Rating 7.8
There are two elements that attract me. Firstly, how the theme is incorporated in the play, how you burn/use a metal token to activate an effect. Which has implications for deck-building (cards are purchased from an open display) re generalising to use multiple metal tokens vs specialising in one metal. Because if you have cards in one metal, you can also discard those to get a virtual metal. Or trash the metal and hope to repair it later. Hard decisions. Cards provide three things – gold (for cards), status (to climb tracks for the win), and attack (eliminating the other players). Which normally I’d rail against but I loved the targeting system – move the target on once you’re hit or keep it and spray everyone with your attack once it’s your turn. Everyone reduces in health roughly equally so all good. Different ways to win, different strategies to explore. Deck-building games are always enjoyable and this one shines due to the mechanics invoking the theme so well.
Rating: 8
NUTS A GOGO! (2021): Rank 12724, Rating 6.3
Everyone races to fill their cups with wooden pieces of various shapes from the box. Then you take turns choosing and discarding a shape from your cup. If someone can’t discard a matching piece, they’re out of the game. That’s it. It’s 5 minutes of very stupid and pointless, but it can be fun if you make it.
Rating: 5
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Thoughts of other Opinionated Gamers:
Larry: Here are my thoughts on the ones I’ve played.
Belratti – I’m unbelievably awful at Dixit and, particularly, at Mysterium, so I didn’t have high hopes for this. And while a lot of the clues were tenuous at best, there were also some moments of cleverness. I liked it more than I thought I would, although, granted, that was a low bar. So a Neutral rating, but I could be talked into playing it again.
Bomb Busters – I really enjoy this and thought it would be perfect for my Friday night group of middleweight gamers. We played one introductory game and won fairly easily, so I enthusiastically said, “It’s time to open up the first box!”. Oh, no, they all said, one game is enough. Seems like they thought it was too stressful. So I’m not sure it will make a repeat appearance, which is definitely a downer. I love deduction games, but I have to remember that many folks don’t, so I may have to wait to find the right venue to explore this game some more. Rating: I really like it.
Calimala – I’m almost certain I played this when it first came out, but I remember almost nothing about it. Which, I guess, tells you all you need to know about it. Rating: Neutral.
Talia: I once said: “The key is to find games that you can enjoy with your friends and to find friends with whom you can enjoy your favorite games.” And after reading Alison’s snapshots, I’m reminded of how important that really is. I enjoy Belratii and Fit to Print so much! The key really is to find other games that I can enjoy with friends like Alison and Larry (such as Watergate or Apiary), and other people that I can enjoy games like Belratii and Fit to Print with. It’s no surprise that I give Belratti high marks since I’m a long-time fan of Dixit and its spiritual successor Mysterium. The group discussions and thought process of approaching a game like Belratti is something I enjoy so much, especially given all the different ways you can approach the clue-giving and picture matching. And similarly, it’s also not a surprise that I love Fit to Print, given how much I adore Galaxy Trucker and its spiritual predecessor Factory Fun. Time pressure in games can be such a blast (for me), and the artwork and thematic presentation in Fit to Print really elevates the game (for me). I’m personally so glad to get to play the silly cooperative picture guessing/matching game of Belratti and the adorable time-pressure spatial puzzle of Fit to Print – but I’ll gladly find other games to play with Alison and Larry (as long as it’s not a mind-numbing deduction game like Bomb Busters)!
Alison: Talia, beautifully said!
Fraser:
Bomb Busters: Melissa, Daughter the Elder and I really enjoy this three player. More than three it needs a round table or I need a telescope. We probably don’t play competition rules, but have an exciting time.
Calimala: Played it at Essen the year it came out and liked it enough to buy it and bring it home. It hasn’t hit the table much since then, but was good each time it did. Its biggest minus for me is that it is three players or more.
