Designers: Katarzyna Cioch, Sylwia Smolińska, Wojciech Wiśniewski, Mateusz Wolski

Artist: Tomasz Bolik

Publisher: Portal

Players: 2-5

Age: 8+

Time: 20 minutes (per scenario)

Review copy provided by Portal

Review by Jonathan Franklin (played six times with different players playing the AI & multiple scenarios)

You are stranded in space with four fellow astronauts. The players are in charge of getting the correct astronauts to the correct rooms in the space station. Sometimes that is not enough and they need to have numbered keys with them. If you get them to the right rooms with the right keys, you escape.

Oddly enough, none of you has any clue where the astronauts and keys should be. Only the AI knows. If you despise AI, just change the name to Ground Control and start calling the players ‘Major Tom’. Like in Mysterium and other cooperative one-with-many games, the AI (another player) needs to guide the other players to get the configuration correct within a certain number of rounds. Can your team of humans and AI live to try another mission? You’ll know after playing AI Space Puzzle.
Continue reading →

Designer: Peter Hayward
Artist: Snow Conrad

Publisher: allplay
Players: 2-6
Age: 6+
Time: 20 minutes
Review copy provided by allplay
Reviewed by Jonathan Franklin (played 7-8 times)

Things in Rings is the sort of party game I like. It is clever and leaves room for creativity. The gameplay is snappy and the post-game discussions can be as fun as the game itself.

Before we start, I must ask, “How do you feel about Venn diagrams?” Did you ever ponder whether something salty and sweet, is also salty or sweet? Can something be tall to an ant and short to a giraffe? If so, this is the game for you.
Continue reading →

Designer: 宮野 華也 (Kaya Miyano)
Artist: 別府さい (Sai Beppu)
Publisher: allplay
Players: 2-4
Time: 15 minutes
Age: 6+
Review copy provided by allplay
Reviewed by Jonathan Franklin (5 plays at 2-4 players)

Panda Panda is an an adorable and unusual card game. Originally called Cat Poker in Japan, it is now part of the allplay line of small box card games, even smaller boxes than Sail or Mountain Goats. I have put them with my Oink games to give you a sense of size.

One of the things I like most about card games is that coming in a small box, they can surprise you as being a larger game, a more curious game, or a wonderful riff on a classic. Panda Panda is in the curious, fun, and notable category.
Continue reading →