Dale Yu: Review of Glyphics

Glyphics

  • Designer: Eric Olsen 
  • Publisher: The Op
  • Players: 3-99
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3YxbPBj
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Bored with charades? Terrible at drawing? Then Glyphics is for you! Simply choose a word from your card, create using any shapes you need, and be the fastest guesser to win a point! Packed with a variety of game pieces and a vast array of prompts, every game night becomes a uniquely engaging tabletop adventure that’s never the same twice.

Continue reading

Posted in Essen 2025, Reviews | 1 Comment

Happy 15th Birthday to the Opinionated Gamers!

It’s amazing how much time flies when you’re having fun.  Fifteen years ago on this cold day, we published our first review – https://opinionatedgamers.com/2011/01/24/game-review-norenberc/

Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | 3 Comments

Dale Yu: Review of Leaders

Leaders

  • Designer: Hugo Frenoy 
  • Publisher: Studio H
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 10-20 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/498UswO 
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

What is the secret of this kingdom, where peace has reigned for thousands of years? Every spring, aspiring rulers recruit four allies and face off in unusual duels. No armies, no blood: the first to capture their rival wins. Your time has come. Tactical thinking, daring, and strategy will distinguish the true Leaders!

Create a team of unique Champions in order to defeat the opposing Leader! To win, either position two of your champions next to your opponent’s Leader to capture them, or skillfully maneuver so the opponent’s Leader is surrounded, leaving no adjacent empty spaces.

  Continue reading

Posted in Essen 2025, Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Biddle

 

Biddle

  • Designers: Ralf zur Linde, Carsten Rohlfs
  • Publisher: Amigo
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20-30 mins
  • Amazon affiliate link: 
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Bet, roll the dice, cross your fingers!

All dice higher than four? That’s possible with six throws!

Or even five? Will you bet the fewest throws for the dice challenge? Undercut each other until two teams are formed: One team accepts the dice challenge, the other bets against it.

Continue reading

Posted in Essen 2025, Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of House of Fado

House of Fado

  • Designers: Vital Lacerda, Joao Quintela Martins
  • Publisher: Eagle Gryphon Games
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 30-60 mins
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Portugal, some restaurants serve traditional Portuguese food alongside performances of fado, a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal and is often characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, while being infused with a sentiment of resignation, fate, and melancholy.

People spend their entire evenings in these restaurants, called Casa de Fado (“House of Fado”), dining and listening to the music, which speaks about “saudade”, a Portuguese word meaning “longing, nostalgia, yearning, missing something or someone”. Typically, there isn’t any rotation of the tables. Once you enter the restaurant, you stay until it’s closed.

In its traditional form, fado is played by a trio of musicians: a guitarist plays “Guitarra Portuguesa” (a twelve-string Portuguese Guitar); a singer, that is, a “fadista”; and a guitarist playing “Viola de Fado” (classical guitar). The Portuguese guitar has a unique sound, and the chords are played in different bars from those of the classical guitar.

In the game House of Fado, players have to manage their restaurant, attract customers, and contract and promote fadistas and musicians, thus gaining prestige for their fado house. Managers will move their staff members to different places to perform some actions, using the same bump action as in The Gallerist.

  Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Review of Echoes of Time

Echoes of Time

  • Designers: Simone Luciani, Roberto Pellei 
  • Publisher: Cranio Creations
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 30-60 mins
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3LzL38l
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In a fantastic and untouched land, four factions govern different aspects of this world: the ocean depths with their dark abysses, the gentle hills with windy meadows and protected forests, the vast and endless expanses of the night skies, and the mysterious and unexplored underground tunnels.  An ancient and powerful energy flows through these places, concentrating in hidden, inexhaustible sources. Controlling this power allows one to bend to their will life’s most important aspect: time, and the rhythms it imprints on the environment and every being.

Echoes of Time is a strategic game for 2-4 players in which you attempt to create the best-equipped fellowship of characters from different factions to conquer the sources of power. Try to control and modify the flow of time to outshine your opponents. The game includes more than one hundred cards with unique effects that you will use to build a new deck each game, and a “sliding tile” system guides you in managing the time needed for your cards to become usable, while simultaneously controlling the activation rhythm of their effects.

  Continue reading

Posted in Essen 2025, Reviews | Leave a comment