Dale Yu: Review of Vivarium

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Dale Yu

Vivarium

  • Designer: Ferderic Vuagnat
  • Publisher: Studio H
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+ 
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by Studio H

Per the publisher: “1898, Siberia, the seismologist Edgar Vuntaf discovers a continent free of any human presence, sheltering a teeming life, in forms never encountered before! Unknown plants, colossal creatures… Faced with this shocking discovery, the world’s scientific elite, gathered in Paris for the Universal exposition, create the Vivarium Syndicate, and decide to send explorers into this new continent.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2022, Reviews | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Preview of Taiwan Night Market

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Dale Yu

Taiwan Night Market

  • Designer: Zong-ger
  • Publisher: Good Game Studio
  • Players: 3-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 60 minutes
  • Played with preview copy provided by Taiwan Boardgame Design (distributor)

“Welcome to Taiwan Night Market, the paradise for street food lovers! In this game, you play as an ambitious vendor trying to make a fortune by bidding on the best locations for your stalls and attract customers with your most delicious food. Can you outwit your competitors and be crowned the king of the night market vendors?  In Taiwan Night Market, every round you bid on the locations on the map and open stalls of 4 types of food and drink. If you can connect stalls of the same type together, they will earn you more!  Then, the customers will swamp in and buy the food they want at the first available stall they encounter. The locations are crucial for the traffic of customers, but bidding at the right amount is critical to win. At the end of the game, the player with the most money wins!”

I was given a chance to try out Taiwan Night Market with an early copy – the game should be coming to Kickstarter in Spring 2023.  As with all previews, please note that the version of the game that I played may not be the same as the final product (heck, it might not even be the same as the version of the game shown whenever the KS launches!).  I received my copy back in October 2022, so there has definitely been enough time for things to possibly change.

Continue reading →

Posted in Kickstarter, Preview | 1 Comment

Dale Yu: Review of Roller Coaster Rush

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Dale Yu

Roller Coaster Rush

  • Designer: Scott Almes
  • Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 15-30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In short: “Welcome to Roller Coaster Rush, a coaster-building game with oodles of kinetic fun! Your goal is to design and construct the best roller coaster for your investors’ theme park! At the start of each game, you design a model coaster using the blueprints you have available. During the game, you’ll attempt to actually construct your model by winning auctions for the track pieces you used in your design. If you lose an auction on one of your own blueprints, you’ll have to take that track out of your coaster – but if you win someone else’s blueprints you’ll get to add a new track to make your coaster bigger and better. Along the way, you can demo your model coaster for investors to see how well it works and earn some extra money for auctions. At the end of the game you get to unveil your fully constructed roller coaster and run it for the public. You earn victory points based on how far your marble makes it down the track. The player with the most points wins!“

Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Jiangnan

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Dale Yu

Jiangnan

  • Designer: DuGuWei
  • Publisher: Moaideas Game Design
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age 15+
  • Time: 90-120 minutes
  • Played with copy provided by publisher

It is the height of the Ming Dynasty. Literati artists hike and sail across the land searching for inspiration to compose the greatest works of the age. Those seeking the greatest fame present their work at the capital city of Nankin. However, aristocracy is fickle. Will you follow the latest trends, or start them?

Jiangnan: Life of Gentry is a worker placement and action tile bag building game for 1 to 4 players. Jiangnan can be played as a single scenario or through multiple campaigns. Players are literati and artisans of the elite gentry class living in Jiangnan, the prosperous region to the south of the Qinhuai River, and are highly skilled in literature, calligraphy, brush painting, and the musical and performing arts.

But you’ll need the skills of bureaucracy to drive and guide aristocracy to evolve your work from today’s latest trend to an everlasting classic to be sung and studied for thousands of years.  

Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: Review of Applejack

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Dale Yu

Applejack

  • Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
  • Publisher: The Game Builders
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 30-60 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher at SPIEL 2022

So, Uwe Rosenberg might be best known for his epic games (Agricola, Feast of Odin, etc).  But he’s also made a bunch of card games, and in recent years, lots of tile laying games.  Applejack falls into the tile laying genre, but this time with hexagonal tiles; a shape I don’t think he’s ever used before.

The publisher entices you with this description: “A wide orchard lies in front of Applejack’s cottage. Help him and his daughter plant apple trees and harvest the juicy apples. Don’t forget to set up the beehives between the trees. Because at the end of this game, whoever gets the most honey wins!”  We previewed this game around SPIEL 2022, but now that we’ve had a chance to play a few more times, it seemed like a good time to revisit the game.

Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2022, Reviews | 4 Comments

Dale Yu: Review of Let’s Go! To Japan

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Dale Yu

Let’s Go! To Japan

Per AEG: “In Let’s Go! To Japan, you are a traveler planning, then experiencing your own dream vacation to Japan. The game consists of thirteen rounds in which players draw activity cards illustrated by Japan-based artists and strategically place them in different days in their week-long itinerary. These can’t-miss tourist attractions will have you bouncing between Tokyo and Kyoto as you try to puzzle out the optimal activities to maximize your experience while balancing your resources. The game ends with a final round in which you ultimately go on your planned trip, activating each of your cards in order along the way. The player who collects the most points by the end of their trip wins!”

Continue reading →

Posted in Kickstarter, Preview, Reviews | Leave a comment