Dale Yu: Review of Top Ten Quiz

Top Ten Quiz

  • Designers: Julien Gupta, Johannes Berger
  • Publisher: Chili Island
  • Players: 4-14
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with copy provided by publisher

Top Ten Quiz

Chili Island is a new imprint, one that focuses on family games – from the company page on BGG:ย 

  • Creative, communicative, and cooperative – are our games.
  • Easy as pie – are the rules to our games.
  • Artistic – are the cover and the game materials.
  • Critical – are we about plastic, climate change, and discrimination.

I was given a set of three of their newest releases at GenCon 2022, and we gave them a try at a recent family reunion.ย  Most of the players were not gamers, but I felt like this was the sort of audience that Chili Island is looking for.

Top Ten Quiz pits two teams against each other: โ€œTry to gain as many points as possible with your team. You will achieve this by giving up to ten correct answers for each Top-Ten-Chart.โ€ย  The game comes with 14 sets of 7 Top-Ten-Charts.ย  In any particular game, youโ€™ll only need one set of 7 cards.

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Dale Yu: Preview of Rise & Fall

Rise & Fall

  • Designer: Christophe Boelinger
  • Publisher: Ludically
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age:14+
  • Time: 45-90 minutes
  • Played with preview copy provided by publisher

rise & fall

Christophe Boelinger is a prolific game designer – having over 60 titles to his name.ย  He is a very versatile designer, creating a diverse collection of games.ย  In the past, we have looked at Archipelago, 4 Gods, and Earth Reborn.ย  This newest release, set to go on Kickstarter at the end of the summer, is a full control strategic game. Each player controls a civilization trying to expand and progress in a fantasy world. This world displays a unique landscape where glaciers live on islands and huge cliffs are common barriers and challenges to overcome. Continue reading

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Patrick Brennan: Game Snapshots โ€“ 2022 (Part 5)

Iโ€™ve been exploring Ark Nova and Dune:Imperium quite a bit over the last month or so.

ark-nova

Ark Nova is still providing rich exploration pickings and Iโ€™ve upped its rating to a 9 โ€“ there seems to be a constant urge to play yet another (despite the length) and see how that turns out.

ย 

Dune: Imperium is holding steady at an 8 โ€“ Iโ€™m enjoying trying different approaches based on the cards available, and how every approach seems to get everyone there or thereabouts at the same pace for a close endgame. It feels like it needs another layer to truly shine. I donโ€™t know if the expansion does that or not โ€“ generally Iโ€™d rather fork out for a new game rather than pay the price of the game again for an expansion that comes out within (exaggeration filter on) a week of the original. Iโ€™ll make an exception for those few games that have real legs โ€“ not sure if this will qualify but I do love its euro-implementation of theme.

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Matt Carlson: Gen Con “Stuff”

I always like to take a few photos of things that catch my eye in order to present you, the reader, a brief glimpse into all that is Gen Con. This year, I was also able to see the convention in a new way, as I brought my two boys, my friend, and his two boys to the convention for the first time. We spent a great Sunday looking over things. Many, many trips to the dice vendors and we only got seriously lost (from each other) once. Lets here it for the CoolStuff, Inc booth as it was centrally located and had a very visible banner – great for a “lost” meeting place.


We’ll start off with a journey through the show through the eyes of a newcomer.

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Dale Yu: Review of Soul Mates

Soul Mates

  • Designers: Julien Gupta and Johannes Berger
  • Publisher: Chili Island
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

soulmates

Chili Island is a new imprint, one that focuses on family games – from the company page on BGG:ย 

  • Creative, communicative, and cooperative – are our games.
  • Easy as pie – are the rules to our games.
  • Artistic – are the cover and the game materials.
  • Critical – are we about plastic, climate change, and discrimination.

I was given a set of three of their newest releases at GenCon 2022, and we gave them a try at a recent family reunion.ย  Most of the players were not gamers, but I felt like this was the sort of audience that Chili Island is looking for.

Soulmates asks you: How well do you really know your friends โ€“ can you find your soulmate?ย  In each round, use one of 125 short scenarios with four possible answers. First you decide for yourself, then you guess your fellow playersโ€™ decision.ย  ย  Each player gets a set of Ego Chips and Evaluation cards in their color.ย  Additionally, there are split-colored boards in all the player colors; get out all the boards so that all of the color combinations in your game are present on the table.ย  The scenario deck is shuffled and the appropriate number of cards is drawn.

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Matt Carlson: Gen Con 2022 – Digital

Most gamers prefer a head-to-head boardgame experience, but sometimes thatโ€™s just not an option – thus the rise of digital adaptations. Long gone are the days when Ticket to Ride was the only big name on the app store and almost any strong selling game will get a digital port. Hereโ€™s a few I came across while wandering between the boothsโ€ฆ


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