Lisbon Tram 28

• Designer: Pedro Santos Silva
• Publisher: MEBO Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 45-60 minutes
• Times Played: 3, with review copy provided by MEBO Games

MEBO Games has been bringing challenging games from Portugal for years now.  I have gotten to know them quite well over repeated meetings at SPIEL, and their games over the past few years have been a delight to try – we have looked at Carrossel, Porto, and Arraial in the past.  This years release promises a tour of Lisbon, on the most famous tram line the city has to offer.

Many self guided tours of the city simply tell you to take this Tram and see what it has to offer – https://www.lisbonguru.com/tram-28-discover-lisbons-hidden-secrets/

In this game, you travel through Lisbon with this iconic tram, pick up passengers, and take them to visit some of the city’s monuments.  The board shows a stylized map with a number of scenic locations across the city, and there is a deck of Monument cards that show the types of tourists that want to visit those locations. The top 4 cards are placed face up on the board, and the orange cones are placed on the board at these locations so that you know where the target locations are found.  

Continue reading →

Free Ride

• Designer: Friedemann Friese
• Publisher: 2F
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 10+
• Time 55 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by 2F

I just received the newest game from 2F, Free Ride, and I was surprised to read the subtitle – the train game from Friedemann Friese.  For some reason, my brain has always felt that Power Grid was a train game.  In my game collection, it is actually shelved with the other train games, nestled between Age of Steam and Chicago Express.  Of course, there is not a single train in that game, just power lines.  But yet, the building of networks and connecting of cities has always reminded me of a train game.  However, this newest release, actually has trains…  Here, players tried to connect 45 different cities across Europe, and each tries to operate their own train line, trying to get tourists to see the most important sites in these 45 cities.

Continue reading →

Pan Am

• Designer: Prospero Hall (Lead Designer – Peter Lee)
• Publisher: Funko Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 60-90 minutes
• Times Played: 3 with review copy provided by Funko

(Cowritten by Dale Yu and Larry Levy)

In Pan Am, the players own small airlines during the early days of commercial aviation (the game runs from the 1920’s to the 1960’s).  Their goal is to claim routes between the major cities of the world, which generate profits.  At the same time, aviation pioneer Pan Am is aggressively expanding by snapping up such routes, including those of the players.  However, we players rarely mind such poaching, as Pan Am is willing to pay a pretty penny for those routes.  In fact, we’re so impressed by the company that we grab shares of Pan Am stock every chance we get.  At the end of the game, the player with the most shares of stock wins. Continue reading →

Mind MGMT

• Designers: Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim
• Publisher: Off the Page Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 13+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by the Publisher

MIND MGMT is a new secret movement game from a new company, Off the Page Games – but the people behind it are well known veterans of the gaming world.  This game is designed by the team of Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim – who have had other hits such as Junk Art, Belfort and Akrotiri.  The game is apparently based on a comic book – but not one that I had heard about before – some cursory Wikipedia research taught me:

MIND MGMT is an American comic book series created by Matt Kindt and published through Dark Horse Comics. The story is about Meru, a true crime writer who searches for the truth behind a mysterious airline flight and discovers a secret government agency of super spies, espionage, and psychic abilities. Henry Lyme, the former top agent, has gone rogue and is working to dismantle the organization.  MIND MGMT is a government agency of spies, formed during or after World War I, who have psychic abilities. Henry Lyme is recruited as a child, and becomes their greatest agent. The work exhausts him, and Lyme is retired to Zanzibar. While there, he has a breakdown and loses control of his abilities, causing the city’s inhabitants to murder one another. Lyme decides MIND MGMT is too dangerous to exist, and flees. In an effort to cover his escape, he accidentally causes everyone aboard a plane with him to develop amnesia.  Meru, a true–crime writer, investigates the amnesia flight two years later. She finds a lead in Mexico, where she meets a CIA agent named Bill. They are attacked by two former MIND MGMT agents, but escape. Meru eventually locates Lyme, who tells her his story. Meru learns she was a child in Zanzibar during the massacre and was saved by Lyme. He erased her memory of the event and arranged a foster family for her. During her investigative career she has located Lyme several times, but he continuously causes her to forget. She leaves determined to expose the truth about MIND MGMT, but falls asleep instead. Waking in her apartment, she decides to uncover the truth behind the amnesia flight… (There’s more, but hey, this is convoluted enough for you to get a feel for what is going on – or not going on – or what they want you to think is going on – or what you are supposed to see though you know what is going on, but they know that you know what is going on, so they have disguised everything as something else)

Continue reading →