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)

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Zoom in Barcelona

• Designers: Nuria Casellas, Eloi Pujadas, Joaquim Vilalta
• Publisher: Blue Orange
• Players: 2-6
• Ages: 8+
• Time: 30-45 min
• Times played: probably 10 total – 2, with review copy provided by Blue Orange and probably at least 8 with original produced by Cucafera

Barcelona is a fantastic city which I’ve had the pleasure to visit a few times during my travels. I have many fond memories of walking along La Rambla and seeing the wonderful sights.  When I saw that there was a game coming at SPIEL 2019 themed around taking pictures of the wonderful sights in the city, I had to give it a try. In Zoom in Barcelona, players are competing in a photo contest where they are trying to take the best pictures – but they’ll have to travel around the city to get to the best pictures of city landmarks as well as views of the city skyline.

This game was well received here in 2019, and I ended up giving it to one of my local gamers as a wedding gift as they liked the game AND they took their honeymoon in Barcelona – so it seemed like a fitting home for the game.  I missed it a bit when I gave it away, but as things go – new games came into the collection, and I didn’t think much about it.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Blue Orange has produced a new 2021 version of this game, and I was glad to get another copy and get it back to the table.  From what I can tell, it is a straight reprint, as I could not find any changes from what I remembered from the original…

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