Escape Room The Game [OG Review] is a cooperative “escape the room” game from Spin Master Ltd. that was released in 2016. The base game contains four different Adventures for teams to explore and experience. Plays must work together to solve several puzzles before time runs out. Verifying that each puzzle has been solved correctly requires the use of an electronic Chrono Decoder and associated Keys. The Chrono Decoder is unique to this game system and is used in several ways, including: it’s the game timer, it contains various ciphers needed to solve puzzles, and it verifies the code – entered by inserting Keys into the device – for each part of the Adventure. Shortly after the release of Escape Room The Game, two separate expansion packs were also released for the game: Welcome to Funland (Difficulty 3.5/5) and
Murder Mystery (Difficulty 3/5). Continue reading
Roll Dice! Milk the Cow! Make Cheese & Ice Cream!
Dairyman is a push-your-luck dice-rolling game in which players compete as dairymen trying to collect fresh milk everyday, fulfilling orders, and making cheese and ice cream. Players take turns rolling, locking, and re-rolling dice to create sets of two or three dice with a total value of 10 to produce milk and then use it to claim milk tiles for points. Failure to produce milk may result in spoilage and the loss of a previously earned milk tile. There are opportunities to flip a tile to turn the milk into cheese for extra points or to freeze it into ice cream. This action provides an extra ability that can be used each turn. Flipping a milk tile also prevents it from being lost. The player with the most points on their milk, cheese, and ice cream tiles at the end of the game is the winner. Continue reading
Pups is competitive trick-taking card game in which players are dog trainers using their packs of loveable pups to complete in a series of legendary canine showdowns to become the top dog. During each of seven rounds, trainers will receive a pack of seven Pups, bid on how many showdowns can be won during the round, complete in a series of showdowns by playing Pups with the highest valued one winning, and then collect Reward Treats for successful bids or Penalty Poos for failures. The trainer that has earned the most overall treats wins and is declared Top Dog! Continue reading
Blend Off! is a real time game in which all players are frantically rolling dice to collect fruit, blending smoothies, and filling orders to earn gold stars. Makes total sense, right? To best understand the theme and mechanisms of the game, it’s important to know the backstory. Here it is as told in the rules…
Blend it Like Becca — a small-town smoothie shop sensation! It’s been a slow night. Becca the shop owner, Kevin the runner boy, and the Master Mixers – including you! – have started closing up shop. One minute before close, the door swings open. Outside, you see parked school buses and a line of people all the way to the street corner! The high school girls’ volleyball tournament has just gotten out, and everyone is craving a smoothie for the ride home. Becca cuts a deal: whoever blends the most smoothies tonight gets free smoothies for a month! The Blend Off has begun, and only one can win. There’s just one problem: Kevin. Skittish at best on normal days, he flies into a frenzy, grabbing fruit for you from the fridge at random. Take the fruit Kevin brings, complete the orders Becca calls back, and blend your way to victory!
In the game, players represent the Master Mixers who are competing to blend the most smoothies. Each Master Mixer rolls a Fruit Die representing Kevin\ and the random fruits he retrieves from the refrigerator. The deck of Blender Cards represents Becca who is continuously calling out smoothie orders to be filled. Unlike many games, there are no individual turns. Players are all playing and taking actions simultaneously until the game ends (when Becca is out of orders). The player that earned the most gold stars from blending smoothies is the winner. Continue reading
Rival treasure hunters (i.e., players) have discovered the Temple of Codinca while exploring the Yucatan rain forests. To open the Temple and find the great treasures contained within, players must use various mechanisms to manipulate a grid of sixteen carved Symbol Tiles to match specific Key Patterns. The first player to match their own Symbol Tiles to their four Key Patterns will unlock the secrets of Codinca.
Codinca is an abstract strategy game that combines skill and chance. Players take turns using various actions (e.g., flipping, swapping, and shifting) to manipulate a common grid of tiles to create patterns that match their individual Key Cards. The game is meant to be fast-paced and tactical.
Codinca was first available as a pre-production release at the Essen Game Fair (Spiel) in 2012. Only 150 copies were available and it sold out. A Kickstarter campaign was launched in September 2013 to fund a full production release, but it failed to reach the necessary goal. The game largely disappeared until it re-debuted at the 2016 UK Game Expo in new pocket edition. According to the announcement from the publisher, “the mechanics have been streamlined, the tiles made substantially chunkier, the rules include six languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish & Polish), and it all comes in a very pretty pocket sized magnetic closing box.” This review is for the new 2016 release of Codinca. Continue reading
“Escape room game [in a box]” has apparently become the hot new board game genre of 2016. From virtual versions dating as far back as 1988 to real world escape rooms being created around 2006, it seems inevitable that a hybrid version of the concept would find its way into the growing board game hobby. Cooperative puzzle games have always been of great interest to many people and capturing the escape room feeling in a box that can be played anywhere is an exciting evolution.
There are already a handful of “escape room in a box” games available and Escape Room The Game is latest having been released in late 2016 in the USA by Spin Master Games. However, there are a couple key differences that set it apart from the previous games. First of all, Escape Room The Game contains not just a single escape room game, but four different Adventures that have varying difficulties and all look, feel, and play slightly different. Secondly, the game utilizes a unique electronic “Chrono Decoder” around which the game unfolds. It also helps pull the players further into the game so that they are anchored more to the game and the make believe “room” being created rather than arbitrary location where the game is being played. Continue reading
Herbaceous is self-described as “a flavorful card game” in which players can “relax while enjoying this elegant game of picking and potting herbs.” The objective is to score the most points by potting the best collection of herbs. To do this, players take turns drawing and planting herbs into the Community Garden and their individual Private Gardens, and later picking those herbs to pot into various containers. Every player has an identical set of Container Cards, but each type of container has different requirements for what it can hold. Points are scored at the end of the game based on the number of Herb Cards potted in each container.
Herbaceous is the fifth game successfully crowdfunded by Eduardo Baraf and Pencil First Games using Kickstarter. The campaign ended on September 23, 2016 and was supported by 2,208 backers. The game shipped to backers in January 2017. Continue reading
Designer: Heinz Meister Publisher: HABA Players: 2-4 Ages: 6+ Playing Time: 15 minutes Review by Mark Jackson on a review copy provided by HABA Games (7 plays with Crash Cup Karambolage, 20 plays with the original 1995 edition) There are a LOT of flicking games out … Continue reading
Istanbul (Plus Kebab Shop) Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) [Included: Istanbul: Kebab Shop Mini Expansion, by Spielbox] Designer: Rüdiger Dorn Artists: Andreas Resch, Hans-Georg Schneider Players: 2-5 Ages: 10+ Playing Time: 40-60 min MSRP $49.99 Released: 2014 Reviewed by: Mary … Continue reading
Chimera Publisher: Z-Man Games/Filosofia Editions Designers: Ralph Anderson Artists: Philippe Guérin, Chris Quilliams Players: 3 Ages: 14+ Playing Time: 45min Languages: English/French MSRP $19.99 Release: Q3 2014 Reviewed by: Mary Dimercurio Prasad Game Played: Prototype Copy Number of Plays: 3 … Continue reading
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