Board Game Review Directory
Geek Out!
Meh. I'm not really a fan. The game is a trivia party game and by the title, it's specialized for those familiar with geek and/or nerd culture. You know, superheroes, video games, fantasy elements, etc. Really, in thought it's good. However, it's only a good game if you have a collection of intense nerds. A lot of the questions have high demands for them, and while the game itself becomes increasingly competitive, players must be very knowledgeable of various source materials. I like to consider myself a nerd, but I found myself struggling with a majority of the questions.
Legendary
Alright, now this might be one of my favorite games ever. I admit, I think I lean a bit more towards Marvel properties than I do for DC, but it's the mechanics that really draw me in to this game. It's a Deck-Building Game, meaning everyone starts out with the same vanilla cards but uses them to get better hero-inspired cards that get reshuffled into the deck. This allows you to specialize your deck in order to defeat more villains and gain more points. It's a cooperative game while also being competitive. It's a blast, and if you're a fan of Marvel both in the films and in the comics, you'll enjoy it even more.
Legendary: Guardians of the Galaxy
An expansion to the core Legendary game, this set gives you the five rogues from the film. You get the Kree villains as well, but even better comes Thanos with a whopping 24 Attack rating as the highest Mastermind, but also the Infinity Gems as a recruitable villain team! There's also a focus on Shards, something that makes these cards a bit stronger overall compared to the base game.
Legendary: Secret Wars Vol. 1
Another review, another expansion to Legendary. This expansion adds some characters you've been missing (Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, Old Man Logan, etc) while mixing elements in from the Villains Core Series (with Thanos, Namor, and some others). There's a little bit of other new elements, but mostly it brings up already established materials.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Now here's a good party game! Maybe you've played the card games Mafia or Werewolf where players die every night and everyone votes trying to find the Mafia/Werewolf. In this game, the game occurs only in a single night but nearly every player as a unique character card that gives them an ability in that night. It's a blast and is absolutely fantastic.
Pandemic
This game is challenging, period. The world is being hit by a variety of different diseases, and you and your teammates will band together to to treat, research, and cure the diseases. It's a race against time and a randomly generated board. It's players versus the randomness of a shuffled deck and you can definitely lose before even properly starting. If that doesn't turn you off, it's incredibly fun and requires you to plan out everyone's moves as a team. It's not quite so hard as bashing your head against bricks, which keeps it fresh and exciting.
Superfight!
Taking the pairing up mechanics from Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, you can create fighters from a character deck and attribute deck to fight against other player's fighters via argument. There's a lot of debating, a bit of randomness, some screwing over other players, and then the fighting begins. I'm not going to go into more detail here about what combos you get, but you can read more on that if you'd like.
Takenoko
Like pandas? Enjoy competitive games where you actually can't hurt one another? LIke building and growing things? You might enjoy Takenoko, a game where you balance building a garden, growing bamboo, and feeding the panda. It's a simple enough game that most can pick up pretty easily, making it good for couples and family game nights.
The Rivals for Catan
Enjoy The Settlers of Catan in all of its iterations? Well, here's a version that caters directly with head to head fights. Sure, there's no trading involved, but every other element that's present in the original game is somehow incorporated and retooled for your enjoyment. It's very well done and even if I can never win at it, it still has a fair amount of charm.
