Say What!?! Review by zombiemonkey

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I always find that certain people just don’t listen well. Actually, I’ll rephrase that: certain people seem to find my voice so dull when I’m explaining game rules that their eyes glaze over and all that they seem to be able to hear is the droning voice of an adult from Charlie Brown/Peanuts. No matter how simple the game, how easy to understand the mechanics – there are some people who can only learn by actually playing the game, so short are their attention spans.

Which makes a game like Say What!?! an absolute joy to describe. Basically, each of the cards contained within the set has either a word or an action printed on it, along with a point value based on the amount of times that the word or action is likely to be repeated. According to the instructions of the main game – which can be played while other activities are in full swing - as soon as someone either says a word on the word card, or does something that is printed on an action card, that person is handed the relevant card. The idea of the game is to be the person at the end of the game (usually a time agreed between players before the cards are looked at) with the fewest total points in their hand.

Say What!?! is designed so that it can even be played even during other games - which is great, because when played on its own it is the biggest conversation killer I have ever seen! Players, fearful of saying or doing something that will earn them a card, will more often than not sit absolutely still in silence until the agreed end of the game. Which, as I’m sure you can imagine, isn’t fun in the slightest. The best way to play is to hand out cards before or during the playing of a bigger, more complex game, with the playing of Say What!?! continuing near-invisibly in the background.

As a supplement to a games night, Say What!?! can be fantastic fun due to the fact that you can sometimes forget you are playing and be handed many cards all at once, and the ensuing laughter and finger pointing often results in a chain reaction of cards being passed around, but never, ever play it as a standalone game: it turns into a farcical, forced experience of players either keeping totally still and quiet, or trying to bully other players into saying very obvious words.

Summary

Presentation: Brightly coloured and appealing, in a compact box. Fairly sturdy cards too, which helps! 8.9/10

Clarity of Rules: A small sheet of easily understandable rules with a ‘word rummy’ variant to complement the main game. 9.4/10

Game Length: The game can be as long or as short as players wish: all players agree to play for a certain length of time or until a certain time (until 6 o’clock, for example) – so this category doesn’t really apply. n/a/10

Value: A reasonably priced game, but not one that will be played often unless players can comfortably and transparently play it during other games. 6.1/10

Overall: A unique but often frustrating game unless players are preoccupied with doing other things while they play! Acts as perfect filler if playing with someone who suffers from severe analysis paralysis – but stay away if you’re looking for a standalone game. 5.9/10 (not an average)

Lord of the Rings: Friends and Foes Review by Jabberwock

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Friends and Foes is the first expansion for the Lord of the Rings board game by Reiner Knizia. It adds to the original game in several ways, and improves upon it many more…

The most obvious addition is a new scenario board – double-sided like the others – providing Bree and Isengard for your hobbits to traverse. The box also contains two little stick-on circles to attach to the Master Board, so you can mark your progress through these two new locations.

The new Scenarios are not all bad – especially Bree, which contains the opportunity to gather a heap of additional cards when playing through it.

New rules give the Fellowship the ability to skip up to two of the original scenario boards, as long as certain criteria are met. In other words, although two new scenarios are added, with good card play and organisation, you can skip two of the older boards, essentially making the game no harder in this respect (and Bree is an awful lot easier to complete than, say, Shelob’s Lair). But more on all this later…

The next addition to the game comes in the form of Foe cards. These each depict an enemy of the Fellowship, which can either be ignored or defeated. The catch being that if there are ever eight foes face up in play, then the Fellowship loses. The dice rules have changed – now the ‘Discard two cards’ result has become ‘Place two Foes face up’. Foes are also brought into play by the Events on the two new scenarios, and are also turned up if you skip any of the scenarios. To somewhat counterbalance this, each Foes defeated is worth one point towards the final Fellowship score – whether the ring is destroyed or not. Also, if all 30 Foes are defeated, the Fellowship wins the game outright.

Foes can be defeated in any number of ways – each Foe shows how to defeat it on the card. For example, ‘Discard two Life Tokens’, or ‘Discard a Joker’. You might be required to roll the dice, or take corruption. Sauron may move closer on the Corruption track. Some Foes are easier to defeat than others, but they generally all eat into resources and cards to some degree. And you need to keep their numbers down, to avoid being overwhelmed.

Also, one of the requirements for skipping scenario boards is that no Foes are in play…

There is some help for all this, though…

Each of the hobbit characters now has a new special ability. This is basically a one-shot deal – a special card that is quite powerful, but when used, must be discarded. For example, Sam has the ability to – once in the game – roll the dice when the event marker is moved on, take the full consequences, and then ignore the actual event.

There are a few new Gandalf cards dealing with Foes, and filling a few gaps in his support. And there are new Feature cards for the two new scenarios. Some of these are quite powerful, but can be tricky to get hold of. For example, Gandalf the White is a triple joker (if I remember correctly – I don’t have my set in front of me), but the event that allows you to get hold of him makes the whole venture very dodgy. Basically, the active player may choose to turn over the next Hobbit card – if it is white, he gets the Gandalf the White card. If it is grey, Sauron moves forward unless the active player can discard two matching symbols. As long as Sauron does not move, the active player can try as many times as he wants to obtain Gandalf the White.

To round off the whole set are a few new rules – specifically those dealing with the new ability to skip scenarios. Very simply, the Fellowship can skip either Moria, Helm’s Deep, or Shelob’s Lair if there are no Foes in play when the board is about to begin. Additionally, in order to skip Shelob’s Lair, you need to discard either the Book or Shadowfax. What this means is that you are unable to skip all three ‘skipable’ boards (as the Book and Shadowfax are found in Moria and Helm’s Deep respectively). Added to this, when you skip boards, you must turn up a handful of Foe cards, and it makes it especially difficult. For example, in order to skip Helm’s Deep and Shelob’s Lair (the most desired outcome), you need to get and keep the Book from Moria, and then the active player (when ‘between boards’, the Ringbearer is the active player) must defeat all four Foes that are turned up when Helm’s Deep is skipped. As these Foes may require Life Tokens (which, as the Fellowship is ‘between boards’, nobody has), among other things, this is a bit risky.

So, that is the description. Now my views.

This expansion makes an already good game so much better! The main problem with the original game was its linearity. Basically, when you play, the same things happened in the same order – it was a matter of when (and if you can get out before it occurred). With Friends and Foes, that is alleviated somewhat. Because of the added threat (which eats up resources), and the ability to skip boards altogether, the game really does change dramatically.

There is a much greater degree of unpredictability, without making the game seem too utterly random and out of your control. There is always the feeling, at least, that you should be able to deal with anything, given the right card play and hand management. But because you never quite know what Foes are going to come up (or even quite when – the dice roll could turn against you, after all), you can quite easily be overcome by Foes you are unable to defeat.

And yet, because you can now skip some of the harder boards, the game does not become overwhelmingly difficult. The addition of two boards means you are forced to attempt to skip two of the other boards (in order to counteract the added task of travelling through Bree and Isengard), which in turn means having to defeat Foes. It all hangs together nicely.

I do have a bit of a gripe, however, in that some of the events on the two new scenarios are somewhat random. Specifically, there is an event in Isengard that really clobbered us last time we played, and through no fault of our own… Essentially, you need to keep rolling the dice (passing it round the table and taking turns) until a blank face is rolled. You are given the opportunity to discard a joker to avoid the effects of the dice roll, but we saw all of our jokers disappear, and then each of us move steadily up the Corruption Track and progressively be eaten by Sauron before a single blank face showed itself.

Most of the events are much less random than this, but these kind do exist (see the previous example of the Gandlaf the White event). So, yes, there is more randomness. But there is also the illusion of control. Which may or may not be a good thing…

You generally achieve higher scores with this expansion, simply because you add the number of defeated Foes to your final score, whether you win or lose. So you have the rather interesting effect of scoring higher when you lose now than you did when you won without the expansion. A simple mark or comment on your score sheet (you all keep your scores, right?) will prove very useful to avoid confusion later on…

But I like it a lot. It is more varied, lengthens the playability of the game immeasurably, and adds a whole heap more interesting new dilemmas and strategies. I would heartily recommend this expansion to anyone who enjoys the original. You honestly won’t regret it…

Summary

Presentation: The John Howe artwork that so distinguished the original board game is still present and just as good. The new cards are of the same quality and presentation as the original, and everything fits seamlessly in to the original game (with the little stickers for the master board being the only – ahem – ‘sticking’ point). 9.4/10

Clarity of Rules: The extra rules are clear and easy to read. Anybody familiar with the base game should have no trouble whatsoever picking up the additions of this game. 9.2/10

Game Length: The game is lengthened slightly, with foes to defeat and possibly two more boards to traverse, but the added tension and headaches that come with the new problems more than make up for this. 8.3/10

Value: Not bad for what you get. A little pricey, for the actual contents, but the additions that are made to the game are well worth the price. 7.9/10

Overall: I never play LotR without this expansion now – it would seem perverse in some way! Basically, if you enjoy the base game, then you will love this expansion! 9.5/10 (not an average)

Review by David Plank

Inkognito: The Card Game Review by zombiemonkey

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(Author's Note: Please excuse the rather wordy review - I found it almost impossible to talk about the mechanics of Inkognito without actually explaining them in detail. Despite despising reviews that essentially run through the entire rulebook in summary form, I felt that it was necessary in this case. And now i'm adding to the already ridiculous length of this article, so I'll stop. Thanks again for stopping by - and now, on with the show! - Jason)

Venice is a gorgeous city, an almost anachronistic place in an otherwise modern, industrialised country. Set within this dark, romanticised environment, Inkognito: The Card Game (also known as Mini Inkognito) is a more compact version of the late-80s board game – which was titled, fairly obviously, Inkognito.

Players take the roles of spies during carnival time in Venice, each disguised and walking through the city in search of their partner, as well as the Ambassador and the code to a safe containing the whereabouts of The Grand Old Man. To win the game, players must discover which other player is their partner (this never changes, as the four agents in the game - Lord Fiddlebottom, Madame Zsa Zsa, Colonel Bubble and Agent X - are always partnered in exactly the same way according to the rules), as well as finding out the correct sequence of numbers to open the safe. Finally, the partnered players must meet alone and announce that they have discovered who is who and then attempt to open the safe using the combination they have discovered.

Gameplay is fast, simple and (importantly!) easy to learn and teach. Each player is dealt a black identity card as well as a black code number card (both face down). Each player takes a screen in the colour of their choice to hide their deduction sheet, plus 4 identity cards and four code cards in their chosen colour. In addition, each player has a collection of location tiles in their own colour, with the black location tiles going in the centre of the table to represent the Ambassador.

A starting player is randomly chosen and this player chooses a location tile, then places it face up on the table. The next player chooses a location, and so on until all four players have chosen a location. Then the top tile of the Ambassador's stack is turned over to show which location he is currently visiting. Investigation then occurs: if two players meet in the same location with no one else present, they can investigate each other. If a single player meets alone with the Ambassador, that player can 'ask the Ambassador' for information.

Investigation is handled as follows: when two players meet, they must show each other two cards. One card must be true information according to their true identity or code number, and one must be false. The information they receive is then noted on their deduction sheets (privately behind their screen so that the information they have been shown remains secret). If the same two players meet again, they are forbidden to show the exact same pair of cards. When meeting alone with the Ambassador, the player can ask to see one black card belonging to another player, which means that they receive information on one other player that is guaranteed to be true.

After all investigation has taken place, another location tile is chosen and play continues as before. Once all locations have been visited, the Ambassador's tiles are shuffled and placed face down again and the starting player changes (play passes to the player on the first player's left). Play then continues as before.

When a player is confident that they have deduced who their partner is and the correct sequence of numbers to open the safe (just as the partnered characters are always the same, the characters are listed in a particular order which reveals the correct sequence needed to open the safe), they must arrange a meeting alone with their partner and announce that a) the other player is their partner and b) they will attempt to open the safe. They immediately reveal the safe combination and all players turn over their cards to check that the information is correct.

If it is correct, those two players win the game. If it is incorrect, they lose to the other team of agents. As the game is so short (it typically takes between 10 and 20 minutes to play a full game), it is advised to play several rounds and keep score to have an overall winner at the end.

The graphic design of Inkognito: The Card Game is gorgeous. I have the Fantasy Flight edition (there is a foreign edition available, known as 'Mini Inkognito'), which is well designed with great looking characters and beautifully evocative (and scarily accurate!) location tile illustrations. The privacy screens are a little garishly coloured, especially when taking into consideration the beautifully painted illustrations on the cards - but this is somewhat necessary as it is important that each player has an easily identifiable colour.

The game works perfectly with four players, and is easy to both teach and play several rounds in less than an hour. It is a fun game of deduction and bluff with a superb atmosphere, and thanks to the fast paced nature of play and simple mechanics it never outstays its welcome.

Once players become acquainted with the basic techniques required to deduce the correct combination and partnerships, however, it can become pretty easy, leaving novice players at a definite disadvantage. Also, it is easy to engineer meetings with other players (although the Ambassador can scupper this on occasion), which means that certain players can take control and discover all of the information they need in a short space of time.

Possibly the biggest problem with the game lies with the deduction system, and the methods used to track which pieces of true/false information that players have shown to each other. Often an inexperienced player, through no real fault of their own, will accidentally show the same two cards or two true pieces of information, which can totally ‘break’ the game, leading to a player being absolutely certain that they have the correct combination when in fact they are nowhere near it. There is no real solution to this, except to continually remind new players of what they are supposed to be showing. It’s frustrating for everyone when something like this happens, but incredibly tough to spot until it’s too late.

Inkognito: The Card Game is primarily designed to be played by four, but variations are included in the box for two, three and five players - none of these work quite as well as the four player game (with the two player variation being far too random and far less reliant on the skill of the players), but all are workable. Inkognito: The Card Game is an excellent choice for budding detectives looking for an opportunity to flex those deduction skills.

Summary

Presentation: A nicely compact box which is the same size as all of Fantasy Flight’s ‘Silver Line’ games, containing gorgeously illustrated cards and tiles. Nicely evocative of the strange, olde worlde atmosphere of Venice. 9.3/10

Clarity of Rules: Some tough to digest concepts – as you can see by the summary in the review – are handled well by the clear and detailed rules. 9.2/10

Game Length: Often very short, some players are invariably left bewildered at the speed of an accurate deduction: games rarely last longer than 10 minutes. 9.1/10

Value: Essentially just cards and a notepad – at the RRP (£14.99) it is very overpriced, but it is a game that can be replayed many times as long as players don’t become too acquainted with the ‘solution’, which can lead to issues with the longevity. 8.3/10

Overall: A nicely dark and atmospheric game of intrigue and deduction, free from the dice rolling banality of Cluedo. A great game for a slightly more mature group with an interest in more cerebral fare: perfect for Sudoku addicts! 8.2/10 (not an average)

Fist of Dragonstones Review by jabberwock

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I kinda like Bruno Faidutti. He and I seem to have the same taste in games (at least, I seem to have an inordinate amount of games he has listed in his ‘Ideal Games Library’). So when he designs new games, I generally take a gander to see if this one fits the bill. And a couple of years ago, I found this little gem made by him and Michael Schacht.

The idea is that during a round of the game, a selection of characters are auctioned off, each of which have their own special ability. The dragons all provide you with dragonstones of various colours, and the wizards and sorcerers turn dragonstones into points. And if you get three points you win the game.

During each round of ten auctions, eight of the characters remain the same, and two others are added from a Special Character deck, making each round very different (as the order in which characters are auctioned has its own impact as well). The ten standard characters include the dragons and magic-users described above, plus the Witch that allows someone to negate a character won later in the round, and the Thief that lets you nick someone else’s dragonstone.

The special characters are wide and varied, from special dragons and magic-users that give you stones and points in new ways, to fairies that gift you with more gold to spend in auctions, to the Ghost that brings an already-auctioned character back from the ‘dead’, to the Troll that makes all characters lose all stones of a specific colour.

There are (or were – the website seems to be down right now, but expect it to be back up at some point on the Days of Wonder site) even some special characters you can download, print off and stick on to blank cards that are provided with the game for even more variety. Days of Wonder held a competition when the game first came out for players to design their own characters, and they illustrated the winner’s suggestions.

The gold you are bidding with is, in the main, fairy gold that returns to your hand after each round of ten auctions. You also have a small pool of real gold that is gone for good if you bid with it (and everything bid is lost – whether you win or lose). If you ever tie with other players, you bid again using your small supply of silver (which is also permanently gone if you use it).

You can never be quite sure how much gold or silver each player has left (without a good memory) as all coins are kept hidden behind a screen for each player. And this is a blind bidding game – each player puts what he or she wants to bid into a fist, and holds it over the table, when each player has bid, all bids are revealed simultaneously and the highest bid takes the character.

There is a lot of second-guessing and psychology that goes into this small package of a game, and the sheer variety and randomness of the cards that come out make it very tricky to pin down exactly what cards are worth to each player (and hence how much each player might bid for that character). I love trying to out-think my opponents, and trying to bid just enough to outbid them without spending an inordinate amount in a single auction. Invariably I fail, but I still love the mechanic. But then I am a fan of blind-bidding games. If you struggle with this mechanic, you should stay clear, because there isn’t much more to the game than blind bid after blind bid…

Summary

Presentation: The cards are wonderfully illustrated by Julien Delval, with very evocative pictures and clear instructions for each character on the card. The coins and screens are functional and sturdy, and there are weird little scoring dice thingies to record everyone’s score (all the way up to the lofty heights of three), and lovely glass beads to represent dragonstones in a cloth bag. All in all very easy on the eyes and functional. 8.6/10

Clarity of Rules: The rules are pretty simple and easily explained. The majority of the rulebook is taken up by an in-depth explanation of each character card, although they are in the main very intuitive and easy to understand. 8.8/10

Game Length: The game can be over very quickly indeed. With only three points needed to win, and one card that lets you gain two points in a single auction, things need to be watched carefully to avoid an easy win for a player. Even with constant ‘hose the leader’ tactics, things don’t last long, and a game will take up a maximum of an hour of your time. Just enough for a game of this depth. 9.4/10

Value: It’s a small-box game that packs a lot into the gameplay. With a variety of characters making each game different, and a variety of ways to get this stones and points, things don’t get tired very quickly at all. And what with the free downloadable characters (should they ever get them back up again), your game will have fresh life for many playings to come. 9.1/10

Overall: If you like bidding games, and special ability characters, and fantasy themes, then you’ll love this game. It pushes all the right buttons for me (despite being devoid of zombies or pirates – although there is a Necromancer and a Brigand), and I’ll never turn down an offer to play this excellent light filler game. 9.3/10 (not an average)

Monsters Menace America Review by zombiemonkey

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There’s no escaping it: giant monsters are cool. They’re just so outlandish, so gloriously OTT that you can’t help but smile at their city-destroying shenanigans. In a post-9/11 world however, seeing cities destroyed has lost some of its appeal – although to be fair, the potential for allegory has gone up immeasurably: the original Japanese cut of Godzilla (made in 1954, and known as Gojira in its homeland) is a clear allegory of the dangers of misusing atomic energy, with heartbreaking scenes of devastation and destruction that don’t shy away from showing the effect on us poor little humans that a rampaging giant beast would actually have.

Monsters Menace America, however, takes a more primary coloured and gleeful view of the destruction, much like the campy Godzilla movies of the 1970s. More akin to giant scaly/furry/gloopy wrestlers than metaphorical walking atom bombs, these monsters aren’t causing visible pain and terror: they’re just wandering about having a bit of fun. Which isn’t to say that cities aren’t getting stomped: they are, but it doesn’t seem to cause a lot of hurt to anyone – even the military units return for more attempts at bringing the monsters down after being repeatedly destroyed.

The object of the game is to be the last monster standing : each player chooses a giant monster – which are mostly based on famous movie monsters, with enough differences in appearance and name to avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits – and a branch of the military, and take turns moving monsters and military units around the USA. Monsters move around stomping on cities, which provide them with helpful mutations, infamy or extra health, while military units traverse America in an attempt to reduce the health of the other monsters, ready for the endgame: a giant monster showdown in which only one monster can survive and stand triumphant.

The game is easy to learn, with a well-illustrated rulebook and a nicely helpful turn summary printed on the board. The components are lovely, with excellent illustrations on the cards and in the rules, along with absolutely superb monster pieces. The military units are brightly coloured and easily identifiable, and despite being much more abstract than the monsters themselves they are functional and perfectly adequate for the role they play in the game. After all – the monsters are the main focus of the game, and they do not disappoint.

As is quite common with non-German game design, however, the theme is brilliantly implemented but the gameplay less satisfying than the average Euro-game. Much of the game is based on dice rolls, which leads to rather unsatisfying combat and sometimes frustrating ‘rolling for health’ after cities are stomped. The endgame also feels rather unsatisfactory, with one-on-one monster battles resolved by (yep, you guessed it!) lots of dice rolls to determine the winner of the game. There isn’t a lot of strategy to the main game either – monsters simply walk around collecting health and mutations, with the military always proving pretty ineffectual unless the monsters have a really unlucky spate of dice rolls or lots of units can be coordinated to attack one monster (which is pretty difficult). The game length is relatively short but it does seem to drag, as the gameplay is fairly repetitive and mostly free from players finding themselves in situations where they have to think at length about what has to be done next. There’s nothing wrong with lighter games, or games that are less intense than a game such as the average Knizia design, but Monsters Menace America does seem to contain less ‘game’ than it should, given its length and price.

Whilst Monsters Menace America does hit all of the necessary aesthetic and thematic buttons, it falls short of providing captivating gameplay which players will want to return to again and again. Even for a self-confessed giant monster fan such as myself, there is little here to convince players to stomp happily across the USA on more than a few occasions.

Summary

Presentation: Gorgeous components and excellently colourful design lend this an air of camp silliness much like cinematic…ahem…classics like Destroy All Monsters! 9.5/10

Clarity of Rules: Excellently illustrated, well laid out rules missing one or two important clarifications that can slow things down during the first couple of games. 8.6/10

Game Length: Relatively short – even four player games can be finished in under an hour including set-up time – but sometimes games do seem to drag given the repetitive nature of the gameplay. 6.9/10

Value: For the amount of enjoyment that will be gleaned from Monsters Menace America, it is horribly overpriced. Excellent components, which add to the high price, don’t make up for the fact that replay value is startlingly low. 6.8/10

Overall: An aesthetically pleasing giant monster mash that is sadly about as interesting as the US version of Godzilla. Thematically brilliant but dreadfully dull, these monsters won’t be menacing America very much at all on my table. 6.9/10 (not an average)

Munchkin Review by cdwalkley

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Right, lets get this out of the way from the start. Munchkin is the kind of game you either love or hate, and even if you love it you might find you go off it after a few games. Why is this? Well, esentially it is a one joke game, which you probably won't even enjoy unless you played Dungeons and Dragons in your youth, or with a more immature adult gaming group.

The joke is this: In the world of RPGs you get two main types of gamer, with a few shades in between. The first type is the serious roleplayer. For these guys it is all about the story and the portrayal of well developed characters, i.e really role-playing. The second type is the 'roll-player'. For them a good game consists of making the strongest character possible, killing everything which moves and hoarding as much treasure as you can possibly imagine, all the while whinging when things don't go their way or nit-picking at reasons why their 'pacifist' druid should actually be allowed to behave like a fighter and carry the 'flaming sword of death to all living things': the eponymous 'munchkin', or power-gamer.

Munchkin parodies this style of roleplaying in a very light-hearted manner. The game itself consists of 168 cards of two types: Dungeon and Treasure, along with a six-sided die. Gameplay is as straight forward as it gets: Turn over a dungeon card. If it is a monster, try and kill it. If you do, take X treasure cards. Repeat. This is where it starts to lose marks. If it was a half decently thought out game it would be accessable to the wider gaming community who would probably be able to raise a chuckle at the generally immature sense of humour, even if some of the more subtle references would elude them. As it stands, many people will play it, think 'There is no game here', rate it 1/10 and move swiftly on. So far, not so good. But part of the trick to enjoying Munchkin is to treat it with as little seriousness as possible, something the rules accept is the only way to do it.

Another problem is with the rules themselves. What should be a very simple sequence of events to follow each turn is confused by poorly laid out instructions and the odd rule which you probably would not notice unless you went through the 4 sides of (roughly) A4 sized paper with a fine-toothed comb. That said, it is not too much of a problem if everyone just says 'sod it' and gets on with playing. And it is just the kind of game where this is fine and won't hinder enjoyment at all.

The objective is simple. Reach level 10 first. Each player starts off at level one and rises a level every time they kill a monster. This is done simply by having a total level, after accounting for card adjustments, higher than that of the monster. Each other player is allowed to play any cards they have which might affect the outcome of the combat, typically trying to help the monster. Players can also gain levels by selling items of a certain value. Items themselves typically add a bonus to the owner's level, enabling otherwise weak characters to fight monsters much tougher than they are.

Ironically enough, the last time I played this was with my Dad and sister, neither of whom have any interest in roleplaying whatsoever. The game was a blast. Play was quick and the stupidity of it all was appreciated. Conversely I have played with gaming buddies who also role-play and found it one of the dullest experiences of my life. With this game it all comes down to who you are playing with.

Summary

Presentation: 168 cards in a stupidly large box. The cards are all brown on yellow-brown, so a bit on the dull side, but I guess the aim is to go for an ink-on-parchment effect. Only partly successful. The comic art is usually quite good, however. 6.5/10

Clarity of Rules: For such a simple game the rules are awfully obscure. Just as well they can be mostly ignored if desired. 4.3/10

Game Length: Has potential to drag. Certainly not the type of game to play with people used to ponder the best move to make. 5.0/10

Value: Frankly overpriced. Simple game consisting of a box of cards. 3.4/10

Overall: This is the tough one. As a game it pretty much sucks. With the right crowd it is a riot. People who are likely to appreciate the joke or who don't have a problem with, frankly, totally stupid games can add 3 to the overall score. 4.2/10 (not an average)

Zombies!!! 3: Mall Walkers Review by zombiemonkey

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Zombies!!! 3: Mall Walkers is the second expansion for the hugely (some might say inexplicably) popular Zombies!!! board game. The game can be played alone or as an expansion to the town in the main game (also in conjunction with the military base expansion from Zombies!!! 2 if you have both an enormous table and many hours available to play!). As has come to be expected both from Twilight Creations in general and the Zombies!!! series of games, the visual design is superb and in keeping with the B-Movie flavour of the game. The shopping mall is reasonably well designed and has a couple of extra rules added - mainly the addition of air ducts to allow travel between tiles, as well as an escalator that leads up to the next level of shops and the helipad. Otherwise, it's business as usual for the multi-coloured shotgun guys and the rotting plastic zombies.

Running around the shopping mall a la Dawn of the Dead is great fun at first, although Zombies!!! 3 is plagued with the same problems that are associated with the series so far. One such problem is that the cards are far too building specific and rely on a card and a player being in a certain place in order for them to be useful, and most of the time it just isn't worth going all the way back to one tile to use a particular card. Also, the out-of-the-box rules, as laid down in the main game, really need tweaking - it's no fun when your guy is killed and then stuck back at the front door, only to keep rolling a one for movement. Another problem (not specific to this expansion) is that the beginning of the game still feels aimless (this is rectified when the helipad is drawn, as everyone has a clear objective and route to the finish).

It does still feel far too light for its length – the Zombies!!! rules seems far more suited to a quick ‘shoot zombies and escape’ formula lasting no more than half an hour - but even when using the expansion alone it can still feel painfully drawn out, with little player interaction, few choices for players to make and just not enough to do.

One thing that is noticeable (possibly due to the atmosphere laid down by Dawn of the Dead - the inspiration for this expansion) is that it never really feels like you are being overwhelmed by an enormous horde of zombies - and I think this is due to the fact that you will be attacked one at a time at all times, and there are hardly ever moments where you will be surrounded by more than a handful of zombies. Again, this is more of a complaint of the game as a whole than this expansion, but it is something that became very apparent when using the shopping mall interior. Lastly, there just didn't seem to be enough game in the box to justify the price - only an extra deck of cards and the shopping mall tiles are included, with no extra zombies or tokens. Even though Zombies!!! 2 only came with six enhanced zombies, at least extra, differently coloured health tokens were also included. The box of Zombies!!! 3 seems incredibly empty by comparison.

Due to the smaller number of cards when using this set, gameplay is much faster than when playing the original though, and results in a far more manageable playing time. It's more fun to blast zombies in the mall environment rather than the characterless town, and the race to the helipad is pretty intense and exciting as usual. The air ducts are a very neat addition but are unfortunately hampered by confusingly worded rules once again. There are a few neat visual cues to Dawn of the Dead (the mall looks strikingly like Romero's nightmarish shopper's hell) and the event cards are superbly illustrated.

Zombies!!! 3 will please die hard fans of the original game and Romero's classic nihilistic consumerism satire – but I would warn those of you who are still unsure about Zombies!!! to stay away - this expansion does nothing that will change your mind about the series if you aren't already a convert.

Summary

Presentation: The usual guts, gore and dark humour are apparent in the illustrations, and the mall looks quite bit like its inspiration. 8.5/10

Clarity of Rules: Despite the very few additions to the rules, they’re once again confusingly explained when the concepts are actually very simple. It’s getting increasingly tiresome pointing this out, but hopefully at some point Twilight Creations will take notice – even fans of the game complain about this! 3.4/10

Game Length: Even when used as a standalone game this can drag on for far longer than is necessary. Tweaks are available online but players shouldn’t have to track down variants to make a game fun! 4.3/10

Value: The emptiest Zombies!!! expansion yet. Nothing more than two decks of cards – extra event cards and the mall itself. Very poor value for money. 2.1/10

Overall: Another expansion that is strictly for fans only – those hoping to improve their experience of the main game will be massively disappointed with Zombies!!! 3. More fun than the main game if used alone, but as you can probably tell, i'm just damning it with faint praise. 4.9/10 (not an average)

Chicken Cha Cha Cha Review by Jabberwock

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A kind of ‘sister game’ to Gulo Gulo, but only in as much as it is made by the same people, features lovely wooden bits, and thick cardstock, and involves eggs. Oh, and kids can win at this one too…

In Chicken Cha Cha Cha (or Zicke Zacke Huhnerkacke in its mother tongue), each player takes to role of a chicken, scampering along a circular track to steal tail feathers from all the other chickens. It’s almost a simulation of actual farm life… (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

The track is composed of 24 egg-shaped tiles with various (but fiendishly similar-looking) pictures on them, and is constructed by the players in any fashion they choose. The ‘guessing tiles’ are hexagonal shaped smaller versions of the same pictures (12 of these), and are mixed up face-down in the middle of the track.

On a player’s turn, one of the guessing tiles is turned face-up. If it is the same picture as on the track tile directly in front of that player’s chicken, the chicken moves forward, and gets another go. If you manage to overtake another player’s chicken, your chicken gathers up all the tail feathers belonging to that chicken (each chicken begins the game with one feather-peg stuck in the little holes on the rear of the chickens). The first player to win all the tail feathers wins the game. Simple.

The game is excellent (note that I refrained from say ‘eggcellent’ – aren’t I kind?), and the kids love it. The pictures are colourful and cartoony, and card pieces are very thick and durable, the wooden chickens are really really cute. And the little tykes can actually win. There are no strategies, or clever methods for winning – it’s all about remembering where the tiles are. And when you’ve turned over the same tile four times in a row (old age creeps up on us all), and your five-year old foe is battering through the tiles like nobody’s business, it gets kind of embarrassing…

There is a rather brilliant expansion for this one - Zicke Zacke Entenkacke (I can only assume that the ‘Enten’ bit here means ‘duck’) which adds two more players (in the form of cute wooden ducks) and some piles of – erm – well, poo, basically (I have a sneaking suspicion that the ‘kacke’ bit of the name refers to this). This adds a whole new level of complexity, but a welcome one (very quickly, if you fall into someone else’s poo, you have to give them a tail feather). The main advantage, of course, is the ability to play with six players now.

Summary Presentation: All the games from Zoch are wonderful in presentation, and this one just cannot be faulted. The artwork is eye-catching, and adds some interesting gameplay elements (the agonizing “was that tile the boiled egg or the fried egg” switcheroo that always catches me out, for example). The wooden bits are fantastic – very ergonomic, and sturdy (incredibly important for the little ones). This one is actually better than Gulo Gulo. 9.1/10

Clarity of Rules: The rules are so simple, this is almost a given. Full marks have to be given to the company for providing rules in English, French and German, and explaining them clearly and succinctly (with copious examples). 8.7/10

Game Length: You can probably look at setting aside fifteen to twenty minutes for each game, depending on the memory of the players (good memories will make the game go quicker). As each player reaches critical mass and memorises more and more tile positions, turns take longer, but at the same time tension mounts as all the other players will that player to miss one. All players are involved at all times, watching the tiles everyone pulls up, and the time simply flies by. 8.8/10

Value: Well, the bits you get make this one a good purchase, and not one that’ll break without concerted effort by the players. The fun out of the box is worth the price as well, and the little ones can join in the fun. 9.2/10

Overall: I think you can guess I love this one, and so do my kids. When I asked them they said to give it twenty-hundred points. Despite their enthusiasm, this isn’t one to play lightly – all players need to concentrate at all times, making this an all-encompassing game that takes over while it is being played (don’t try and watch a murder-mystery and play this at the same time – it’ll never work!). Not one to play whenever, but one to distract everyone when the time is right… 9.1/10 (not an average)

Fluxx Review by cdwalkley

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Fluxx is a crazy card game by Looney Labs in which the rules change as the game progesses and players attempt to get the right cards to meet the current goal (which also changes!) and secure victory.

If this sounds in the least bit complicated, well, it isn't! Things start of easilly enough, with the only rule at the beginning of the game being that players must draw a card, then play a card. Card play involves either putting a card into play on the table or playing it for a one off effect then discarding it. The cards themselves come in four 'flavours': New rules augment the current ones, for example by allowing players to draw or play more cards in a turn, or limiting the number of cards which may be held. Action cards are used once for an effect and then discarded. Effects include stealing or removing cards from play, drawing and playing additional cards, changing the order of play, or redistributing cartain cards. Goal and Keeper cards are what determine victory. Each goal has two keepers associated with it e.g 'Rocket Science' needs the Keepers 'Rocket' and 'Brain'. If a player manages to play both those keepers in front of them while the right goal is on the table, they win.

Because of the constant play and discard of cards from the game, it is often next to useless to plan any kind of strategy. Even if you try to hoard winning cards until they can be all played together a single action which makes you discard or swap your hand will ruin the plan. This is a problem coumpounded by the fact that it is often not possible to guess at what a player may do next. But, that said, it is a fun light game, not a competetor for the Spiel Des Jahres award.

Although the box suggests it can be played by 2-6 players, in reality the game can handle as many players as can be resonably dealt into a round. Of course, this does accentuate the randomness of play as, once you have had your turn, you have to wait for everyone else before you can go again. This is not a problem in games where the rules don't change from turn to turn, but in Fluxx it makes trying to plan ahead a fruitless exercise.

So strangely, it is one of the few games which is much better with less players. When two or three are playing the game moves at a brisk pace and is often over in minutes. With a greater number of players, victory becomes more luck dependent and the game can last over half an hour, which is far too long for something not relying on strategy.

Essentially as a game you can take it or leave it, but the charm of Fluxx lies in its sillyness and novelty of the rules always changing. As such it makes for a nice diversion from more serious games and a perfectly good way to kill a bit of spare time

Summary

Presentation: 84 cards in a tuck box. The cards are fairly durable with clear colour coding and instructions on them. 7.4/10

Clarity of Rules: The core rules really could not be much simpler and the tiny rules sheet is very easy to follow. 9.6/10

Game Length: Varies depending on the number of players, but generally a round will last no more than 15 mins, which is fine. Any longer and the game will drag. 8.7/10

Value: Price may seem a bit steep for a box of cards, but it is one of those games which is perfect for filling a spare moment, and great for introducing unusual games to non-gamers. 8.3/10

Overall: A fun, light game which should not be taken too seriously. Amost perfect as a filler, but look elsewhere for depth and strategy. 7.6/10 (not an average)

Review by Chris Walkley

Vs. System CCG Review by zombiemonkey

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I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m an incredibly geeky person. Along with my love of board and card games, I consider myself a hardcore video-gamer and I’m also quite passionate about possibly the geekiest of geeky pursuits – the comic book. Given the popularity of movies adapted from comic books, you would think that the medium would be enjoying a massive renaissance – but this simply isn’t happening. This is possibly due to people still seeing comics as being essentially for kids, but could equally be something to do with the snobbery that exists both when looking outside into the comic book world. Every time a comic book movie is made, you’re guaranteed to get either the director or at least one of the actors saying that they aren’t really making a film based on a comic book – you see, to make it sound more adult the film is being based on graphic novels. Which is pretty pretentious, slightly odd and in most cases simply not true (not to mention slightly awkward – why should these people be embarrassed that they’re adapting a comic book?). Graphic novels are an entirely different kettle of Spider-men to the average comic book, as they are original, longer works that have not been published in single issue form. What people also fail to realise is that the words comic book does not denote subject matter, but rather the medium – in which writers and artists are free to tell any type of story that they wish.

The principal subject matter – or at least the most popular subject matter for mainstream comic books – does seem to be super heroes though, which is probably why most people think super hero when they hear the words comic book. Spandex-clad vigilantes with secret identities and crazy, mixed up personal lives are also the subject of the Vs. System CCG – being a die-hard fan of the Marvel brand of super hero (they’re usually the ones that you can more easily identify with, as they often have genuine, human flaws and problems – not that this is always the case but the secret identities of most DC characters don’t have many inbuilt character flaws like the Marvel characters do), the Marvel Vs System deck Spider-Man vs. Doctor Octopus is the one that I was immediately drawn to.

Neatly packaged as two decks so that all that is needed for two players is the starter set, the Vs. System decks do appear to be excellent value for money. Along with the decks and rulebooks, a mat explaining and illustrating the basics of the game is included (although it’s not really suitable to play the game on, bizarrely) – which is very helpful indeed in learning to play. The drawback with the decks that you get in a starter set is that incredibly obscure characters are included (there were a few in this particular set that I had never heard of, even with my encyclopedic knowledge of all things Marvel), some of which aren’t even related in any way to the characters that the set is supposedly based around.

The mechanics of the game are reasonably simple, with players placing any face down card as a resource in their resource row, and using these resources to bring characters, plot twists, locations and equipment into play. To win the game, players must knock the opponent’s endurance down to zero from the starting total of fifty points.

The combat phase is where the game is mostly focused, with characters on each side being able to attack one another and drain the endurance of the opposing player. There are some interesting mechanics here, with formation of characters in play being important – a character without range cannot attack from the support row, and characters in the front row can protect those characters behind them, for example. As with most CCGs, however, timing issues can be a problem – it is sometimes tough to work out exactly when cards can be played – but to be fair this is a problem that does seem to plague most CCGs.

As the decks contained within a starter pack are nicely balanced against each other and the game simply isn’t that engaging, the odds of players wanting to buy more packs and construct decks are very low indeed. This lack of incentive to buy extra cards could be construed as a big positive, but without new cards the game can get pretty repetitive – and the gameplay, being mainly focused on the combat, doesn’t help in this regard.

I would suggest, even for the most die-hard of comic fans, staying away from the Vs. CCG. The Vs. System CCG is incredibly dull - even for a self-confessed Marvel geek as me. There are far more satisfying standalone card games out there, and lots of CCGs that are far more interesting to play. While the game does have some nice mechanics such as the formation rules and using any card as a resource, it simply doesn’t have enough oomph or excitement to be a properly satisfying representation of super-powered individuals engaging in bone-crunching, sound-effect filled combat.

Summary

Presentation: The starter set is nicely presented with two decks of cards, rules summary mat as well as basic and advanced rules. The illustrations are a little hit and miss, however, and aren’t all by recognisably Marvel artists. 7.3/10

Clarity of Rules: The mat is very helpful but the full rulebook is not very clearly laid out or easy to understand, leading to some confusion during play. 5.3/10

Game Length: Reducing a player to zero endurance from the starting level of 50 does seem to drag on somewhat, which means that the game definitely outstays its welcome. 4.2/10

Value: The starter sets are seemingly good value for money, but the game itself won’t be played very much as it is quite simply uninteresting and uninvolving. 5.1/10

Overall: Given the subject matter, this should have been a fast, fun and colourful experience. However, the game is none of these things. Possibly the most uninteresting CCG I have ever played (and I’ve played quite a few). 4.9/10 (not an average)