Unplugged: The Quest Kids (Boardgame)
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Posted on September 17th, 2024 by
Do you like adventure games but your kids are a bit too young to be fighting dragons that poisons them and hinders their movement by 5 feet? The Quest Kids is a dungeon-crawling board game aimed squarely at that no-quite-yet reading level or above. Players search a dungeon, discarding the appropriate cards if they need to “scare off” a monster and collect its loot. Once the dungeon is cleared, the player with the most stars (from treasure and defeated monsters) wins the game. The Quest Kids is a pretty cool achievement for its age range, managing to bring in much of that dungeon-crawl fun without a heavy rules overhead. I happen to bring it up now as there is a Kickstarter for an expansion ending very soon.
The Quest Kids
Designer: Dustin McMillian
Publisher: Treasure Falls Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 5+
Time: 20-45 min
(review copy provided by publisher)
Minecraft Fruit Snacks and…deodorant?!?
Posted on September 6th, 2024 by
Minecraft is one of the most popular video games ever made. I don’t want to say it’s more popular than my favorite game Pac-Man, but the yellow ghost chomper never had fruit snacks or deodorant! Yeah I saw Minecraft fruit snacks and deodorant at Wal-Mart a while back, so here’s some pictures and things. I try to stay away from Minecraft myself. It looks fun, but I don’t want to get addicted to it! Even if that Pac-Man DLC is tempting!
Sonic Sno Cones and Spoons at Bahama Buck’s
Posted on August 23rd, 2024 by
Sonic the Hedgehog is really getting around at eating establishments this year! First it was IHOP, now Bahama Buck’s, a snow cone place. A while back, my mom and stepdad came out to visit, and when they left, they stopped by Bahama Buck’s on the way out. I didn’t go with them because I don’t like snow cones. Too syrupy sweet for me. Anyway, it’s too bad I didn’t go because they had a Sonic promotion at the time. Luckily they took pictures for me and got everything they could, so here’s some pictures and info and things. I’m not sure if the promotion is still going on as of this writing (probably not), as it’s hard to keep up with these things.
Unplugged: Sky Team (Boardgame)
Posted on July 18th, 2024 by
It looked like a scene from a bad TSA checkpoint at last year’s Gen Con when a long line of people queued up to demo the buzz-laden two player cooperative game, Sky Team. Sky Team has two players, a pilot and co-pilot, each place four dice on a central instrument board in an attempt to successfully land a plane. At the start of a round, players can discuss overall strategy, but once they’ve rolled their dice for the round no further talking is permitted. Players must manage the plane roll (tilt), fire the engines, lower the flaps, lower the landing gear, engage the brakes, and clear the path of other planes. Fail to do any of the above and the plane crashes. All this must be accomplished as the plane’s elevation ticks downward. If everything is set by the time the plane hits 0000, the plane lands successfully. Designed with heavy input from licensed pilots it should appeal to pilots, wannabe pilots, and anyone looking for a relatively short but solid two player co-op game.
Sky Team
Designer: Luc Remond
Publisher: Scorpion Masque
Players: 2
Age: 12+
Time: 15 minutes
Chomp on Pac-Man Flavors at Yogurtland this Summer!
Posted on July 12th, 2024 by
I’ve written about ice cream and frozen yogurt places in the past doing promotions with video game characters and franchises. Yogurtland themselves did a Mario promotion a few years ago. Nekter Juice Bar did the same thing with other Nintendo characters more recently. Heck, even Menchie’s frozen yogurt did a promotion with Dragon Quest Builders! But now we get one with my most favorite video game character of all: Pac-Man! So let’s chomp on the new flavors they have this summer!
Cary’s Best Games of 2024 SO FAR Awards Show!
Posted on July 5th, 2024 by
Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten. So here’s when those games get their due. Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed. And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!
Goodbye to E3
Posted on June 21st, 2024 by
Earlier this year, the ESA announced they would be cancelling E3 yet again and they wouldn’t have it anymore. So I wanted to say my final goodbyes and reminisce on my favorite E3 memories here. The reasons why I didn’t do this earlier when they first announced it I was pretty busy at the time, and I figured I’d do it when E3 usually occurred around now.
Unplugged: Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig (Boardgame)
Posted on June 15th, 2024 by
The boardgames of Mad King Ludwig continue to shrink. First we had Castles of Mad King Ludwig where players auctioned tiles, placing them to build their own personal castle. Next came the Palace of Mad King Ludwig (reviewed here) where all players work together to finish only a single castle. Now, there isn’t any building at all, only the blueprints. In Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig, players simply draw out their dreams on a piece of paper, in the hopes of catching the king’s eye and his favor. Players are still placing funny shaped rooms into a castle area, but gone are the auctions and money shenanigans of the original Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This slims the game down and keeps it moving at a quick pace. Your opinion of this “flip and write” game will depend on whether you are willing to give up the greater strategic depth of money auctions and associated shenanigans for a faster-paced and shorter over-all game.
Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig
Designer: Ted Alspach
Publisher: Bézier Games
Players: 1-5
Ages: 15+ (although easily played by a 10 yr old)
Time: 60 min
(review copy provided by publisher)
Sonic Sighted at IHOP!
Posted on June 14th, 2024 by
Back in April, Sonic the Hedgehog teamed up with IHOP for a promotion. There were menu items and other online goodies. Unfortunately, the promotion only lasted for about a month. Just as fast as Sonic, this just came and went! Sorry I didn’t get this news out sooner, but I’m only one person and I can only do so much. Plus having such a short promotion was hard to keep up with. But I figured I might as well go over what they had.
Unplugged: Around the World in 10-15 Minutes (Boardgame)
Posted on May 28th, 2024 by
The Roll and Write genre, where gamers roll dice and use the results to fill in a scorepad, continues to gain momentum. I suspect this is due in part to the low cost of entry. This is particularly true for print and play games. If standard dice are used, all that players need is a printed copy of the scorepad. Variations have appeared over the years, including using a deck of cards to make a Flip and Write game. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes eschews both dice and cards to allow the active player to choose the result for the turn, effectively creating a Choose and Write game. The game sheet consists of a map of the world connected by lines with two icons located on each continent and two on each city. The active player chooses whether everyone moves, marks off a continent icon, or marks off a city icon, with the active player gaining the selected benefit twice. All three choices lead to scoring opportunities and the game runs until one player has visited each continent and returned to their starting city. Points are added and a winner is determined. Since there are no dice or cards involved, the game only requires one maker and one scorecard per player – making it even more travel-friendly. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes is a print-and-play title currently up on Kickstarter until May 30th.
