GamesReviews written by WadeMonnig
f you are looking to enhance the solo or two-player AuZtralia experience, the TaZmania map delivers. It's hard not to recommend that you team it with the Revenge of the Old Ones expansion (Not only for the third player option but the reinforced ports and outposts can help with those pesky pop-up Old Ones) but if you are simply looking for new, tighter areas to investigate, either solo or with a second player, TaZmania gives you a chance to explore the devil you don't know.
AuZtralia is one of the rare co-ops (well, competitive co-op) that still sings it's siren song to me years after it's initial release. Revenge of the Old Ones adds the bass of the Deep Ones to that dirge and only makes the pull stronger. This remarkably affordable expansion delivers on added challenges, additional depth, allowing a player to step in as the Old Ones and providing a new solo mode.
Railroad Ink Deep Blue feels like damage control with dry erase boards and markers. Everyone just tries to make the best of what random pieces are rolled. It's complete lack of interaction and fully heads-down nature doesn't have any appeal for me.
Viticulture has proven itself as a enduring worker-placement title. Adding the Co-operative element (along with what I consider the Legacy element) means, going in, you know if you like the game itself. So, if this sounds like something you will dig, you will dig it. I love the elements they have added, even if I am not a huge fan of how much it adds to the playtime (Each new continent you play feels like a teaching game...but on a much smaller level).
It is written that God saw all that he created and it was good. After playing Sagrada, I say “Well, It's...okay.” Nothing about it invokes passion or glory and whatever the other façades are called. It falls into that sub-section of visually attractive games that I don't dislike playing but are nothing I would actively seek out. It gives Sodoku-but-with-luck-limited-solutions vibes.
Literally nothing is stopping you from playing without the timer and Power Cards if you dig Risk at it's normal slog...err...pace. Because, despite the thin veneer of the Doctor Who setting, it's “just” Risk. But I can't say I don't enjoy pushing Daleks into Madagascar and bellowing “Seek. Locate. Destroy.” even if my vision is a little impaired by nostalgia.
Ruination provides Boom, Bam, and Pow in significant doses and the entertainment that comes with that. It may not be the Khan of the Wasteland, but it's shiny, chrome and a true War Boy.
The Monster Box is also a near-perfect entry point for anyone interested in King of Tokyo. The base game is a battle of Stars and Scars, with players attempting to either eliminate all the other monsters by reducing their health to zero or earning twenty stars. You do so by rolling six dice with faces that include Paws (Damage to other monsters), Hearts (That give you back Health), Energy (the currency you use to buy evolution cards that give you variable powers), and numerical faces of 1, 2 and 3. Roll at least three of any number and you earn that many stars. You get three rolls per turn, so “It's like Yahtzee with monsters” will almost inevitably come up when teaching the game.
Will I be keeping Blue Moon City in my collection? Not this version. Hopefully my copy finds a home with someone with either better hallway vision or more patience for sorting out which of the bland colors the tiles are supposed to be representing.