Matthew Smail

As someone who uses the Sony WH-1000XM5 daily, I approached the Edifier ES850NB with a healthy dose of scepticism. Sony’s flagship headphones are widely regarded as the gold standard for wireless ANC over-ear headphones, and I’ve grown used…

Bomb Busters from Pegasus Spiele is a fast-paced cooperative deduction game where players work together as a bomb squad, racing against time to cut the right wires and defuse explosives before disaster strikes. It’s a clever and highly…

Chivalry is Dead: Race for the Crown is a fantasy-themed chariot racing game from Naughty Jester Games that blends high-speed competition with chaotic combat, delivering a racing experience that is as much about survival and sabotage as it…

2025 was an incredible year for tabletop gaming, with designers pushing boundaries in creativity, storytelling, and mechanical depth. Yet, it was also a year of reprints, re-imaginings and perhaps a retraction in the crowdfunding market…

Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City, designed by Naotaka Shimamoto and Yoshiaki Tomioka and published by Itten, is a dexterity game that builds on the minimalist charm of the original Tokyo Highway while adding a splash of colour, a bit more…

Speaking as someone who played and enjoyed the original card game, I can say with confidence that Set a Watch on iOS is a faithful, polished adaptation of Rock Manor Games original title, and it’s one of the rare digital board games that…

Quoridor Pac-Man is a curious hybrid that manifests as part abstract strategy, part arcade homage and if you were just in the market for Quoridor alone, it might be all the more interesting for it.  Published by Gigamic, this edition of the…

Cascadero is a clever, spatially-driven tile placement game from Reiner Knizia and Bitewing Games — blending route-building, area control, and cascading bonuses into a tight, interactive puzzle that rewards timing, positioning, and…

Hispania, from Draco Ideas, is a focused and abstract historical strategy game that casts players as Roman praetors (and maybe a consul) tasked with subduing the Iberian Peninsula over the course of two centuries. Hispania is a primarily…

MicroMacro: Crime City was already a standout in the tabletop space — a small, affordable cooperative detective game that turned a sprawling black-and-white city map into a living crime scene. Designed by Johannes Sich and published by…