Matthew Smail 429 posts 40 comments

About five years ago, it was hard to tell which “gamer's game” was top of the tree. Lords of Waterdeep, Five Tribes, Viticulture and Dead of Winter were just a few of the games making their case, but there was no clear winner. Enter Jamey…

With drafting, multifunction cards, a considerable element of advance planning and a fiendish risk-vs-reward scoring system, Doodle Dungeon is quite a complex beast. Even so, the inclusion of drawing (with stencils) and cute artwork make an…

A long time ago (2002) in a galaxy far, far away (when Milton Bradley were still a trading brand) there was a game called Star Wars: Epic Duels. In this game, iconic heroes from the Star Wars universe did battle using cards and dice. For…

We all know what to expect from Mythic Games at this point; huge boxes of plastic, cardboard and neoprene supported by elaborate, customised inserts. Regardless of what's come before though, nothing could prepare me for the sheer…

Sometimes, a game is designed specifically to break the mould. New games are released every day that layer in crazy new mechanics over the top of traditional ones, ramping up the complexity to dizzying new heights. Others are the opposite,…

I honestly don’t know any videogame fan of a similar age to me that doesn’t have fond memories of Bullfrog’s Theme Park. Even though Rollercoaster Tycoon and, more recently, Planet Coaster have since picked up the mantle, there was…

Yes, it’s a bold claim to state that any game, let alone one as unassuming as Celtic, is as good as or even better than the legendary Ticket to Ride. The truth is though, I am so, so bored of Ticket to Ride that I’ve been desperate to find…

It’s okay, I think, to be disappointed by something when you first see it. I felt this way when I opened Res Arcana — a game I had heard so many good things about — only to find what seemed to be a very meagre set of components. It’s also…

Renature (pronounced Re-nature, not Ren-a-ture as I keep calling it) is a brand new IP co-published internationally by PSC Games, Pegasus Spiele, Capstone Games and Deep Print Games, among others. With such an illustrious group of backers…

I don’t know if it’s because of the current restrictions on travel and socialising, or just pure chance, but recently I seem to find myself playing two-player games a lot more frequently than I used to. Not only that, but with games like…