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Matthew Smail 416 posts 39 comments
Matt is B3's resident Head of Board Games. As a life-long fan of all things gaming he'll also occasionally be found covering video games with the team, or bringing a nice mix of topics to the podcast.
My review for Mandala was originally taken on alongside a number of other two-player games, with the intention of including it in a piece about games that cater specifically for couples. Somehow, though, the suffocatingly thematic language…
Lost Ruins of Arnak takes tomb raiding to a more cerebral level
When I think of movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or The Mummy, I tend to be drawn towards the swashbuckling elements of those movies, and the protracted and exciting action scenes. The fantastical archaeological and…
7 Wonders Duel is the essential two player hobby game
Whilst I admit that I’ve been something of an evangelist towards two-player board games recently, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the new 7 Wonders: Second Edition strips out all two-player variants entirely. That is only…
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is a well-told tale about facing your own…
As the second — of at least three, but maybe more — games that make up The Dark Pictures Anthology, Little Hope faces the tough task of addressing the challenges levelled at the first, whilst also living in the shadow of developer…
Baron Voodoo casts an interesting spell, but it may leave you a little…
If times were different and board-games were being played as normal — between a mixture of players who do and don’t know each other, often in dedicated cafes or spaces in public areas — then Baron Voodoo is the kind of game that would make…
Almost as frustrating as it is terrifying, Visage sets the new standard for horror…
With one of the most horrific opening sequences in any game that I’ve played, Visage sets out its stall early on. This is a game designed to shock and scare you to your very core — especially if you have the stomach to play it for long…
When it comes to big experiences, Kahuna’s small box is solid but a little…
Continuing our recent run of two player only games, Kahuna is a small box standalone game from publisher Kosmos and designer Gunter Cornett, in which the players act as deities vying for dominion of an archipelago in the South Pacific.…
Man and beast meet with deadly consequences in Matagot’s Raptor
I could think of more loveable heroine’s than the Velociraptor, yet there’s something about Bruno Cathala and Bruno Faidutti’s Raptor that invokes a primal instinct to protect, and leaves the players in no doubt about who the bad guys are.…
Lost Cities converts the Golden Age of exploration into a head to head duel
Since the second quarter of 2020, I’ve been playing more and more games with just two players — primarily with my wife and one of our children. Whilst many games work with two players, relatively few multiplayer games scale down well, and…
Frozen Unicorns is a Charming Idea, but it isn’t much of a game…
When it comes to choosing board and card games, I’m always on the lookout for options that might appeal to me, my wife and our kids equally. This is a heck of a challenge, and so far only the likes of Jurassic Snack and Zoo Run have managed…