My family gave each other a lot of games for Christmas:
Of these, Happy Little Dinosaurs has gotten the most play. Not because it’s the best game, but because it’s simple and quick. Most of this pile hasn’t even been opened.
And then we invited some friends over and they brought their favorite games. Here’s a capsule review of the games I’ve played recently:
- Happy Little Dinosaurs: My daughter created new character for a fifth player: Terrified Pterodactyl. If it weren’t for that, I’d have no interest in playing again.
- The Great British Baking Show Game: Sorta a realtime pattern matching and resource management game that’s vastly elevated by theme for fans of the show.
- Cubitos: Rough first play because I didn’t know how to teach it. It could end up being a hit if we try again.
- Fort: I taught this poorly too and we weren’t in the right mood for it. Didn’t get far enough to call this a play, to be honest.
- Something Wild! Star Wars The Mandalorian: Grogu Game: I guess there is a whole line of variations with different characters that can be combined. It’s cute, but really light. Too light for my tastes.
- Cheating Moth: Probably the hit of the day when we invited friends over. For the right group, this is perfect. Not to my taste (I don’t like the cards littering the floor at the end of the game), but a unique and interesting card-shedding game.
- Fuji Flush: This a card-shedding game I really like. There’s this weird moment when you form impromptu teams by playing a matching card. I’m excited to try this one again.
- Ravine: We got this from my brother a few years ago and it’s always fun to rediscover. Thanks, @Doug! This time we coasted to an easy victory thanks to finding a Cave for permanent shelter. Way better than the newspaper I recovered from the wreckage.
- Pandemic: Super group dependent. I played it years ago with a friend who masterminded us to victory and it was so boring. Last night we worked together as a team and had a brilliant time.
- Disney Villainous: I won with Captain Hook and I feel kinda bad because I convinced people that I wasn’t as close to winning as I was. The Fate mechanism encourages targeting the leader.
Tonight our Cub Scout pack is having another game night. I’m curious what our kids will want to take and what we’ll end up playing.