Board Games Reviews

We have been working our way through some of GameWrights newest titles, and been loving each and every experience. We've played a fair amount of Shifting Stones and Abandon All Artichokes, and praised both titles for simplistic yet addictive gameplay. While Dragonrealm definitely ratchets up the complexity to another level, it's still an easy-to-learn experience that can be learned in played within 30 minutes. And it's fun, so it's a great recipe for any game night with family and friends!

Shifting Stones is another strong example of the quick yet fun board games that GameWright is publishing and pushing to a wider audience. GameWright's titles scratch that 'premium' board game itch while remaining easy to play and relatively inexpensive to purchase. When you want to play a strategically deep, but easy to learn board game, Shifting Stones is almost all you'll need.

GameWright has mastered the ability to launch easy to learn, fun to play board and card game titles that are appropriate for a variety of ages. While often easy to learn, the games take a fair bit of strategic skill to win, and most can be completed within 30 minutes or less. For folks as busy as my wife and I, finding a few spare minutes to play a GameWright game is becoming a daily exercise. Abandon All Artichokes falls into the same mold as other GameWright games, and is an easy recommendation for card game enthusiasts.

Stonemaier Games is in the business of creating fantastic titles that are not only beautiful to look at, but are extremely fun to play, with deep mechanics that will have you playing game after game. Although an older title in their catalogue, Euphoria is a deep worker placement game that doesn't limit players actions like some worker placement games, and can be an enjoyable time for all. And yes, that includes folks that 'hate' worker placement games.

Thanks to our friends at Skybound and Sideshow Collectibles, I had the early opportunity to play Dark Harvest, a game about harvesting and spending souls, as well as influence tokens, to...well...get more souls. Because to win at Dark Harvest, you need to have the most souls in your possession, and how better to get souls than to get some great reapers on your side. But does Dark Harvest deliver enough fun to warrant the $25 price tag? Let's take a look!

Civilization building games have always been a huge favourite for me, whether it is the Age of Empires franchise or Civilization. When it comes to transferring these types of games to the table, it’s not always so clean and nice. While there are numerous civilization building board games available, few really grab you and immerse you in the experience. Then Tapestry was released.

Few games have grabbed me as much as Space Base, and although the space required to play is massive, it is some of the most fun I have had all year. In addition, with a legacy game option out now for fans to enjoy, it doesn’t look like Space Base is going to die anytime soon. In Space Base, players are competing to have the best space fleet, earning as many victory points as necessary, and ultimately winning the game.…

Although we’ve never been huge fans of checkers, there was something instantly appealing about King Me! from Ravensburger. I believe it was the extra elements introduced into the game that made the standard game of checkers much more enjoyable, and even more intriguing! After all, who doesn’t want to control regions, and be crowned King? Let’s dive into King Me!, thanks to our friends at Ravensburger. If you haven’t read our How to Play article on King Me!, please do…

We’ve reviewed our fair share of toys over the last number of years, including one of the most iconic construction toys on the entire planet: LEGO. Yet somehow, a new toy has entered the Roffel household that is like no other, that has captured the imagination of my kids, even weeks after we first opened it up. I’m talking about GraviTrax, a marble track STEM toy from Ravensburger, one that has already taken Europe by storm, and is now invading…

Thanks to our friends at Alderac Entertainment Group, we had the excellent opportunity to play Istanbul: The Dice Game, a simplified version of the original game title Istanbul, which removes the worker placement elements and instead uses dice rolls to determine potential actions. While I’ve always been a fan of worker placement games – and Istanbul is an excellent title that can take some time to complete – it’s nice to add games to my collection that take less than…