The Mississippi river flows for 3730 km from Lake Itasca to the gulf of Mexico. The river’s derives its name from the native word Ojibwe “Misi-ziibi”, meaning “great river.”
When picking up my copy of Mississippi Queen by Keep Exploring Games / Super Meeple, I was confident to find a great board game inside the box. It being a winner of the Spiel Des Jahres award (1997), such an assumption is safe sailing, right?
Jetpack Joyride, designed by Lucky Duck Games, is a real-time competitive puzzle game. It’s an adaptation of the same-titled side-scrolling endless running mobile game by Halfbrick Studios. Its story and esthetics have been copy-pasted to cardboard and plastic. So again players find protagonist Barry Steakfries trapped in a lab with a stolen jetpack strapped to his back.
Fog of Love had a great deal of buzz about it when it was released in 2017. With its sleek graphic style, its unashamedly two-player yet non-filler nature, and still even now practically unique theming (outside a few light party games) of playing out a romantic relationship, it’s easy to see why it turned heads. But is the game just a somewhat expensive fling, or something for the long term?
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” Gandalf spoke to Frodo. And so I’ve dedicated my time lately to playing Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth by Fantasy Flight Games. It’s a cooperative adventure game in which 1 to 5 players embark on an epic journey through the menacing landscapes of Middle-Earth.
If this tongue twister of a name doesn’t yet grab your attention, I hope the name of the designer will! Wolfgang Warsch has skyrocketed the game designer scene with several successful titles in 2018. High time for me to have a taste of Warsch’s awarded boardgame brew: The Quacks of Quedlinburg!
A mere glance at the box of Blue Lagoon and the soundtrack of Disney’s “Moana” starts playing in the back of my head. Both board game and movie are set in a Polynesian archipelago, against a background of exploration and discovery.
In Blue Lagoon by Blue Orange Games, players are seafarers exploring new-found islands and making them their home. Playing as rivalling tribes, there’s a tough competition for land and resources.
Welcome to… Postwar America! Confident that a bright and prosperous future now lies ahead, America’s population experiences an exponential growth – the so called “Baby Boom”. To provide affordable housing for the numerous young families, investors take on large building projects in the cities’ suburbs. In Welcome to you play as rival architects; each allotted 3 suburban streets to develop into a congenial residential area. Will you become the architect of the future?
Flamme Rouge brings road bicycle racing to the gaming table. No other sport is as interwoven with my Flemish roots, because “Flanders is cycling and cycling is Flanders”. Our annual “Tour of Flanders” is one of the 5 monumental cycling races together with Milan-San-Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro di Lombardia.
This cobbled classic was first held in 1913 and had a short interruption during WWI. From 1919 on however it has been organized without hiatus, making it the longest uninterrupted streak of any cycling classic (Yes, even during the horror of WWII the race went on!). What makes Flamme Rouge such a joy to play? Read until the finish to find out!
In my 4 years as an avid board gamer I’ve been all kind of heroes. I’ve protected medieval towns from invaders, I’ve cured humanity from plaguing diseases, I’ve prevented the world from destruction by the Ancient Ones… But never before had I saved a bunch of polar bears from drowning. Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature published by Taiwan Boardgame Design lets players be heroic scientists in the fight against global warming. Read on to find out if this game left me hot or cold.
In the midst of Barcelona, already 5 generations of citizens bore witness to the rising beauty of the Sagrada Familia. The construction of “The Church of the Holy Family” – brainchild of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi in 1883 – will be completed in 2026.
In 2017 the unmatched beauty of the church’s stained glass windows served as a source of inspiration for Sagrada (The Board Game). Read on and find out whether this game is worth a visit too!
I love putting on a show and being the center of attention. Colosseum lets me do just that while assuming the role of “Impresario”: a show manager, in ancient Rome.
The opening of the Colosseum causes reason to celebrate with mighty spectacles being held throughout the whole empire. By clever hiring and acquiring gladiators, actors, animals and props each player aims to create the show of a lifetime.
Kanagawa is a Japanese prefecture of the Greater Tokyo Area. In the early 19th century (late Edo period) master painter Katsushika Hokusai caught the beauty of this region in a series of landscape prints called “Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji”. “Under the wave off Kanagawa” is the most famous single image in this series.