There we were, down to the wire…Friar Tuck really was in danger. The family had defeated two of the three Norsemen during the second half of the first chapter of Friar Tuck in Danger, the expansion to The Adventures of Robin Hood, published by KOSMOS. The game’s excellent action system, carried over from the base game, laid it out simply—we were down to our last turn, and my character, Will Scarlett, had to defeat the final Norseman or the team was going to lose the game. Two years ago, the “team” was made up of just my wife and I, moving through the base game campaign as Robin Hood and Little ..read more

As time goes on, I think of myself more and more as a professional tabletop critic. This is a change from when I first joined the Meeple Mountain team about three years ago, in part because of some of the things I recognize during the first readthrough of a game’s rules. Vampire Village (2024, Studio H) was on my radar after getting a walkthrough from the publisher at last year’s SPIEL event in Essen, Germany. The artwork is gorgeous. Studio H has generally done me right: the Suspects games, Vivarium, and Oriflamme are all fun and stand out for sharp production elements and accessible play exp ..read more

Pittsburgh, PA—Following the untraceable success of their 2023 releases, Ill-Conceived Games announced a new group of titles for the upcoming Board Game Con season. President, CEO, and ChatGPT journeyman David Rivative all but guaranteed nomination for the coveted VerspottenSPIEL award in his remarks.   Expected to draw the bulk of attention, Lost Cities of Arnak generated buzz throughout the press conference. “There’s a reason no one’s tried pulling cards out of a bag before,” Rivative said as he touted the earthy components, adding, “—because we hadn’t been around to think of it ..read more

For those of us of a certain age, there is only one, iconic cover of Mastermind: Bill Woodward, seated, with the fingertips of one hand touching those of his other hand, and Cecilia Fung, standing slightly behind him in her white dress, leaning, with one arm on the chair.  As a kid, I had no idea who they were, but I thought they looked intellectually serious. The kind of people who would like a challenging game. The kind of person I wanted to be. Mastermind was produced in 1971 by Invicta Plastics. Based on an older pencil-and-paper game called Bulls and Cows, Mastermind is a code-break ..read more

Starship Interstellar has the parts that usually pique my interest in a game. It’s a murderer’s row of absolute bangers: abysmal graphic design, comically overlarge pieces, cubes of every shape, size, and color, and space exploration! That might sound sarcastic, but my too-cool-for-school brain is almost immediately titillated when I encounter something that looks like a terrible product on its face. It made it to publication, so surely, there must be something to it, right? I often hit more than I miss with this assessment, but this time it was a dramatic strikeout. My wager that goofy-looki ..read more

About two years ago, my buddy Johnivan showed up at a game night with a copy of the 2015 co-op game Healthy Heart Hospital. The cover looks like a newspaper ad out of the 1950s, right down to the game’s tagline, “Don’t miss a beat!” written in script just below the title. We didn’t get to play Healthy Heart Hospital that night, but Johnivan still opened up the box and showed me the components. It was basic-looking stuff but I loved the retro-style art, and the package looked like something that could use an upgrade. When Tabletop Tycoon reached out to offer a review copy of the new version of ..read more

I can trace my love of abstracts to Score Four. The game was released in 1967, and based on the cover art (seen in the header, above), my mother must have bought me a copy shortly thereafter. The box was an off-white, with a charcoal-like drawing of the board and containers for the wooden beads. (Tubes that were too small to work well.) Score Four is a 3D, four-in-a-row game played on a 4x4 grid with thin metal rods at each of the 16 points. On your turn, you’ll place a wooden bead in your color (light or dark) on any one of the rods. Each rod can hold up to four beads.  You win if you c ..read more

“Daddy, you KNOW I’m always down to play more Disney Lorcana.” This was the introduction from my 10-year-old when the newest Lorcana decks from our partners at Ravensburger, Into the Inklands, arrived at my home a few weeks ago. My kids are massive Pokémon fans, so anything with the words “trading card game” splashed on the cover is going to work. Just like the cards in the inaugural set (The First Chapter), the two newest starter decks are playable as a card game but are just as delightful to look at for the amazing artwork. Disney Lorcana: Into the Inklands clearly has a story and a path for ..read more

I adore ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer, the solo spatial puzzle published by Button Shy back in 2021. I don’t play it often, but each time I do, I’m charmed anew. The combination of adorable illustrations and nesting puzzles makes for a brisk and deeply satisfying experience. Each of the numerous expansions adds something straightforwardly devious to the mix. The complete ROVE is a remarkably robust puzzle game, even setting aside its petite package. Aqua ROVE is not, it bears clarifying, an expansion, though a module exists to combine the two. Designers Dustin Dobson and Milan Zivk ..read more

I love ROVE. Big fan. I don’t play it often—I don’t play any solo games often—but I always enjoy it when I do. The puzzles are tricky without being complicated, and reward good planning in a way that most puzzle games don’t require. Now, in tandem with their crowdfunding campaign for Aqua ROVE, publisher Button Shy is presenting the world with ROVE Jr, a ROVE for the 8+ crowd. I, personally, am delighted. Given that ROVE reminds me of the ThinkFun—née Binary Arts—toys I spent hundreds of hours with as a child, the existence of ROVE Jr feels entirely correct. If you know how to play ROVE, you m ..read more