Adam Roffel

If you’ve been following the website and my YouTube channel, you know how excited we have been about Mythwind. While there are definitely aspects we don’t love, we quickly put in dozens of hours and now cannot wait for new content to drop for this game. And guess what everyone – if you missed out on the first campaign, this is also a big reprint, so you can get everything you missed out on!

Ostia Pirates on Kickstarter is in its final 24 hours and the campaign has done incredibly well. With over 400,000 CAD raised, it’s further proof that even lesser known publishers can make a big impact on the board game space, and highlights how important Kickstarter and GameFound are.

With only one week to go, your chances to back Ostia Pirates is slowly fading away. Listen folks, take it from me, if you want to pick up a game from UCHIBACOYA you do not want to wait. These games generally will not hit retaliers in the West, and I’ve already disappointed myself by missing out on their games multiple times. Yes, the price might be a bit concerning, but these are games that hold their value and will be something you are happy to have in your board game collection!

I love playing Trading Card Games (CCGs) but sometimes I’d rather play with more people than just one other person. We have attempted to play games of Disney Lorcana over the past six months with little success. It just doesn’t work. As I’ve watched Fantasy Flight Games show off their Twin Suns multiplayer mode, I’m very excited for a gameplay system that seems like it will work with more than 2 players!

GameGenic is making some of the best components for Collectable Card Games (CCGs) and their most recent partnership with Star Wars Unlimited has me very excited. I love branded products for CCGs – the deck boxes and card sleeves for Disney Lorcana, for example, aren’t the greatest things I’ve ever used, but I like them none-the-less. Thing is, while Ravensburger has attempted to do everything in house – and have done an adequate job – Fantasy Flight Games has said, “We aren’t in the accessories business, so let’s get someone who knows accessories to make accessories for our game!” Enter GameGenic.

I’ve been really excited about Fantasy Life ever since it was announced for Nintendo Switch. Fantasy Life on the Nintendo 3DS was one of my favourite games on that platform, and I played it a ton, potentially too much! The unfortunate news from the Nintendo Partner Showcase, however, was that we would need to wait until October to get our hands on the newest title in the series!

Last year, GamesReviews had the pleasure of previewing one of Tin Robot Games titles called Cities of Venus. It was a fantastic worker placement game where players built out their space ships and tried to score the most points. We praised the game for easy to understand mechanics, as well as fantastic components and production value. The game successfully funded on Kickstarter, and Tin Robot Games is heading back to the crowd funding platform for their upcoming game called Garden Geckos! Let’s take a look at what comes in the box, and review the quality of these components!

Nature themed games have been a huge hit in recent months (years?) and yet another title is soon to hit store shelves, this time coming to us from Studio Libellud. As the above quote says, Harmonies is all about, well, harmony. Harmony in nature, between all elements of an ecosystem. It’s not the nitty gritty that keeps everything in balance, like the food chain, but the idilic view we have of nature as a whole. And I’m here for it, both in theme and mechanics.

In my opinion, the thing that separates board games and video games is that one of these experiences is very singular and solo, while the other is more social. Video games happen on a TV, where your experience is dictated by the console you have access to, or the connection of your internet. Board games are very tactile, and the experience you have is similar to the experience anyone else is going to have in a purely physical way. Video games are virtual. Board games are physical. You don’t get to enjoy the physical and tactile when on Board Game Arena!

The Ranger is a unique character that can spend time away from the town on expeditions. These expeditions, depening on which difficulty you pick, can range from 3 days away in the wilderness to 5 days away. When not out exploring, you will spend your turns adding stock to your inventory so that you can bring more and different items with you on your next adventure.

I’ve been playing a ton of Mythwind over the past few weeks, and as I move into Month 13 (that’s the beginning of Year 4!) I’ve had the pleasure of playing all the characters in the core box. With The Merchant, I think I have found my favourite. I love manipulating the market to make things work in my favour, but the unpredictability of customers and rivals keeps you on your toes, and keeps the game fresh.

In about 50 days, one of the more unique game I’ve ever seen is going to hit GameFound, and this title is Meeple Inc. In Meeple Inc., players will be creating their own board games, hiring help, and attempting to win prestigious awards in order to be the best board game developer at the table. To be fair, it’s a bit more complicated than that (in a good, board game kind of way), so why not check out this summary from the development team behind this unique title!

Asmodee Canada and Fantasy Flight Games sent over a copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game prior to the holiday break, and my father-in-law and I quickly played through all the scenarios in the box using the pre-established decks suggested in the Learn to Play guide.

Here is a bit of information from the games publisher, Asmodee:

GamesReviews.com is giving away a ton of Xbox games this holiday season and you can win! We’ve had a great time here on the Xbox front, with Daniel and Kevin posting a ton of great Xbox content over the past 12 months. We’ve had the privilege of reviewing a ton of great games, a few of which we have highlighted below!

As a longtime fan of board games, it was shocking to me that I’d never played something from Arcane Wonders. My eyes were opened to all the fantastic games they have on offer at GenCon 2023, and over the past few weeks I’ve been making my way through their catalogue? Here are my two favourite titles from Arcane Wonder as of writing!

I’ve been playing Star Wars: Shatterpoint since day one – in fact, we have been reviewing each and every box released since the game’s inception. I’m not a huge fan of tabletop gaming, and even though my father-in-law and kids attend a few big ones each year here in Ontario, I tend to sit on the side and just watch – it’s not my scene. Shatterpoint, however, is something I’ve grown to love, but the experience needs a boost and that boost is coming soon!

I was overly critical of Harvest Moon: One World, and for good reason. Many things about that game bothered me, but the most egregious of them all was the laziness in development. I was shocked that instead of naming characters, they used descriptions to describe people, such as the “Busy Man.” It was lazy development, and that laziness seemed to trickle down and permeate almost all aspects of the game.

I’ve been playing board games for well over a decade now, and have amassed a huge collection of games. Add to that the access to games I have because of my gaming group, and I’ve had the privilege of playing hundreds of games. Cooperative games have always been something I enjoy, so in this article we will look at my top 3 cooperative board games.

Growing up, my family never did advent calendars so the thought of getting a little gift each day leading to Christmas day was foreign to me. I think perhaps over the past 30 years, more and more people have begun getting into the holiday spirit with an advent calendar. They range from calendars that have chocolates or candies, to calendars with books, calendars with toys, and yes even calendars with LEGO. In this article we will look at three different advent calendars for 2023 themed around LEGO City, LEGO Harry Potter, and LEGO Star Wars!

I understand I’m living in a different environment than most hardcore board game players. Before GamesReviews became as popular as it has, and before our board game footage began performing so well, everything we did here on the site was paid for out of pocket.

Fantasy Flight Games is one of my favourite board game publishers, publishing great games like Descent: Legends of the Dark and Lord of the Rings: Journey’s in Middle Earth. Many folks have gotten their hands on Star Wars Unlimited, the newest trading card game from Fantasy Flight Games, but a release date wasn’t available. Until now.

There is a brand new Nightmare Before Christmas game available at retail this October, and our friends at Asmodee Canada and Mixlore were kind enough to send over the game a bit early. We’ve already played a few games and have enjoyed it immensely, but while we wait for that first impressions article, let’s take a look at what comes in the box!

A few months ago I attended an expo in Toronto that was primarily for distributors to connect with stores for purchasing products. As a lone media member invited, I was given the same access as these stores received, even going behind the curtain to look at a few games. After looking at Disney Dixit I was given a brief look at an upcoming game called Spellbook. Honestly, while the presentation and the explanation of the game was top notch, the concept seemed a bit dull to me. How would a game about making spells be fun?

With major stock woes plaguing the popularity of Disney Lorcana, Ravensburger is pushing forward with their plans to release Chapter 2 of the highly collectible trading card game title, Rise of the Floodborn. Brand new starter decks, deck boxes, sleeves, and mats, here is hoping the Chapter 2 launch of Disney Lorcana goes smoother than Chapter 1, and that Ravensburger plans to do something about Local Game Stores (LGS) selling at ridiculous prices.

GenCon 2023 has come and gone, but one of the highlights of my weekend was interviewing Disney Lorcana designer Ryan Miller. During our 20 minute interview, Ryan and I chatted about how Lorcana came to be, some of his favourite cards, and what the actual targeted demographic was for the game (hint, it wasn’t kids!)

One of my favourite booths to stop by at when I visited GenCon this year was the Monster Fight Club booth. Not only were they showing off some amazing terrain and large scale battlemaps, but they were also demoing a board game based on one of my favourite IPs – Borderlands.

I’ve produced a few videos around The Witcher: Old World as well as a couple articles here on the website. A comment I often get is, “You can’t really enjoy this game without the expansions, there isn’t enough content.” So after half a dozen games I’ve decided to revisit those comments and see if I agree or not.

If you’ve played Summer at Mara, you know that the colourful game was loved by thousands, providing a great farming simulation / life simulation  experience. The game was colourful and fun, full of unique and interesting characters. While the gameplay might have felt a bit repetitive as it released in a year full of similar style games, it was still a great experience, and one I really enjoyed. When Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara was announced, I was intrigued, although cautious when I saw it was a platformer.

Adrian Alonso, Head of Gamegenic, had this to say about the upcoming launch and collaboration,