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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tail Story in Tabletop Games
Jul 1, 2020
The saying goes, “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” I know there were points in my life when I wanted to be a rock star, a zookeeper, or even a professional mascot. But who says that dreams only apply to people? Our beloved pets can dream too! Haven’t you ever seen a sleeping pup, legs twitching from an imaginary chase? Or caught your cat prowling around, as if on a secret mission? What do animals dream about? Well, Tail Story allows you to create dreams and achieve the impossible with your chosen pet!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a preview copy of Tail Story for the purposes of this review. Some of the components pictured are not final, and will be addressed in production. Also, I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide an overview of the rules and game flow. -L
Tail Story is a competitive card game in which players are racing to become the most memorable pet in history! How? By partaking in various events and gathering a total of 4 Achievements. Here’s how it works. To setup, each player takes a player mat, and randomly draws a Queue Card. Players then get to choose a Character card – a pet from either the Canine, Feline, or Rodent & Friends type. Shuffle the Event cards, deal 15 to each player, everyone draws 5 cards to their hand, and the game is ready to begin! The player who drew Queue Card 1 is the first player, and play continues in numerical order.
Each turn consists of 5 steps: Draw, Play, Bonus, Deck Check, and End of Turn. The first step is always to Draw 1 card from your deck. In the Play Step, you choose one action to perform. Each player has 2 Action Points (AP) per turn, and those are spent here in the Play Step. All Event cards require either 1 or 2 AP to play, and the other standard actions in the Play Step require either 0 or 1 AP to perform (Check out the Reference Cards pictured below to see the possible actions). After performing 1 action, you move to the Bonus Step, where a player may choose to activate a Bonus ability. The Deck Check step is next. All players count how many cards remain in their Draw piles. If all decks still have at least 1 card, you jump back to the Play Step and perform another action. If any deck is out of cards, that player reshuffles their discard pile, and places a card from their hand face-down on their player mat to signify that they have collected an Achievement. Even if another player collects an Achievement on your turn, play then returns to you, and you jump back to the Play Step again. The last step is the End of Turn – a player decides to be done and ends their turn, discarding their hand down to 5 cards. The game ends when a player has collected their 4th Achievement.
Here’s a neat twist though – whenever you play a card, any opponent can choose to play a Stop card to prevent you from performing that action! And then, if you have a Stop card too, you could play it to cancel out their Stop card. This twist adds a strategic and competitive element to the game that elevates it to the next level. There’s a fun little element of role-play too that encourages you to get into your animal character – I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own!
I know that seems like quite a lot, but once you get into the swing of things, Tail Story plays pretty quickly. One thing I particularly like about this game is that it requires a decent amount of strategy. Everyone is racing to get through their Draw decks and collect Achievements, while at the same time hindering the progress of their opponents. Are you willing to risk a valuable Stop card to cancel the action of an opponent and hope that they don’t play a Stop card back to you? Should you play a card that could activate your Bonus ability now or wait for your next action to pull a fast one over on your opponents? Your strategy has to be adjustable on the fly depending on what cards your opponents are playing. There is no single right strategy to win, and the riskiness makes the game more exciting and engaging.
Another thing I really like about Tail Story is that there are really only 4 different Event cards that can be played. Yes, the artwork may vary, but ultimately the actions are the same. They rely on key text and color coding to communicate their uses, and after a few rounds, recognizing those effects is easy. One thing I wish is that the reference cards had these effect explanation instead of only being listed in the rulebook. Just for a quick glance if you need a reminder instead of having to look back in the rules for the full text. The reference cards do have the Turn Steps and possible Actions on them, which are helpful – don’t get me wrong!
I would recommend Tail Story at the higher player counts for maximum enjoyment. With only 2 players, it feels like it drags on a bit because it is only a back-and-forth game. With 3-4 players, you have more opponents with which to interact, and playing cards against others doesn’t feel as targeted and keeps the game play more light-hearted than cut-throat.
Let’s talk about components. As I mentioned earlier, this is only a preview copy of the game, so some elements are still not finalized. The player mats are only paper right now, but I anticipate that they will be sturdier in final production. That being said, the information on the player mats is awesome. They provide enough information to understand where everything goes, while not being so wordy that they are confusing. I am excited to see what kind of color scheme they come up with for the player mats, to match the artwork of the cards. On to the cards – they are amazing. For starters, the cards are nice, sturdy, and thick. Definitely a game that will not easily succumb to bent corners or torn cards. The actual artwork of the cards is perfect. Each card is detailed, colorful, and appropriate for their respective card names. Probably the coolest part of the cards is that they all have a holographic finish on them. This really makes the artwork pop and makes you admire every card instead of just reading the text. That being said, the holographic finish makes the cards stick together a little more – not a huge detriment, but something to be aware of and careful with when drawing or playing cards! The game box is a cute little box with a magnet closure that is perfect for easy transportation.
Overall, I would say that I love Tail Story. It’s fun, fast-paced, strategic, and exciting. Being able to choose from 3 Character types (Canine, Feline, Rodent & Friends) gives you the opportunity to play a different game, with a different strategy, every time. With more plays, the special text of cards is engrained in your head, which means that it can play even faster and with no interruptions to check rules. It’s definitely a memorable game, and one that I can see myself pulling out often on game nights. I am excited to see this campaign launch, and for the sake of all animal dreams out there, you should check it out!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a preview copy of Tail Story for the purposes of this review. Some of the components pictured are not final, and will be addressed in production. Also, I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide an overview of the rules and game flow. -L
Tail Story is a competitive card game in which players are racing to become the most memorable pet in history! How? By partaking in various events and gathering a total of 4 Achievements. Here’s how it works. To setup, each player takes a player mat, and randomly draws a Queue Card. Players then get to choose a Character card – a pet from either the Canine, Feline, or Rodent & Friends type. Shuffle the Event cards, deal 15 to each player, everyone draws 5 cards to their hand, and the game is ready to begin! The player who drew Queue Card 1 is the first player, and play continues in numerical order.
Each turn consists of 5 steps: Draw, Play, Bonus, Deck Check, and End of Turn. The first step is always to Draw 1 card from your deck. In the Play Step, you choose one action to perform. Each player has 2 Action Points (AP) per turn, and those are spent here in the Play Step. All Event cards require either 1 or 2 AP to play, and the other standard actions in the Play Step require either 0 or 1 AP to perform (Check out the Reference Cards pictured below to see the possible actions). After performing 1 action, you move to the Bonus Step, where a player may choose to activate a Bonus ability. The Deck Check step is next. All players count how many cards remain in their Draw piles. If all decks still have at least 1 card, you jump back to the Play Step and perform another action. If any deck is out of cards, that player reshuffles their discard pile, and places a card from their hand face-down on their player mat to signify that they have collected an Achievement. Even if another player collects an Achievement on your turn, play then returns to you, and you jump back to the Play Step again. The last step is the End of Turn – a player decides to be done and ends their turn, discarding their hand down to 5 cards. The game ends when a player has collected their 4th Achievement.
Here’s a neat twist though – whenever you play a card, any opponent can choose to play a Stop card to prevent you from performing that action! And then, if you have a Stop card too, you could play it to cancel out their Stop card. This twist adds a strategic and competitive element to the game that elevates it to the next level. There’s a fun little element of role-play too that encourages you to get into your animal character – I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own!
I know that seems like quite a lot, but once you get into the swing of things, Tail Story plays pretty quickly. One thing I particularly like about this game is that it requires a decent amount of strategy. Everyone is racing to get through their Draw decks and collect Achievements, while at the same time hindering the progress of their opponents. Are you willing to risk a valuable Stop card to cancel the action of an opponent and hope that they don’t play a Stop card back to you? Should you play a card that could activate your Bonus ability now or wait for your next action to pull a fast one over on your opponents? Your strategy has to be adjustable on the fly depending on what cards your opponents are playing. There is no single right strategy to win, and the riskiness makes the game more exciting and engaging.
Another thing I really like about Tail Story is that there are really only 4 different Event cards that can be played. Yes, the artwork may vary, but ultimately the actions are the same. They rely on key text and color coding to communicate their uses, and after a few rounds, recognizing those effects is easy. One thing I wish is that the reference cards had these effect explanation instead of only being listed in the rulebook. Just for a quick glance if you need a reminder instead of having to look back in the rules for the full text. The reference cards do have the Turn Steps and possible Actions on them, which are helpful – don’t get me wrong!
I would recommend Tail Story at the higher player counts for maximum enjoyment. With only 2 players, it feels like it drags on a bit because it is only a back-and-forth game. With 3-4 players, you have more opponents with which to interact, and playing cards against others doesn’t feel as targeted and keeps the game play more light-hearted than cut-throat.
Let’s talk about components. As I mentioned earlier, this is only a preview copy of the game, so some elements are still not finalized. The player mats are only paper right now, but I anticipate that they will be sturdier in final production. That being said, the information on the player mats is awesome. They provide enough information to understand where everything goes, while not being so wordy that they are confusing. I am excited to see what kind of color scheme they come up with for the player mats, to match the artwork of the cards. On to the cards – they are amazing. For starters, the cards are nice, sturdy, and thick. Definitely a game that will not easily succumb to bent corners or torn cards. The actual artwork of the cards is perfect. Each card is detailed, colorful, and appropriate for their respective card names. Probably the coolest part of the cards is that they all have a holographic finish on them. This really makes the artwork pop and makes you admire every card instead of just reading the text. That being said, the holographic finish makes the cards stick together a little more – not a huge detriment, but something to be aware of and careful with when drawing or playing cards! The game box is a cute little box with a magnet closure that is perfect for easy transportation.
Overall, I would say that I love Tail Story. It’s fun, fast-paced, strategic, and exciting. Being able to choose from 3 Character types (Canine, Feline, Rodent & Friends) gives you the opportunity to play a different game, with a different strategy, every time. With more plays, the special text of cards is engrained in your head, which means that it can play even faster and with no interruptions to check rules. It’s definitely a memorable game, and one that I can see myself pulling out often on game nights. I am excited to see this campaign launch, and for the sake of all animal dreams out there, you should check it out!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Fossilis in Tabletop Games
Feb 17, 2021
Whether it lasted for days, months, or years, I’m willing to bet that you all have had some minor (or maybe even major) fascination with dinosaurs at some point in your life. I am definitely no exception to that statement. When I was younger, I absolutely went through a paleontology phase, and the “Jurassic Park” movies have kept that love of dinosaurs alive. So when I saw KTBG was coming out with a game about excavating dinosaur bones, I was immediately sold. Did it live up to my childhood expectations, or was this excavation a bust?
Fossilis is a game of set collection and tile placement in which players are working to excavate and collect sets of dinosaur bones for display in museums across the world. To setup for a game, prepare the dig site as described in the rulebook. Populate the Score Track board with 9 random Skill tokens, 3 face-down randomly selected Event cards, and a Plaster pool based on the player count. Create a Market of Tool and Supply cards, as well as a Dinosaur Display. Each player receives a mat, Paleontologist meeple, and score marker in their chosen color. Pick a starting player, and in reverse turn order, players place their Paleontologists onto a corner tile of the dig site. The game is now ready to begin!
Every players’ turn has 3 steps: Actions, Market, and Lab. At the start of your turn, you have 4 Energy to spend on Actions. The available action choices are: Gain 1 Plaster (from the Plaster pool), Move up to 2 spaces (orthogonally or diagonally), Climb onto the Dig Site (if your Paleontologist was knocked off the board), Place 1 Sand tile (anywhere on the Dig Site), Dig 1 tile (slide a terrain tile 1 space in any direction), or Extract (excavate a bone/hammer). With the exception of Digging, all other Actions cost 1 Energy to perform. Digging 1 tile costs energy dependent on the type of terrain tile being moved. To dig Sand is 1 Energy, Clay is 2, and Stone is 3. To Dig, you select 1 tile that is orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist, and slide it 1 space in any direction you wish. Tiles that are pushed off the edge are claimed by that player, and can be used to purchase cards from the Market. It is possible for a Paleontologist to be pushed off the Dig Site, so watch out! To perform the Extract action, you will excavate a bone or hammer from an open pit orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist. Extraction costs Plaster dependent on the type of bone being collected. For example, extracting a tooth costs 2 Plaster, while a skull costs 6. Extracting hammers has no cost, and you immediately trade the hammer for one of the available Skill tokens in play. The Skill tokens provide benefits for the remainder of the game. Once a player has spent their Energy, they move to the next phase.
On your turn, you may buy 1 card from the Market: either a Tool or Supply card. These are purchased using the icons on any tiles you collected during the Action phase. Supply cards gain you immediate resources, while Tool cards are saved for use during a future Action step. After the Market phase is the Lab phase. You may claim a Dinosaur from the Display if you have at least one of the required bones for that Dinosaur. You can only ever have 1 Dinosaur in your Lab at a time, so strategize carefully. At any point during a turn, you can score the Dinosaur in your lab – either for full points if all required bones are present on the card, or partial points if you only have some of the required bones.
Events are triggered 3 times throughout the game when the Plaster pool has been depleted. The active player draws the top Event card, and follows the instructions on the card. Once an Event has been performed, the Plaster pool is refilled and play continues with the next player. After the 3rd event has been triggered, the Plaster pool is refilled one last time. When the last Plaster pool is depleted for this final time, the game ends. Players count up all their points, and the player with the highest score wins!
At first it may seem overwhelming, like there is a lot going on, but after a couple of turns the gameplay feels intuitive and streamlined. There are quite a few aspects to keep track of, but the overall flow of the game makes it feel clear and concise. During my plays, I have never once felt lost or confused as to what the next turn step is. The tight gameplay also lends itself to providing a variety of strategic options for players. Do you want to go for all the highest-scoring Dinosaurs, even though their bones take longer to collect? Or maybe you want to snag as many lower-scoring Dinosaurs as possible, since they should be faster to collect. You can earn end-game points based on Characteristic sets of Dinosaurs (carnivorous, herbivore, etc), so maybe you decide to focus on those sets. Or if you’re in a particularly confrontational mood, maybe you want to knock opposing Paleontologists off the Dig Site, causing them to ‘waste’ an Energy on a future turn just to climb back on into the play area. There really is no right answer as to what strategy is a sure-win, and I like that I can choose and adapt my strategies based on the current standings in the game.
Probably my favorite innovative mechanic in Fossilis is the 3D terrain and ‘digging’ actions. When setting up the game, bones and hammers are randomly scattered and distributed around the Dig Site before terrain tiles are added. So there is absolutely no way to know where you should dig for what you want! Just like a real paleontologist, you’ve got to give it your best guess. I have had some frustrating turns, spending lots of Energy to dig a tile just to find the space to be empty! Or maybe you dig and hit the motherlode, which just means you’ll probably have to fight off other paleontologists for the bones that you need. The 3D board adds another element of strategy that heightens the gameplay and makes it more immersive.
Let’s touch on components for a moment. They are AWESOME. Admittedly, I have the Kickstarter version, but I just love how well-produced this game is. The terrain tiles are nice and thick bakelite-esque tiles, and they are just dang fun to manipulate. The plaster and bones are small, but pretty detailed and sturdy for their size. The artwork on the cards is colorful and clear, the Paleontologist meeples are cute little wooden bits, and the cardboard bits are all good quality. Excellent production quality all around.
It should come as no surprise, based on my score, that I love this game. The gameplay is immersive and engaging, the mechanics add a neat twist to your normal set collection/tile placement game, and the ability to adapt strategy on the fly means that nobody is truly out of the game because of one bad turn. Purple Phoenix Games gives Fossilis a roaring 11 / 12. If you’re looking for a good dinosaur game, look no further. Yeah, they’re technically just bones here, but it still counts!
Fossilis is a game of set collection and tile placement in which players are working to excavate and collect sets of dinosaur bones for display in museums across the world. To setup for a game, prepare the dig site as described in the rulebook. Populate the Score Track board with 9 random Skill tokens, 3 face-down randomly selected Event cards, and a Plaster pool based on the player count. Create a Market of Tool and Supply cards, as well as a Dinosaur Display. Each player receives a mat, Paleontologist meeple, and score marker in their chosen color. Pick a starting player, and in reverse turn order, players place their Paleontologists onto a corner tile of the dig site. The game is now ready to begin!
Every players’ turn has 3 steps: Actions, Market, and Lab. At the start of your turn, you have 4 Energy to spend on Actions. The available action choices are: Gain 1 Plaster (from the Plaster pool), Move up to 2 spaces (orthogonally or diagonally), Climb onto the Dig Site (if your Paleontologist was knocked off the board), Place 1 Sand tile (anywhere on the Dig Site), Dig 1 tile (slide a terrain tile 1 space in any direction), or Extract (excavate a bone/hammer). With the exception of Digging, all other Actions cost 1 Energy to perform. Digging 1 tile costs energy dependent on the type of terrain tile being moved. To dig Sand is 1 Energy, Clay is 2, and Stone is 3. To Dig, you select 1 tile that is orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist, and slide it 1 space in any direction you wish. Tiles that are pushed off the edge are claimed by that player, and can be used to purchase cards from the Market. It is possible for a Paleontologist to be pushed off the Dig Site, so watch out! To perform the Extract action, you will excavate a bone or hammer from an open pit orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist. Extraction costs Plaster dependent on the type of bone being collected. For example, extracting a tooth costs 2 Plaster, while a skull costs 6. Extracting hammers has no cost, and you immediately trade the hammer for one of the available Skill tokens in play. The Skill tokens provide benefits for the remainder of the game. Once a player has spent their Energy, they move to the next phase.
On your turn, you may buy 1 card from the Market: either a Tool or Supply card. These are purchased using the icons on any tiles you collected during the Action phase. Supply cards gain you immediate resources, while Tool cards are saved for use during a future Action step. After the Market phase is the Lab phase. You may claim a Dinosaur from the Display if you have at least one of the required bones for that Dinosaur. You can only ever have 1 Dinosaur in your Lab at a time, so strategize carefully. At any point during a turn, you can score the Dinosaur in your lab – either for full points if all required bones are present on the card, or partial points if you only have some of the required bones.
Events are triggered 3 times throughout the game when the Plaster pool has been depleted. The active player draws the top Event card, and follows the instructions on the card. Once an Event has been performed, the Plaster pool is refilled and play continues with the next player. After the 3rd event has been triggered, the Plaster pool is refilled one last time. When the last Plaster pool is depleted for this final time, the game ends. Players count up all their points, and the player with the highest score wins!
At first it may seem overwhelming, like there is a lot going on, but after a couple of turns the gameplay feels intuitive and streamlined. There are quite a few aspects to keep track of, but the overall flow of the game makes it feel clear and concise. During my plays, I have never once felt lost or confused as to what the next turn step is. The tight gameplay also lends itself to providing a variety of strategic options for players. Do you want to go for all the highest-scoring Dinosaurs, even though their bones take longer to collect? Or maybe you want to snag as many lower-scoring Dinosaurs as possible, since they should be faster to collect. You can earn end-game points based on Characteristic sets of Dinosaurs (carnivorous, herbivore, etc), so maybe you decide to focus on those sets. Or if you’re in a particularly confrontational mood, maybe you want to knock opposing Paleontologists off the Dig Site, causing them to ‘waste’ an Energy on a future turn just to climb back on into the play area. There really is no right answer as to what strategy is a sure-win, and I like that I can choose and adapt my strategies based on the current standings in the game.
Probably my favorite innovative mechanic in Fossilis is the 3D terrain and ‘digging’ actions. When setting up the game, bones and hammers are randomly scattered and distributed around the Dig Site before terrain tiles are added. So there is absolutely no way to know where you should dig for what you want! Just like a real paleontologist, you’ve got to give it your best guess. I have had some frustrating turns, spending lots of Energy to dig a tile just to find the space to be empty! Or maybe you dig and hit the motherlode, which just means you’ll probably have to fight off other paleontologists for the bones that you need. The 3D board adds another element of strategy that heightens the gameplay and makes it more immersive.
Let’s touch on components for a moment. They are AWESOME. Admittedly, I have the Kickstarter version, but I just love how well-produced this game is. The terrain tiles are nice and thick bakelite-esque tiles, and they are just dang fun to manipulate. The plaster and bones are small, but pretty detailed and sturdy for their size. The artwork on the cards is colorful and clear, the Paleontologist meeples are cute little wooden bits, and the cardboard bits are all good quality. Excellent production quality all around.
It should come as no surprise, based on my score, that I love this game. The gameplay is immersive and engaging, the mechanics add a neat twist to your normal set collection/tile placement game, and the ability to adapt strategy on the fly means that nobody is truly out of the game because of one bad turn. Purple Phoenix Games gives Fossilis a roaring 11 / 12. If you’re looking for a good dinosaur game, look no further. Yeah, they’re technically just bones here, but it still counts!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Sheepy Time in Tabletop Games
May 27, 2021
Have you ever had trouble falling asleep? One method that supposedly helps lull you into a gentle slumber is counting sheep – imagine sheep prancing across a field and jumping over a fence. What seems like a simple and mundane task to us is actually a full-time job for these Dream Sheep! So put on your PJ’s, lace up your slippers (?), and clock in for a night of fence-jumping, all while avoiding the spooky Nightmares that will try to scare you awake!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of Sheepy Time for the purposes of this preview. What you see pictured below are the retail components. -L
Sheepy Time is a push-your-luck game in which players take on the roles of Dream Sheep, tasked with helping humans fall asleep. Played over a series of rounds, players will take turns racing their Sheep around the board, using special Dream powers, and avoiding the Nightmare that lurks around the board. The player that earns the most points (as described in the rules) will be declared the dreamiest sheep of all! To setup for a game, place the board within reach of all players and attach the Fence between spaces 10 and 1. Place the scoreboard and Pillow Reference tile nearby, and give all players a Sheep, Wink, Pillow, and Zzz tokens in their chosen color. Select one of the three provided Nightmares to use this game, shuffle their cards into the deck of Sheep cards, and place the Nightmare meeple in the center of the board. Shuffle the Dream tiles, drawing and placing one randomly on spaces 1 and 5 of the board, and reveal four more tiles to create a market. Place all Pillow tokens on the 40 Winks space of the scoreboard, choose a starting player, and the game is ready to begin!
Each round of Sheepy Time is broken into two phases: the Racing phase, and the Resting phase. To begin the Racing phase, all players will draw 2 cards into their hand. A turn consists of 4 steps: Play a card, Use Dream tiles, Resolve Fence crossing, and Draw cards. The first action you will take on your turn is to play a card from your hand. Most cards will have you move your Sheep around the board a set number of spaces, or will give you the option to ‘Catch some Zzz’s’ (place one of your Zzz tokens on a Dream tile in play). The next step, if applicable, is to use Dream tiles. Dream tiles provide special/extra abilities that can be beneficial to you. In order to use a Dream tile, however, you must have a Zzz token on it – remove your Zzz token from the tile to use its power. So you’ve got to decide when to move your Sheep, or when it’s necessary to Catch some Zzz’s! The third step is to resolve Fence crossing, if applicable. If a cards movement causes your Sheep to cross the Fence, you immediately gain 5 Winks (on the Scoreboard), and decide whether to keep playing this round or ‘Call it a Night.’ If you decide to keep playing, you move to step 4, and draw a new card into your hand. If you Call it a Night, you will discard your hand, and sit out for the remainder of this Racing phase.
If at any point in the Racing phase, you draw a Nightmare card, it must immediately be revealed and resolved. The Nightmare moves around the board, much like the Sheep, but it will Scare any Sheep that it passes! Being Scared once is ok, but if you were to be Scared AGAIN, you get Woken Up, lose all Winks for this round, and are out of the Racing phase. If the Nightmare completes a lap of the board and crosses the Fence before all players have Called it a Night, the remaining players get Woken Up. How risky are you willing to be once the Nightmare comes into play? That’s for you to decide. Once all players have either Called it a Night or been Woken Up, the Racing phase ends. Check the scoreboard for a winner – when a player earns enough Winks in the Racing phase to surpass their Pillow token. If nobody has met that requirement, players will lower their Pillow tokens by the amount specified on the Pillow Reference tile. The lower you can get your Pillow token, the fewer Winks you need to get to win in future rounds! When all Pillow tokens have been adjusted, the game moves to the Resting phase. In this phase, each player will have the choice to either add a new Dream tile to the board, or to Catch 2 Zzz’s. In turn order, players can select one of the Dream tiles from the market to place on an open space of the board, or place 2 Zzz tokens on Dream tiles in play. When everyone has performed their action, the round ends and a new Racing phase begins. Play continues in this manner until one player has been declared the winner!
I’m not typically a fan of push-your-luck games, but Sheepy Time really surprised me! Yes, that mechanic is definitely present in the gameplay, but there is also quite a bit of strategic variability that makes turns feel a little more controlled. The Dream tiles in play will always be different, providing unique abilities to help give you a strategic boost during play. And you always have 2 cards to decide between to play – you are not limited to only one course of action each turn. So yes, there is a riskiness involved with how many laps you think you can get, can you avoid the Nightmare, etc. But there is also a light element of strategy that makes the game more exciting for me. The gameplay itself is also very smooth and intuitive. The turn order makes sense and the flow of the game is pretty seamless. It is fast to teach and learn, and even though the box says 30-45 minutes, it feels fast to play.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As I said earlier, this is a retail copy of the game, and the production quality is great. The cardboard components are nice and thick, the wooden meeples are large and cute, and the overall art style reflects the theme and lightness of the game well. I want to mention that the insert is nice as well – I know it doesn’t effect the gameplay, but it makes set-up/tear-down quick and efficient. AEG definitely knocked it over the fence (get it?) with the production of this game!
So where does Sheepy Time fit into my collection? I think it’s a great game to use to introduce newer gamers to the hobby. The rules and gameplay are not overwhelming, but they offer more of a modern gaming feel than some of the older classics. I would even say that this game can be used with younger gamers as well – take out the Dream tile powers, and just race to see who can earn the most Winks before the Nightmare gets them, or something like that! It is really accessible for everyone, and that earns a big thumbs up from me. So if you’re not quite sure what to think of this game based on the theme/art style, I can assure you that the gameplay is quite excellent. When Sheepy Time hits retail, make sure you jump at the chance to play this game. Definitely don’t sleep on it.
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of Sheepy Time for the purposes of this preview. What you see pictured below are the retail components. -L
Sheepy Time is a push-your-luck game in which players take on the roles of Dream Sheep, tasked with helping humans fall asleep. Played over a series of rounds, players will take turns racing their Sheep around the board, using special Dream powers, and avoiding the Nightmare that lurks around the board. The player that earns the most points (as described in the rules) will be declared the dreamiest sheep of all! To setup for a game, place the board within reach of all players and attach the Fence between spaces 10 and 1. Place the scoreboard and Pillow Reference tile nearby, and give all players a Sheep, Wink, Pillow, and Zzz tokens in their chosen color. Select one of the three provided Nightmares to use this game, shuffle their cards into the deck of Sheep cards, and place the Nightmare meeple in the center of the board. Shuffle the Dream tiles, drawing and placing one randomly on spaces 1 and 5 of the board, and reveal four more tiles to create a market. Place all Pillow tokens on the 40 Winks space of the scoreboard, choose a starting player, and the game is ready to begin!
Each round of Sheepy Time is broken into two phases: the Racing phase, and the Resting phase. To begin the Racing phase, all players will draw 2 cards into their hand. A turn consists of 4 steps: Play a card, Use Dream tiles, Resolve Fence crossing, and Draw cards. The first action you will take on your turn is to play a card from your hand. Most cards will have you move your Sheep around the board a set number of spaces, or will give you the option to ‘Catch some Zzz’s’ (place one of your Zzz tokens on a Dream tile in play). The next step, if applicable, is to use Dream tiles. Dream tiles provide special/extra abilities that can be beneficial to you. In order to use a Dream tile, however, you must have a Zzz token on it – remove your Zzz token from the tile to use its power. So you’ve got to decide when to move your Sheep, or when it’s necessary to Catch some Zzz’s! The third step is to resolve Fence crossing, if applicable. If a cards movement causes your Sheep to cross the Fence, you immediately gain 5 Winks (on the Scoreboard), and decide whether to keep playing this round or ‘Call it a Night.’ If you decide to keep playing, you move to step 4, and draw a new card into your hand. If you Call it a Night, you will discard your hand, and sit out for the remainder of this Racing phase.
If at any point in the Racing phase, you draw a Nightmare card, it must immediately be revealed and resolved. The Nightmare moves around the board, much like the Sheep, but it will Scare any Sheep that it passes! Being Scared once is ok, but if you were to be Scared AGAIN, you get Woken Up, lose all Winks for this round, and are out of the Racing phase. If the Nightmare completes a lap of the board and crosses the Fence before all players have Called it a Night, the remaining players get Woken Up. How risky are you willing to be once the Nightmare comes into play? That’s for you to decide. Once all players have either Called it a Night or been Woken Up, the Racing phase ends. Check the scoreboard for a winner – when a player earns enough Winks in the Racing phase to surpass their Pillow token. If nobody has met that requirement, players will lower their Pillow tokens by the amount specified on the Pillow Reference tile. The lower you can get your Pillow token, the fewer Winks you need to get to win in future rounds! When all Pillow tokens have been adjusted, the game moves to the Resting phase. In this phase, each player will have the choice to either add a new Dream tile to the board, or to Catch 2 Zzz’s. In turn order, players can select one of the Dream tiles from the market to place on an open space of the board, or place 2 Zzz tokens on Dream tiles in play. When everyone has performed their action, the round ends and a new Racing phase begins. Play continues in this manner until one player has been declared the winner!
I’m not typically a fan of push-your-luck games, but Sheepy Time really surprised me! Yes, that mechanic is definitely present in the gameplay, but there is also quite a bit of strategic variability that makes turns feel a little more controlled. The Dream tiles in play will always be different, providing unique abilities to help give you a strategic boost during play. And you always have 2 cards to decide between to play – you are not limited to only one course of action each turn. So yes, there is a riskiness involved with how many laps you think you can get, can you avoid the Nightmare, etc. But there is also a light element of strategy that makes the game more exciting for me. The gameplay itself is also very smooth and intuitive. The turn order makes sense and the flow of the game is pretty seamless. It is fast to teach and learn, and even though the box says 30-45 minutes, it feels fast to play.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As I said earlier, this is a retail copy of the game, and the production quality is great. The cardboard components are nice and thick, the wooden meeples are large and cute, and the overall art style reflects the theme and lightness of the game well. I want to mention that the insert is nice as well – I know it doesn’t effect the gameplay, but it makes set-up/tear-down quick and efficient. AEG definitely knocked it over the fence (get it?) with the production of this game!
So where does Sheepy Time fit into my collection? I think it’s a great game to use to introduce newer gamers to the hobby. The rules and gameplay are not overwhelming, but they offer more of a modern gaming feel than some of the older classics. I would even say that this game can be used with younger gamers as well – take out the Dream tile powers, and just race to see who can earn the most Winks before the Nightmare gets them, or something like that! It is really accessible for everyone, and that earns a big thumbs up from me. So if you’re not quite sure what to think of this game based on the theme/art style, I can assure you that the gameplay is quite excellent. When Sheepy Time hits retail, make sure you jump at the chance to play this game. Definitely don’t sleep on it.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Evolution in Tabletop Games
Sep 12, 2019
I very much have a science-based mind. I like facts, figures, data, charts, timelines, etc. Yes, I can be a dreamer, too, but at the end of the day, I need verification to really believe in something. That’s why I’ve always been on Team Evolution vs. Team Creationism. It fascinates me how these huge beings like dinosaurs (oh yeah, I love dinosaurs a lot, too) could be preserved in time well past their deaths. But it leads to questions like, “What happened to them? Why couldn’t they make it in the end?” And the game Evolution by North Star Games attempts to answer those.
Disclaimer: There are several expansions to this game, but we are not reviewing them at this time. Should we review them in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. Furthermore, I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. – B
You start the game in control of one species of animal. One non-descript, traitless species that you will slowly (or maybe quickly) build up to be something bigger and better. You evolve it. (Huh.) You’ll start each round by contributing plant food to the watering hole. Each card in your hand is worth a certain amount of plant food. Once that food is in the watering hole, it’s fair game for anyone to eat. Depending on your strategy, you may want a lot of food in that watering hole, or you may want to starve your opponents out (some cards are even worth negative food!). Once all the food is in the watering hole, it’s time to evolve your critters. The cards in your hand have unique traits on them. To imbue your species with that trait, simply place the card next to your species’ gameboard and voila! You now have horns, or intelligence, or the ability to forage, or many other possibilities. You may also take this opportunity to evolve your creature into a carnivore (more on that later). At this point in the game, you may also discard cards in order to increase the population of your species, or to increase the body size of your cute little guys. This will be important later. You can also discard a card to create a whole new species. There’s no limit to how many species you can have, but there is a limit to the available food, so be wise with the number of species you create.
After everyone has evolved, it’s time to feed! You’ll take turns taking plant food from the watering hole. Yummy! You want to eat enough food to sustain your whole population size (1 piece of food per population). If not, your population size will decrease, meaning your species is dying. If you are unable to sustain the last remaining member of your species, that species will become extinct for eternity. Sad face. But don’t worry. You’ll get a new species for free at the beginning of your next turn. Once everyone is fed and happy, the round is over and you start a new round. The winner of the game goes to whoever has eaten the most food because, just like in real life, the success of your population is based on its ability to sustain itself, which, in this case, means eating the proper amount of food.
It SOUNDS simple, but I haven’t told you about all the curveballs yet. As stated before, you may choose to make your species a carnivore, which means that you will no longer take plant food from the watering hole. In order to eat, you have to attack another species! You can only attack other species who have smaller body sizes than you (I told you body size would be important. It’s your first means of defense against predators!). But some of those smaller species might have evolved some defensive traits, like a hard shell or the ability to burrow underground or to climb trees and taunt their predators from on high. This is the beauty of the game. How well can you evolve your herbivore creature in order to keep it well-fed and also free from predators? If you’re a carnivore, how well can you adapt to your surroundings and your ever-evolving prey before you can no longer feed on them? (I should also mention that you may find yourself in the truly depressing situation where all of your opponents have out-evolved your carnivores and the only other option left to feed them is to attack one of YOUR other species. The rules clearly state that every species MUST feed if able to, so you may have to sacrifice your other friends. VERY sad face.)
Components: Evolution comes in a standard cardboard box containing lots of high-quality trait cards, plant and meat food tokens and a large watering hole token (on which you put the plant food tokens). It also comes with cardboard food screens so you can conceal how much food your little (or maybe not so little) critters have eaten. You’ll get a stack of thick, double-sided species boards for you to keep track of your body size and population. I love that they’re double-sided because it gives you the flexibility to change their orientation (portrait or landscape) to save on table space. Body size and population are tracked using little brown and green cubes, which fit nicely in little holes on your species board. And to top it all off, the first player token is a a very large dinosaur-shaped meeple. Adorbs. The cards do tell you how to use them, but the rulebook has extra clarification for each card in case you need it. The cards are even color-coded so you’ll know if the trait is used for defense or eating, or maybe only usable by carnivores. Everything is very top-notch quality and the artwork is quite beautiful, creating new creatures and using bright, vivid colors. The artwork alone drew me to the box in the first place.
I really love this game. The theme is very on-brand for me, but I also really like that it’ll take a bit of luck (by hopefully drawing usable cards) and a ton of strategy to try to outwit your opponents. It’ll never be played the same way twice. Evolution is so spot-on, in fact, that it’s actually been used in the evolutionary biology department of the University of Oxford, so come on. It’s fun AND educational. I’ve also downloaded and quickly become obsessed with the mobile version, which is available on Google Play, in the App Store and on Steam. As of this writing, there are two expansions available: Flight and Climate, but there’s also a Climate stand-alone game, and an Evolution: The Beginning game, which is suitable for our younger friends. I own the Flight expansion but have yet to play it and I can’t wait to change that! Give this game a go. You’ll be happy you did. In the words of esteemed Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life, uh, finds a way.” Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a (r)evolutionary 13 / 18.
Disclaimer: There are several expansions to this game, but we are not reviewing them at this time. Should we review them in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. Furthermore, I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. – B
You start the game in control of one species of animal. One non-descript, traitless species that you will slowly (or maybe quickly) build up to be something bigger and better. You evolve it. (Huh.) You’ll start each round by contributing plant food to the watering hole. Each card in your hand is worth a certain amount of plant food. Once that food is in the watering hole, it’s fair game for anyone to eat. Depending on your strategy, you may want a lot of food in that watering hole, or you may want to starve your opponents out (some cards are even worth negative food!). Once all the food is in the watering hole, it’s time to evolve your critters. The cards in your hand have unique traits on them. To imbue your species with that trait, simply place the card next to your species’ gameboard and voila! You now have horns, or intelligence, or the ability to forage, or many other possibilities. You may also take this opportunity to evolve your creature into a carnivore (more on that later). At this point in the game, you may also discard cards in order to increase the population of your species, or to increase the body size of your cute little guys. This will be important later. You can also discard a card to create a whole new species. There’s no limit to how many species you can have, but there is a limit to the available food, so be wise with the number of species you create.
After everyone has evolved, it’s time to feed! You’ll take turns taking plant food from the watering hole. Yummy! You want to eat enough food to sustain your whole population size (1 piece of food per population). If not, your population size will decrease, meaning your species is dying. If you are unable to sustain the last remaining member of your species, that species will become extinct for eternity. Sad face. But don’t worry. You’ll get a new species for free at the beginning of your next turn. Once everyone is fed and happy, the round is over and you start a new round. The winner of the game goes to whoever has eaten the most food because, just like in real life, the success of your population is based on its ability to sustain itself, which, in this case, means eating the proper amount of food.
It SOUNDS simple, but I haven’t told you about all the curveballs yet. As stated before, you may choose to make your species a carnivore, which means that you will no longer take plant food from the watering hole. In order to eat, you have to attack another species! You can only attack other species who have smaller body sizes than you (I told you body size would be important. It’s your first means of defense against predators!). But some of those smaller species might have evolved some defensive traits, like a hard shell or the ability to burrow underground or to climb trees and taunt their predators from on high. This is the beauty of the game. How well can you evolve your herbivore creature in order to keep it well-fed and also free from predators? If you’re a carnivore, how well can you adapt to your surroundings and your ever-evolving prey before you can no longer feed on them? (I should also mention that you may find yourself in the truly depressing situation where all of your opponents have out-evolved your carnivores and the only other option left to feed them is to attack one of YOUR other species. The rules clearly state that every species MUST feed if able to, so you may have to sacrifice your other friends. VERY sad face.)
Components: Evolution comes in a standard cardboard box containing lots of high-quality trait cards, plant and meat food tokens and a large watering hole token (on which you put the plant food tokens). It also comes with cardboard food screens so you can conceal how much food your little (or maybe not so little) critters have eaten. You’ll get a stack of thick, double-sided species boards for you to keep track of your body size and population. I love that they’re double-sided because it gives you the flexibility to change their orientation (portrait or landscape) to save on table space. Body size and population are tracked using little brown and green cubes, which fit nicely in little holes on your species board. And to top it all off, the first player token is a a very large dinosaur-shaped meeple. Adorbs. The cards do tell you how to use them, but the rulebook has extra clarification for each card in case you need it. The cards are even color-coded so you’ll know if the trait is used for defense or eating, or maybe only usable by carnivores. Everything is very top-notch quality and the artwork is quite beautiful, creating new creatures and using bright, vivid colors. The artwork alone drew me to the box in the first place.
I really love this game. The theme is very on-brand for me, but I also really like that it’ll take a bit of luck (by hopefully drawing usable cards) and a ton of strategy to try to outwit your opponents. It’ll never be played the same way twice. Evolution is so spot-on, in fact, that it’s actually been used in the evolutionary biology department of the University of Oxford, so come on. It’s fun AND educational. I’ve also downloaded and quickly become obsessed with the mobile version, which is available on Google Play, in the App Store and on Steam. As of this writing, there are two expansions available: Flight and Climate, but there’s also a Climate stand-alone game, and an Evolution: The Beginning game, which is suitable for our younger friends. I own the Flight expansion but have yet to play it and I can’t wait to change that! Give this game a go. You’ll be happy you did. In the words of esteemed Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life, uh, finds a way.” Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a (r)evolutionary 13 / 18.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Mob Sitters in Tabletop Games
Sep 17, 2019
I feel like everyone at some point in their lives has been a babysitter. Either for younger (or maybe even older?) siblings, or for the entire neighborhood – it kind of seems like a rite of passage. I definitely had my share of babysitting gigs growing up, but none as exciting and high-energy as the one presented in Mob Sitters!
Disclaimer: This preview is based upon a preview copy of the game. The final components, rules, and gameplay may differ from those described in this review! -L
In Mob Sitters, you take on the role of a babysitter working for the mob. Just because crime pays the bills doesn’t mean these mobsters don’t have families! You’re no ordinary babysitter though, otherwise you wouldn’t be mixed up with the mob. You’ve got plans of your own – whether it’s stealing from your boss, ratting out your rivals to the cops, or actually just some innocent babysitting, there’s money to be made here!
Mob Sitters is played over six rounds in which you take turns playing cards (some hidden and some not), targeting or reacting to your opponents, and collecting that sweet sweet money. Let’s break it down. To start the game, each player receives a player mat and deck of cards for their chosen character. There will be 8 characters in the final game, but only 6 are present in the preview copy. The different characters do not have any special powers or abilities, they just have different artwork on their cards! Shuffle your decks, draw a hand of 6 cards, determine a starting player, and you’re ready to go.
Each player’s turn consists of 6 steps (Steps 1-3 are not applicable in round 1, and Steps 4-6 are not applicable in the final round). Step 1 is to earn money – any cards with a monetary value that are in your play area are moved to your Safe and will count towards end-game scoring. It is important to note that cards that earn you money (Steal and Job cards) must be played face-up into your play area. Step 2 is to reveal and resolve any Accusation cards in your play area that you want to. Accusation cards allow you to target an opponent’s Job/Steal card currently in play, in an attempt to discard it to their Cops/Boss piles, respectively, to count against that player in end-game scoring. The targeted player does not have to sit idly by and watch their money go down the drain, however. If the targeted player has a Reaction card face-down in their play area, they may reveal it to deflect the blame to yet another player! If you successfully deflect the blame, that money will not count against you, but will instead count against the next player blamed who is unable to react to and shift blame to someone else. To play a Reaction card, it must already be in your play area – you cannot play one directly from your hand! The next step, Step 3, is to discard any remaining face down cards in your play area. In Step 4, you choose 3 cards from your hand and play them into your play area. Job/Steal cards must be played face-up, but Accusation and Reaction cards can be played face-down. During Step 5, you resolve any face-up accusation cards you may have played in Step 4. The final step, Step 6, of your turn is to draw 3 cards, bringing your hand back up to 6 cards. Play then moves on to the next player, who then will perform their 6 steps, and so on. After 6 rounds, the game ends. Scoring varies depending on how many players there are, but ultimately the winner is the player with the most money in their safe!
I know that sounds like quite a lot going on, but believe me when I say the game plays pretty well (and pretty quickly) once you’ve gotten the hang of the turns. On paper, the sheer number of steps per turn seems excessive and like it would bog down the gameplay, but in actuality, the actions performed in each step are simple and fast. Perhaps if the number of steps were condensed from 6 down to maybe 3-4, the gameplay would seem a little less daunting. There is some slight ambiguity between the types of cards and into which stacks they go – the rules call cards Job and Steal cards, but the player mat refers to Boss and Cop cards. Fortunately the cards have symbols that correspond to the different stacks, so when in doubt, check the corner of the card!
Let’s talk components. This is first and foremost a card game, and the cards I received are of good quality! They shuffle well, and feel sturdy enough to withstand many plays. The art on the cards is pretty cute, the colors really pop, and there are some fun puns to be found on several Steal/Job cards. As for the player mats, this is only a preview copy of the game so I just printed them out (apologies for my lack of access to a color printer!), but their text is clear and helpful for remembering turn steps. The components may change throughout the Kickstarter campaign, but so far they’re off to a good start!
So how does it play? For the most part, Mob Sitters plays pretty quickly and is engaging for all players. There’s a good amount of strategy involved, as well as some luck and a whole lotta take that. All players receive identical decks of cards, which are then shuffled, so although you know what cards are available to your opponents, you never know what they currently have in their hand. You’ve got to be watchful of which cards your opponents play, to see if you can deduce which cards they have remaining. Are they taking the offensive approach and accusing everyone? Or are they being more subtle and taking a defensive stance, deflecting all accusations onto others? You have to decide when is the right time to play your cards to ensure that you aren’t targeted by too many opponents. Your strategy is ever-changing to adapt to the cards currently in your hand, and that’s what takes Mob Sitters to the next level for me.
Mob Sitters is a quick, easy, and fun game for any sized group. Hilarity ensues when accusations result in all players pointing fingers and trying to deflect blame. Although it can be played with 3, I think this game is better suited for 4+ players. With a smaller group, some of the aspects of ‘take that’ can feel personal and lead to tension between players. But a larger group can eliminate some of the animosity caused by always being targeted by the same person the entire game. Overall though, I enjoyed getting to play Mob Sitters! It has a unique theme and simple, yet strategic, gameplay that will keep all players on their toes. In my communications with the designer, I have learned that the retail version of the game will include “Hidden Agenda” cards to provide each player with a secret objective. There is also an expansion already in the works – The Heavy Mob Deck – that will add more cards and more complexity for experienced gamers!
If you enjoy games of hidden information, take that, and a little bit of bluffing, definitely check Mob Sitters out! It’s more than the standard party game, but still fits the categories of light, fast, and easy to learn games for all players. I look forward to following this upcoming campaign, and I definitely will be playing my copy again!
Disclaimer: This preview is based upon a preview copy of the game. The final components, rules, and gameplay may differ from those described in this review! -L
In Mob Sitters, you take on the role of a babysitter working for the mob. Just because crime pays the bills doesn’t mean these mobsters don’t have families! You’re no ordinary babysitter though, otherwise you wouldn’t be mixed up with the mob. You’ve got plans of your own – whether it’s stealing from your boss, ratting out your rivals to the cops, or actually just some innocent babysitting, there’s money to be made here!
Mob Sitters is played over six rounds in which you take turns playing cards (some hidden and some not), targeting or reacting to your opponents, and collecting that sweet sweet money. Let’s break it down. To start the game, each player receives a player mat and deck of cards for their chosen character. There will be 8 characters in the final game, but only 6 are present in the preview copy. The different characters do not have any special powers or abilities, they just have different artwork on their cards! Shuffle your decks, draw a hand of 6 cards, determine a starting player, and you’re ready to go.
Each player’s turn consists of 6 steps (Steps 1-3 are not applicable in round 1, and Steps 4-6 are not applicable in the final round). Step 1 is to earn money – any cards with a monetary value that are in your play area are moved to your Safe and will count towards end-game scoring. It is important to note that cards that earn you money (Steal and Job cards) must be played face-up into your play area. Step 2 is to reveal and resolve any Accusation cards in your play area that you want to. Accusation cards allow you to target an opponent’s Job/Steal card currently in play, in an attempt to discard it to their Cops/Boss piles, respectively, to count against that player in end-game scoring. The targeted player does not have to sit idly by and watch their money go down the drain, however. If the targeted player has a Reaction card face-down in their play area, they may reveal it to deflect the blame to yet another player! If you successfully deflect the blame, that money will not count against you, but will instead count against the next player blamed who is unable to react to and shift blame to someone else. To play a Reaction card, it must already be in your play area – you cannot play one directly from your hand! The next step, Step 3, is to discard any remaining face down cards in your play area. In Step 4, you choose 3 cards from your hand and play them into your play area. Job/Steal cards must be played face-up, but Accusation and Reaction cards can be played face-down. During Step 5, you resolve any face-up accusation cards you may have played in Step 4. The final step, Step 6, of your turn is to draw 3 cards, bringing your hand back up to 6 cards. Play then moves on to the next player, who then will perform their 6 steps, and so on. After 6 rounds, the game ends. Scoring varies depending on how many players there are, but ultimately the winner is the player with the most money in their safe!
I know that sounds like quite a lot going on, but believe me when I say the game plays pretty well (and pretty quickly) once you’ve gotten the hang of the turns. On paper, the sheer number of steps per turn seems excessive and like it would bog down the gameplay, but in actuality, the actions performed in each step are simple and fast. Perhaps if the number of steps were condensed from 6 down to maybe 3-4, the gameplay would seem a little less daunting. There is some slight ambiguity between the types of cards and into which stacks they go – the rules call cards Job and Steal cards, but the player mat refers to Boss and Cop cards. Fortunately the cards have symbols that correspond to the different stacks, so when in doubt, check the corner of the card!
Let’s talk components. This is first and foremost a card game, and the cards I received are of good quality! They shuffle well, and feel sturdy enough to withstand many plays. The art on the cards is pretty cute, the colors really pop, and there are some fun puns to be found on several Steal/Job cards. As for the player mats, this is only a preview copy of the game so I just printed them out (apologies for my lack of access to a color printer!), but their text is clear and helpful for remembering turn steps. The components may change throughout the Kickstarter campaign, but so far they’re off to a good start!
So how does it play? For the most part, Mob Sitters plays pretty quickly and is engaging for all players. There’s a good amount of strategy involved, as well as some luck and a whole lotta take that. All players receive identical decks of cards, which are then shuffled, so although you know what cards are available to your opponents, you never know what they currently have in their hand. You’ve got to be watchful of which cards your opponents play, to see if you can deduce which cards they have remaining. Are they taking the offensive approach and accusing everyone? Or are they being more subtle and taking a defensive stance, deflecting all accusations onto others? You have to decide when is the right time to play your cards to ensure that you aren’t targeted by too many opponents. Your strategy is ever-changing to adapt to the cards currently in your hand, and that’s what takes Mob Sitters to the next level for me.
Mob Sitters is a quick, easy, and fun game for any sized group. Hilarity ensues when accusations result in all players pointing fingers and trying to deflect blame. Although it can be played with 3, I think this game is better suited for 4+ players. With a smaller group, some of the aspects of ‘take that’ can feel personal and lead to tension between players. But a larger group can eliminate some of the animosity caused by always being targeted by the same person the entire game. Overall though, I enjoyed getting to play Mob Sitters! It has a unique theme and simple, yet strategic, gameplay that will keep all players on their toes. In my communications with the designer, I have learned that the retail version of the game will include “Hidden Agenda” cards to provide each player with a secret objective. There is also an expansion already in the works – The Heavy Mob Deck – that will add more cards and more complexity for experienced gamers!
If you enjoy games of hidden information, take that, and a little bit of bluffing, definitely check Mob Sitters out! It’s more than the standard party game, but still fits the categories of light, fast, and easy to learn games for all players. I look forward to following this upcoming campaign, and I definitely will be playing my copy again!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Evo (second edition) in Tabletop Games
Oct 11, 2019
I always get so excited when I start a review because I want to tell you all about these wonderful experiences we have had with different games. I want to let you in on all of our inside jokes that make their way into our every day language. But, alas, I cannot. At least not yet. But my hope is that I will interest you enough to give our favorite games a shot so that you can have these, or similar, great experiences. And Evo is one of our favorite games.
Evo pits its players against one another in a clash to populate an island too small for everyone to enjoy harmoniously. It’s a… Small (dino) World, if you will. By improving your clan’s dinosaurs, survivability, and vigor you may be able to establish the most prosperous clan. At least until the meteor hits and wipes everyone off the face of the island anyway…
DISCLAIMER: We do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
Evo is played over several phases over several turns. Exactly how many turns is unknown because the end game is denoted by a randomized meteor token. To setup Evo shuffle the meteor token into the bottom few climate rotation tokens and set them as a stack face down. These will be the round trackers and also will dictate how the climate may change from round to round. Set the climate wheel on the starting space and within view of the players. Shuffle the event cards and place them face down near the enhancement bid board. Give each player the mat, dinomeeples (yay I got one that makes sense!), and bidding totem of their chosen color. Lay the correct map for the amount of players on the table and have each player place their dinomeeples on the corresponding starting spaces on the map. Give each player their starting money (in VP chips). Determine the starting initiative order and place the totems on the bid board in that order. Set aside the combat die and you are finally ready to play!
The first phase of the game is Climate. (after the first round) A new climate token will be revealed which directs the players to adjust the climate wheel or keep it status quo. The climate wheel determines which spaces on the map will have cold, hot, Death-Valley-type, or safe climates for dinos to live on. This is known information at the beginning of the round so the players can plan out the rest of the round to keep their dinos safe before the culling.
The next phase is bidding on enhancements. Draw from the bag enough tokens for the players to quarrel over and place them randomly on the bid board. In initiative order players will bid on enhancements using their VP chips. When a player is outbid for an item they must place their bid totem on another item. Once all players are winning bids on items they pay the supply for their winnings and add it to their mat in the appropriate slots. These could include items to help a dino survive the cold, increase their attack potential, give their dinos more movement (or walks, as we call them), and other special abilities.
Now that the players are enhanced a bit more, their dinosaurs can move on the map. This may be necessary for some, but not all, depending on how they have enhanced their dino clans. A dino can move as many spaces as feet are shown on the player’s board, or the total movement can be split by multiple dinos. The more feet, the more movement. If, during the movement phase, a dino wishes to enter a space currently inhabited by a rival clan’s dinomeeple a combat will occur. Combat is determined by comparing horns and defenses and the roll of the combat die.
Once movement is over, it’s time for the dinos to get saucy – it’s baby-making time! I mean, it’s reproduction time! That’s not appropriate either. You can create one more dinomeeple to place on the map adjacent to another dino. This is how you may expand your empire of cute dinomeeples.
Once these phases are complete the players will consult the climate wheel to see which of their dinos are safe from elimination. For those dinos that are safe a player will earn 1 VP. Play continues in this fashion until the round that the meteor token is flipped from the stack of climate tokens that typically start a round. As the meteor destroys all dinomeeples on the map players will total their VPs and the winner is the clan leader with the most VP at game’s end.
Components. There are a LOT of components in this box. One of the best components in the game is the well-designed box insert. As you unpack the game you can really just setup right out of the box. The maps, bidding board, and climate wheel are normal-style game boards and of good quality. The cards are OK and get the job done. The die is a painted wooden die and it’s fun to roll. The climate tokens, VPs, and enhancement chips are all thick cardboard. The play mats are a matte cardstock (and that’s fine because it just holds your components). The other components are the cloth bag for enhancement draws and those cutie little dinomeeples! Everything is really well-produced and has held up really well for us. My only minor minor complaint is that I wish the dinomeeples were a different shape per color, but everyone having brontosauri is fine with me too. The art. The art is SPECTACULAR on this one. Seriously really great artwork. The cards, the boards, the playmats, the enhancements. Everything looks just amazing.
I kinda already let you know that I love this game. So I am not going to wax poetic here and go into some long analyses of why I love it. It is a more-involved Small World (I hope you caught that shameless reference in the intro) that uses dinosaurs instead of fantasy race/class combos. You know Evo is great when you can compare it to an already-great game from the same designer. I also think you could play Evo and Small World back-to-back and have an enjoyable experience. They are similar, but offer a different experience FOR SURE. I know this one is tough to find nowadays, but please, if you see it for sale in the wild PICK IT UP. It’s a great game that will offer years and years of play for you and your game group. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a prehistoric 16+ / 18. I say “plus” because I may change it to a 6 in the future. It’s that good.
Evo pits its players against one another in a clash to populate an island too small for everyone to enjoy harmoniously. It’s a… Small (dino) World, if you will. By improving your clan’s dinosaurs, survivability, and vigor you may be able to establish the most prosperous clan. At least until the meteor hits and wipes everyone off the face of the island anyway…
DISCLAIMER: We do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
Evo is played over several phases over several turns. Exactly how many turns is unknown because the end game is denoted by a randomized meteor token. To setup Evo shuffle the meteor token into the bottom few climate rotation tokens and set them as a stack face down. These will be the round trackers and also will dictate how the climate may change from round to round. Set the climate wheel on the starting space and within view of the players. Shuffle the event cards and place them face down near the enhancement bid board. Give each player the mat, dinomeeples (yay I got one that makes sense!), and bidding totem of their chosen color. Lay the correct map for the amount of players on the table and have each player place their dinomeeples on the corresponding starting spaces on the map. Give each player their starting money (in VP chips). Determine the starting initiative order and place the totems on the bid board in that order. Set aside the combat die and you are finally ready to play!
The first phase of the game is Climate. (after the first round) A new climate token will be revealed which directs the players to adjust the climate wheel or keep it status quo. The climate wheel determines which spaces on the map will have cold, hot, Death-Valley-type, or safe climates for dinos to live on. This is known information at the beginning of the round so the players can plan out the rest of the round to keep their dinos safe before the culling.
The next phase is bidding on enhancements. Draw from the bag enough tokens for the players to quarrel over and place them randomly on the bid board. In initiative order players will bid on enhancements using their VP chips. When a player is outbid for an item they must place their bid totem on another item. Once all players are winning bids on items they pay the supply for their winnings and add it to their mat in the appropriate slots. These could include items to help a dino survive the cold, increase their attack potential, give their dinos more movement (or walks, as we call them), and other special abilities.
Now that the players are enhanced a bit more, their dinosaurs can move on the map. This may be necessary for some, but not all, depending on how they have enhanced their dino clans. A dino can move as many spaces as feet are shown on the player’s board, or the total movement can be split by multiple dinos. The more feet, the more movement. If, during the movement phase, a dino wishes to enter a space currently inhabited by a rival clan’s dinomeeple a combat will occur. Combat is determined by comparing horns and defenses and the roll of the combat die.
Once movement is over, it’s time for the dinos to get saucy – it’s baby-making time! I mean, it’s reproduction time! That’s not appropriate either. You can create one more dinomeeple to place on the map adjacent to another dino. This is how you may expand your empire of cute dinomeeples.
Once these phases are complete the players will consult the climate wheel to see which of their dinos are safe from elimination. For those dinos that are safe a player will earn 1 VP. Play continues in this fashion until the round that the meteor token is flipped from the stack of climate tokens that typically start a round. As the meteor destroys all dinomeeples on the map players will total their VPs and the winner is the clan leader with the most VP at game’s end.
Components. There are a LOT of components in this box. One of the best components in the game is the well-designed box insert. As you unpack the game you can really just setup right out of the box. The maps, bidding board, and climate wheel are normal-style game boards and of good quality. The cards are OK and get the job done. The die is a painted wooden die and it’s fun to roll. The climate tokens, VPs, and enhancement chips are all thick cardboard. The play mats are a matte cardstock (and that’s fine because it just holds your components). The other components are the cloth bag for enhancement draws and those cutie little dinomeeples! Everything is really well-produced and has held up really well for us. My only minor minor complaint is that I wish the dinomeeples were a different shape per color, but everyone having brontosauri is fine with me too. The art. The art is SPECTACULAR on this one. Seriously really great artwork. The cards, the boards, the playmats, the enhancements. Everything looks just amazing.
I kinda already let you know that I love this game. So I am not going to wax poetic here and go into some long analyses of why I love it. It is a more-involved Small World (I hope you caught that shameless reference in the intro) that uses dinosaurs instead of fantasy race/class combos. You know Evo is great when you can compare it to an already-great game from the same designer. I also think you could play Evo and Small World back-to-back and have an enjoyable experience. They are similar, but offer a different experience FOR SURE. I know this one is tough to find nowadays, but please, if you see it for sale in the wild PICK IT UP. It’s a great game that will offer years and years of play for you and your game group. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a prehistoric 16+ / 18. I say “plus” because I may change it to a 6 in the future. It’s that good.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Holi: Festival of Colors in Tabletop Games
Apr 16, 2022
I absolutely love a beautiful game. Being a gamer, I have seen and played many gorgeous games. However, the first time I set up Holi: Festival of Colors (just Holi from here), both my 5 year old son and my slightly older mother-in-law both commented on how awesome it looked setup on the table. It has been a while since I last was so impressed by the sheer glamour of a game – and I only have the base retail version! I HAVE to get my hands on an upgrade pack or something… Just checked. I’ll have to buy the Deluxe version. Okay, placing order.
Holi is an abstract, area control, card-driven action selection (akin to Onitama) game for two to four players. In it, players are attendees at the Holi Festival and the goal is spread their favorite color onto the plaza and other players in order to increase their joy (earn VP). The winner is the player who is best able to throw their color and score joy, all while enjoying the festival!
To setup, the game owner will assemble the three-tiered board and place the appropriate sweets tokens on their spaces. The score track and Rivalry cards are set nearby so all can see. Each player receives their color’s player markers (in four delightful animal shapes), color tokens, color cards, and a helper card. The first player receives the cool lotus flower (I think) marker and the game may begin!
Holi is played over a series of turns, and continues until every player has either run out of color tokens or color cards to play. Each turn, players will take one to three actions in any order, with only one action being absolutely mandatory. This is the Throw Color action. In order to Throw Color, the active player will choose a color card from their hand of three cards to play. On these cards are indications of where a player’s marker/piece/animeeple must be located and the spaces near it to throw color tokens on the board. These color cards are reminiscent of those found in Onitama, where players may only move to specific spaces based on card grid iconography. Players will be littering the squares of the play area with their color tokens as well as attempting to hit other players’ animeeples with their color.
Players may also optionally Move at any point during the turn. This is an easy one: players may Move to any space on the current level of the board they are on, except any space inhabited by an opponent’s animeeple. These spaces could already contain sweets tokens, which can be collected by the player, or even color tokens. When a player lands in a space with their own color token, they take it back to their supply to be used again. However, landing on an opponent’s color token causes the active player to also take it into their supply, thus scoring the opponent points at the end of the game.
Finally, a player, if in a space surrounded on four edges by color tokens, may Climb Up to the next higher level. Players on the middle level will score 2 joy (VP) at the end of the game for each color token placed, while tokens on the top level will score 3 joy. Care should be taken when throwing color on the upper levels, because should an empty space reside on the level below where the token has been placed, the token will fall through to the lower level! Therefore, only color tokens will only remain placed on higher levels when another token is blocking its fall below it.
Once all players have played their cards and thrown their color tokens, the game is over and the score is tallied. 1 point is earned for each color token on the bottom level, 2 points for the middle level, and 3 points for tokens on the upper level. Players score 2 more points for each of their color tokens that found their way into opponents’ supplies. Remember those sweets tokens that players were collecting? Players will score 5 points for every player that has less sweets tokens at the end of the game. If playing with the Rivalry cards, points are also scored for any of their special circumstances (ie color tokens scoring 4 instead of 3 on the top level, or hitting opponents with colors score 2 points immediately instead of the normal 1 point, or even 10 bonus points to the player with the most color tokens on the bottom level). The player with the most points at the end of this scoring phase wins the game!
Components. I kind of already made my point about this game being a flat out stunner on the table. I will sing its praises from here to India and then back again. I normally acknowledge the artist(s) on a game once I open it for the first time, but seeing that this is a total Vincent Dutrait masterpiece, I just had to see which other games of his I own. I have made my claims in the past for my favorite board game artists and I had not included Dutrait. No more. This is brilliant and just a wonderful experience throughout. The components are all great, and that multi-layered board? I mean, come on! The intricacies found throughout and within this box are immeasurable, and I will surely be adding the Deluxe version to my collection.
Holi is a game I can pull out with almost any person or group of people and feel confident that it will give an extremely satisfying experience. The rules are relatively simple, and games are very quick. This is not a filler, but runs so smoothly and briskly that one may miscategorize it as such. The options of movement are so unrestricted, and having the ability to craft spatial situations with the cards in your hand to allow only your animeeple to climb up to the next level is just delicious. Speaking of, the sweets tokens, and really ALL of the components, are just so cute and well-illustrated. I really am finding it difficult to point out any flaws in this game. Every time I have played it I have simply had the best time with my opponents. Yeah, there’s some minor take that, but it’s all in good fun, and if you know anything about the actual celebration of Holi, participants relish coming home just covered head to toe in paint, colored water, and other colorful materials. It’s a great theme that shines through, and I look forward to each of my coming plays.
Currently, eight games we have published reviews for have earned the Golden Feather Award. At the time of this writing, I know one other will be joining that list soon, and now Holi will as well. So that is 10 total games over the 495 we have published and are sitting in queue to be published. That said, it is no surprise, I’m sure, that Holi has earned its spot among the best we have played, and I am incredibly relieved that I was able to grab a copy when I did. This will remain a favorite of mine for many years, I know it. If you are like me and appreciate an amazing production value with a comparably wonderful game underneath, then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Holi as soon as you can. Or come play my copy with me. I will always be up for a play.
Holi is an abstract, area control, card-driven action selection (akin to Onitama) game for two to four players. In it, players are attendees at the Holi Festival and the goal is spread their favorite color onto the plaza and other players in order to increase their joy (earn VP). The winner is the player who is best able to throw their color and score joy, all while enjoying the festival!
To setup, the game owner will assemble the three-tiered board and place the appropriate sweets tokens on their spaces. The score track and Rivalry cards are set nearby so all can see. Each player receives their color’s player markers (in four delightful animal shapes), color tokens, color cards, and a helper card. The first player receives the cool lotus flower (I think) marker and the game may begin!
Holi is played over a series of turns, and continues until every player has either run out of color tokens or color cards to play. Each turn, players will take one to three actions in any order, with only one action being absolutely mandatory. This is the Throw Color action. In order to Throw Color, the active player will choose a color card from their hand of three cards to play. On these cards are indications of where a player’s marker/piece/animeeple must be located and the spaces near it to throw color tokens on the board. These color cards are reminiscent of those found in Onitama, where players may only move to specific spaces based on card grid iconography. Players will be littering the squares of the play area with their color tokens as well as attempting to hit other players’ animeeples with their color.
Players may also optionally Move at any point during the turn. This is an easy one: players may Move to any space on the current level of the board they are on, except any space inhabited by an opponent’s animeeple. These spaces could already contain sweets tokens, which can be collected by the player, or even color tokens. When a player lands in a space with their own color token, they take it back to their supply to be used again. However, landing on an opponent’s color token causes the active player to also take it into their supply, thus scoring the opponent points at the end of the game.
Finally, a player, if in a space surrounded on four edges by color tokens, may Climb Up to the next higher level. Players on the middle level will score 2 joy (VP) at the end of the game for each color token placed, while tokens on the top level will score 3 joy. Care should be taken when throwing color on the upper levels, because should an empty space reside on the level below where the token has been placed, the token will fall through to the lower level! Therefore, only color tokens will only remain placed on higher levels when another token is blocking its fall below it.
Once all players have played their cards and thrown their color tokens, the game is over and the score is tallied. 1 point is earned for each color token on the bottom level, 2 points for the middle level, and 3 points for tokens on the upper level. Players score 2 more points for each of their color tokens that found their way into opponents’ supplies. Remember those sweets tokens that players were collecting? Players will score 5 points for every player that has less sweets tokens at the end of the game. If playing with the Rivalry cards, points are also scored for any of their special circumstances (ie color tokens scoring 4 instead of 3 on the top level, or hitting opponents with colors score 2 points immediately instead of the normal 1 point, or even 10 bonus points to the player with the most color tokens on the bottom level). The player with the most points at the end of this scoring phase wins the game!
Components. I kind of already made my point about this game being a flat out stunner on the table. I will sing its praises from here to India and then back again. I normally acknowledge the artist(s) on a game once I open it for the first time, but seeing that this is a total Vincent Dutrait masterpiece, I just had to see which other games of his I own. I have made my claims in the past for my favorite board game artists and I had not included Dutrait. No more. This is brilliant and just a wonderful experience throughout. The components are all great, and that multi-layered board? I mean, come on! The intricacies found throughout and within this box are immeasurable, and I will surely be adding the Deluxe version to my collection.
Holi is a game I can pull out with almost any person or group of people and feel confident that it will give an extremely satisfying experience. The rules are relatively simple, and games are very quick. This is not a filler, but runs so smoothly and briskly that one may miscategorize it as such. The options of movement are so unrestricted, and having the ability to craft spatial situations with the cards in your hand to allow only your animeeple to climb up to the next level is just delicious. Speaking of, the sweets tokens, and really ALL of the components, are just so cute and well-illustrated. I really am finding it difficult to point out any flaws in this game. Every time I have played it I have simply had the best time with my opponents. Yeah, there’s some minor take that, but it’s all in good fun, and if you know anything about the actual celebration of Holi, participants relish coming home just covered head to toe in paint, colored water, and other colorful materials. It’s a great theme that shines through, and I look forward to each of my coming plays.
Currently, eight games we have published reviews for have earned the Golden Feather Award. At the time of this writing, I know one other will be joining that list soon, and now Holi will as well. So that is 10 total games over the 495 we have published and are sitting in queue to be published. That said, it is no surprise, I’m sure, that Holi has earned its spot among the best we have played, and I am incredibly relieved that I was able to grab a copy when I did. This will remain a favorite of mine for many years, I know it. If you are like me and appreciate an amazing production value with a comparably wonderful game underneath, then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Holi as soon as you can. Or come play my copy with me. I will always be up for a play.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Hunters of the Lost Creatures in Tabletop Games
May 8, 2022
If you are reading this, then we can agree on a few things: board games are cool and interesting, silly themes are usually fun, and we are all kids at heart. I appreciate other gamers so much because we all share a common bond of experiencing good and bad games, good and bad rules, as well as good and bad explanations of these rules. I would spoil it up top here if I let on which of these categories our featured game falls into, right? So keep reading.
Hunters of the Lost Creatures is a silly set collection card game for three to four players. In it, players assume the roles of zoological park curators charged with collecting unique creatures for their parks. They do this by bidding on and drafting creature cards, playing take-that style cards on their opponents, and blocking their cards from being manipulated by others.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, players choose one hunter card from each of the four hunting zones: Sea, Forest, Plains, and Air, as well as three “Park Closed” cards. The creature cards are to be split by zone and shuffled, with one special card (Turnado and Cat-a-Pult) added. These shuffled decks are then placed on the table and the top card revealed from each deck. Players decide turn order and the game may begin!
Hands are mostly played simultaneously, with players choosing either a hunter or special card from their hand and placing it face-down in front of themselves. All cards are revealed simultaneously and the card effects are applied. If a player has revealed a hunter, and no other players have the same-colored background/terrain type, that player receives the matching card from those on offer and places it in their park (tableau), or ANY OTHER PLAYER’S park. If ALL players have chosen the same terrain type hunters, the card on offer is removed from the game entirely. However, if not all hunters match, but at least one matches, the matching hunters’ players receive no cards.
Should a player choose to play a special card, their effects are triggered once per game. These include Turnado (switch any two creatures in any two parks), Cat-a-Pult (discards any creature from any player’s park), Thieves (steal any one terrain-matching creature and places it in the Thieves player’s park) and Closed Park (protects the player from the effects of aforementioned special cards). Again, these special cards may only be played once per game, so special consideration is needed as part of their strategy.
The game continues in this fashion of players throwing cards, messing with each other using special cards, and protecting themselves from said special cards until only one stack of creature cards remains. The game ends and points are tallied per the scoring table in the rulebook. The winner is promoted to Head Creature Park Guy and is carried around by the other players. Okay, that’s not at all true. They just win the game.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of Hunters of the Lost Creatures, so all components shown here are subject to change at any time. That said, I received a huge deck of cards in a cute black cloth bag. The cards are all decent quality, and not super glossy, which I appreciate. The art on these cards are all whimsical and silly, which match the silly and punny titles for each. Some of these punny titles can be seen in our photos, with my favorites being the Dandylion (a well-“dressed” weed with a cane and lion face) and the Cougar (which is subtle, but portrays an adult apex big cat with a smaller and younger cat hanging on it). If you enjoy these somewhat intellectual, and sometimes visual, puns you will enjoy these cards.
What I have found in playing through this several times is that it is best when all players are taught the game backwards…ly. I mean to say that players need to know the premise, but most importantly, the scoring system before even the setup. Points are scored for having a run of 1-2-3, a straight of 0-1-2-3-10, at least one card from each terrain type, and for the printed value on the cards. It is more than simply collecting all the favorite cards or even highest value 10 cards. So there is strategy in collecting the best assortment of creatures for scoring purposes, which is great because otherwise this game is not really a game at all.
As players play their hunters to draft creatures, I have found that many players choose to chase the same cards over and over. It becomes obvious that most players will be vying for the value 10 cards, so the players who figure this out and grab the second best card is usually happier with the hand. Of course, more strategy is employed once the special cards are played, as they each mess with opponents in different ways. So even though I may not have acquired that 10 of Forest, I might grab the Turnado and switch out a value 0 or -10 card for that sparkling value 10. Wait, negative 10? Yep. Sometimes life just smacks you around and you get stuck with a -10 card to really punish your great play. Not that it ever happened to me, and not that I would be bitter about it.
The real game hinges on the usage of the special cards. When do you play them? Whom do you target? Turnabout is fair play, after all, and no alliances can be formed whilst playing Hunters of the Lost Creatures. Now, it is hinted at in the rulebook that preview copies ship with entry-level rules, which mean (to me) that more advanced rules may be coming in the final game, or at least some variants to spice up the gameplay. If true, then this game becomes much more interesting to me. Don’t get me wrong. I have enjoyed almost all of my plays, but be warned that playing with spiteful gamers may end poorly for a fun-filled game night.
All in all, I am excited to see how the campaign for Hunters of the Lost Creatures fares, as I believe many gamers and non-gamers alike will enjoy it. I would be super jazzed to grab a final copy if it does in fact ship with alternate or advanced rules, or if the creatures of the same value had unique names and art. That would really satisfy. Keep the bag or go traditional cardboard box, it matters not to me. Just beef up the card quality, add even more uniqueness and fanciful art and you’ve got a fan in me. Grab your copy during the Kickstarter campaign launching May 10, 2022!
Hunters of the Lost Creatures is a silly set collection card game for three to four players. In it, players assume the roles of zoological park curators charged with collecting unique creatures for their parks. They do this by bidding on and drafting creature cards, playing take-that style cards on their opponents, and blocking their cards from being manipulated by others.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, players choose one hunter card from each of the four hunting zones: Sea, Forest, Plains, and Air, as well as three “Park Closed” cards. The creature cards are to be split by zone and shuffled, with one special card (Turnado and Cat-a-Pult) added. These shuffled decks are then placed on the table and the top card revealed from each deck. Players decide turn order and the game may begin!
Hands are mostly played simultaneously, with players choosing either a hunter or special card from their hand and placing it face-down in front of themselves. All cards are revealed simultaneously and the card effects are applied. If a player has revealed a hunter, and no other players have the same-colored background/terrain type, that player receives the matching card from those on offer and places it in their park (tableau), or ANY OTHER PLAYER’S park. If ALL players have chosen the same terrain type hunters, the card on offer is removed from the game entirely. However, if not all hunters match, but at least one matches, the matching hunters’ players receive no cards.
Should a player choose to play a special card, their effects are triggered once per game. These include Turnado (switch any two creatures in any two parks), Cat-a-Pult (discards any creature from any player’s park), Thieves (steal any one terrain-matching creature and places it in the Thieves player’s park) and Closed Park (protects the player from the effects of aforementioned special cards). Again, these special cards may only be played once per game, so special consideration is needed as part of their strategy.
The game continues in this fashion of players throwing cards, messing with each other using special cards, and protecting themselves from said special cards until only one stack of creature cards remains. The game ends and points are tallied per the scoring table in the rulebook. The winner is promoted to Head Creature Park Guy and is carried around by the other players. Okay, that’s not at all true. They just win the game.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of Hunters of the Lost Creatures, so all components shown here are subject to change at any time. That said, I received a huge deck of cards in a cute black cloth bag. The cards are all decent quality, and not super glossy, which I appreciate. The art on these cards are all whimsical and silly, which match the silly and punny titles for each. Some of these punny titles can be seen in our photos, with my favorites being the Dandylion (a well-“dressed” weed with a cane and lion face) and the Cougar (which is subtle, but portrays an adult apex big cat with a smaller and younger cat hanging on it). If you enjoy these somewhat intellectual, and sometimes visual, puns you will enjoy these cards.
What I have found in playing through this several times is that it is best when all players are taught the game backwards…ly. I mean to say that players need to know the premise, but most importantly, the scoring system before even the setup. Points are scored for having a run of 1-2-3, a straight of 0-1-2-3-10, at least one card from each terrain type, and for the printed value on the cards. It is more than simply collecting all the favorite cards or even highest value 10 cards. So there is strategy in collecting the best assortment of creatures for scoring purposes, which is great because otherwise this game is not really a game at all.
As players play their hunters to draft creatures, I have found that many players choose to chase the same cards over and over. It becomes obvious that most players will be vying for the value 10 cards, so the players who figure this out and grab the second best card is usually happier with the hand. Of course, more strategy is employed once the special cards are played, as they each mess with opponents in different ways. So even though I may not have acquired that 10 of Forest, I might grab the Turnado and switch out a value 0 or -10 card for that sparkling value 10. Wait, negative 10? Yep. Sometimes life just smacks you around and you get stuck with a -10 card to really punish your great play. Not that it ever happened to me, and not that I would be bitter about it.
The real game hinges on the usage of the special cards. When do you play them? Whom do you target? Turnabout is fair play, after all, and no alliances can be formed whilst playing Hunters of the Lost Creatures. Now, it is hinted at in the rulebook that preview copies ship with entry-level rules, which mean (to me) that more advanced rules may be coming in the final game, or at least some variants to spice up the gameplay. If true, then this game becomes much more interesting to me. Don’t get me wrong. I have enjoyed almost all of my plays, but be warned that playing with spiteful gamers may end poorly for a fun-filled game night.
All in all, I am excited to see how the campaign for Hunters of the Lost Creatures fares, as I believe many gamers and non-gamers alike will enjoy it. I would be super jazzed to grab a final copy if it does in fact ship with alternate or advanced rules, or if the creatures of the same value had unique names and art. That would really satisfy. Keep the bag or go traditional cardboard box, it matters not to me. Just beef up the card quality, add even more uniqueness and fanciful art and you’ve got a fan in me. Grab your copy during the Kickstarter campaign launching May 10, 2022!
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Captain Marvel (2019) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
Midnight screening... what was I thinking? Somehow I managed to stay awake in the cinema (others didn't fare so well), but I went in pretty pumped up. Not so much for the film but the overall atmosphere of a Marvel first screening. There were over 100 tickets pre-booked, and the cinema was certainly very busy. There's something about the buzz of an audience that big. I did try and hold a couple of conversations while I was there, they were not successful due to my brain's impaired state.
*sigh*
Let me just get this out now... I enjoyed this movie, but I also didn't like it. I know, what does that even mean? I'm going to waffle a bit and hopefully it'll become clear.
I don't have a lot of pre-knowledge about Captain Marvel, in fact, until the trailers started coming out I'd probably have asked if you meant Ms Marvel or Shazam. As always the similarities between characters and brand is a complete mess.
Brie Larson had some pretty big boots to fill as the MCU's first headlining female character. I feel a bit sorry for Black Widow to be honest, but this is probably a bit lighter than her offering would have been considering her background.
Watching the trailers for this I wasn't left wowed. Vers comes across as rather cocky and after seeing the film I don't think she needed to be that way. Part of me thinks that a difference actress would have played it better, but mainly I'm just happy that they didn't ruin it.
Samuel L. Jackson was a treat, but then when isn't he?! It was nice seeing this more light-hearted side of his character. It leaves us with a little gap in his history that makes me wonder what happened to him. As ever he's a great presence and shows us just a glimpse of what's to come (or rather what we've already seen) while still being funny.
Ben Mendelsohn has made a rather large splash over the last few years in big-ticket movies. Rogue One, Ready Player One, Robin Hood and now Captain Marvel. His character of Talos is comical and warm but I found it slightly strange hearing him with his normal accent. That seems even weirder when I write it down, I guess I'm just hardwired to expect most aliens to sound American! He's definitely my stand out actor in this, he handles the twists and turns of the story wonderfully and made for an incredible surprise. There was one moment with a terrible bit of script that made me cringe at the screen but everything else made up for it.
I probably need to say something about Jude Law, that something is going to be "meh". I'm not sure that I'm fuzzed by any of his roles historically, and this isn't really any different. He also suffered from a dubious bit of script near the end of the film that feels out of place, but I'll leave that one for you to contemplate on.
I know I've been a bit of a mix so far about Captain Marvel but there are a lot of things to like about this movie. In particular, Marvel have really nailed music on the head recently, Guardians Of The Galaxy (1 not 2) and Thor: Ragnarok being two of my favourites. There's that moment of joy when you hear those old tunes, a smile crept across my face for every one of them. It was a great selection and they fitted into place amongst the story so well.
Nostalgia value is high in this one. Ahh, Blockbuster, I do miss you. There are plenty of things to spot, I'm sure that someone has already created a bingo game to go along with it... or a drinking game, "cry into your drink uncontrollably when you see Stan Lee". We obviously knew he'd filmed some cameos before he moved on into his big ol' galaxy, it was lovely to see him smiling out at us. Not only was it a fun little cameo but Marvel also did something magical with those opening titles and it made me cry... don't judge me!! I didn't cry as much as I did during the credit tribute in Once Upon A Deadpool though.
I could keep waffling, I'm fully aware that I've gone on a lot longer than normal about this one. I'll try not to keep you too much longer.
Obviously they've used some artistic license with the characters from the comics, as they do. The Skrull minions are so close to the comics, I was a little dubious about them when they popped up but they're carbon copies. The main thing that I know they changed was Nick Fury's eye, this version is better than the comics. I'd be interested to know how SLJ felt about finally being able to play Fury with both his eyes.
De-aging was used again but with much heavier usage than we've seen before. It was a bold choice doing it on one of the main characters when he's got so much screen time but I'm glad they chose this over recasting him. There weren't any of the minor oddities that were visible during Ant-Man & The Wasp's use of it, it all looked quite natural. There's no denying that Coulson might be a little overdone but *squeeeeee* little Coulson is so adorable that I don't care!
I mentioned my issues with Vers in the trailers, that wasn't the only misgiving I had. There weren't as many as the "I'm never going to see this movie" crowd (you know you're going to see it, get ahold of yourselves) but there were a few.
We've been with this series for over 10 years, this film leads into the last film in the sequence... and now they're giving us a new character? That's what I have an issue with. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea that they're bringing in a female character to clear up the mess created by the (mainly) boy's club, it's art imitating life... I'm joking, partly... but I can't help feeling like this is more of a last minute add-on. Previous new additions have appeared in other films, they've been able to interact with characters. The whole way through we've been shown teamwork and camaraderie, and throwing Captain Marvel in at the last minute flies in the face of that. But if we'd had her around before this then we probably wouldn't have needed Endgame because there would have been no distractions from what needed to be done. (Before you start on me we see that for a fact, none of Thor and Starlord's nonsense.)
For all of my waffling about it feeling separate they have clearly tried to connect her to the existing MCU. There are links in there on multiple fronts which give you hints at other films, it's quite impressive that they managed to make this without it being filled with series continuity errors.
As my last parting comment I want to say that Goose was amazing. Sadly not so hot on the CGI, I did wonder at one point if he was going to jump up and dance Garfield-style at one point. Annoyingly I already knew some details about this fluffy character before seeing the film but it just left me with anticipation. I didn't think that Fury would be a cat person though.
What you should do
If you're a Marvel fan you're going to have to see it before Endgame, but quite frankly you should want to see it. You could skip it if you really want to... but do you want to risk it? No, I didn't think so.
REMEMBER: There are two credit scenes, one in the middle and one at the end.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Of all the things I'd have to say Goose, that cute little floof would brighten my day as well as coming in handy for several reasons.
*sigh*
Let me just get this out now... I enjoyed this movie, but I also didn't like it. I know, what does that even mean? I'm going to waffle a bit and hopefully it'll become clear.
I don't have a lot of pre-knowledge about Captain Marvel, in fact, until the trailers started coming out I'd probably have asked if you meant Ms Marvel or Shazam. As always the similarities between characters and brand is a complete mess.
Brie Larson had some pretty big boots to fill as the MCU's first headlining female character. I feel a bit sorry for Black Widow to be honest, but this is probably a bit lighter than her offering would have been considering her background.
Watching the trailers for this I wasn't left wowed. Vers comes across as rather cocky and after seeing the film I don't think she needed to be that way. Part of me thinks that a difference actress would have played it better, but mainly I'm just happy that they didn't ruin it.
Samuel L. Jackson was a treat, but then when isn't he?! It was nice seeing this more light-hearted side of his character. It leaves us with a little gap in his history that makes me wonder what happened to him. As ever he's a great presence and shows us just a glimpse of what's to come (or rather what we've already seen) while still being funny.
Ben Mendelsohn has made a rather large splash over the last few years in big-ticket movies. Rogue One, Ready Player One, Robin Hood and now Captain Marvel. His character of Talos is comical and warm but I found it slightly strange hearing him with his normal accent. That seems even weirder when I write it down, I guess I'm just hardwired to expect most aliens to sound American! He's definitely my stand out actor in this, he handles the twists and turns of the story wonderfully and made for an incredible surprise. There was one moment with a terrible bit of script that made me cringe at the screen but everything else made up for it.
I probably need to say something about Jude Law, that something is going to be "meh". I'm not sure that I'm fuzzed by any of his roles historically, and this isn't really any different. He also suffered from a dubious bit of script near the end of the film that feels out of place, but I'll leave that one for you to contemplate on.
I know I've been a bit of a mix so far about Captain Marvel but there are a lot of things to like about this movie. In particular, Marvel have really nailed music on the head recently, Guardians Of The Galaxy (1 not 2) and Thor: Ragnarok being two of my favourites. There's that moment of joy when you hear those old tunes, a smile crept across my face for every one of them. It was a great selection and they fitted into place amongst the story so well.
Nostalgia value is high in this one. Ahh, Blockbuster, I do miss you. There are plenty of things to spot, I'm sure that someone has already created a bingo game to go along with it... or a drinking game, "cry into your drink uncontrollably when you see Stan Lee". We obviously knew he'd filmed some cameos before he moved on into his big ol' galaxy, it was lovely to see him smiling out at us. Not only was it a fun little cameo but Marvel also did something magical with those opening titles and it made me cry... don't judge me!! I didn't cry as much as I did during the credit tribute in Once Upon A Deadpool though.
I could keep waffling, I'm fully aware that I've gone on a lot longer than normal about this one. I'll try not to keep you too much longer.
Obviously they've used some artistic license with the characters from the comics, as they do. The Skrull minions are so close to the comics, I was a little dubious about them when they popped up but they're carbon copies. The main thing that I know they changed was Nick Fury's eye, this version is better than the comics. I'd be interested to know how SLJ felt about finally being able to play Fury with both his eyes.
De-aging was used again but with much heavier usage than we've seen before. It was a bold choice doing it on one of the main characters when he's got so much screen time but I'm glad they chose this over recasting him. There weren't any of the minor oddities that were visible during Ant-Man & The Wasp's use of it, it all looked quite natural. There's no denying that Coulson might be a little overdone but *squeeeeee* little Coulson is so adorable that I don't care!
I mentioned my issues with Vers in the trailers, that wasn't the only misgiving I had. There weren't as many as the "I'm never going to see this movie" crowd (you know you're going to see it, get ahold of yourselves) but there were a few.
We've been with this series for over 10 years, this film leads into the last film in the sequence... and now they're giving us a new character? That's what I have an issue with. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea that they're bringing in a female character to clear up the mess created by the (mainly) boy's club, it's art imitating life... I'm joking, partly... but I can't help feeling like this is more of a last minute add-on. Previous new additions have appeared in other films, they've been able to interact with characters. The whole way through we've been shown teamwork and camaraderie, and throwing Captain Marvel in at the last minute flies in the face of that. But if we'd had her around before this then we probably wouldn't have needed Endgame because there would have been no distractions from what needed to be done. (Before you start on me we see that for a fact, none of Thor and Starlord's nonsense.)
For all of my waffling about it feeling separate they have clearly tried to connect her to the existing MCU. There are links in there on multiple fronts which give you hints at other films, it's quite impressive that they managed to make this without it being filled with series continuity errors.
As my last parting comment I want to say that Goose was amazing. Sadly not so hot on the CGI, I did wonder at one point if he was going to jump up and dance Garfield-style at one point. Annoyingly I already knew some details about this fluffy character before seeing the film but it just left me with anticipation. I didn't think that Fury would be a cat person though.
What you should do
If you're a Marvel fan you're going to have to see it before Endgame, but quite frankly you should want to see it. You could skip it if you really want to... but do you want to risk it? No, I didn't think so.
REMEMBER: There are two credit scenes, one in the middle and one at the end.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Of all the things I'd have to say Goose, that cute little floof would brighten my day as well as coming in handy for several reasons.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Aladdin (2019) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
Oh. My. This was always going to be a tough one for me, and I've been thinking long and hard about how on earth I was going to review this. I love the original, anyone who even remotely enjoys it would be able to sing you at least one of the songs, and therein lies one of the problems. Would I have had a different opinion about some of the elements had I not seen the original so many times? After a lot of contemplating I think the answer in most cases is no.
Note: I went to see this for a second time so I'm going to edit what I previously wrote up as I go because on second viewing it was better. Once the initial shock and annoyance had passed after seeing it the first time it was much easier to watch for the second time.
Remaking something that's peak Disney has so many issues, recasting roles, changing social views and cultural sensitivities, are probably the biggest ones.
Let's talk about the (blue) elephant in the room... although I guess that phrase isn't really accurate as we all want to talk about it. Oh Genie, my Genie. I don't think anyone would have been able to fill that lamp the way Robin Williams did, he was larger than life and brought such a sense of fun whenever he did roles like this. The man is a comedic legend. Recasting this was always going to be difficult, and honestly, I don't know if there's anyone I would have been happy with taking over the mantle.
When I found out that Will Smith was on board I wasn't completely put off. On paper he's got everything you'd need for this role. He had one of two choices, stick to the original faithfully or take it your own way. I just don't think Smith actually had a choice though, he was going to have to do a reinterpretation of the role, but how could you ever follow Williams?
The thing I'm most surprised about with Genie is just how bad the CGI is. It's not like this is something Disney are unfamiliar with. Why did some of it even need to be CGId? I obviously don't know the ins and outs of these techniques or options, but if people can make Robbie Coltrane look larger than life in Harry Potter without mucking it up then why aren't they smurfing Will Smith up and doing the same?
Casting across the rest of the film wasn't such an epic task, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Navid Negahban as the Sultan hit exactly the right spot. I had issues with Jafar, that's nothing to do with Marwan Kenzari's acting which was very good, but it was the fact that in my head Jafar should have been older. (Dream casting: Ben Kingsley.) I'm sure I won't be popular saying this but I didn't really like Naomi Scott as Jasmine, I don't think she brought enough sass to the role, I also felt that some of the new inclusions into the film around Jasmine negatively affected my view of her.
By far and away my favourite from the live action cast was Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, Jasmine's lady in waiting. I don't know why they felt the need to bring this character in, but I'm really glad they did. She's funny and a welcome break in some scenes. She completely outshines Jasmine as almost every point in the film... actually, I retract the word "almost". While I might not be happy about part of her character's story (ask me for the spoilers) she was definitely the best added extra in the film.
Our group of sidekicks, Abu, Iago, Rajah and Carpet all come out with varying degrees of success. Abu wasn't entirely lucky with the CGI and didn't get such a fun part as before. Iago was much more bird-like than previously which meant less actual talking so I have to wonder why they hired Alan Tudyk if they weren't going to use him properly. Rajah while less quizzical than in the original was entertaining and luckily wasn't mutilated by the CGI. Carpet though, I loved Carpet. He was super cute and absolutely adorable with Abu.
I'm not going to go over every change they made to the original, but one tweak particularly bugged me. They change the way that Aladdin gets out of the cave of wonders. The verbal trickery that Aladdin uses in the original is gone and they switch it out for a much more deceitful moment. The idea isn't as clever as its predecessor and also means that later in the film when Aladdin tricks Jafar you don't get that same connection, watching Genie working out what was going on was painful viewing.
I can't really put off talking about the songs anymore.
As trailers and sneak peeks appeared online I became increasingly nervous about the songs. Prince Ali seemed to be less upbeat than before, and while the sequence looked like it had potential all of it together didn't feel as vibrant. I appreciate that they tried to keep all those little Genie added extra in but it felt like they went with a "safe" option.
I enjoy Will Smith's singing, but I'm not a fan of it in this. I don't think the change in style is suited to these songs. I've seen people saying about how he's rapping in it... but I wouldn't have identified it as rapping. If anything it felt like they went "you should get some rapping in there, but we're Disney so tone it down... a lot."
We get a new offering on the soundtrack in the shape of Speechless, Jasmine's empowering song. I like the song, it certainly has the Disney vibe, and Scott sings it beautifully... but it didn't give me those goosebumps that I expect from power songs. I probably would have given the song a pass had it not been for the way it was included in the film. The frozen scenes with Jasmine dramatically moving in and out of the cast and set... ugh... that just didn't work for me.
Massoud had originally given me so much hope for the music when I heard One Jump Ahead at the beginning. It was excellent, and throughout the film I loved his singing.
Here's where my opinion changed a bit after my second visit... the songs weren't all as bad as I'd felt after the first viewing. I still didn't enjoy Genie's offering, but Aladdin and Jasmine both felt like an excellent choice. The main thing that didn't change was the fact that I didn't feel the songs fit well into the scenes. Part of the draw of Disney is the toe-tapping singalong vibe you get from the music, and there was a lack of pizzaz in most of the sequences that left my toes untapped.
I could probably go on for a very long time about this film. (I already have.) Ultimately, I don't think it's an improvement on the original, I don't think these modern rehashes really add a lot when you have to adjust for the modern culture. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take the changing times into consideration, I just think you should do it in a way that doesn't just come across as trying to score points with the audience to prove how "with it" you are. I also don't think that coming up with 30 minutes of extra footage is ever a sensible idea. If that's what you want to do then perhaps you need to really mix things up and come up with a whole new concept for the story.
What you should do
You're either a Disney nut or you're not. Personally, I would recommend staying at home and having a binge of old Disney classics, starting with the one true Genie.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Could I get Genie powers without the itty-bitty living space?
Note: I went to see this for a second time so I'm going to edit what I previously wrote up as I go because on second viewing it was better. Once the initial shock and annoyance had passed after seeing it the first time it was much easier to watch for the second time.
Remaking something that's peak Disney has so many issues, recasting roles, changing social views and cultural sensitivities, are probably the biggest ones.
Let's talk about the (blue) elephant in the room... although I guess that phrase isn't really accurate as we all want to talk about it. Oh Genie, my Genie. I don't think anyone would have been able to fill that lamp the way Robin Williams did, he was larger than life and brought such a sense of fun whenever he did roles like this. The man is a comedic legend. Recasting this was always going to be difficult, and honestly, I don't know if there's anyone I would have been happy with taking over the mantle.
When I found out that Will Smith was on board I wasn't completely put off. On paper he's got everything you'd need for this role. He had one of two choices, stick to the original faithfully or take it your own way. I just don't think Smith actually had a choice though, he was going to have to do a reinterpretation of the role, but how could you ever follow Williams?
The thing I'm most surprised about with Genie is just how bad the CGI is. It's not like this is something Disney are unfamiliar with. Why did some of it even need to be CGId? I obviously don't know the ins and outs of these techniques or options, but if people can make Robbie Coltrane look larger than life in Harry Potter without mucking it up then why aren't they smurfing Will Smith up and doing the same?
Casting across the rest of the film wasn't such an epic task, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Navid Negahban as the Sultan hit exactly the right spot. I had issues with Jafar, that's nothing to do with Marwan Kenzari's acting which was very good, but it was the fact that in my head Jafar should have been older. (Dream casting: Ben Kingsley.) I'm sure I won't be popular saying this but I didn't really like Naomi Scott as Jasmine, I don't think she brought enough sass to the role, I also felt that some of the new inclusions into the film around Jasmine negatively affected my view of her.
By far and away my favourite from the live action cast was Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, Jasmine's lady in waiting. I don't know why they felt the need to bring this character in, but I'm really glad they did. She's funny and a welcome break in some scenes. She completely outshines Jasmine as almost every point in the film... actually, I retract the word "almost". While I might not be happy about part of her character's story (ask me for the spoilers) she was definitely the best added extra in the film.
Our group of sidekicks, Abu, Iago, Rajah and Carpet all come out with varying degrees of success. Abu wasn't entirely lucky with the CGI and didn't get such a fun part as before. Iago was much more bird-like than previously which meant less actual talking so I have to wonder why they hired Alan Tudyk if they weren't going to use him properly. Rajah while less quizzical than in the original was entertaining and luckily wasn't mutilated by the CGI. Carpet though, I loved Carpet. He was super cute and absolutely adorable with Abu.
I'm not going to go over every change they made to the original, but one tweak particularly bugged me. They change the way that Aladdin gets out of the cave of wonders. The verbal trickery that Aladdin uses in the original is gone and they switch it out for a much more deceitful moment. The idea isn't as clever as its predecessor and also means that later in the film when Aladdin tricks Jafar you don't get that same connection, watching Genie working out what was going on was painful viewing.
I can't really put off talking about the songs anymore.
As trailers and sneak peeks appeared online I became increasingly nervous about the songs. Prince Ali seemed to be less upbeat than before, and while the sequence looked like it had potential all of it together didn't feel as vibrant. I appreciate that they tried to keep all those little Genie added extra in but it felt like they went with a "safe" option.
I enjoy Will Smith's singing, but I'm not a fan of it in this. I don't think the change in style is suited to these songs. I've seen people saying about how he's rapping in it... but I wouldn't have identified it as rapping. If anything it felt like they went "you should get some rapping in there, but we're Disney so tone it down... a lot."
We get a new offering on the soundtrack in the shape of Speechless, Jasmine's empowering song. I like the song, it certainly has the Disney vibe, and Scott sings it beautifully... but it didn't give me those goosebumps that I expect from power songs. I probably would have given the song a pass had it not been for the way it was included in the film. The frozen scenes with Jasmine dramatically moving in and out of the cast and set... ugh... that just didn't work for me.
Massoud had originally given me so much hope for the music when I heard One Jump Ahead at the beginning. It was excellent, and throughout the film I loved his singing.
Here's where my opinion changed a bit after my second visit... the songs weren't all as bad as I'd felt after the first viewing. I still didn't enjoy Genie's offering, but Aladdin and Jasmine both felt like an excellent choice. The main thing that didn't change was the fact that I didn't feel the songs fit well into the scenes. Part of the draw of Disney is the toe-tapping singalong vibe you get from the music, and there was a lack of pizzaz in most of the sequences that left my toes untapped.
I could probably go on for a very long time about this film. (I already have.) Ultimately, I don't think it's an improvement on the original, I don't think these modern rehashes really add a lot when you have to adjust for the modern culture. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take the changing times into consideration, I just think you should do it in a way that doesn't just come across as trying to score points with the audience to prove how "with it" you are. I also don't think that coming up with 30 minutes of extra footage is ever a sensible idea. If that's what you want to do then perhaps you need to really mix things up and come up with a whole new concept for the story.
What you should do
You're either a Disney nut or you're not. Personally, I would recommend staying at home and having a binge of old Disney classics, starting with the one true Genie.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Could I get Genie powers without the itty-bitty living space?