Tag game review

Geography of Robots and Raw Fury bring Norco- a narrative adventure game that is unlike any other modern game we’ve played.

Norco is my first experience with the Southern Gothic genre, at least where it was labeled as such. Where Gothic stories and games focus on suspense and the supernatural, Southern Gothic focuses more on the darker side of humor. It is meant to focus on exposing societal problems through the creation of complex characters. Isolation is a common theme in the genre and is a central theme to the game itself from Geography of Robots and Raw Fury.

The game centers around your brother Blake’s disappearance after the death of your mother. Teaming up with a fugitive security robot you follow the clues to find him. Along the way you learn more about your mother’s time leading up to her death. Near the very start of the game you have the opportunity to fight the former employee of the gas station- do it, seriously. I think the story would force it eventually but still do it. He’s a douche and deserves it, plus you earn an achievement for it. Who doesn’t like achievements? I know I do! The combat system is rather straight forward too.

The controls are simple, the entirety of the game is a point and click adventure where you need a cursor and a single button. Graphics aren’t the best but some of the scenes stand out as a fantastic use of the style they’ve chosen. The game’s slow pace was a bit distracting but the attention to detail in the story was much higher than I expected. Overall I would say the game is worth trying out at the very least if you can.

The Void threatens to devour the entirety of the known and unknown universes. In Togges it is up to you to save everything.

Thunderful Games brings a new 3d platformer that is family friendly and yet a real challenge with Togges. After completing the most basic of the tutorials you meat the King of the Togges. They are simple creatures made of yarn that love to be close to each other and be stacked. They also LOVE fruit. The first few areas you are tasked with collecting fruit to improve their strength.

Your end goal is to help the king take over the known universes. Sounds more like a villain but his goal is to do so to protect all life from the Void. Early on you don’t learn much about the threat itself other than the fact that it devours anything and everything in it’s path. Sounds like the Nothing from Never Ending Story. Along the way there are threats to these peaceful creatures but not really to the player. Falling to your death usually means the end of the character’s life but in this game it just places you back where you were before you fell. Spikes that will kill the creatures cause you no harm.

This is an adorable game you can let your kids play but I wouldn’t. As mentioned before there is a good deal of difficulty here but it’s not impossible. The complexity of some of the puzzles means I would only have older children play it to avoid their frustration and anger at them. Some of the puzzles simply require too much patience and critical thinking for younger children to complete easily. Overall I found the game to be challenging but adorable. Meaning you can play in front of the younger children but shouldn’t hand them the control.

Exploding Kittens brings us yet another original title where chaos reigns supreme with Hand-to-Hand Wombat!

What happens when you combine building with Exploding Kittens and blind folds or closed eyes? Well, you chaos, simple as that but more importantly you get one of the latest games from EK, Hand-to-Hand Wombat! By name it sounds like a fighting game. Based on the rules alone it’s not but any game with the wrong people can become one. Before playing this game I advise to look at how volatile your group can be. If it’s like my family there will at least be some yelling.

Players will either be blindfolded (if they can’t be trusted) or have their eyes closed. One player is designated the bad wombat. The good wombats will try to build three towers biggest to smallest and the bad wombat will try to screw the order up. At the end of each round players will vote on the identity of the bad wombat. Majority vote wins and just like in Among Us that player is removed from the game. This game is basically Among Us without the murder. Of course you may want to murder the bad wombat at times, comes with the territory.

Our entire family loves playing Among Us and we also love Hand-to-Hand Wombat. My only regret was not being able to participate in the Kickstarter when it was going on. The golden wombat pouch and timer would have been awesome.

Exploding Kittens claims that Happy Salmon is a 90 second game that you will play for hours. Can the claim be true?

The 90 second game is a bold claim by Exploding Kittens. Claims like this are usually reserved for crazy speed runners in video games or liars. Are the folks at EK liars? Knowing my history with their games I was inclined to believe them but was still skeptical. How can a game of Happy Salmon really only take 90 seconds to play? How simple can this game be?

Let’s answer both of those questions. First, is it really does only take about 90 seconds to play. Second, the game is by far one of their easiest to learn. It’s so simple in fact that if you can read and yell then you can play this game. The only complaint I had about this game is that my kids used the Happy Salmon card as an excuse to slap my forearms harder than necessary. That card means you and whomever has your match slap each other’s arms a few times before discarding the cards. Switch It Up means you change seats with another player. High Five means you give another player a High Five and Fish Bump means you give each other fist bumps. In you hand of cards you are calling out specific cards until you find a match and perform the action. First player to run out of cards wins.

It doesn’t get much easier than that. Seriously. The game was easy to learn and a great time by the whole family.

Exploding Kittens has released a new expansion for their hit card game- Zombie Kittens and this time the Zombies are coming!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Exploding Kittens is one of my favorite games to play as a family. It has nothing to do with the fact I usually win. That helps, sure but not the main reason. Between fantastic art and cutthroat chaos we can’t get enough of this game. Zombie Kittens takes the classic format of killing each other and brings in the ability to bring players back from the dead. Normally if they can’t defuse the bomb that is the end of the game for them but now they have the chance to be resurrection as a zombie and can still terrorize the players.

The phrasing on the resurrection card could be better because as it is written sounds like it allows you to bring back all dead players. It can also be easily interpreted that it only brings back the player that is dying at that instant. Having carefully read the rules themselves though this is explained a bit better. You can use it to save yourself if you are dying BUT you automatically bring back one dead player with you. To really take advantage of this expansion you really need a group of at least four players. Playing with two players makes this effectively a defuse card but with some added features that are impacted by other new cards. This is similar to what the Imploding Kitten did for the game.

Adding new features and cards to an already great game helps keep it from getting stale. This version was a lot of fun but would absolutely be better with a larger group. Being able to save yourself continues to lengthen the game time but overall not significantly. If you are a fan of Exploding Kittens or looking for a new game to play with your group then this is a great choice for you!

Who here likes rainbows? Who likes revenge? Who likes both? With Mantis from Exploding Kittens you get BOTH!

One thing I love about games from Exploding Kittens is their originality. Some of the games may have borrowed some mechanics from others but as a whole they look and feel entirely original. Mantis is one such game that has seemed to borrowed a basic mechanic but made it their own overall. The mechanic I’m referring to is simply trading matching cards like in Go Fish. A very simple mechanic for sure but they still made it their own. Instead of collecting numbered cards you are collecting styles of mantis shrimp. What makes this game unique, aside from what is printed on the cards, is that instead of scoring points with your shrimp you can steal cards from the other players to try to make your tank earn you points.

Let’s talk about speed of play. Most titles make claims about how quick they are to play and Mantis is no different in that regard. However, it is very accurate at ten minutes. Our first game took closer to fifteen but that was more because we were learning the rules of the game. This game is really good at reminding you who may not want to play certain games with. Some members of the family are just too cutthroat. I’m looking right at both of my teenagers. I don’t understand why they always target me specifically. It’s like they coordinate these assaults together telepathically. Overall we had a great time but it simply does not hold a candle to the Exploding Kittens game itself.

Very Special Games brings Charty Party to the group card game genre- think Cards Against Humanity with charts instead.

The team at Very Special Games sent us both the All Ages and the 17+ editions of Charty Party to review. The game is quite simple to grasp, especially if you have played Cards Against Humanity. For those that haven’t played everyone gets shuffled a hand of orange cards. The judge for that round will draw a card from the chart pile. The remaining players then place the card they think the judge will choose. Depending on the judge you might go for the funniest answer or something else. For example one of my daughter’s friends will never choose the funniest card. She only picks the card that works the least and then tells everyone to “think about it”. The trick here is to play to your judges.

At first glance I thought the game would be a waste of time and an even bigger waste of shelf space. Clearly I was skeptical. That was before I read how to play. You see, I saw the charts themselves and thought this would be one of the stupidest games I ever played that wasn’t for young children. However, during my unboxing of the game I realized what the game really was and my immediate impression changed. You can check out that video here:

After filming the video and playing the game with the family I learned two things. The first is that the game is better with alcohol, like most games but still it is better when you’ve been drinking. The second is that despite the game being centered around charts it is actually quite clever and was a good amount of fun for our whole group. I think this one will be a regular addition to our gaming rotation.

Renegade Games brings the ultimate roleplaying game for 80s fanboys- GI Joe the Roleplaying Game!

Over the years GI Joe has had many iterations to the comics and cartoons. The Joes originated in comic and animation starting with Marvel Comics. They were later replaced by Devils Due and then at their current home at IDW Comics. Devils Due continued the story where Marvel left off but IDW rebooted it to take the story with the original write where it was left off at Marvel. I have always wanted to play in this world and now Renegade Games has given us the chance to do just that.

The quality of this book though is what really makes it stand out. The images and attention to detail are superb. Even better is that, with such a rich history of comics and cartoons, you are able to play any source material you want. That’s right! If you prefer the Devils Due run then you can play it. If you prefer the IDW reboot run then you can play that! You can literally play any source you want, as long as the GM/DM and players all agree.

Right off the bat (pun intended) I have a big complaint about this game- you can only play as a member of the Joes team. Other than Snake Eyes, Scarlet and Jinx, I am a fan of Cobra. I want a Cobra Roleplaying Game next or at least a supplement that does the same thing. Their D20 system is really easy to pick up and play without much experience with other roleplaying games.

If Sweeney Todd and Ghost Town Games worked together to make a new Overcooked game it would be Godlike Burger.

Have you ever been cooking all day and you get that one customer who just pisses you off? Have you ever wanted to show them how sharp your knife is? I can’t be the only one. With Godlike Burger you can live out those fantasies without the fear of incarceration. Of course if you kill enough customers the customers will catch on and try to kill you as well.

Visually the game has the same isometric view as Overcooked and from a control perspective has the same commands. For graphics though this game just doesn’t quite match that cutesy look and feel of Overcooked. It would be even more shocking if it did though. As you feed your customers you have limitations on your ingredients. Once you run out you will either need to purchase them or in the case of the meat you will need to kill someone and harvest them to feed to future customers. Overall the game is shockingly fun and worth the play if you like the Overcooked style of games.

Space Lizard Studio and Thunderful Games bring us Paper Cut Mansion- a horror game with Paper Mario graphics with a sinister twist.

Not many games give you the chance to expand on the story by getting yourself killed. Paper Cut Mansion does that and so much more. Sure each time you die you have to start the puzzles and the maps over but you get a slightly deeper look into the overall mystery when you do. The game features a paper/cardboard art style the is reminiscent of Paper Mario but with some cardboard thrown in. The music is subtle but when overlaid with the shadows that surround you there is an eerie sense of something dark around each corner.

Visually the game is truly captivating. The controls are quite simple to learn and only give you issues if you have a problem with a drifting controller like I do. Gameplay is full of tension and can be quite overwhelming at times but the mystery of the Mansion makes you want to continue deeper and further.