Boss Monster

Number of Players: 2-4 Players
Age: 13+
Playtime: 20 minutes

So you miss the old 8 bit dungeon exploring games of the 80s, imagining yourself a hero slaying monsters and collecting treasures and win the day, and if you're really lucky win the heart of your true love (this would usually be a woman in distress, because... hey, it was the 80s).  Well here's your chance to relive those glory days.  This game, however, takes an interesting spin.  

Rather than being the hero you are the Boss Monster.  You role is to create a dungeon that will kill the hero that you have lured to your dungeon.  Each card had a special ability that will effect the hero in some not so nice way. The dungeon slowly grows to five rooms, some of these room have the ability to be ungraded or be destroyed so a new room full of horror can be built.

As the dungeon grows the stronger the heroes that are lured.  Each hero has a number of souls which when defeated become yours for the taking.  The first monster to reach 10 souls wins the game, equally a player can be killed if they gain 5 wounds (i.e hero's survive your dungeon).

I enjoy the game, can take a little time to understand how the game works and some of the finer points for example how the rooms can link together to become more powerful, but once these have clicked this game is very enjoyable.

Score: 8/10

Dawn

Gloom

Number of Players: 1-4 players (if you have expansions more players can be added)
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30 minutes

Gloom is not a game for those who do not like to make people miserable.  The aim of the game is to let your family have a horrible life, get lots of minus points and then kill them off.  Of course you can help other families by giving them positive points.  

This game is can be played by just reading the story off the cards, but it is a lot more fun if the people playing can create more of a story, this can make the game more interesting and add hilarity to the game.

Each player gets to play two cards, although the instant death cards must be the first card you play, unless the cards tell you otherwise.  Some of the cards can give you extra moves or give other people other moves so it is important to read the cards carefully.  The game ends when on family is killed.  Anyone still alive at the end of the game points do not count towards the final score.

The game is easy to pick up and can be easily used as a warm up game, as the game can be over relatively quickly dependant on how mean people are to each other.  There are a number of expansions to this game, each expansion can give you a family or two and extra activities to make people miserable.

This is a brilliantly thought out game with transparent cards (which is a nightmare if they fall on to a dark carpet in a pub that is not well lit!) so that even though there could be many cards on each other it is still possible to see the points through the cards.  The cards, whilst new, do have an amazing smell.  I really liked it but there are other's who do not like the smell.

I have never had so much fun making people miserable.

Score: 8/10

Dawn

Fluxx the Board Games

Players: 2-4
Playtime: 15-30 minutes
Ages: 8+

A lot of people will know the Fluxx Card Games.  They have become a popular favourite within a number of gaming groups.  I have played a number of different versions and was fortunate enough to play the original version.  So imagine our delight when there was a board game created based on Fluxx.

For those who do not know Fluxx the idea behind it is that the rules and the goals change from one turn to the next.  It's is intensely fun as it is frustrating (usually due to the other players).  It depends on the luck of the cards and how mean players want to be to each other the games could last between 15-30 minutes.

The board game is not much different.  It consists of nine individual squares that make up the board.  Each player gets three colour pieces, a card that tells the players what colour they are (this is really important), rule cards with pegs which help keep track of the ever changing rules, plus the playing cards: Actions, Keepers & Goals.

The rule tile that show the number of move, draw, play, hand limit, wrap-round (when a piece can go from one side of the board, off the board and enter the same row on the opposite side), move-a-tile (move any tile to a legal position), rotate-a-tile (move one time 90 degrees anticlockwise).  There is also a tile that shows the number of goals that is required to win which can also change within the course of the game.

It took us a while to get the feel of the game so we played it twice.  Then it got funny.  Changing the colour you're playing on people, moving tiles you know people are aiming for, moving tiles to help you win. The rules changing so regularly it is important that the rule tiles are checked.  Drawing cards is the first events that every player much do, after that the moves, playing of cards can happen in any order.  At the end of the turn players much reduce down to the hand limit.

Strategy is not a huge priority in this game due to the fluctuation of the rules.

If you are a fan of Fluxx I would recommend this game.

Score: 8/10

Dawn