John Pappas

I am a sucker for ghost-busting games. So, despite the simple nature of this game, I bought it. While it would never make the gaming table at my local meetup, it is a huge hit with my two girls (2 and 5) and if you want a cute family deduction game, I can’t recommend it higher (actually I can, but that is despite the point).

The game board consists of slots where you place “rooms” and each room has a number in lower right corner of its tile which represents the value of the room in thousands of pounds.

Players, both ghost and ghost-hunter, alternate placing one tile on the board. Once filled, the ghost-hunters leave to allow the ghost to place their haunts (four ghosts). The ghost hunters come back to find nothing amiss (slight component issue: make sure the ghost token is flush when placed, otherwise the covering room tile will be slightly elevated and an observant player will notice this.).

The ghosts need to remember their position and I recommend writing down the number of the room or coordinates or whatever helps you remember.

Players then take turns. The ghosts try to do as much monetary damage as possible by destroying rooms of high value. But they can only “haunt” or destroy rooms adjacent or diagonal of their hidden location. The ghost-hunters attempt to locate the ghosts by lifting one tile. However, in their veal they destroy the room with their ghost-hunting tools and thus provide additional damage for the grand tally of the ghosts (47 pounds worth of damage).

The ghost win if the amount of destroyed rooms equal 47 and the hunters win if they unveil all four ghost before that amount is reached. There is a bidding variant for more experienced players.

Pros:
1) Easy to learn.
2) Great for kids.
3) Nice component quality.

Cons:
1) Definitely a kid’s game.
2) Not much meat on these ghastly bones.
3) Largely abstract.

An infusion of theme and tactics would make this game so much better for older/experienced players. That said, for what it is, it is a fine addition to a family game night.

In Wasabi! players need to balance speed and style to complete the most well-executed and aesthetically-pleasing sushi menu. The players are competing sushi students trying to prove to their sensei that they are the most talented and worthy to take the mantle of master of your lineage.

Each player shares a pantry stocked full of tasty, exotic ingredients as well as a kitchen with the tools and techniques needed to perform to their fullest potential. They will navigate food shortages, wasabi spills and the talents and machinations of each other to complete recipes.

Don’t forget young grasshopper, that you have recipes of varying difficulty and length. It will not impress your sensei if you complete all the simple recipes or if you go only after the most difficult recipes and ignore the basics. You need to spread your talents out over all of them in order to win.

NOW COOK, YOU MAGNIFICENT MINDLESS AUTOMATONS! COOK!

Read the full review over at Troll in the Corner

In King of Tokyo players take the role of their favorite [in-no-way-similar-to-other-intellectual-properties] monster and head over to Tokyo for some light-hearted mayhem and destruction. Players grab some chunky dice. By Jove, are these things chunky! I love the feel of them. They are like radioactive dice. I want to rub them on my face. Players then roll three times for optimum effect. The effect is some combination of attacking, healing, gathering energy [monster currency to purchase cards with different immediate and repeated effects like special abilities, re-rolls or extra lives] and gaining points [combos of three 3’s, three 2’s or three 1’s for three, two and one victory point respectively].

Read the full review over at Troll in the Corner

In Tammany Hall, published by Pandasaurus Games, each player plays a rather vindictive cog in the political machinations of New York City in the 1850s – a time of growth, increasing immigrant populations and corruption. In order to succeed you will need to “help” newly arriving immigrants to “settle” into communities (while ousting others) and thus guaranteeing future political favors from them. These favors will help you gain influence into one of the numerous wards represented on the map.

This is not an easy task. Your options are simple but it will require lies, alliances, back-stabbing, fore-sight and a willingness to walk over anyone who gets in your way. You will send your muscle – ward bosses (meeples with bowler hats!) – into Manhattan to help secure votes and rally the immigrant populations there.

You will slander political opponents and use the offices you may already hold to sway the districts in your favor. The road to Tammany is paved with deceit, my friends, it is paved with dirty, filthy deceit…and immigrants…but mostly deceit.

Read the full review at Troll in the Corner