Ark Nova: Marine Worlds – David Wood
Ark Nova is one of the most popular and most played board games today. So why create an expansion and mess with near perfection? What does it add that would make it worth purchasing?
First, the expansion contains some replacement sponsor and goal cards to address play imbalance issues. It also adds upgraded components, several new bonus tiles, and as the name suggests, aquatic animals along with new enclosures to put them in. These new animals come with several new abilities. For example, when reef dwellers are played, they activate the ability of every reef dweller in your zoo. The expansion also comes with a new type of university which allows players to search through the deck for a card with a specific animal icon. This can help players find that one card they need to complete a conservation project.
Perhaps the most exciting addition are the asymmetric action cards. Players draft three of these at the beginning of the game, keeping two of them to replace the standard action cards. These provide unique abilities that are accessible to only that player. Effectively exploiting these unique abilities could make all the difference in the outcome of the game.
So, is all of this worth the price? Oh yeah!
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from David Wood.
Setup – Tom Franklin
Using Upwards-like stackable square tiles with numbers 1-10 in five suits, players place tiles onto a 4×4 board with 2 extensions into your side of the board to score points. Much like Poker, x-of-a-kind and flushes are scored, but only for each time your just-placed tiles contribute to these scoring attributes.
Spaces on the board are connected both orthogonally and diagonally, increasing your linking possibilities, which is good because this is a short filler of a game. At the end of our game, we agreed we’d play it again, but we had no interest in ever buying it.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★☆☆☆ – Would play again but would rather play something else
Read more articles from Tom Franklin.
What the Cup!? – Justin Bell
During my visit with publisher The OP at Gen Con 2023, I picked up a copy of What the Cup!?; I liked the look of the box. It gave me the sense that the classic Shell Game was being converted into a game with dice and shells that made it look like I was moving around a miniature sized red Solo cup.
Even when I read the game’s instructions, I was a little worried that What the Cup!? would fall flat. What the Cup!? is a bit of a guessing game—each player rolls a 12-sided die inside of their Solo cup-like shell, then peeks to see the result. A series of cards are then flipped to give the active player direction on what they can do—maybe re-roll the die in their cup, or ask another player for a range of what their die is, or maybe swap your cup with another player. The active player can choose to either follow a card’s instructions or flip a large High/Low token to the side of their choosing.
At some point, a game over card appears, and then players reveal their die. Depending on the current status of that High/Low token, whoever has the highest or lowest die result gets (or splits) the pot in the middle of the table. But here’s the fail: players only put one of their coins into the pot to start a round, and typically don’t add any more during a round. The box says 10-20 minutes, but our first game took 30 minutes…and that was only because we ended it early. It wasn’t fun, you almost never “roll” your die, and the game takes way too long to finish.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
☆☆☆☆☆ – No chance
Read more articles from Justin Bell.
That’s Not a Hat! – Andrew Lynch
Maybe it’s because he only played it with his family, but I was surprised by how cool Justin’s review of That’s Not a Hat! was. I’ve played the game three times, with three different groups of six people, and it has been a homerun every time. The people who are new to the game—the repeats have been by request—start with looks of skepticism. “This is a game for children,” their befuddled expressions say. “Why is this fun?”
The game is one of memory, where players pass facedown cards around the table. Everyone knows what everything is at first, but that’s not the case for long. Once a card is facedown, it stays that way. Nobody is allowed to look at it. After that, it’s only a matter of time before someone receives a gift, says “Thank you,” then stares at the back of the card they already had in front of them, suddenly at a loss. “I got you…a…ruler?” You didn’t. You got me a flashlight.
Within two or three minutes of this ten-minute affair getting started, people are crying with laughter. It’s wonderful. No notes.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★★ – No sweat
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Read more articles from Andrew Lynch.
Karakum – Andy Matthews
In 2023’s Most Anticipated Games of Essen article I listed Karakum as a game I was looking forward to. I finally got a chance to play it, and I’m happy to say that it’s very enjoyable. It checks almost all my boxes: small, quick to learn, with enough strategy to keep you engaged but not so much that games take hours.
I was honestly surprised at the size…for some reason I’d expected the game to be a larger box, but nope…it’s the same size as No Thanks or L.L.A.M.A. The card have a nice flat finish to them, and the colors are just as vibrant in person as they were on screen. The gameplay is light, with only two actions to choose from on a turn: take market cards, or purchase a camel card. The goal is to have the most points, and you do that by lining up camels in your caravan. As you add camels, they must match in either color or number. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
There’s not a lot of depth to Karakum, but it’s satisfying to play, and would be a solid choice to start / end a game night.
Ease of entry?:
★★★★☆ – The odd bump or two
Would I play it again?:
★★★★★ – Will definitely play it again
Fun set of hot takes! I have some ammo to help me decide what to get (if anything) in the near future. A few of these look really cute.
Thanks as always — you guys are awesome.