GenCon 2021
After a 1-year hiatus (for obvious reasons), GenCon was back in 2021, and Kat and I covered as much ground as we could. Here's our impressions of everything we saw:
Full Playthroughs:
Abandon All Artichokes (Gamewright)
Kat: Easy to learn, and fairly easy to master, this game is perfect for parties or if you’re wanting to play something simple and easy. In this game, you begin with 5 artichoke cards in your hand. By collecting and playing different cards from the garden, you get rid of your artichokes and try to be the first person to begin your turn with no artichokes in hand.
Each vegetable card has different effects that allow you to do everything from getting rid of an artichoke, to stealing cards from other players. It’s a lot of fun, but very simplistic, good for those who want to get their feet wet in a basic game of strategy. Overall, good fun, lots of laughs, but a bit simplistic for me. Maybe…
Alex: Cute card game that’s easy enough to entertain friends and children who aren’t really into strategy games. I enjoyed our playthrough well enough, but probably wouldn’t buy it except to play with a child and encourage them to eat their vegetables. Maybe...
AKA -Also Known As- (Endless Games)
Kat: This game takes a common title, or name of something, and gives a funny, puzzling, or difficult to decipher descriptor. An example:
Category: Wizard of Oz Character
Also Known As: “Africa” Singers
The game was surprisingly good fun, and it kept you on your toes. The gameplay is simple, and it makes for a fun party game. Solid!
Alex: I was impressed with this one. It seems like your average trivia game, but clearly a lot of thought went into the puns, cultural references, and “Dad” jokes. It was very satisfying to get the correct answers, and the ones that stumped us resulted in everyone slapping their foreheads and saying “Oh, now I get it!” when the answer was revealed. Solid!
Kingdom Hearts: Perilous Pursuit (USopoly)
Alex: This is a cooperative dice-rolling game (with “Yahtzee”-like mechanics) based on the popular videogame. We got off to a rough start, as the rules were hard to interpret. Once our team figured it out, we started to get invested in the game, which is quite challenging. The hero boards are well-designed and the “team-up” moves are an excellent game mechanic that forces you to communicate with your partners. However, the rest of the game lacks flavor. The cards all have generic instructions, with no reference to specific weapons, items, or spells from the game. Meanwhile, each world was a “tug of war” against generic Heartless. An expansion that adds specific villains and allies would make this a real treat for fans of Kingdom Hearts, but until then… Maybe...
Pavlov’s Dogs (9th Level Games)
Kat: As a dog lover, I absolutely had to play this game, and I was not disappointed. Think of the card game “Mau” (or “King Mau”) where more and more rules get added as the game progresses. Thankfully, you are told what they are at least once as they are added.
You are all dogs being trained. One person is the Dogtor and has to make sure the dogs are doing the correct “tricks”. For each trick you miss, you lose a bone (you start with 3 of them). Sample rules include: “Scratch your ear when ‘Sit’ is played.” “Bark when ‘Speak’ is played.”“Bark when a Brown card is played.”
Woof! Trying to remember that was tough, but I was lucky enough to have an excellent group of players and we all made it to the end! What good dogs we were! Must Buy!
Tales of BarBEARia (Greenbriar Games)
Kat: Folks, we present to you our GenCon 2021 Bobbs Pick.
It has Stardew Valley vibes, but simpler and with bears. The object of the game is to gather resources and gain glory to become the best bear tribe of them all. You can also battle your opponents, hire mercenaries, and stake your bets on various Adventure Cards to help you get the best resources. And so much more that Alex can probably explain.
It’s beautiful, its bears (including pandas, instant approval), and the gameplay has a lot to offer while not being terribly complicated. Unsure when this game will be distributed, but keep a lookout for it! Must buy! (Did buy!!!)
Alex: I loved this one. First of all, I love it when original IP’s actually get me invested in their world. Second, it was a perfect balance of worker-placement, bluffing, and economy engines.Third, the game is pretty fast-paced and engineered so that it doesn’t drag on too long. It lasts just long enough so that you can feel that you had time to put together a decent engine, and then wraps up. The only small complaint I have is a few low quality components (recycled artwork, slightly blurry printing, etc.). Otherwise, I’ve rarely seen a Kickstarter project succeed this well. Must buy!
Kombo Klash (Hub Games)
Kat: The name speaks for itself: it’s a game of crazy combos and trying to get the highest scoring combos possible. It’s quick, pretty easy to learn and it is fairly creative. There is some element of strategy as you try to play your turn as effectively as possible. For example, one of the cards is a Snake that you can use to pull a card of your choice and replay it somewhere else on the board to score more points. Knowing each card’s effects will help you make smart choices and plan a kick butt turn. Would love to see more characters added in, but this game was good! Solid!/Maybe...
Alex: This is a game for those of you who like to play 10 action cards in a row in Dominion. The idea is to chain moves together so you can repeatedly draw, redraw, score, rescore, and manipulate tiles until you get stupid numbers of points. It’s definitely fun, but I guess the abstract concept (what are these animals doing?) kept me from feeling fully invested. Overall… Solid!
Under Falling Skies (Czech Games)
Kat: This was a surprise gem at the con. This game is actually designed for single player mode, but it can be done as a co-op by dividing up the dice roles in between the team members. The object of the game is to research an alien race that is actively trying to destroy you, and it turned out to be a REALLY good combination of aliens constantly moving as you do anything in your facility and trying to excavate enough to get everything accomplished. To spice things up, there is also a mode where you can create robots, but we didn’t play this in the demo. For those new to strategy, this is intermediate level. Play with someone experienced before you attempt going solo. Must buy!
Alex: Falling Skies surprised me as well, as the small board and piece count made it an underdog against bigger Czech Games such as “Sanctum” (which I didn’t get a chance to play). What impressed me the most is how tight the design was. Every space on the board felt carefully calculated to offer the player a well-balanced ability (or challenge), forcing us to really think through every single move. It was intended for solo play, but works perfectly well as a cooperative game. Must Buy!
Rocketeer: Fate of the Future (Funko)
Alex: Wow. Funko and Prospero Hall (of Villainous fame) did a really good job with this one. It’s a lot of fun, and gives you enough options to make you feel powerful, while simultaneously restricting the player just enough that you can never quite do everything you want. The theming is fantastic, and really captures just about every memorable scene of the cult-classic movie. My only (small) criticism is that the randomizer elements are somewhat minor, which might hurt the replay value. Otherwise, The Rocketeer is one of the better nostalgia-bait games I’ve seen. Must Buy!
Kat: Games like this have always been daunting, but this one was actually really fun. The gameplay is easy to pick up, but you have to always think one step ahead of your opponent. I didn’t find myself too overwhelmed, so maybe I’m finally figuring out this strategy thing! Strategy level: Intermediate. Must Buy!
Zombie Chase (PlayMonster)
Alex: This is a very silly game that starts with an NPC zombie and possibly ends with everyone on the zombie team. It’s great for some laughs, but the gameplay isn’t anything special. That said, it’d be fun for families with small children. Maybe…
Kat: Definitely a game to play with kiddos, so I would revisit this in a few years once our daughter is of age. Props to the group we played with though, had a blast playing! I give this a Maybe if you’re an adult, but definitely a Solid for kids.
Cytosis (Genius Games)
Alex: Genius Games had a number of science-themed games in their roster, including one about cellular biology (there’s also a more advanced version with plant biology). I was impressed with the use of real-life science to dictate the mechanics of a worker-placement game, and the science was mostly accurate (with a few minor exceptions made for game balance and economy). The game itself is pretty fun, though perhaps lacking an exciting “oomph!” element to really sell it. Overall, a Solid game that would be great for highschool biology teachers and students.
Kat: All the things Alex said (trust your scientists, folks!). My only hangup was with how the scoring worked, as I was often confused on who got points when. Play with 4 people was less of a challenge, but I would love to play it again with a full round of 5, as I feel it might add a level of craziness to the mix. Overall, really fun to play! Solid!
The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 (USOpoly)
Alex: The Thing is a movie I know and like, although not nearly as well as our partners (who remembered all the characters). Overall, this game is very similar to the Battlestar Galactica board game, with secret saboteurs and cooperative challenges. What I liked about this game is how streamlined it is. For a game this complex, it’s surprisingly easy to learn, and can be finished in less than 90 minutes. My only complaint is that the game balance doesn’t really work with less than 5 players. I deduced that Kat was the villain early on, but didn’t have many chances to do anything about this since we usually had to take all 4 players on our missions anyway. Even so, we had a lot of fun hunting down the aliens, and I imagine the balance issues could be corrected with a few “house rules.” Very strong Solid from me.
Kat: Absolutely yes to all of this. Strategy folks, this one is a light to intermediate, depending on whether or not you’re infected. Play around with the strategy and you just might be able to fool everyone (except your husband) until the very end! Solid!
Marvel Battleworld: Treachery at Twilight (Funko)
Alex: Just for kids, honestly. The figurines and toys are cute, but the gameplay is nothing special. I kept waiting for a villain who would really mix things up and challenge us, and it never happened. No dice.
Kat: Very cute, but it needs more! It was almost too easy for adults to play. If it had more villains to contend with, it would make for a better game, so this gets a Maybe from me. For a kid’s game though, Solid.
Crystallized (Bicycle Games)
Alex: Apparently this one was very popular, and I’ll grant that it has the “simple to explain but hard to master” quality that makes games like Planet such a big winner. For me… I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t feel that I was able to do anything interesting, and the last several turns just consisted of repeatedly discarding and drawing cards, searching for one very specific thing. People who are better at spatial reasoning will probably have a lot more fun with this, but for me personally… No dice.
Kat: I struggled with this one big time (but props to the gal who helped me, thank you!!). I’m usually good at spatial reasoning, but this one almost made my brain implode at first. If you’re a good puzzler, this one’s for you. Otherwise, no dice.
Equinox (Plan B Games)
Alex: This one was very pretty, and very creative. Equinox is a fun take on the fantasy genre, as it involves various fantasy creatures competing for popularity rather than engaging in combat. The role of the players is to bet on the creatures while modifying their favorability, using every dirty trick to ensure that your bets pay off. The artwork is excellent, so I’d say this one is a very Solid game.
Kat: This is one of the most beautiful games I’ve played since Planet. That said, it would be neat to see more cards that “screw your neighbor” as it were, but it’s very close to being a truly amazing game. Aside from that, it was very well done. Solid!
S. F. A. - Street Football Alliance (FIRST EXPOSURE)
Note: As this game is still in development, we did not feel it was fair to assign a rating.
Kat: This game has chutzpah: a football game at a board game convention that is dominated by puzzles, RPGs and tabletops. Well played.
Take the idea of a football game, combine it with some interestingly designed, 5 person teams, and you get “Street Football Alliance”. It gives you the feeling of playing football without actually playing with a football! The design was pretty well presented and it was easy enough to follow as a football fan. However, there was a lot to remember, like which trait went against which one: Block vs Catch traits for example when attempting to complete a pass. The teams were all uniquely designed, each with their own tricks and powers to make for some good gameplay.
Best of luck to the designers Katana Dogs, Nick and Terrance, and I hope to see your game hit the shelves someday!
Alex: I agree with Kat that the designers took on a difficult task when demoing a sports game at a convention full of nerds. They clearly anticipated this, and patiently walked us through each part of the football play. I found myself having a lot more fun than I thought I would, as the tactical element of moving your players around is quite fun. The game is still in development, and clearly needs more balancing and streamlining, but overall I was pleasantly surprised.