THE PREMISE:
You play as a second-year Japanese high school student who transfers to a new school in Tokyo after a brush with the law. On your first day, you stumble into a mysterious alternate reality filled with monstrous shadows,
Category: Game Reviews
A sampling of some of our favorite reviews from GAMES and GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Shadow Tactics finds a sweet spot that many games have tried and failed to hit. From the long-running Commandos series back to Jagged Alliance, the tactical/stealth game has been building to this perfect blend of environment, setting, storytelling, characters, graphics, …
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Potion Explosion
THE PREMISE:
Players take turns picking colorful marbles from the dispenser to complete magic potions. If they cause two marbles of the same color to touch, they take those too. Completed potions are worth points, and can be consumed to
Elfenroads
Before Alan Moon struck it huge with Ticket to Ride, he had a cult hit with a game variously titled Elfenroads and Elfenland, along with a hard-to-find expansion called Elfengold. Now Rio Grande has teamed up with Amigo to produce …
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Hot Squat
THE PREMISE:
Hot Squat is set in a fictitious gym called Flynn’s Fitness. Compete with yourself or other players online by doing as many squats as possible. Barriers with a human shaped cut-out move toward player at set intervals per
Cat Tower
THE PREMISE:
Players take turns stacking adorable cat cards, Jenga-style, based on the roll of a die. The first player to get rid of all his cards wins.
THE GOOD:
So cute! The illustrations are absolutely charming, and gameplay is
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
THE PREMISE:
Play as a free-running courier living on the fringes of a post-cyberpunk dystopian society.
THE GOOD:
The free-running feels natural and satisfying, and the combination of open world and mission-based play lets players explore the beautifully rendered City
Transport Fever
Railroading games have been popular from the early days of PC gaming. Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon is the granddaddy of the genre, but it’s Chris Sawyer’s Transport Tycoon—which merged road, rail, air, and water networks—that developed a cult following. Revived …
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Codenames: Pictures
Fresh from winning the prestigious Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year for Codenames, Czech Games Edition has reinvented its signature title as Codenames: Pictures—and improved it in the process.
The basics of the two games remain largely the same. …
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Dragonwood
Mixing cards, dice, creature capture, and push-your-luck gameplay, Dragonwood offers a lot of fun and strategy in a game that’s still accessible to younger players.
Each player has a hand of cards numbered 1 to 10, in different colors. Five …
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