Viticulture Game Review: A perfectly balanced game of rustic progression

Best Moment

I thought I had the easy vic. I had an early, steady flow of grape planting and harvesting, I had great visitors helping increase wine production with some nicely aging wines to fulfill orders. My wife was slowly progressing along without too much success. She then deftly tacked to a heavy tour-based approach with her valuable tasting room, and it worked! She pulled off a very close victory proving that there are many paths to success!

Tammany Hall Game Review: A nuanced, cutthroat game of winner-takes-all

Best (i.e., Worst) Moment

I felt squarely in control of the game. I had been mayor twice already, was in the lead, and was feeling pretty good about myself. Queue the great fall from grace. A simultaneous, multi-faceted attack from my opponents (yes, we’re still friends…mostly) came during the 3rd term. I did my best but never quite recovered from the onslaught of double slanders, Chief of Police arrests, and Council President lock-ups. Why do I include this in my game review as the best moment? Well, I happen to like the people I was playing with and, with a little time and snacking, I was happy for them. Yes, my sweet wife, who ended up winning, was the catalyst for my downfall. =-)

The Game: Quick and Easy Review: Simple gameplay meets complex strategy

Best Moment

If a single emoji were to capture our first couple of laughably rough games, it would be the headslap. The concept wasn’t quite clicking with the kids until our third or fourth playthrough. You’d have thought our favorite football team had won the playoffs when we made it through maybe half the deck the first game that they started to really grasp the notion! =-)

Robots Family Game Review: An excellent “filler” game and stocking stuffer!

Best Moment

Our adorable little five-year-old was just learning how to play. The concept of time is difficult for little ones, and it was delightful to see that play out in this game. We would laugh with her as the robot would wait a long time in between beeps (indicating a long travel), and she would guess the very first object. Or, the second beep would quickly follow the first, and she would guess something way down the line. It was SO cute and fun to see her little mind working and trying to understand the timing of the game. =-)

Adrenaline Game Review: An insane, high-octane, shoot-’em-up game

Best Moment

My boy and I took over the family room on a relaxing Sunday afternoon. After an intense back-and-forth throughout the game, he had sneakily built up his Dozer Overload, poked his head through a door and blasted away my Echo with his Scrapshot for the big win against Dad. Yes, I tackled him scattering the game all over the room. =-)

Codenames Duet Game Review: A solid, two-player version of a favorite party game

Best Moment

My wife and I were on our third mission with a single timer token and two secret agents left to guess. I made the rookie mistake of not assessing the other guesswords before blurting out a clue. I quickly realized my mistake, but it was too late! My clue could easily lead her to the correct word or to the assassin. She touched the first word…got it! My heartrate was sky high as she vacillated between the assassin and the game-winning word. She finally touched down…for the win!

Harry Potter Spellcasters Game Review: A super-simple game for young HP fans!

Best Moment

It was our very first gameplay shortly after opening the box. My four-year-old daughter was bouncing off the walls with excitement for her first turn to be the spellcaster. Once she had the wand in her hand, that exuberance made the shapes she was trying to draw in the air bounce all over the place. We couldn’t tell head from tails as she laughed and kept trying to reproduce the spells with the wand. We all ended up laughing together without guessing a single spell she cast.

Antiquity Quest Game Review – An intense, up-and-down adventure for the ages

Best Moment (for the other players!)

Treasure cards are rare. Creating a perfect treasure collection is even more rare. I had a four-card, perfect treasure set ready to complete for a good portion of the end of the game. I finally made the decision right at the end to duplicate a card resulting in half the points for that collection. Guess what I drew the next turn! The blasted gold coin pile I needed that entire time. Too late! To make matters worse, those points would have jumped me from 2nd to 1st place. Ugh…