Review: The Game of Life Twists and Turns

 

Game Overview 

Life Twists and Turns is a reimagining of an old classic. While the familiar themes of driving around the board, acquiring a career, getting married, and having children, are all present, the gameplay is vastly different.  The game can be set to last anywhere from 1 to 50 turns requiring players to adjust their strategies and balance their time on the board in order to earn the most life points and win the game.    

 

Rules Summary 

Each player receives a credit card to be inserted into the lifepod each turn. The lifepod is an electronic device that replaces the spinner from the original game and keeps track of almost everything for all players including income, marital status, number of children, type of car and house owned, money in the bank and the number of life points earned. At the end of the game, the lifepod makes final calculations and declares the winner.

 

The game board is divided into four sections: live it, love it, learn it, and earn it.  In these sections, players are able to complete many accomplishments which influence the amount of money earned every turn and, more importantly, the number of life points earned every turn.

 

Live It:  Players fund adventures in order to earn life points. 

 

Love It:  Players are able to get married and have children.  Expanding the family provides a lot of life points every turn for the rest of the game but the more children you have, the less money you get to keep from your paycheck.

 

Learn It:  Allows players to earn a degree and/or a PhD which unlocks higher paying jobs on your career track.

 

Earn It:  Players are able to get promotions and advance their career tracks.

 

Components

 

Life pod:  The components in this game are fun. Having an electronic device that keeps tracks of everything for you seems a little sky-netish but it is what makes the game interesting. The downside is that the calculations can get very complicated.  For instance, all money acquired during the game is sold off to buy life points at the end of the game but the formula to do this is random every game. The manual briefly explains how the calculations are done throughout the game but there are so many of them and they change so much during a game that it is hard to track. It is much easier to just let the lifepod figure it out and not think about it too much. I have read on the internet that the calculations listed in the manual do not exactly match up to the lifepod. I have not actually done the math to confirm this myself, but I don’t believe the calculation differences actually impact the game very much since they are the same for all players.

 

 

 

Player Boards:  Each player gets a player board which is used to hold their career cards and to mark major milestones including the completion of a degree, marriage, etc. While these boards and clips are made well, they don’t have to be used much since the lifepod tracks most of these things for you.

 

 

Life Cards:  Many of the spaces on the board are blank. On these spaces, the player draws a life card and reads the sentence corresponding to the quarter of the board they are on. There are many of these cards in the game and they add some variety and humor to the game. Most of the cards allow the players to gain or lose money or life points. A few allow you to mess with other players.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Positives

• I don’t have to count out paper money or do math every turn
• Easy to get non-gamers to play (even my mom)
• Adjustable game length

Negatives

• There are a lot of calculations going on behind the scenes so it can be hard to know how you are doing until the final calculations are complete
• There are very few differences between career cards
• Too many salary and life point modifiers make it hard for players (especially new players) to remember

 

How this game made it into my collection:

This was a $5 thrift shop find. I had never even heard of this game before but I remembered playing the original Life so I decided to give it a shot.  We have played it a bunch of times already and have enjoyed it. 

Gamenight Review: Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy

I viewed Legacy being played on the Watch It Played YouTube channel so I was so excited when one of the members of my game group brought it to game night.   

The objective of the game is to build the most prestigious family tree, and in doing so actually create a life story.  It is very interesting as you need to learn to balance long term and short term strategies.  The game deals with all aspects of family life, ie, marriage, children, death, money, titles, mansions, etc.

Each player starts off with a secret goal, which if achieved will earn them points at the end of the game.  There are opportunities to complete missions to earn more points.  The key objective is marriage.  You find spouses for you and your children and grandchildren through friends you make.  All friends have special abilities which you take on as marry them.  Your family earns points and prestige through marrying well, charity donations, acquiring titles, and building mansions.

Your friends are very important, there is a lot of variety in friend cards so acquiring the right ones is key to victory.  Some friends can raise or lower your prestige and others can help you in other ways with their abilities  

As mentioned, this game is all about balancing your actions as you don’t have very many per round; you must use them wisely because you only have three generations to work with – much like true life where decisions are made that affect generations to come.  

Basically a really cool game.  There are two things I wish were don’t differently

1.      There are not enough friend cards which means they get recycled in the same game which takes away from the story a bit.

2.      The mission cards require an action that doesn’t make much sense to me but it doesn’t really affect the game so it was just strange, but not an issue.  

I say, give this one a try!

Pros

Friend cards are all very unique

The player boards are excellent and really make your options clear

Fun theme to play; I found myself making up stories about my family

Cons

Not enough friend cards.

A very large table space is required

Not a lot of interaction between players

Gamenight Review: Splendor

 

I have wanted to play Splendor since I heard it was nominated for the prestigious 2014 Spiel de Jahres award, and had the opportunity at last week’s game night.  I enjoyed it.  It’s a quick one to learn and a good one to play when you don’t want to devote too much time to a game. 

This one is all about gemstones.  The gems are represented by very sturdy “poker” chips.  These chips are used to buy cards that give you points to win the game.  It takes 15 points to win the game. 

Each turn consists of one of the following moves:

a.      Take 3 different color gemstones from the gem pool

b.      Select 2 of the same color gemstones (if at least 4 are available)

c.      Reserve a card from the board so that no one else has the opportunity to purchase it until you have enough gems to afford purchasing it yourself. You also get a wild gemstone when you do this

d.      Purchase a card

 

There are 3 value tiers of cards available for purchase – the currency used to buy the cards is gemstones.  The higher the tier, the more gemstones are needed for purchase. 

·        Tier I cards generally do not provide victory points, instead these cards have a gemstone printed in the top corner which will provide a discount of that gemstone on all future purchases. These help you build up gemstones so that you can afford more expensive cards.

·        Tier II cards provide victory points as well as providing permanent gemstones.

·        Tier III cards provide the most victory points and also provide permanent gemstones.

A bonus can be earned with “Noble” tiles.  These have a printed gemstone requirement on them.  The first player to meet these requirements will collect the noble tile and earn additional victory points. These tiles are not replenished and can really sway the game in someone’s favor.    

 

Overall, this game is interesting but not super exciting. There isn’t a lot of variety in the game because there aren’t that many unique actions.

Positives

• Rules are simple to learn and teach
• The gem chips are well made
• Artwork is very pretty 

Negatives 

• It is hard for a new player to compete with a more experienced player
• If a player falls behind, it can be very difficult to catch up
• Not enough unique things to do in the game

 

Game Night Review: Jamaica

Pirates, treasure, racing and battles! All of the components of a good game are present in Jamaica. I have been wanting to play this one for a long time and it didn't disappoint.

 

The objective of this game is to race your opponents around the island of Jamaica in your pirate ship collecting as much treasure as possible along the way. As you race around the island, you will need to feed your crew, pay to dock your ship, collect treasure, or enjoy a piece of open ocean depending on which spot on the board you land on.

 

Each player "pirate" has their own ship with cargo space to hold their food, gold, and gun powder and a set of action cards. Each turn, a pirate rolls two dice and assigns one of the rolled numbers as the daytime value and one as the nighttime value. These values correspond to symbols on the action cards and dictate what whether the pirate moves forward, backward, or how much food, gold, or gunpowder will be received on that turn.

 

The ship's cargo hold must be carefully managed because space is limited which means valuable resources must be discarded in order to bring new ones on board. This leads to really difficult decisions because gold gives pirates points at the end of the game; food is required to land on many of the board spaces; and gunpowder can prevent other players from stealing resources.

 

Pirate battles ensue when more than one player occupy the same spot on the board; the winner of the battle gets to carry off some of the loser’s supplies or bounty. We had a very bloody battle on the very first turn of our game as we all played a movement card which meant we all had to battle immediately. I won my battle and got to take a hefty sum of treasure from one of my fellow pirates which gave me a great head start and then I hightailed it out of the area before they could reclaim their booty.

 

Another way to gain treasure is to be the first person to land on a treasure chest space. While generally a blessing, earning the pirate extra points and items to help on the quest such as extra cargo room, sometimes a cursed treasure is drawn which results in negative points. During our game I managed to collect four treasures three awesome, one cursed which really gave me an edge in the game.

 

When the first pirate crosses the finish line, the round is complete and scoring begins. The pirate who crossed the finish line first gets a nice bonus of 15 points. Other pirates will either earn or lose points depending on how far away from the finish line they were at the end. Any gold coins earned during the round will add a point to your final scoring. I ended up winning this game due to my battle win, great luck with treasure and my strong finish.

 

Final Thoughts

The theme is so fun and incorporates all that we know of pirates in the game.

 

The game has one of the best box inserts I have ever seen. Every single thing has a place where it fits perfectly and everything is easy to put in and take out of the box. This makes cleaning up so easy. I wish every game was like this. The artwork in this game is awesome and I really like how colorful everything is.

 

The instruction manual, while nice to look at, is really hard to use because it unfolds like a treasure map making it awkward to use and pass around. Also, the player action card deck cards are long and thin so they are a little awkward to shuffle (they kind of bend inward when you shuffle them). Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It was light and very simple to teach and play.

 

Positives

• Theme is well incorporated and fun
• Insert is amazing
• Easy to teach to new players

 

Negatives

• Instruction manual is awkward
• The game seems more luck based than skill based
• Action cards are hard to shuffle

  

Game Night Review: Ladies and Gentlemen

 

The team mechanics of the game are very unique and make for a hilarious collaboration. 

______________________________________________________

While this game may sound slightly sexist, it was actually very fun and made for a really good time for all genders. 

The game divides the players into teams of two - one player is the "lady" and one player is the "gentleman".  Each team works collectively to complete the mission of the game "to put together and purchase the most fabulous outfit for the ball."  The "gentlemen" are charged with earning as much money as possible while the "ladies" do the shopping.  Our group had 5 males and 3 females resulting in one of the guys having to play as a "lady" which gave us all plenty of laughs.   

The tricky part of the game is the "ladies" have to pick which clothes they want to buy but they don't ever know how much money their "gentleman" teammate actually has earned. The "ladies" hand over their selected cards and the "gentlemen" decide what cards he can afford.  The clothing and accessories cards each have point values assigned.  The team with the highest points equates to having the most fabulous outfit and winning the game. 

 

The best part of this game is the back and forth between players. For instance, you are excited at finding the perfect pair of gloves you need to get your bonus points but your partner tells you that you can't afford it, even though the other "ladies" all have gloves.  This reminded me of I Love Lucy episodes when Lucy would be so excited about a new purchase until Ricky came home and told her she had to take it back because she couldn't afford it.  Remember her walking through Paris with a feedbag on her head!  

 

Because most of us were new to the game, it took us a while to figure which cards were really good which led to one of the funniest moments of the game. The guy playing the "lady" had several clothing cards he thought were great and excitedly handed them over to his partner for purchase, but his partner (who owned the game and actually knew which cards were good) looking horrified at what his teammate hoped to purchase said "we are going for the most fabulous outfit here, what is this?" and everyone just died laughing.

 

I recommend this game especially for couples.  It is not as serious as many other games and allows for strategy, cooperation and a lightheartedness. 

 

Positives

• Team dynamic is enjoyable
• Promotes a lot of social interaction and roleplaying
• Everyone plays at the same time so there is almost no waiting involved

Negatives

• Some people may have problems with the theme
• Need an even number of players for normal game (there is an odd number variant that sounds less fun)
• A lot of rules to learn

Review: Love Letter

Game Overview
Players are trying to win the love of the Princess with their love letters. However, they are unable to reach her themselves and must therefore recruit people close to the Princess to deliver their letters for them. The game is played with cards.  Each card has a picture, title, and number.  The higher the number, the closer relationship they have to the Princess.

Rules Summary

The game consists of a series of rounds.  Each round begins by dealing every player a card and removing the top card from the round unseen.  When it is their turn, players draw a second card and determine which  of their two cards they want to play based on the card's ability and value.  The abilities range from protection for one turn, to looking at another's hand, to trying to guess another's card. Some of the cards, like the guard card, give players the opportunity to knock another out of the round.

Used cards are discarded face up and the total number of each card is available to everyone so it becomes easier to guess what others are holding as the game goes on. The last player standing receives a token of the Princess' affection. However, if more than one player make it to the end of the round, those players compare cards and the player holding the highest value card (most favor) wins the round and receives the token of affection. In a four player game, 4 tokens of affection are required to win the Princess' heart and win the game. Less players require more tokens to win the game.

Components

My favorite part of the game is how small it is. This is a great game to travel with and it fits easily in a purse of backpack. This pouch is the package for the game. All of the components fit nicely into the bag with a drawstring at the top. Because the package is soft, you do have to worry about the cards being bent. While I like the look and feel of the package, I probably would have preferred a small box in order to protect the cards because this is one of those games where a damaged card can really ruin the game if the other players can identify it. Sleeving the cards may be a good option or you could always put it in a box anyway when traveling. 

These cubes are underwhelming. They do the job but don't match the theme very well. In my opinion, heart shaped pieces would have been much more interesting and fitting.

This picture shows the back of the cards as well as one of the reference cards included in the game. Because deduction plays a big part of this game, having a reference card with the number of each card and what they do is a big asset.

These are the main attack cards in the game. They allow you to guess an opponent's card (you can't guess another guard). If you are correct, that player is removed from the round. 

The Priest card lets you look at another player's card which can pair well with a Baron or Guard in some situations.

The Baron card is awesome if you also have the Princess because then you can automatically knock out another player.

The Handmaid card shields you from other players' attacks for one turn.

 

If you play the Prince card against someone holding the Princess, they are knocked out of the round. If not, one more card is removed from the round which makes it easier to guess what everyone else has.

 

The King card is tricky. When you trade cards, you now know what the other player has but, they also know what you have. Additionally, they will get their next turn before you do, so if they have a Guard or a Baron, they may be able to knock you out easily.

 

The Countess card has a very high value and will win the round if there is no one is holding the Princess.  However, she must be discarded if you also have a Prince or King card. This may make it easier for other players to guess what you have. You can be tricky and discard her when you don't have the Prince or King to confuse the other players.

 

The Princess card is tricky because you can't ever discard it. Therefore, you must always use your second card which limits your options. However, if you can make it to the end of the round with this card you will automatically win because it is the highest valued card available.

 

This manual is smaller than the cards and fits nicely into the package. It includes a description of each of the cards and a story that gives some thematic context to the game. Because the text is printed on the cards, you don't have to refer to this very often - which I really like.

Final Thoughts

 

Overall, I really enjoy this game as a light starter or closer to game night. It is fun and you don't have to think too hard which makes it a more relaxing game. Also, because each player only has two cards to choose from, turns are pretty quick. I would definitely recommend this little game.

 

Positives

• Compact package makes it easy to travel with
• Easy to teach because of directions printed on each card
• Very inexpensive

Negatives

• Cards may need to be sleeved
• Tokens are bland
• Not very fun with two players

How this game made it into my collection:

I went to my friendly local game store on free comic book day and everything in the whole store was 30% off so I couldn't resist this attractively packaged game. Let's just say the price was right. 

Review: Forbidden Island

Game Overview
I started playing this game about six months ago with my gaming group. It plays in a similar manner to the game Pandemic (which makes sense because it comes from the same designer-Matt Leacock).

Basically, you and up to three friends are on a treasure hunt and you have been dropped off in the middle of the ocean on a mysterious sinking island and although you are in danger of sinking with the island, you refuse to leave until you have obtained all four of the island's treasures. 

Rules Summary
This is a cooperative board game in which the players team up against the island. To begin, the island tiles are laid out randomly (see example above). The tiles to pay attention to are Fool's Landing (helicopter pad) and the eight containing treasure icons. These tiles need to remain afloat for much of the game (discuss in more detail later).

Along with the tiles, there are three sets of cards - role cards, island cards, and treasure cards. Each player is assigned a role card which explains their special ability and determines their starting space on the board. They also get 2 treasure cards to begin the game.

To set up the board, follow the picture above.  The island gets the first turn, six cards are drawn from the island card stack.  Each card matches one tile (area on the island). The tile that is drawn indicates that area on the island has been flooded and to represent the flooding, that tile must be flipped over to its blue (flooded side).  If the same card comes up again while the tile is flooded, the tile and its corresponding card are removed from the game and lost forever.

Each adventurer then takes their turn which consists of taking three of any combination of the following actions: 

1. The player can move one space up, down, left or right (the player whose role is explorer has the power to also move diagonally).
2. Shore up a tile by flipping it back over and thereby unflooding it.   
3. Give another player a treasure card from your hand.
4. Capture treasure.   To capture a treasure you must discard four identical treasure cards while being on that matching treasure tile.  

At the end of the player turn, the player draws two cards from the treasure deck.

Then it is the island's turn again and the bad stuff starts to happen.  Two, three, four or five cards are drawn from the island deck depending on the water level (water rises depending on how many water cards have been drawn during the gam - see water level indicator below). 

The game continues until the players win by collecting all four treasures and returning to the Fool's Landing tile and then using a helicopter lift card OR....more likely.....the island wins by sinking a necessary tile or a player drowns, or the water level reaches the skull and crossbones symbol.

Components

This game comes in a very attractive tin, not a box. I really like this because it travels very easily and it is easy to open and close (I find that some cardboard game boxes fit together so well that is can be a small struggle to open them). I understand some people may not like this because it may not stack well, however, this is not a problem for me and I think simply putting it on top of a stack of cardboard games or sliding it in a book shelf will solve the problem anyway. I am a  fan.

 

The insert inside the tin fits everything perfectly and the cards and tiles are easy to remove. The instruction manual and water level marker set on top of this insert.

 

This is an overview of what the starting tile/island setup look likes. Because these tiles are places randomly, the island is different every time you visit which keeps the game fresh.

Once an island card is drawn, the corresponding island tile is flipped over to its blue side which indicates that it is flooded. The tile can be used normally but it is in danger of sinking and being lost forever. The image on the back is identical to the front except it is in bluescale. This is a simple and effective design.

These are island cards and each card matches a tile on the game board. On each island turn, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cards are drawn  (depending on the current water level). I think it is really cool that these cards exactly match the tiles and I like the artwork quite a bit.

These cards are mixed into the treasure deck (see below) and can be lifesavers.

These are the treasure cards that each player collects in order to retrieve the island's treasure. The backs of these cards are different from the island cards which is really great because it makes it impossible to mix them up. These cards are simple and pleasing to look at. My only complaint is that I don't quite get how the cards fit thematically into the game. I imagine them to be clues to solve puzzles blocking the treasures but this is not stated anywhere.

This card is pure bad news! ...And it always come up at the worst time possible, without fail. I like the detailed instructions printed on the card. These, and the instructions on the back of the role cards keep you from having to look up very much stuff in the manual which I really appreciate.

These role cards are easy to read and understand. All of the roles seem to be pretty effective which is not the case for many games. However, I will say the pilot is my favorite because it lets you fly to any tile on the island which is phenomenal. Another plus is that they contain a summary of what should happen on each turn and what all of the possible actions are on the backside if each card. This is really handy for learning and teaching the game.

If you play a game of Forbidden Island, it is very easy to get mad at this thing. The red marker indicates how many island cards you must draw during the island's turn and it increases every time you draw a water's rise card from the treasure deck. This is also where you select your starting difficulty (there are four increasingly difficult levels to keep challenging you as you get better at the game). It is made of cardboard and is very sturdy. The slider fits perfectly, it is easy to slide and stays snug (I wish Betrayal at House on the Hill would use something more like this). Also, the slider does not scratch the indicator during use which is what I was worried about. I like the look of it a lot and it is simple and easy to read.

These are the treasures the players hunt for.  These pieces are good quality, detailed, and are a really nice size. It is fun to collect these and have them sit next to you for the rest of the game. The rule book has names for these treasures but my game group has affectionately renamed them: Rock of Power, The Holy Grail, Fire of Ages, and Gryffindor.

The pawns are simple but effective. I would have preferred them to be slightly larger but they are certainly adequate.

Final Thoughts
This game is very fun and easy to teach which makes it a gateway game for newbies. In fact, this is one of the few games I can get my mother to play which says a lot. It is pretty inexpensive (currently about $16 on Amazon). The rules are simple and the graphics are nice. This is one of those games where losing can be just as fun as winning.  Players must really discuss and plan well in order to stay ahead of the island which becomes increasingly difficult as the island gets smaller and smaller and the number of island cards gets higher and higher. Overall, a great light game that I highly recommend.

Positives

• Random board layout makes every game different
• Option to change difficulty
• Easy to teach due to cooperative nature of game

Negatives

• Getting the right cards to the right players can be difficult
• A lot of turns have to be spent “babysitting” important tiles
• Having to hold on to a helicopter lift card to win the game is annoying because there are lots of times you want use it and because of the hand limit

How this game made it to my collection
Forbidden Island just appeared on my doorstep one day in December as if it was a copy of Jumanji. I had recently ordered a game from Amazon and when this came instead, I naturally assumed there was a mix-up.  I convinced Amazon (even though the package was from Gamewright) that they must have shipped the wrong game and we made arrangements to exchange the game. Before I could send it back, the game I actually ordered arrived.  I was very confused until a few days went by and I found out that it was actually a gift from my aunt for Christmas. I am so glad I didn't send it back to Amazon because I have really enjoyed playing this game.