When I went to Origins, I was contacted by Jason Kotarski about a game that he and Philip duBarry were working on. He offered me a chance to play with a prototype if I’d give it a review, and I agreed. I’ve liked previous games by both designers, so let’s see what they can do with their combined efforts.
I reviewed Yardmaster back in April, but it seems that the train wasn’t fast enough for Crash Games, and now they have Yardmaster Express coming. Is this just another train on the same track or is there a different destination in this game?
Trains are a popular subject for many games. Ticket to Ride is a very popular game, and Station Master is a personal favorite. With so many train games on the market, it can be hard to stand out. Patrick Nickell of Crash Games sent me a preview copy of Yardmaster, Steven Aramini’s first game so that I could see if this game can stand out in a crowd.
As someone who loves Fleet, whenever Ben and Matt put out a game, I’m curious to see what they’ve been up to. Eggs and Empires is up on Kickstarter now, and they were kind enough to send me a prototype copy to try the game out. Is this an egg-ceptional follow up to Fleet, or is it just one big yolk?
Chris Kirkman from Dice Hate Me Games recently did a contest for players to create games using 54 cards. Bryan Fischer, a friend of mine designed a game around making pie and Chris’ contest inspired him to re-think his design. Now Pie Factory is up on Kickstarter along with five other card games. Is Pie Factory worthy of a blue ribbon or is it bland?
Pairs is a Cheapass Game currently up on Kickstarter. Note that the company behind it is actually Cheapass, but the games they create are some of the best simple and quick games I’ve ever seen. Pairs is a card based push your luck game. In the game, the goal is not to win, but simply to not lose. The game plays from two to eight players and takes minutes to play. The deck is made up of fifty-five cards. There is one 1, two 2’s, three 3’s, and so on to ten 10’s. During each round, all players are dealt...
