Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang. Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers share the games (both video games and board games) they’ve been playing over the past month. Feel free to add which games you’ve been playing this past month. We’re all part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll kick off this post with the games I’ve been playing this past month.

Kyra’s Video Games

My first entry is the first of two Monster Hunter games. Woah! Monster Hunter Wilds follows in Monster Hunter World’s footsteps. Ironically, we covered the release of Monster Hunter Wilds a little over one year before I picked up a copy on the PlayStation 5. Monster Hunter Wilds gives the Monster Hunter World formula some much-needed updates. Mounts are a great addition; we saw them in Monster Hunter Rise. I like that one can harvest things on one’s mount, and the grapple comes in handy. The load times and the ability to ready up for a mission from almost anywhere are fantastic quality of life upgrades over Monster Hunter World. Objectively, Monster Hunter Wilds is the better game. But there are two things I wish Monster Hunter Wilds retained from Monster Hunter World: scale and research.

Simply put, Monster Hunter World feels larger than Monster Hunter Wilds. Having finished Monster Hunter Wilds’ main story, I found monsters segregated by size. This means monsters will fight each other for territory because they’ll be of similar size. This is a good thing. I don’t know how many times I waited for another monster to damage the monster I’m hunting, and then swoop in for the final blows. But I also liked how smaller monsters will run away from larger ones. This gave Monster Hunter World a sense of scale. A pukei-pukei high-tailing it from an anjanath made the anjanath feel bigger and more imposing. Sure, this made hunting a pukei-pukei more difficult, but I didn’t mind. It made World’s monster feel more alive. Without dissimilar-sized monsters in the same area, I lost sight of a monster’s size.

Sure, Monster Hunter Wilds has some massive monsters. I judged that from the environment. That boulder looks a lot smaller. That must be a massive monster. Still, I’d trade the occasional small monster getting away for a more cohesive biome.

And then, there’s research. I understand why Monster Hunter Wilds mostly got rid of research. It got tedious. Finding monster mucous in a biome and learning that a specific monster marked its territory with its mucous was awesome the first time I heard it. But it loses its luster after the hundredth time collecting mucous. Monster Hunter Wilds could’ve toned down the amount of research one needed to conduct. I liked the idea of my character as a field zoologist. Or would they be monstologists? Regardless of those two minor shortcomings, I enjoyed Monster Hunter Wilds.

The story wasn’t that good, but no one plays a Monster Hunter game for its story. Exploring the world is as fun as ever. I can’t wait to dive into the post-game and any new DLC. Bring it on!

You know how I just said, no one plays a Monster Hunter game for its story? The same can be said for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. But I think I found where all Monster Hunter World’s research went. But Monster Hunter Stories may be the better title for monster research. Monster Hunter Stories 3 is the first game in the series I’ve played. From what I’ve heard from Season, Monster Hunter Stories 3 added quality of life updates just like Monster Hunter Wilds did to the mainline series. I’ll leave those points for Season; I’m sure she’ll talk about Monster Hunter Stories 3. But I’ve been enjoying Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. I love restoring biomes.

Yes. Monster Hunter Stories 3 features invasive monsters, disrupting the flow of each of the game’s biomes. Players are tasked with restoring each biome to its original balance. This includes researching monsters and learning their moves. Speed, Power, and Technique Attacks play out like a Rock-Paper-Scissors style of combat. Add this to an additional layer of elemental type (which also plays out like Rock-Paper-Scissors), and Monster Hunter Stories 3 prompts players to collect ’em all. You’ll need monsters with a Fire, Water, or Lightning (and others) element and each of the three attack types. This dual-layered game of Rock-Paper-Scissors adds plenty of complexity. And it’s fun collecting eggs and watching them hatch.

Most of the popular monsters in the Monster Hunter series make an appearance in Monster Hunter Stories 3. Heck, you begin the game with a Rathalos. The story overview (first paragraph in this write-up) mentions Twin Rathalos, and I’m certain the other Rathalos factors into Monster Hunter Stories 3’s storyline. Again, I couldn’t care less about the story. The voice acting is over-the-top. Characters sport the JRPG-styled mannerisms. And the ultimate attacks (for each of the monsters) play out like a summon spell in Final Fantasy VII, but at least you can skip the animation if it’s the one millionth time you’ve seen it. I like the shake-up the Monster Hunter Stories series gives the typical Monster Hunter gameplay formula.

Did I mention you can ride your monsters? Flying on my Rathalos rules. But so does riding my Tobi-Kadachi up wall faces. Yes! I haven’t yet found (or built) a monster I can reliably ride on while they swim, but I’m working on it, and when that happens, I’m certain that’ll be a blast.

Kyra’s Board Games

I’ve talked about Super Mega Lucky Box in this series before, but I’ve played it with Skye at least twice this past month, so I had to mention Phil Walker-Harding’s take on Bingo. If you know how to play Bingo, you know more than half the rules to Super Mega Lucky Box. This board game is one of those perfect games to introduce to people who don’t play board games. And it’s fun. I could play Super Mega Lucky Box with Skye another twenty times this upcoming month. It’s that good.

I have been meaning to play Cascadia ever since it was first released in 2021. I never picked up a copy of Cascadia because I already owned Overboss, which has a similar pick-up a tile and token combo. But that’s where the similarities of the two games end. Cascadia offers varied but balanced play in every game. I didn’t catch all the ways one can score during the original rules explanation (I didn’t know that each collection of land types scored, and it wasn’t just the player who had the most of the largest type of each land), but my brain wouldn’t let me place a tile without a match. I ended up scoring way more points than I thought I would. And matching animals to the pattern they wanted made thematic sense. I was impressed.

Beth Sobel’s art elevates any nature-themed game. Her art has appeared in so many games of this type. Keep it coming. And Flatout Games has a knack for designing/developing easy-to-learn but difficult to master board games. They’re the company behind the Point Salad series of games, Ten, and Calico. I knew I would like Cascadia. I can’t believe it took me this long to play a round.

Bandido may be the oddest board game on this list. It certainly generated the most laughs. Gamers take on the role of prison guards. The titular Bandido has broken out of his cell, and it’s up to the players to work together to cut off the Bandido’s exit by strategically placing flashlight cards, dead ends, and loops for the tunnel. Bandido likes to sprawl, so gamers are encouraged to stand while they draw a card from the deck and add a card to one of the tunnel’s open ends.

You’re not allowed to show your teammates your cards, and there’s limited table talk. But that didn’t stop us from ribbing someone for making a suboptimal play. Bandido may not work for every game group. The subject matter could rub people the wrong way. The gameplay can be a little difficult to explain at first, but with the right group, Bandido is a blast.

Those are all the games I have for this month, and it looks like I’ll be flying solo this month. We’ll have to wait on Season’s take for the two Monster Hunter games. But hey, what games have you been playing this past month, Geekly Gang? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.