Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re moving today’s post to Wednesday, Christmas Day. We hope to have another Skye sighting. Fingers crossed.
Happy Early Christmas! Yay!
Author: Kyra
Kyle Kyra (they/them) writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They live in a sleepy Nebraska town. Yes, corn lives outside their back door. They hold a BFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and their work has appeared in Menacing Hedge, Spank the Carp, Danse Macabre, The Door is a Jar, The Collidescope, and other journals and anthologies.
Top 5 Ice-Powered Comic Book Characters
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, today is the first day of winter. Let’s celebrate by listing the Top 5 Ice-Powered Characters in comic books.
5: Ice (DC)
The first of several DC Comics characters on this list, Ice is the successor to the Ice Maiden. Tora Olafsdotter is the product of Norwegian experiments with Ice Maiden, hoping to replicate her powers. Tora’s arrival in the human world led the original Ice Maiden feeling superfluous. Ice Maiden returned to Norway, while Tora took up the name Ice and joined the Justice League International. She’s had an off-again, on-again relationship with Guy Gardner and developed a friendship with a heroine named Fire.
4: Captain Cold (DC)
Leonard Snart, Captain Cold, started life as a gag villain, but over time, Cold has become an impressive DC Universe villain. Snart grew up in an abusive household and turned to a life of crime. He developed a cold gun. The gun has extraordinary power. It can create temperatures to absolute zero. He can freeze objects (and people), create ice patches and icicles, and create a “cold zones” which can slow down anyone, including the Flash.
Snart is one of the founding members of the Rogues. He’s joined the Ice Pack (a group of cold-powered supervillains) and the Secret Society of Super Villains.
3: Killer Frost (DC)
There have been two women who bore the Killer Frost moniker. Crystal Frost was a scientist working in the Arctic when an accident gave her the ability to generate extreme cold. She became a supervillain, but her powers were slowly killing her. In an attempt to save herself, she consumed the heat of Firestorm and died.
Following Crystal’s death, her friend Dr. Louise Lincoln became Killer Frost. She recreated the accident that gave Crystal her powers and sought revenge on Firestorm. Able to transmute heat to cold and create gusts of wind and structures made of ice, Killer Frost has teamed up with villains like Captain Cold (who we saw in our previous entry) and Mr. Freeze, who happens to be our next entry.
2: Mr. Freeze (DC)
Dr. Victor Fries (originally a mad scientist Mr. Zero) is another DC villain who began life as a joke villain. The 1990’s Batman: The Animated Series recreated him as a sympathetic villain in its Emmy-winning episode “Heart of Ice.” Mr. Freeze has a sad story behind his frozen smile. His wife Nora fell terminally ill. Dr. Fries dedicated himself to cryogenic research to save her. The head of the corporation funding Fries’s work shuts down his project, and Victor fights them to save his wife. A fight ensues, which results in Victor turning into Mr. Freeze.
Freeze can only survive in sub-zero temperatures. To survive, Victor built himself a cryo-suit. He also developed an ice gun (powered by diamonds) and pursued a life of crime. Freeze’s gun can freeze objects and people, while his suit gives him increased strength and durability. Combined with his intellect, Mr. Freeze is a formidable foe.
1: Iceman (Marvel)
Iceman Bobby Drake started as the youngest member of the original X-Men. Most fans ignored him; he was the Spider-Man of that early X-Men team, cracking jokes and acting as the conduit for younger X-Men readers to view the team through.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and Bobby made his weekend appearance on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I know it’s hokey, but I still enjoy watching this Saturday Morning cartoon on Disney+. Little did I, or any of those early readers of X-Men, know that Bobby may be one of the most powerful mutants. Iceman is an Omega-level mutant. As a frame of reference, Magneto is also an Omega-level mutant. Yikes!
Iceman can become ice in an organic form. By doing this, he can change his size and size, becoming an enormous ice man. He can also add spikes of ice on his knuckles or other body part, becoming a living weapon.
Hello, Winter! Let us know who you would add or remove in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1984-1985
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games. 1984 and 1985 had even fewer games for this list than the 1982-1983 list. These two years saw a lot of games that got overlooked in previous years find an audience. Axis & Allies was one such game, but it was originally produced in 1981 and made that list. Even the Spiel des Jahres winners for 1984 and 1985 were games from prior years. That said, I still found a handful of games. Let’s talk games.
But first, in case you’ve forgotten our criteria for the Top 5 Tabletop Games, let’s reiterate the ground rules again before we get started.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
5: SolarQuest (1985)
SolarQuest is a fancy space-age version of Monopoly. Players purchase and develop planets, space stations, and moons set in our solar system. SolarQuest has found renewed interest because of eBay. So much so that it’s recently had a successful Kickstart campaign in 2016. SolarQuest makes a notable addition with fuel. Players must watch their ship’s fuel level because they automatically lose the game if they get stranded with no means to refuel.
Outside of fuel, most of SolarQuest is Monopoly set in space. It can be fun, especially when someone runs out of fuel.
4: Mystery Mansion (1984)
I still quote the mechanical voice of the 1990s version of Mystery Mansion. The original game uses a modular board, one of the first times that a major board game company (Milton Bradley) used a modular board. Mystery Mansion came with 24 cardboard tiles representing different rooms in the mansion: 8 First Floor rooms, 8 Second Floor rooms, and 8 rooms in the cellar.
Each room has different doors and objects that come into play during the game, and players must search the items in the room to find the treasure hidden within. The electronic voice version replaces the modular board (the cardboard tiles) for a fixed layout reminiscent of Cluedo (Clue for Americans). In this version, the electronic device will tell the players which items are in the room, so the setup to the house isn’t the same each time. Other than the board and the mechanical voice, everything else remains the same from the original Mystery Mansion.
Fun Factoid: During the 2015 music competition Iron Composer, where composers have five hours to write a piece of music, finalist Ryan Keebaugh used the mechanic voice from the 1990s Mystery Mansion as his “secret ingredient” for his piece.
3: Balderdash (1984)
Balderdash is a variant of a classic parlor game, Fictionary, but it counts as a 1984 release. Seriously, there weren’t that many major games that came out these two years. Anyway, Balderdash is a game of obscure words. Players must create definitions for words seldom used in the dictionary and gain points for guessing the correct definition or having other players select their invented definition.
Balderdash can be great fun but like Trivial Pursuit, if you play the game enough, you’ll learn many of the words and their definitions. Hey! That’s a fun way to increase your vocabulary.
2: Abilene (1984)
Abilene is set in the city of Abilene during 1870. This was the time and place for the main transshipment point for the herds of Texan cattle barons. Players assume the role of ranchers who, with the help of their cowboys, drives their herds to Abilene, trying to capture parts of their opponents’ herd along the way.
Abilene has a few twists on this concept. First, players can capture their opponents’ herds as mentioned, but second, your cattle can be diseased. Players have a certain number of diseased cattle in their herd and whenever a herd makes it to Abilene, one’s opponents guess how much of the herd is diseased. Abilene received consideration for the 1985 Spiel des Jahres. Not bad for a game set in Texas. (Note: games set in the United States at this time didn’t fare well in the Spiel des Jahres.)
1: Tales of the Arabian Nights (1985)
Tales of the Arabian Nights is getting its 40th anniversary glow-up next year. You can sign up for the Gamefound project preview here (https://gamefound.com/en/projects/play-to-z/tales-of-arabian-nights-40th-anniversary-edition).
Tales of the Arabian Nights uses paragraphs to tell a story where each player travels through the Arabian desert and partakes in adventures from One Thousand and One Nights. Players gain and lose statuses from these adventures and collect Story and Destiny Points. Once you earn enough points to become sultan, you can return to Baghdad to win the game.
Many board game enthusiasts swear by this game as one of the best storytelling games. Every generation, we receive a new version of the game. I’m glad Play to Z has an upcoming new version.
Did we get the list right, for the most part? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Check out the other lists in this series:
Top 5 Tabletop Games Prior to the 1930s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1930s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1940s-50s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Late 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1970s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1982-1983
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1986-1987
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1988-1989
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1990-1991
Top 5 Stocking Stuffer Board Game Companies
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re in the middle of the Christmas season. There aren’t that many days until the holiday, so I decided to go with another purchasing guide: stocking stuffer board games. But I don’t want to just do individual games. No, no. Let’s discuss board game companies known for producing good games that can fit inside a stocking.
We’ll have to set some ground rules.
1) The packing must be small enough to fit in at least 50% of stockings.
2) The games must be good. While smaller packaging can lead to compromises, who wants to play a bad game?
3) Extra points for companies that produce various games. It’s easy to find a formula and produce multiple versions of the same game, but I’m handing out brownie points to any company capable of stretching their creative muscles.
With all that out of the way, let’s get to the games, or the board game companies.
5: The Game Crafter (Mint Tin Games)
On the Game Crafter, aspiring game designers can buy board game components for their prototypes. But it also functions as a store for indie board game designers to sell their games. The Game Crafter is a great place to support smaller game companies and indie board game designers directly. We’ll be covering their Mint Tin Games line. These games fit inside a mint tin. Perfect for a stocking.
Price: Varies between $20-$35. Board game designers set their own prices, so mint tin games vary wildly.
Quality: It’s a mixed bag. That’s why Mint Tin Games are fifth on this list. But there is a silver lining. The Game Crafter gives their stamp of approval to any game they view as worth your time.
Variety: Tons! Mint Tin Games are the Wild, Wild West of board games. Think of it as the board game equivalent of the indie video games on Steam. You’ll find games here that you can’t find anywhere else.
Size: 4-inch by 2 1/2-inch mint tins. You can fit these tins into any stocking. I’m surprised by the amount of games you can find that fit inside this packing.
Titles: Again, I’d look at anything that gets the Game Crafter seal, but here are some standouts. I’ve found a ton of excellent solo games. Doom Machine is fantastic. Mint Knight is a fan favorite and a sandbox RPG. What? Astro Asterid’s Quick Shuttle Repair is a fast-paced resource management game. And Deck 52: Space Wrecked is a fun dungeon crawl.
Store Link: (https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games?query=mint&hitsPerPage=18) The Game Crafter (Mint Tin Games).
4: Pack O Game
We had a game series in a mint tin. Pack O Game fits inside a box of chewing gum. How do make a game fit in that tight of a space?
Price: $7 each. By far the cheapest set of games on this list. You can’t beat $7 for a game.
You can also buy a bundle for $50, but that includes 8 games and a pod that can hold all the games from a set, and there are three sets. Even though the pod can hold all the games in a set, it’s still small enough to fit into any stocking.
Quality: Most of the games in this line are good. There can be some duds, but for $7, you can buy a few. And the stellar titles can be fantastic.
Variety: These games use cards shaped like sticks of chewing gum. Despite that, there are plenty of game mechanisms represented in this line.
Size: Don’t worry about it. These are tiny games. These game boxes measure around 5-inch by 1-inch. Crazy small!
Titles: I haven’t played much from the second and third sets, but I played plenty of the first one. Shh must be the best of the bunch; it’s a cooperative word game. Hue and Fly are also good, but I have a soft spot for TKO.
Store Link: Pack O Game by Perplext.
3: All Play Games (Small Box Line)
For the most part, All Play has two sizes of games. We’ll be discussing the smaller (square-shaped) games with this listing. But the larger boxed games are worth perusing as well.
Price: Under $20. Great value for the amount of game inside these small boxes. It’s also a great price for a stocking stuffer.
Quality: While not all the games of this line suit my tastes, the games in All Play’s small box line are baseline good. If something sounds interesting, it’s well worth the price tag.
Variety: All Play has some of the best gameplay variety on this list. You’ll find plenty of themes and gameplay mechanisms that are sure to meet your board game enthusiasts’ preferences.
Size: This is what makes All Play’s small box games third place. This line dominates all the other criteria, but size could be an issue. The small boxes measure 5-inch by 5-inch. That could fit in at least 50% of stockings. Maybe? If you have extra-large stockings, no problem. And who cares if the box protrudes from the stocking’s top?
Titles: I mentioned Chomp in our “Getting Starting with Tile-Laying Games” (you can check out that write-up here); Chomp is an excellent game. Sequoia is another great title. Ghosts of Christmas may be a good thematic game for the season. And I’ve heard great things about Mountain Goats.
Store Link: (https://www.allplay.com/board-games/) All Play Games. Look for the square-shaped game boxes.
2: Button Shy Games
Board game rockstar Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan) got her start with Button Shy Games’s Wallet Game line. To date, she has more than one game in the Wallet Game line. As the name suggests, these games fit inside a wallet, so they will definitely fit inside a stocking.
Price: $12 each. Another cheap option with some great games on offer.
Quality: Like All Play’s small box line, most games in Button Shy Games’s Wallet Game line are good. But there are some standouts.
Variety: Most, if not all, of the games in this line use 18-card decks. Each game does something different with its 18-cards but it can get repetitive if you pick up too many at once.
Size: The size of a slim wallet, roughly 5-inches by 3-inches. You won’t have an issue fitting any of these games into your stockings.
Titles: Hargrave’s first published game Tussie Mussie is not in stock before Christmas 2024, but you can pre-order the next printing set for an April 2025 release. But she does have another great game named Picky Pixie. Mysticana uses a nice twist on rock-paper-scissors, and it has plenty of expansion should you enjoy the core gameplay. Sprawlopolis is a great city-building game. It’s sold out, but its stand-alone sequel Agropolis is available.
Store Link: Button Shy Games Wallet Games line
1: Oink Games
Oink Games have a lot of quirky little games in their line. They have plenty of games that come from East Asia. More than a few of those will get a mention in the Titles section.
Price: Most are $23, but there are a few that can be a little higher or lower in price.
Quality: Another company that has baseline good games with some standouts.
Variety: Except for All Play’s small box line, Oink Games may have the most variety of any game company (or line) on this list.
Size: The boxes are about 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches. Bigger than most other lines on this list except All Play’s.
Titles: I covered Deep Sea Adventure some time ago with our “Getting Started with Pickup and Delivery Games” writeup (here’s a link); it’s a great title. Scout earned the 2022 Spiel Des Jahres; I may have to check out that one. A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a ton of fun; everyone draws a picture together, but one person (the fake artist) doesn’t know what the group is drawing.
Store Link: Oink Games
That concludes our list. There are a lot of games worth trying. There may even be some that I may have to purchase…as a gift. A gift that’s TOTALLY for someone else.
Did we get the list right? Let us know which companies you would add in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Top 5 Marvel United Expansions to Buy
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We discussed Marvel United, a cooperative board game designed by Eric Lang, less than a week ago. If you want to see our review of the core set box, here’s a link to that review (link to the review). We also started a guide to Marvel United; you can check that out here (link to the guide page). But today, let’s discuss which Marvel United Expansions are best to purchase first. Think of this as a Marvel United Purchase Guide.
Marvel United has a ton of expansions, so we need to narrow down which ones—in general—are the expansions you should look for. Disclaimer: Eric Lang is one of my favorite designers, and he did a brilliant thing with this game. (I may be biased, so sue me.) Lang put more of his design focus on the villains and not the heroes. That must’ve made the design and iteration process easier. He worked smarter, not harder: brilliant. This isn’t to say that the heroes don’t have personality, they do, but the villains add more wrinkles to Marvel United’s gameplay and with that said…
1) Expansions with more villains feature more prominently on this list. The more villains, the more unique ways to play Marvel United.
2) Boxes with unique gameplay (outside of more villains) will also rate high on this list.
3) I won’t include core sets. These aren’t expansions; they are base games needed to play Marvel United. With that said, you need at least one core set to play Marvel United. Pick the one that looks the most interesting. I like the original Core Set and the X-Men Core Set.
4) If you have a favorite Marvel character, get the box with that character. It doesn’t matter which boxes I say are the best to have. If your collection isn’t complete without your favorite character, get your favorite character.
5) If CMON Games releases another Marvel United campaign on Kickstarter or Gamefound (which is unlikely because they began DC Heroes United, which will be compatible with Marvel United, so crossover battles!), you should be able to get past Kickstarter exclusives. Fingers crossed that CMON will run a second print run for any of the campaigns. That’s more of a possibility than a fourth Marvel United set.
5: X-Men First Class
Spoiler Alert: We’ll see more than one Marvel United X-Men expansion on this list. Many of the runners-up come from the X-Men; that’s what you get when you add the Fantastic Four to the X-Men campaign (the Fantastic Four just missed the list). X-Men First Class has a whopping five heroes, which is rare for an expansion. It also features a double boss in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. And it even includes Danger Room Challenges to spice up the gameplay even further.
X-Men First Class has a little bit of everything. Its only downside is that it’s a Kickstarter exclusive. This will be a theme for the list. It’ll be difficult to find X-Men First Class for cheap, but well worth the purchase if you can find it. Or you could wait for a second print run. Again, fingers crossed.
4: Days of Future Past
Another X-Men expansion makes the list. Days of Future Past brings the classic X-Men story of the same name to life. (In case you missed it, here’s our list of X-Men Starter Stories; “Days of Future Past” made the list.) Days of Future Past adds sentinels. And these sentinels (three large ones sporting different poses) are almost to scale. This marks the first time Marvel United attempted a larger model type. Ahem. The largest model shows up later on this list.
Add in Nimrod, a futuristic and enhanced Sentinel model, as the main villain and you have the recipe for another great Marvel United expansion. Again, Days of Future Past is a Kickstarter exclusive. Why does CMON keep locking this great content behind Kickstarter exclusivity? C’mon, CMON. I know why they do it: money. I just wanted to say C’mon, CMON.
3: Maximum Carnage
Maximum Carnage has the most villains in an expansion, not including the promo boxes of Kickstarter exclusives. It includes a staggering seven villains (with one of those villains, Morbius, who’s also playable as a hero). Yikes! And Maximum Carnage isn’t a Kickstarter exclusive. Maximum Carnage builds on a playstyle that will show up again on this list; it introduces a New Sinister Six.
If you have the Kickstarter exclusive (there is a difference between the retail and Kickstarter versions of Maximum Carnage), you can interchange the various members of the Sinister Six. If you don’t have the Kickstarter-exclusive Maximum Carnage expansion and you have everything else need, you could print off the New Sinister Six cards from the Marvel United Wiki and add them to your game. I’m not condoning that behavior. I’m just saying you can. Wink.
You could just have a core set and most of the Spider-Man expansions and have a game of Marvel United that you could play for decades. The Sinister Six Module is fantastic.
2: The Coming of Galactus
Galactus is the largest Marvel United model to date, and The Coming of Galactus adds a new threat to the game. Namely, Galactus. But Galactus does have heralds, and The Coming of Galactus includes four of these heralds: Nova (Frankie Raye), Terrax, Firelord, and Air-Walker. Silver Surfer was released in the Fantastic Four expansion, which again, barely missed this list. If you have Silver Surfer, he can be added as one of Galactus’s heralds. Yay!
Since Galactus is a world-level threat, the gameplay surrounding him is on a global scale. The heroes don’t defeat Galactus. Not many can defeat Galactus. Instead, the heroes convince Galactus not to consume Earth. The Coming of Galactus is thematic and worth the buy, even if you just want a massive Galactus standing on the moon.
1: Return of the Sinister Six
Return of the Sinister Six includes the original members of the Spider-Man’s Sinister Six. Six villains are always a nice addition. Add in a new way to play, the villains are on a team, and this easily makes Return of the Sinister Six the best of the original Marvel United campaign’s expansions. While I could’ve moved any number of the expansions higher on this list and one of the expansions (Maximum Carnage) improves upon this gameplay style, Return of the Sinister Six deserves the top honors.
Unironically, Vulture may be one of the most difficult villains to defeat, whether a part of the Sinister Six or on his own. He gives me nightmares. And this is such a great expansion.
So, did we get the list right? Which expansions would you include in your Top 5 Marvel United Expansions? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Gacha Game Review: Wuthering Waves
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I’m breaking away from Hoyoverse games with this week’s Gacha game review. Wuthering Waves (WuWa) by Kuro Games is a worthy challenger to Genshin Impact. But how does it stack up against our updated Gacha game review system? If you want to see how came up with the Gacha game review criteria, check out this older post (link here). Let’s see how WuWa fairs.
Mechanisms: 8/10
Unlike what Genshin Impact did with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Wuthering Waves does more than just copy Genshin’s mechanisms. Sure, the core gameplay works similarly. A Genshin player won’t be confused moving around WuWa’s world. But movement may be the first improvement Wuthering Waves makes to Genshin’s formula.
Wuthering Waves adds two elements to its movement: a grappling hook and speed running up mountain faces. Genshin Impact has the occasional character that has a grappling hook ability, and Sumeru and the newly added Natlan have the occasional grappling areas. But WuWa gives each player access to a grappling hook. This may not seem like much, but it makes navigating the world a lot easier. And speed running up mountain faces is a blast. Naturally, you run out of stamina faster by running up mountain faces, but I don’t mind. Nothing beats Naruto running up a mountain.
Wuthering Waves even speeds up the glider. I’d like it if the glider were even faster but the fact that Kuro Games, Wuthering Waves’ publisher, listened to fans during their beta test phase and increased the glider’s speed from what it was is a step in the right direction.
Kuro Games has a knack for spicing up combat. Early reviews dubbed Wuthering Waves “Genshin Impact meets Dark Souls,” and that’s a bit much. Wuthering Waves has intricate combat, but it’s nowhere near as punishing as Dark Souls. The upper-level content does get close to Dark Souls level. One false move and you lose. Wuthering Waves certainly takes more skill to play than Genshin Impact. The big combat addition Kuro Games makes is intro and outro skills. Each character has one, so team synergy matters.
I’m saving the best for last. Instead of your standard equipment, Wuthering Waves uses an Echo system. Echoes are in-world creatures/entities you can hunt, absorb their essence, and then use them to power up your characters. The Echo system acts like a cross between Pokémon and Final Fantasy VIII’s Guardian Forces. Gotta catch ‘em all.
Above Image from GameDesigning.Org
Gameplay Loop: 9/10
The gameplay loop that makes Genshin Impact fun also makes Wuthering Waves fun. It doesn’t hurt that you can play WuWa longer each day than you can Genshin. But I mentioned what makes Wuthering Waves’ gameplay loop better in the previous segment: Gotta catch ‘em all. Echoes are fun to capture. At some point, they do become repetitive. WuWa hasn’t been released very long, so there aren’t as many Echoes to catch as I would like. But as soon as a patch drops, the addictiveness of collecting Pokémon transfers to Wuthering Wave and elevates its baseline gameplay loop.
This simple addition can sometimes make me forget about the grind needed to farm the Echo with the stats and substats I need. And if I get bored, I can hunt for shiny Echoes. Yes. WuWa has shiny Echoes that can spawn occasionally. I want—no need—all the shinies.
Respecting Time: 4/10
The other shoe has dropped. Wuthering Waves improved on some of Genshin’s shortcomings as it pertains to wasting time, but it doesn’t do enough. In other words, WuWa may be too close to Genshin Impact in this category.
The improvements: players auto collect all treasure and loot and faster movement. But players still need to fight domains to use their daily energy and collect leveling materials. Wuthering Waves has no auto-finish capability. The game assumes a similar stance to Genshin Impact. They created a beautiful world and tasked the player with busy work that could’ve been a click of a button. But, hey, the world looks gorgeous. But I don’t want to fight the same low-level enemy fifty times to gain character upgrades.
Furthermore, some upgrade materials only be obtained by fighting overworld enemies. This becomes tedious. Fast. I also don’t like tracking an enemy to collect those five extra rings I need to ascend Calcharo’s abilities.
Can I include continued slow load times in this category? I will. Wuthering Waves’ launch was mired with crashes and slow load times. Kuro Games has improved WuWa since its launch, but it’s far from perfect. I can still do all my dailies for Honkai: Star Rail while I wait for Wuthering Waves to load its first screen. I’ve tried WuWa on my iPad recently, and I can say that the game still has crashing issues on mobile platforms. Good luck trying to play Wuthering Waves on anything but a PC. Granted, I do believe WuWa plays best on a PC, but I’d like the option.
Battle Pass: 4/10
Most Gacha games have awful battle passes. Sure, you can get some useful items, even some level items that could take you hours to collect in the overworld, but nothing stands out. The battle pass weapons are okay. I have the broadsword equipped to Calcharo. I even like the idea of bonus Echoes. But players get nothing unique from the Wuthering Waves’ battle pass.
Correction: you receive a specialty nameplate the first time you purchase the battle pass. Yeah, that’s not enough. I like getting more stuff, but most of WuWa’s battle pass gives you a reprieve from playing the tedious parts of the game. I’d like it more if Wuthering Waves eliminated more tedious gameplay and added more unique rewards for finishing a battle pass. This would be a great place to add alternate skins. Why don’t any of these AAA Gacha games include skins in their battle passes?
Furthermore, Wuthering Waves’ battle pass inherited Honkai: Star Rail’s battle pass issue. The last dozen or so levels offer the same rewards. Similarly, this makes finishing the battle pass less stressful. I don’t feel like I’m missing out if I don’t finish the final handful of battle pass levels. But it feels worse when you complete WuWa’s battle pass. You’re left with asking, Is that all there is?
True Cost: 8/10
Wuthering Waves’ Gacha system uses a similar structure to Hoyoverse’s Gacha system. 160 in-game currency gets a player 1 turn of the Gacha crank. But WuWa lowers the turns needed to get a guaranteed 5-Star from 100 to 80. This is a game-changer because Wuthering Waves has a similar flow of in-game currency as a Hoyoverse game, and Kuro Games hands out several free Gacha turns each patch. They’ve even given players a free 5-star, Xiangli Yao.
Furthermore, Wuthering Waves’ weapon banner guarantees the featured weapon on the banner. No more 50-50 chances. Not even a 75-25 chance like Honkai: Star Rail. There’s no need to cross your fingers that you’ll get the weapon on a banner. If you use enough Gacha crank turns (no more than 80), you WILL get the weapon pictured on the banner. WuWa continues this trend with the standard weapon banner. Players choose which weapon they want on the standard banner whenever they get a 5-Star. I’ve used this banner to round out the weapons I have in my inventory, because again, Kuro Games hands out a lot of Gacha turns. Some of these turns can be used for the featured banner, but some can only be used for the standard banners. I’ll use these standard banner turns on the weapons. No question.
Narrative: 5/10
No one plays Wuthering Waves for its story. That said, WuWa’s story has improved since the first chapter. That first chapter was brutal. The second chapter, which was also released at launch, elevated Wuthering Waves’ story to about a 3 or 4. Kuro Games has improved the story with each patch, raising the score to average. If things continue this way, WuWa could reach Hoyoverse narrative levels and hopefully beyond.
But that first chapter. I won’t sugarcoat it. You won’t be able to finish it fast enough.
Storytelling: 4/10
Wuthering Waves doesn’t struggle as much as Genshin Impact does with telling their story, but Honkai: Star Rail has a much better setup for a serialized story. WuWa marks time far too long before the story gets off the ground. I had to dock the storytelling quite a bit. The pacing leaves a lot to be desired. I believe there is a skip function; you may want to use that a lot in the early going.
While the story picks up as you get deeper into the narrative, Wuthering Waves hasn’t found its balance between providing beats that progress the story forward, character backstory, and reintroducing characters. I feel like I’m always meeting Chixia, Yangyang, and Baizhi for the first time, and not in a good way. Every time WuWa reintroduces a character, it plays out like an anime recap. Skip!
You could skip a story beat, but you may not know if you’ll miss something important. I tend not to skip, and I shouldn’t have to skip. Wuthering Waves needs to drop their recaps. I also worry that Abby, the potential WuWa mascot, could turn into another Paimon. I like Abby more than Paimon. That’s not hard to do. But I still worry that Wuthering Waves will push a somewhat obnoxious character. We were doing so well without one of these in the game. Note: Abby was introduced in the most recent chapter.
Presentation; User Interface: 8/10
Wuthering Waves continues the trend of good but could be improved user interfaces in Gacha games. It even has a quick radial menu like Honkai: Star Rail’s for its gadgets. It’s too bad WuWa doesn’t continue this with the rest of its menus like HSR does for theirs. I still gave Wuthering Waves an 8 for User Interface because it does a better job than Genshin Impact. The menus have fewer sub-subcategories than Genshin. That’s a huge plus. I’d like to see even fewer sub-subcategories.
I can’t imagine playing Wuthering Waves on a small screen. While the character portraits in the top right-hand corner work, they can get lost in a busy screen. PC players don’t have too much issue with this, and my iPad does well enough. A phone would be impossible—at least for me. I already keep the sound on so I can hear the chime that lets me know my other characters have their intro skills ready.
Presentation; Graphics and Audio: 8/10
Speaking of sound, that brings us to the audio and graphics. Wuthering Waves has superior graphics to Honkai: Star Rail, let alone Genshin Impact. But it scores lower because of its audio. While WuWa’s main theme does get stuck in my head, the rest of the music is mostly forgettable. The music is good, don’t get me wrong. But Kuro Games hasn’t reached the same level with their music storytelling as Hoyoverse either. I don’t think any Gacha game company will reach Hoyoverse’s music storytelling unless that company invests millions of dollars in the music alone. That could be the case for Kuro Games’ next release because Wuthering Waves has made a lot of money.
As I said, Wuthering Waves has superior graphics to Honkai: Star Rail. But the graphics alone don’t make up for Hoyoverse’s audio. And I’m a little weirded out by WuWa’s giggle physics. I get that giggling breasts act as fan service, but some character models like Zhezhi and Baizhi have breasts that never stop moving. What is this, Perpetual Motion Boobs? I can’t stop laughing at the absurdity. Every player obtains Baizhi. I challenge you to click on her character profile as if you were going to upgrade her abilities and start a stopwatch to see how long her breasts move. She’s not even moving. Perpetual Motion Boobs. PMB, y’all.
Aggregated Score: 6.44
Wuthering Waves is a worthy challenge to Genshin Impact. I call it the superior game, but I also get that Genshin has a loyal fanbase of several years. I don’t believe WuWa will ever reach Genshin levels of popularity. But it doesn’t need to. It can cater to the fans who like the flow of Genshin Impact but want more of a challenge.
Kuro Games has proven that they want to give their gamers the best experience they can. Wuthering Waves had a disastrous launch, and Kuro Games did everything they could to improve the game and listen to fans. You can tell Kuro Games cares about Wuthering Waves. And that’s refreshing. I can’t wait to see what Kuro Games plans to do in the future.
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1982-1983
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games. 1982 and 1983 may not have the same heavy hitters as the previous two years, but there are still has some gems. You know the drill by now, let’s talk about some games.
But first, in case you’ve forgotten our criteria for the Top 5 Tabletop Games, let’s reiterate the ground rules again before we get started.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
5: Take It Easy (1983)
You could describe Take It Easy (designed by Peter Burley) as a strategic Bingo. Each player gets a board with 19 hexagonal cells and a set of 27 tiles which have different combinations of colored/numbered paths. The paths cross each other, and players try to continue the colored paths from one end of their boards to the next. The longer the paths go without being interrupted, the more points the player scores at the end of the game.
What makes Take It Easy a strategic Bingo, is that one player is the caller. They draw a tile randomly from a bag. Players will place the same tile simultaneously on their boards. Once a tile is placed, it can’t be moved. Take It Easy has a simple concept but challenges each player to place their tiles in the most optimal configuration. There’s even a Take It Easy app you can download.
4: Scotland Yard (1983)
Like Ogre a few lists ago, Scotland Yard uses asymmetric play. One player is Mr. X, who tries to escape London without being caught, while the rest of the players play as the police who try to capture Mr. X. So many games use this setup. 2006’s Mr. Jack casts one player as Jack the Ripper and the other player as the detective trying to deduce his identity. I haven’t yet made the 1987 list, but there’s a good chance The Fury of Dracula will make that list.
In short, Scotland Yard has influenced several board games. It may be an older game, but Scotland Yard does a great job of simplifying secret movement. And I like games that use secret movement. We may be seeing a lot more games of this type in the future.
3: Empire Builder (1982)
I wanted to put Empire Builder much higher on this list, but two other games edge it out because of their cultural impact. Empire Builder (designed by Darwin Bromley and Bill Fawcett) is THE crayon rails game. A crayon rails game is a board game that has players draw train tracks on a map with erasable markers. Empire Builder features a map of the 48 contiguous United States drawn to scale. There is a lot of strategic depth to Empire Builder. Players gain benefits by connecting their lines to specific locations. Do you want to dominate the trade of oranges? Canvas Florida with your train tracks. Do you want access to oil? You may want to build a route to Texas.
Gary Gygax (co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons) may have said it best in his review from Dragon Issue 65 (September 1982): “In my opinion (Empire Builder) is the best (board game) available, being more complex and challenging than the simpler sort and not as tedious and complicated as those at the other end of the spectrum.”
Empire Builder may be simpler than a lot of other heavy strategy games at the time, but it takes a while to play. You will dedicate hours to finish a game. But it’s worth it.
2: Talisman (1983)
If you ever wondered what game the cast of The Big Bang Theory had on their coffee table with the miniatures running around a track, chances are it was Talisman. Designer Robert Harris made Talisman to amuse himself and his friends. The game originally had a boys’ school theme, and the players wanted to become the school’s prefect.
Thankfully, the game was recast as fantasy and renamed Talisman. Players move about the board, trying to be the last hero standing. The spaces a player lands on dictate what action they can take for their turn. Like Empire Builder, Talisman is another longer game. And like Monopoly and Clue, Talisman has a lot of intellectual properties that have their version of Talisman. I may have to try the Kingdom Hearts variant.
1: Warhammer (1983)
Warhammer started a miniatures revolution. Before Warhammer’s release, most games used cardboard chits to indicate their combat units. I have fond memories of my family playing some World War II or American Civil War games; its map would stretch across a large dinner table. Anyway, there were a handful of miniature games that were released before Warhammer, but Warhammer began a craze.
Let’s be honest. Of all the names of games on this list, Warhammer must be the most well-known. Plenty of video games and novels have set their stories in Warhammer’s dark and gritty world. I never got into miniature games because they can get costly. Someone can easily drop hundreds of dollars on a set of minis and then spend another mint getting those minis painted. I marvel at some of the artwork.
Even though I’ve never paid for a miniatures army, I have played my fair share of miniature games. Most people in the hobby are happy to share their minis with people interested in the hobby. You can search for a game shop or café near you and see if they have a miniatures game night. They can be a lot of fun. You can’t beat chucking a heap of dice. I love dice.
Did we get the list right, for the most part? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Check out the other lists in this series:
Top 5 Tabletop Games Prior to the 1930s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1930s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the 1940s-50s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Late 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1970s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1984-1985
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1986-1987
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1988-1989
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1990-1991
All Friends Thanksgiving Episodes Ranked
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Happy Thanksgiving, to everyone who celebrates the holiday. For everyone else, Happy Thursday!
Whenever Thanksgiving rolls around, I think of the sitcom Friends. The show had a tradition of Thanksgiving episodes. What started as a network mandate became a labor of love. Friends Thanksgiving episodes were some of the best, but I’ve never ranked them before. I never thought about doing that before. It’s Thanksgiving. Let’s give it a whirl.
10: Season 1, Episode 9 “The One Where Underdog Got Away”
Season One’s Thanksgiving episode is low-hanging fruit. It’s the ninth-ever episode of Friends. The actors haven’t settled into their characters yet. The writers and directors haven’t either. And the studio demanded a Thanksgiving episode. The cast and crew still turn out a solid episode with “The One Where Underdog Got Away.”
Monica’s plans for a quiet Thanksgiving quickly fall apart as all the characters end up at her apartment. Each of the friends wanted a different type of potato, and Monica didn’t want to cook Thanksgiving dinner in the first place. Monica’s headspace parallels the writers and directors. The episode earns its title when the Underdog float breaks free during the parade, and the gang accidentally locks themselves out of their apartment.
Best Moment: I feel Monica’s growing frustration in this episode and appreciate Chandler’s speech in the episode’s closing moments: “I’m thankful that all your Thanksgivings sucked.” The moment is earned and finally lets Monica off the hook for a ruined Thanksgiving dinner.
9: Season 7, Episode 8 “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs”
“The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” falls flat. I don’t know if it’s because the guest at the table—outside the core six characters—mostly shows up in only Season Seven (Rachel’s assistant Tag). Or it could be that Rachel only invited Tag to Thanksgiving dinner because she wanted to hook up with her subordinate; that’s not a good look. It might even be the reason why “Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs.” He’s afraid of them?
That could work but the reasoning Chandler gives doesn’t make a lot of sense. They’re jumpy and needy and you don’t know what they want most of the time. I was expecting that a dog attacked him when he was younger. Ross’s reason for not liking ice cream makes more sense. It’s too cold. Fair. Weird but fair.
Best Moment: Chandler wearing the pink fuzzy sweater Monica bought for him. The guy in the catalog may have pulled off the look; Chandler did not.
8: Season 2, Episode 8 “The One with the List”
I forgot “The One with the List” was a Thanksgiving episode. Season Two is early enough in Friends’ existence to claim that Thanksgiving episodes were a studio request and not yet a labor of love. The gang doesn’t even sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. That may be why I forget this episode’s status as a Thanksgiving episode. More likely, it’s the A Story. The main plotline (A Story) centers around a list of pros and cons Ross wrote about Rachel and Ross’s then-girlfriend Julie. This episode steers heavily into melodrama territory. Friends does a good job of skirting melodrama most of the time, but “The One with the List” gets a little too heavy, especially for a Thanksgiving episode.
Ironically, it’s the B Story that feels more at home in a Thanksgiving episode. Monica attempts to incorporate “Mockloate,” a synthetic chocolate, into Thanksgiving recipes. The B Story does all it can to lighten the A Story’s high drama. It doesn’t quite work.
Best Moment: The roll credits scene. The same company that wanted Monica to make Mockloate recipes has created another unholy food alternative, Fishaschios. They’re like pistachios. Michael McKean (as the sleazy corporate exec) is brilliant.
McKean (as he hands Monica a Fishaschio): You aren’t allergic to anything?
Monica: Just cat hair.
McKean: Oh. You shouldn’t eat that.
7: Season 4, Episode 8 “The One with Chandler in a Box”
“The One with Chandler in a Box” is another Friends Thanksgiving episode that tries to balance drama and comedy. The story’s titular Chandler in a Box comes from Chandler kissing Joey’s then-girlfriend Kathy. The drama with this storyline doesn’t hurt the episode as much as the Ross and Rachel one from Season Two. Ross and Rachel had a way of sucking out all the oxygen in early Friends episodes. And you knew Chandler and Joey would make up in the end. They were the ones who instigated the term bromance.
The issue this time comes with the B Story. Monica injures her eye while preparing dinner. She meets her eye doctor Timothy, who happens to be the son of her ex, Richard. Monica invites Timothy to Thanksgiving dinner, and the two share a kiss. Unfortunately, the kiss reminds Monica of Richard, and she doesn’t want to pursue the relationship. That’s understandable; this even puts a nice bow on Monica and Richard’s relationship. Good stuff. The headscratcher happens when Timothy says that Monica’s kiss reminds him of his mom. What? I repeat. WHAT?!
Best Moment: Another roll credits scene. The gang sits on the couch. Monica remembers the kiss she shared with Timothy, and she shivers. I’m with you, Monica.
6: Season 8, Episode 9 “The One with the Rumor”
This one will be controversial. So many people rank “The One with the Rumor” as the best Friends Thanksgiving episode. There’s one reason for this: Brad Pitt guest stars. Clearly, Pitt has fun on the set as do the rest of the cast. But Pitt is out of his element. He can’t keep it together. It’s almost like watching Jimmy Fallon cracking up on every skit during his stint on Saturday Night Live.
The A Story revolves around Pitt’s character, Will Colbert. It works well enough. Colbert used to be overweight in high school, and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston’s character) bullied him. Come to think of it, Aniston didn’t keep her composure in any of her scenes with her then-husband Brad Pitt either. Strangely enough, Pitt has better moments with Joey, who features in the B Story. Joey single-handedly eats a 19-pound turkey.
Best Moment: Any time Joey talks about his Mount Everest of a turkey. I especially like the introduction of the turkey. Joey: How big is that? Monica: Nineteen pounds. Joey: That’s like me when I was born.
5: Season 3, Episode 9 “The One with the Football”
“The One with the Football” is problematic. Most of this comes from the B Story. Chandler and Joey trying to woo the same woman. Many of these jokes haven’t aged well.
The A Story works and generates a lot of unforgettable moments. The group plays a not-so-friendly football game, which brings up memories of the Geller Bowl for Monica and Ross. The sibling rivalry overtakes the game, and the two continue to wrestle over the ball long after the rest of the gang leaves to eat dinner. That all works. I especially like the inclusion of Monica’s competitive nature.
Up to this point, Friends played with Monica’s competitive streak. “The One with the Football” removes all doubt. It even makes her competitive nature a family trait. Ross is no better.
Best Moment: The Geller Bowl had a trophy named the Geller Cup, and I love the reveal.
Chandler: Is everyone else seeing a Troll doll nailed to a 2×4?
4: Season 10, Episode 8 “The One with the Late Thanksgiving”
“The One with the Late Thanksgiving,” like many of these Friends’ Thanksgiving episodes, is difficult to rank. I didn’t care for it for the longest time because I knew the show was coming to an end. But it’s a solid episode that has 3 storylines. To be fair, two smaller plotlines branch from the main one, but Friends usually goes with two plotlines, not one. The main plot centers around Monica and Chandler getting furious with the rest of the group for showing up late to Thanksgiving dinner.
Ross and Joey go to a Rangers game, while Phoebe and Rachel enter Emma (Rachel and Ross’s child) in a baby beauty contest. I prefer the Phoebe and Rachel story arc more, but the Ross and Joey has its moments, too. The episode comes to a head when Ross, Joey, Phoebe, and Rachel show up 45 minutes late for dinner. A rapid-fire exchange ensues. Eventually, Joey crashes into the dinner. But, Monica and Chandler’s mood quickly changes when they receive the news they’ve been selected to adopt a baby.
So, you could say there’s a hidden fourth storyline added to “The One with the Late Thanksgiving.”
Best Moment: Phoebe, Rachel, Ross, and Joey sticking their heads in the door as far as the chain will allow. Classic!
3: Season 9, Episode 8 “The One with Rachel’s Other Sister”
The final two seasons of Friends had stellar Thanksgiving episodes. I don’t typically like guest stars (unless they’re recurring characters; we’ll see a couple in the next entry), but Christina Applegate as Amy Green is a delight. She starts a fight over who gets Emma if anything happens to Rachel and Ross. The crux of the fight stems from Ross and Rachel being willing to give Emma to Monica, even if Chandler was no longer in the picture, but refusing to do so if Chandler was around but Monica wasn’t. Applegate adds a great dynamic to the group. Amy Green shows who Rachel Green used to be before almost a decade of living on her own. Amy Green shows Rachel’s growth.
Best Moment: Chandler breaking Monica’s good china and saying, “Well, what do you know, I guess, I’ll be the one who dies first.” Still a great line. But I’ve got to admit, the quote hits differently now. Rest in peace, Matthey Perry. Thank you for the laughs.
2: Season 6, Episode 9 “The One Where Ross Got High”
Christine Pickles and Elliott Gould as Jack and Judy Geller join the group for Thanksgiving in “The One Where Ross Got High.” The Gellers don’t know that Monica and Chandler are dating. Monica’s parents don’t like Chandler. Chandler attempts to impress the Gellers but finds out they think he’s a pothead based on Ross’s lie in college. That’s the first of the silliness, but “The One Where Ross Got High” doesn’t stop there.
Ross and Joey want to go to a second Thanksgiving dinner with Joey’s new dancer roommate and her friends, Phoebe had a sex dream with Jack Geller the night before, and Rachel makes a questionable trifle with a layer of beef. All of this comes to a head with the episode’s best moment.
Best Moment: Everyone blurts out their inner secrets/desires at the Gellers. Monica spills the beans about Ross smoking pot, and Ross comes clean.
Monica: Dad, do you know that mailman you got fired? He didn’t steal your Playboys. Ross did.
Ross: Yeah, well Hurricane Gloria didn’t break the porch swing. Monica did.
Monica: Ross hasn’t worked at the museum for a year.
Ross: Monica and Chandler are living together.
Monica: Ross married Rachel in Vegas and got divorced. Again!
Phoebe: I love Jacques Custeau. (She switched crushes from Jack to Custeau, because Jack dream cheated on her.)
Rachel: I wasn’t supposed to put beef in the trifle.
Joey: I want to go.
Judy Geller: That’s a lot of information to get in 30 seconds.
1: Season 5, Episode 8 “The One with All the Thanksgivings”
The only Friends Thanksgiving episode that can dethrone the previous one is “The One with All the Thanksgivings.” Ross complains about his divorce and eviction and that prompts the others to tell their stories of their worst Thanksgivings. Chandler reminds everyone of the Thanksgiving when his parents told him they were getting a divorce. Phoebe tops his story by recounting a past life where she lost an arm, and Ross disqualifies her story. “In this life, Phoebe.” Rachel claims that she knows Monica’s worst Thanksgiving. The rest of the episode has everyone guessing which Thanksgiving was Monica’s worst.
The stories include one absurd twist after another. Joey has a turkey stuck on his head, and Chandler has his toe severed when Monica accidentally drops a kitchen knife on his wicker shoe. Monica and Chandler take turns getting upset with each other, but it all ends well with what I believe is this episode’s best moment.
Best Moment: Monica puts a turkey on her head and dances for Chandler to cheer him up. The ruse works, and Chandler tells Monica for the first time that he loves her.
Thank you for reading this far. Since it’s Thanksgiving, I’d like to send out a few thank yous:
I’m thankful for my family first and foremost. I’m also thankful for tabletop games and the return of JK Geekly. We are so back. I’m thankful for the Omaha Writers League (OWLs); they’re a local writing group. And I’m almost done with the first draft of this year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) novel. So, thank you, NaNoWriMo. Even though the organization behind NaNoWriMo hasn’t done the best this past year. Again, thank you so much, my fellow OWLs.
I’m also thankful for getting further than I’ve ever gone before with my literary agent submissions and the submissions to publishers with my tabletop games. If I haven’t heard from them yet, it doesn’t matter. I’m enjoying every part of this writing and board game design journey. I should hear back soon. Fingers crossed.
I’ll cut off the list here because I could go on for paragraphs. Getting back to the list of Friends Thanksgiving episodes, did we get the list right? Let us know in the comments. I hope you’re having a great day even if you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. And if you do, Happy Thanksgiving!
Today’s Post Is Moving to Thanksgiving
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Today’s post will be moving to Thanksgiving.
We’ll be doing something a little different with Thursday’s post. I’m going to rank each of the ten Thanksgiving Friends episodes. I hope you enjoy it.
We’ll see you in a few days. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Tabletop Game Review: Marvel United
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We haven’t done a tabletop game review in quite some time. We’ll rectify that with a board game review of a game we began writing a guide for Marvel United. Excelsior!
Players act as iconic Marvel heroes who work together to stop the master plan of a powerful villain controlled by the game. Each villain has a unique master plan, cards that trigger various effects, and threats that make clearing locations difficult. Heroes clear missions, making the villain vulnerable, and finally take on the big bad villain before they complete their dastardly plan. Can you save the day in time? Let’s find out with Marvel United.
Before we get any further, we’ll take a side quest and discuss Marvel United’s less heroic details.
The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio and Eric M. Lang
Publisher: CMON Global Limited and Spin Master Ltd.
Date Released: 2020
Number of Players: 1-4
Age Range: 8 and up
Setup Time: 5-10 minutes
Play Time: 30-40 minutes
Game Mechanisms:
Cooperative Play
Hand Management
Modular Board
Solo / Solitaire Game
Variable Player Powers
Game Flow:
The villain begins the game with a turn. A villain plays their turn by drawing the top card of their master plan deck.
1) The villain moves the number of spaces indicated.
2) Resolve any BAM! Effects (if any) and these effects will be printed on a space within the villain’s dashboard and vary from villain to villain.
3) Then, place the civilian/thug tokens (if any) indicated at the bottom of the card. The target symbol signifies the location where the villain ended their move. Villains usually place tokens on their location or locations adjacent to them.
After all these effects are resolved, the heroes get their turn.
Heroes pick who goes first, and hero turns will continue around the table clockwise. At the beginning of each game, Heroes will get three turns before the villain receives another turn. During their turn, heroes play one card from their hand.
Hero cards are simple.
1) Some cards (three cards in each of the core set hero decks) may have an effect that will exist in a box overlapping the hero’s picture.
2) But all cards have an arrow-shaped box pointing to the right on the bottom. The symbols on the bottom box depict the actions the hero can take that turn.
The reason the arrow points to the right is that the next player will play their card to the right of the first player and so on, and the next player gains the symbols/actions on the bottom of the card they played that turn and the previously played card. Marvel United is a cooperative game through in through.
So, what do the symbols mean? The Green Arrows are Move actions; the Hero can Move one space for each arrow.
The Yellow Stars are Heroics actions; Heroics allow Heroes to rescue civilians (if there are any in their location) or help clear Threat cards.
Red Fists give the Hero one Attack, which deals one damage and can be used against the main villain (after they become vulnerable to damage—more on that in a minute), any henchmen like “Bob Agent of Hydra,” or defeat thugs (again if there are any thugs in their location).
The final symbol with all three colors is a Wild action; Wild actions can be used for Move, Heroics, or Attack. Heroes may resolve the effect (if they played the card on their turn) and any symbols in any order they choose.
Heroes will use these actions to complete missions. The game begins with three missions in play: Defeat Thugs, Rescue Civilians, and Clear Threats. Each mission card will have spaces for the tokens they require to complete. As soon as these spaces are filled, the card is discarded, and the mission is considered complete. Mission cards can be completed in any order.
After the heroes complete the first mission, the villain panics and will act (play a card) every two hero cards instead of every three hero cards. After the heroes complete the second mission, the villain becomes vulnerable to damage. The heroes can complete the third mission, but it isn’t necessary. If the heroes do complete the third mission, each hero immediately draws 1 card, increasing each player’s hand size by one.
Play continues back and forth until either the villain wins (by completing their unique master plan or anyone, heroes or villains, runs out of cards) or the heroes win by dealing enough damage to the villain after the villain becomes vulnerable to damage.
Review:
Marvel United scratches a similar itch as a game like X-Men: Under Siege. We covered X-Men: Under Siege in a previous review a decade ago (link to the review). Unlike X-Men: Under Siege, Marvel United functions as a board game system rather than a stand-alone game. Any number of intellectual properties can use this same system, which allows for plenty of crossovers. Case in point, CMON ran a DC Heroes United campaign earlier this year. I can see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Masters of the Universe, Star Wars, and any number of other IPs in the United System’s future.
The system has intuitive rules that allow for quick teaching times. Since Marvel United is a cooperative game, it benefits from even shorter rules explanation. I always feel like I need to teach everyone everything about a competitive game, otherwise I may have an unfair advantage. Players work together in a cooperative game. New players can learn as they go. And I’ve found Marvel United simple to pick up and relearn. The relearn feature becomes more important the older I get. I have so many games that seldom make it off my shelf because I don’t want to relearn the game. Marvel United makes that easy.
The gameplay itself can be a joy. The first time I played with my oldest daughter, she insisted that we play for hours until we defeated Red Skull. I don’t know why, but Red Skull eeked out a victory time after time. Red Skull is Marvel United’s choice for the first villain new players face first.
Marvel United’s heroes have just enough flavor to let people know who they’re playing, but Marvel United’s villains are the game’s showstoppers. Each villain has a unique flair. Kraven will actively hunt you. That makes sense, he’s a hunter. Ultron tries to win by flooding the field with civilians and thugs, putting these people’s lives in danger. That tracks for Ultron. Green Goblin will do a little bit of kidnapping, toss out dangerous henchmen, and try to throw out more Threats than the heroes can clear. Again, that feels a lot like Green Goblin. Each villain presents a unique challenge.
Marvel United incentivizes players to clear Threats. Doing so unlocks “End of Turn” abilities, which can further boost a hero’s power. I like this inclusion. Most expansions will add locations that can help with defeating the villains included in that expansion. Great choice.
The missions work well, too. Depending on the board state and the villain you’re facing, you may want to “Rescue Civilians” and “Clear Threats” or “Clear Threats” and “Defeat Thugs.” This adds to the puzzle of each villain. Some villains will add more civilians than thugs or vice versa and steer the gameplay in that direction. This furthers the uniqueness of each villain. Another great choice.
The one minor gripe I have is that not all the villains scale at every player count. Green Goblin is easier to play at 1-2 players and becomes increasingly more difficult the more heroes who join the fight. This should be expected. Marvel United boasts a massive line-up of characters. Hundreds! And even though Green Goblin becomes more difficult at higher player counts, he doesn’t break the game. You’re just less likely to defeat him.
Each Marvel United box includes challenges to spice up the gameplay if it ever becomes a little stale. The core set boxes have generic challenges, but if you pick up any expansion, you’ll find some great alternative ways to play the game. My favorite from the original launch comes from the Tales of Asgard expansion, where players deal out Loyalty Cards, with one of the cards being Traitor. Essentially, one of the players is Loki in disguise. Fantastic and very thematic.
Finally, we come to the issue of expansions. This may be yet another small gripe of mine. CMON hid a lot of the better expansions within Kickstarter Exclusives. That means that you must add them to your pledge on Kickstarter instead of being able to buy the expansion via retail (Amazon, Game Nerdz, Target/Wal-Mart, or your local board game shop). Marvel United started the trend with The Return of the Sinister Six, which was easily the best expansion from the first wave. Marvel United continued that trend with Marvel United: X-Men. X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past, and Fantastic Four were all Kickstarter Exclusives. CMON has a knack for inducing FOMO (fear of missing out).
That said, you don’t need everything to enjoy Marvel United. You could buy one of the core sets (Original, X-Men, or the newest one Multiverse) and add a few expansions that you can find at retail and have a game you can play for decades. I may or may not have started a spreadsheet of all my games. And I started a guide for Marvel United. You can check out the link here.
Verdict:
Easy to learn, teach, and recall, Marvel United introduces a board game system that will facilitate countless fantastic and future crossovers. The heroes have just enough personality, but the villains steal the show. Each villain feels unique and well worth their puzzle.
jkgeekly.com 