Category: Whatcha Playing

Whatcha Playing, Geekly? June 2025

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We have a new month and a new Wednesday, so it’s time for Whatcha Playing. The Geekly writers and I will share the games (video games and tabletop games) we’ve been playing over the past month. Feel free to share which games you’ve been playing, because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang.

Kyra’s Games

As always, I won’t include any of the gacha games I typically play. If I ever stop playing Wuthering Waves or Honkai: Star Rail, I’ll let you know. I also don’t include prototypes of tabletop games I’m developing, like Rustbucket Riots, Whirligig Pets, No Jack, Weeds, or Spill the Beans. Of course, I played those. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the games.

Board Games

I finally got Sky Team to the table, and it’s excellent. This two-player only game features a fast back-and-forth between one player as the pilot and the other as the co-pilot while they attempt to land a plane. Technically, players aren’t supposed to speak during rounds, but I allow minimal communication. Sky Team is a cooperative game, after all. Players simultaneously roll dice and then place them in their designated spaces, blue for the pilot and orange for the co-pilot. Both roles have specific duties.

Naturally, I chose Skye to be part of my first play of Sky Team. You can’t have a Sky Team without Skye. We played the tutorial and narrowly lost. Skye immediately wanted to play again, and we were able to land the plane on our second try. Sky Team includes numerous scenarios, and I can’t wait to try more.

I’ve played many Button Shy Games over the last month, and the above three games are standout titles. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Tussie Mussie has a great push pull of which flower do I want to show my opponent and which to keep secret. Your opponent will choose between the two flowers: known and unknown. Jason Glover’s Stew takes a similar concept of having partial knowledge of what’s in the Stew because you know which cards you’ve played and not the ones your opponents played. If you think there are enough points in the stew, you call stew and count up points; players gain points if they guess correctly, but their opponents gain points if they guess incorrectly. And Ted Heidersdorf’s Super Slopes is a crazy game of branching slaloms down snow-capped mountains.

I’m hooked on Button Shy Games. This company packs a lot of game into a small package, a wallet to be exact. I mentioned Button Shy Games in our Stocking Stuffer Games list in December. These games are great options for that, but for $12 apiece, Button Shy Games are good any month of the year. I love their portability. I can pack twenty to thirty of these in less space than one standard board game.

Technically, I haven’t played much Cretaceous Rails over the last month; I demoed the game for countless gaming groups. Dinosaurs and trains together at last! Really? I’m surprised the combination of dinosaurs and trains hasn’t happened before Cretaceous Rails. Anyway, I’ve played plenty of this game in the past. It’s over-the-top in its production value. Who doesn’t love four different train miniatures? Seriously, the train minis aren’t just different colors, they’re different train models.

Cretaceous Rails features dinosaur miniatures. Simply put, it has table presence. You’ll hear this game roar from across the room.

Video Games

I know. I know. Ticket to Ride is another board game, but I played the version ported to the PlayStation 4, so it counts as a video game. I always loved the simplicity of Ticket to Ride. Collect enough train cards of a single color, match them to routes (between two cities), and connect cities on the ticket cards you have in your hand in a continuous route. Ticket to Ride modernized Rummy for the modern board game community. The PlayStation 4 version of Ticket to Ride is a great port of the game.

While I prefer the physical version of Ticket to Ride to a digital one, the production value is great. The base game includes the classic United States map and the Europe map. I’ve played Ticket to Ride: Europe a few times before last month, but picking up this copy (on the cheap) has led to more plays on the Europe map. I like the USA map more, but that’s because I don’t know if I quite understand how stations work. Whoops!

Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn has a silly name. Akatsuki means dawn in Japanese, so the game’s title is Dawn: Lord of the Dawn. Tee hee! Anyway, Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is an army RPG. The story didn’t hold my interest. The game mechanisms were interesting–especially Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn’s method of combining building an army and a country–but the game overstays its welcome by one island. By the time I finished the penultimate island, I had done all the game had to offer. The final island is four times the size of the previous island, and my final hour or two of gameplay was mindlessly autobattling a hundred or so territory tiles.

On a personal note, I saw a screenshot similar to the one above and thought Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn used a card-driven combat system and got excited. The bottom left-hand corner looks like it could be a hand of cards, but no, it’s a head’s up display made to look like a hand of cards. Oh, well. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn was on sale for super cheap, I picked it up, and aside from the final island, I enjoyed my time with this indie game. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn took about twenty hours to finish.

That’s what I played this past month. Let’s check in with Season and Skye.

Skye’s Games

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I haven’t played many new video games this month to report to y’all. I got super addicted to Ghost of Tsushima and ended up playing non-stop. At least I have a platinum PlayStation trophy to show for it. The good news is that I spent this past weekend at Protospiel Twin Cities.

I typically don’t play board games unless I’m with my friends or family. Honestly, it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Last weekend, I had a unique opportunity to drive up to Minneapolis with our very own Kyra Kyle and play a host of different prototype board games. Behind these games were several different and talented designers.

Protospiel was an amazing experience. Kyra Kyle has been developing games of their own (which they’ve mentioned before), and I got to play them. I love playing Rustbucket Riots and Whirligig Pets. I even got to demo these games more than once. Co-op dice placement and programming adorable robot dogs and kittens. What’s not to love?

But I also had the pleasure of playtesting countless others. Most of these games have working titles or may not be ready to advertise, so most will be unnamed. Among the board game standouts were a simple and effective airline management game, a goofy cooking show contest game, an international travel game, and Spielcraft’s upcoming Primacy (a resource management/conquest game set in a dystopian future).

One of my favorite prototype games centered on becoming the “Master of the Seasons.” I liked its straightforward gameplay, fast-paced turn system, unique artistic design, and emphasis on strategy/point cultivation. If I ever see that game in stores, you bet I’ll be picking it up.

Season’s Games

board games

Woo-hoo! I was able to get some board game time under my belt. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Finspan got review-bombed before it even hit the shelves. I enjoyed Wyrmspan and have 3D printed resources I bought from someone in my hometown. I decided I’d collect everything in the Span series. Finspan is more streamlined than Wyrmspan and features an open hand mechanic. Players dive into the water, gather resources, and complete objectives. There are a finite number of turns each round (or week), so the game doesn’t drag.

One of my favorite things about Finspan is the attention to detail. The designers tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible to the real-world fish featured in the game. There are some artistic liberties, but you can find all of the fish in Finspan in our oceans today.

Video games

My Pokémon addiction returned when I spotted Pokémon Shining Pearl at my local GameStop. I don’t always keep up with the latest Pokémon games, but I’ll play a new one (well, new to me) every few years. Pokémon Shining Pearl is similar to previous games in the Pokémon franchise, but it features a location called the Grand Underground. After players complete the main game and unlock the National Pokédex, they may access a wider variety of Pokémon. There are way more legendary Pokémon to catch in Pokémon Shining Pearl than I’m used to in previous games, so that’s been a blast.

Kyra Kyle again. That does it for this month’s Whatcha Playing. What games have you been playing? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly: May 2025

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today’s post is a Whatcha Playing, where we’ll ask our writers what they’ve been playing (tabletop games and video games) over the past month. As always, you’re part of the Geekly Gang, too. Feel free to share which games you’ve played over the last month.

Kyra’s Games

I’ll preface my entries by saying that I won’t include my board game prototypes (of course, I’ve played these games many times recently) or any of the gacha games I still play (Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail). If I ever stop playing these games, I’ll let you know. With that said, let’s begin with the tabletop games I’ve played over the last month.

Board Games

Someone from my game group received their copy of Super Boss Monster and brought it to the table. I love the original Boss Monster despite some of the cards being stronger than others. Super Boss Monster tries to balance cards more than the original, but most notably, it adds worker placement by giving each player a minion they can control and take an action from the town. The town becomes more than the place where heroes are generated.

Of course, that still happens, but now I can choose to give myself more perks during a turn, and as you can see at the bottom of the above picture, players draft cards into their hands, giving players more agency. But I was left a little wanting. While these new additions are great in theory, they slowed the game down to a crawl. The original Boss Monster plays in about thirty minutes. Super Boss Monster took two and a half hours. Granted, none of us played the new additions before, but there are so many new additions to Super Boss Monster, and the game adds phases to each turn that I can’t see the game speeding up too much, even if we knew how to play. I was hyped for Super Boss Monster. It’s a good game, but I’ll hold onto my original copy.

Another one of my game group members received their copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game. This game has the prerequisite silliness needed to call itself a Monty Python game. It even comes with a set of coconuts, or should I say, horseshoes. If that wasn’t silly enough, Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game also comes with a catapult and animeeples shaped like cows, chickens, and pigs. You will be catapulting your enemies.

I wanted to say that I liked Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game more than I did, but our gaming group was workshopping ways to streamline how the game played. Most members in this gaming group aren’t designers. I’m a part of game designer groups, and I’d expect discussion on how to streamline a new game. I wasn’t expecting this with Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game. I’m also certain I was winning the game (we ended the game early because it ran long), and I did so by abusing the “bring out your dead” space. I waited for the followers’ discard pile to fill up, head to “bring out your dead,” and gained victory points for every follower I shuffled back into the draw deck (that’s how “bring out your dead” works). It felt cheap.

Perhaps we played the game wrong, but Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game played longer than it should. The catapult, while fun, slowed the game down further. I liked several elements of this game, but it didn’t make a cohesive whole.

Video Games

I went trophy hunting this past month. As a result, many of the video games I played weren’t that good. The Cat Quest series is the one exception. Are the trophies easy to obtain? Yes. Very easy. The story is a little thin as well, but the gameplay is addictive. I had a lot of fun playing each entry of the series.

The first Cat Quest allows the player to fly by flapping their arms. Watching a cartoon cat flap their arms and fly is freaking adorable and hilarious. It’s hilarable. The second Cat Quest brings in a dog character to pair with the cat. Cat Quest II had the most strategic value of the trilogy (unsure if there will be a fourth Cat Quest). But Cat Quest III has the best theme (cat pirates), the shortest runtime that promotes multiple playthroughs, and takes all the fun elements of the previous games and builds upon them. Cat Quest may have an easy-to-obtain platinum trophy, but it’s also a fun game series.

That’s all I have for tabletop and video games this month. I’ll pass this post over to Season and Skye, so we can see what they’ve been playing.

Season’s Games

Before I dive in, I’m going to level with you, Geekly Gang. I’ve hardly played anything outside of my gacha games this last month. I don’t think a single board game hit the table for me. Finals have been ramping up, graduation is imminent, and there’s a huge conversion project going on at my day job. Without further ado, I’ll share my games.

video games

Thank you to Gigi for recommending Legends of Elysium. This is a beautiful game. It combines tile laying, cards, and mana. It’s sort of like a Magic: The Gathering board game. I didn’t play too much of it, but I enjoyed learning a few strategies and crawling across the map to defeat my opponent. I don’t think there’s a campaign mode to play against the CPU. It’s more along the lines of Marvel Snap and only has PvP available. I’ll have to play some more of Legends of Elysium and collect cards. I definitely want to see more of what Legends of Elysium has to offer.

The other game I’ve been casually playing is Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. It’s a visual novel set during the Genpei War in medieval Japan. I stopped by GameStop and thought the art was pretty, so I figured, sure. I’ll take a gander. It is a romance visual novel that allows the player to romance characters who are based on actual historical figures. Not going to lie: I Googled the heck out of the Genpei War and the figures featured in the game because history is cool. I haven’t gotten all the endings yet but, if you’re into romance, period pieces, and great voice acting (Japanese only), I’d recommend Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. Also, there’s blood because, you know, war and stuff.

I wish I had more to share this time around. Skye, whatcha been playing?

Life Is Strange Video Game

Skye’s Games

I know I’m late with playing Life is Strange. I’m glad I finally got around to playing it. Life is Strange was released a decade ago, but the game remains relevant and rich in story, characters, and atmosphere. Story-driven games are great at making the player question their own morals, and Life is Strange is no exception. In fact, player choices are even more complicated by allowing players to rewind time and try for the best possible outcome.

Life is Strange wasn’t the first game to feature player choice, but it popularized the genre. For good reason, too. My favorite part is collecting all the Polaroids. I wanna make my Max the best photographer she can be. Life is Strange also happens to have an easy Platinum Trophy to obtain. Don’t judge me! A plat is a plat.

Ghost of Tsushima is another game that’s been a long time coming, and worth it. Ghost of Tsushima has been one of those games that’s difficult for me to put down. One of my favorite aspects of open-world RPGs (or JRPGs in this case) is the exploration. I love gallivanting into the unknown and, bit by bit, uncovering every piece of the map.

Not only is it fun to explore, but Ghost of Tsushima’s combat is stellar (with a learning curve), the story is interesting, and I love its setting of 1300s Japan. The first thing you’ll notice about Ghost of Tsushima is that it’s gorgeous. I haven’t had much time to play any other games, but I’m glad I managed to check Life is Strange and Ghost of Tsushima off my list.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle again. That’s what we’ve been up to in terms of board games and video games this past month. Be sure to let us know what you’ve been playing because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly: April 2025

Published on by Kyra5 Comments

Today marks our first post for Geekly’s Whatcha Playing series. In this series, the Geekly Gang will share which games (board games and video games) they played over the last thirty or so days. We welcome you to join the Geekly Gang and share the games you played this past month.

Kyra’s Games

Before I get started, I’m not going to include any of my prototypes. Of course, I’ve played my prototypes plenty of times this past month, but I’ll include those games with our upcoming “Fifth Wednesday, Personal Updates” post. Until then, I’ll discuss the games I’ve played this past month that I didn’t design.

Video Games

I fell down The Survivalists rabbit hole. For a week last month, I spent almost every day trying to build each structure and cook every recipe. I’ve never played The Escapists. The Survivalists are set in the same world, and I don’t think I missed too much for not having played the game that inspired its world. This game plays like a low-pressure version of Ark: Survival Evolved. Obviously, I like this game. I played almost forty hours in just over a week. Yikes!

I’ve been keeping up with Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. Geekly has a review on both of these gacha games. I haven’t played too many video games this past month besides these three games. I’ve mostly played board games.

Board Games

I played Dice Throne for the first time this past month. It’s a little too combat-heavy for me; I would’ve liked a few more things to do besides worrying about positioning, defense, and damage output, but what’s there is intriguing. I like how each character’s dice are unique, but they retain a six-sided die’s classic numbering. Players can trigger abilities by matching symbols or using numbers. This is a clever mechanism. It makes most die rolls useful, and I like purposing my dice each turn.

I also played We’re Doomed! for the first time, too. We’ll have a review on this one in the coming months. We’re Doomed! is a raucous party game with a real-time element. The world is doomed. You need to work together to build a large enough spaceship for everyone to leave the planet, or you could screw over the players. Players take on the roles of world leaders. Each player has the same five options for actions each round, but the role a player has gives them a bonus for one of those actions. The game’s event cards can disrupt the game flow to a point where the game breaks, but We’re Doomed! is dumb fun.

From one silly little game to another. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is designed by board game legend Reiner Knizia. It reminds me a bit of Uno with a twist. You attempt to rid your hand of cards by matching the number on top of the discard or playing a card higher than the card showing. The cards are numbered 1-6. Llama cards count as 7s. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is a quick, award-winning filler card game. I highly recommend it.

I could list more but I’ll let Season and Skye share their games. Thanks for reading.

Season’s Games

video games

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a fan of RPG style farming sims (similar to the Harvest Moon franchise). I’ve lost count of how many I’ve played. I picked up Sun Haven during Steam’s spring sale. It’s got a much larger map than what I’m used to from an RPG farming sim and has options for mounts, pets, and accessories. I’m a sucker for all of these things.

One feature I appreciate about Sun Haven is the ability to choose your race, class, and free initial customization options. Your race and class give you bonuses in the game based on how you want to play. When I say, “free initial customization,” I mean you just design a character without picking a gender. You don’t even get the option to pick a gender, like most of these games require. All romance-able characters are available for the player to choose from and you can increase your bond with them based on picking dialogue options they like in addition to gifts.

Always pet Dashie. No exceptions.

I’ve also been playing Honkai Star Rail and Wuthering Waves regularly. They’re a staple of my video game diet, so I won’t go into detail. Good luck on all of your 50/50’s to those of you who play either/both of these games.

board games

Okay. I know this is a collectible card game (CCG). I recently played Magic: The Gathering with a friend and got hit with a wave of nostalgia when I got to play with my fifteen-year-old decks. I’ve only played commander a couple of times in the past, which is the standard way to play Magic: The Gathering now. You have a powerful creature (your commander) who starts the game off the field while the rest of your deck is ninety-nine cards, all of which must be unique (outside of basic land cards). It plays like a normal games of Magic: The Gathering, but you can summon your commander even if it dies, as long as you have the mana.

I’ve played a few prototypes last month, but haven’t played as many board games as I would have liked. I’ve been settling into a new position at my day job, so I haven’t had as much time/energy for board games. I’m hoping to play more this month.

Skye’s Games

Hello, Geekly Gang! Yes. I also enjoy games. So here are some that I’ve been playing lately.

Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail

Gacha friends, rejoice. I have returned to Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. While I’ve always enjoyed these games, they can sometimes be difficult to keep up with. That’s why I took a break from gacha games. Now that I’m trying to loosen up, I thought it was a good time to revisit them. I’m so glad I did!

No gacha game is perfect, but the simple act of building your teams, finding secrets, and yes, owning as many characters as possible is enough to keep me hooked. Since I’ve circled back around to them, it’s been difficult for me to put them down. I’ll admit that grinding gets old. Please implement more multiplayer options. I’m desperate!

Pixel Art

Speaking of loosening up, Pixel Art is my go-to relaxation app. While not technically a game, coloring to your heart’s content is comforting. My favorite aspect of the app is the ability to create your own pixel art creations using images from your phone’s camera roll. Lately, Pixel Art has been my primary method of preserving my memories. Who needs photo albums when you have Pixel Art?

Final Fantasy

Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the Final Fantasy series (even if it was vicariously through watching my parents play it). Lately, I’ve started playing the original Final Fantasy. Since the first Final Fantasy game I played was VII, I’ve taken it upon myself to play each one that came before it. Thankfully, my sister has the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Collection for PlayStation4, so thank you for letting me borrow it. 😉

It’s surreal to see where this behemoth of a franchise started. The story doesn’t always make sense, but the gameplay is still fun. My favorite part is that even though (then) SquareSoft didn’t understand what it was at the time, the game is still clearly a Final Fantasy title. I can see why this is SquareEnix’s golden goose.

The Survivalists

Like other Geekly members, I’ve taken up this quaint yet satisfying game. Since I’ve been a long-time fan of survival sandbox games, it’s been fun seeing Team 17’s interpretation of one. Like most Gen Zers, my first survival sandbox game was Minecraft. It wasn’t hard for me to fall in love with The Survivalists.

Like most survival sandbox games, The Survivalists can become stale after a while. It can take an hour to get things done. If you’re a fan of the genre like me, you’re used to that. The Survivalists will soon join the roster of survival sandbox staples like Terraria, Don’t Starve, ARK: Survival Evolved, and Minecraft. Also, this one has monkeys. Monkey butlers. What more do you want?

Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.