Tabletop Game Review: Marvel United

Published on November 23, 2024September 25, 2024 by Kyra13 Comments

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.

Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1980-1981

Published on November 18, 2024March 24, 2025 by Kyra15 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games. As you can see from this post’s title, we’re doing things a little differently with this list. These upcoming lists will lump two years today, rather than splitting the decade in half. The 1980s saw an increase in board game production. A lot of new games hit shelves in this decade, and with the introduction of the Spiel des Jahres (Germany’s game of the year) award, the quality of board games also increased.

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.

We have an honorable mention for this list: Dark Tower (1981) by Roger Burten, Alan Coleman, and Vincent Erato. Dark Tower deserves a mention because it uses an amazing tower as its centerpiece and incorporates a lot of innovative electronic elements. A sequel released in 2022, Return to Dark Tower, brought the original back to prominence.

I almost split 1980 and 1981 into two different lists; if I did, Dark Tower would’ve made a 1981-only list. There’s even a television commercial featuring Orson Welles for the board game. Yikes!

Here’s a link to that Orson Welles Dark Tower commercial.

**5: Upwords (1981)**

Upwords originally played on an 8×8 square board with 64 letter tiles. The board expanded to a 10×10 board to accommodate languages with longer words like German and Dutch. Eventually, the game shifted exclusively to the 10×10 board. Upwords plays similar to Scrabble. The big difference is that the letter tiles can stack on top of the ones previously used. All words must read horizontally from left to right, or vertically from top to bottom.

I like the twist Upwords made to Scrabble. It doesn’t change the core rules too much, but the inclusion of elevation leads to interesting plays.

**4: Civilization (1980)**

Not to be confused with the Sid Meier video game of the same name, the original 1980 Civilization board game (designed by Hartland Trefoil) introduces the concept of a technology tree (or tech tree). This tech tree is the centerpiece of the video game Civilization that released over a decade later. Sid Meier’s Civilization isn’t the only board game or video game to use a tech tree. Any game that uses that concept owes a debt to Trefoil’s Civilization. And there are a lot of games that use tech trees.

I find it interesting that a game designed in 1980 has a streamlined yet strategically satisfying tech tree. Is it any wonder that Civilization was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best? There is little luck involved in Civilization. This is one of the first crunchy—and lengthy—strategy games. And it won’t be the last.

**3: Axis & Allies (1981)**

We didn’t have to wait long for another lengthy strategy game on this list. Axis & Allies (designed by Larry Harris) casts players as the major belligerents of World War II: Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition (released in 2008) included Italy as the third Axis power and China as the fourth Allied power.

The combat could get convoluted and intense. Players would roll dice to hit and if a unit scores a hit, the opponent chooses which unit gets destroyed. I like the idea of a unit performing a retaliation before death. It took the sting out of losing a piece. Combat resolves when either side loses all their units or the attacker retreats. I enjoyed this one growing up, but my family never finished a game. Axis & Allies was one of those games where you needed a table just for the game, so you could keep it set up for future plays.

**2: Can’t Stop (1980)**

Can’t Stop is yet another Sid Sackson design. What can I say, the man deserves to be in the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design’s Hall of Fame. Can’t Stop has a wonderful press-your-luck mechanism. Players roll four dice on their turn and then group the dice however they see fit. If you were to roll a 1, 2, 3, and 6, you could group them as 5 and 7, 4 and 8, or 3 and 9. Once the player makes their decision of which pairs they want, they move their marker up columns on the board for those numbers. The press-your-luck comes into play with a potential second roll. If at any time you can’t move your markers any higher on a column, you bust and lose all your progress that round.

As soon as a player claims the top space in a column, no one can claim that number again. The game ends when one player has claimed the top spot for three numbers. Can’t Stop is such a great game. And Sid Sackson is a board game legend.

**1: Trivial Pursuit (1981)**

I struggled with which game should claim the top spot, but ultimately, Trivial Pursuit was the biggest cultural phenomenon from 1980 and 1981. Trivial Pursuit is the grandfather of all trivia-style board games. Heck, it’s the grandfather of all trivia games.

Each of the Trivial Pursuit playing pieces has spaces for six wedges. Players compete by answering trivia questions from six different categories, matched with a different color. In the classic version, Blue is Geography, Pink is Entertainment, Yellow is History, Brown is Arts & Literature, Green is Science & Nature, and Orange is Sports.

To this day, trivia games—even trivia video games—will assign similar colors to the same categories. I’m looking at you, Trivia Crack. Trivial Pursuit has spawned numerous copycats and more than one game show. It’s the one game on this list that most people will know. I had to make it number one. My hands were tied.

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 1982-1983
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

Top 5 Superman Villains

Published on November 16, 2024November 23, 2024 by KyraLeave a comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re back with another Top 5 Villains List. This time we’re covering Superman’s rogues gallery. We mentioned Supe’s rogues in a previous Top 5, the Top 5 Most Powerful Rogues Gallery. But Superman’s villains are getting their list today. Let’s see who made the list.

5: Darkseid

You may think that Darkseid is way too low on this list, but I view him more as a Justice League villain if not a DC universe-wide villain. But Darkseid needs to make the list. I struggled with that. I wanted to include Parasite or Cyborg Superman or even Toy Man or Mister Mxyzptlk. Consider them the honorable mentions. Oh. Spoiler alert: those villains didn’t quite make the list. Getting back to Darkseid, he inspired Marvel’s Thanos. So, Darkseid is a heavy hitter. Unless the writer powers down the villain, Superman often needs help when dealing with Darkseid.

4: Doomsday

What more can be said of the villain who killed Superman? He belongs on the list; he may even be too low like Darkseid. Next.

Just kidding. We’ll discuss Doomsday a bit more. Doomsday is an engineered being from the depths of prehistoric Krypton. Is everyone still on board with genetic experiments? Doomsday’s creator imbued him with few feelings, mostly hate and a desire for destruction, which led to him destroying worlds and eventually finding Earth. Doomsday can’t die. He adapts every time he gets defeated. He can’t be reasoned with. Of Superman’s mindless foes (or his foes who are forces of nature), Doomsday tops them all and makes this list.

3: General Zod

Since he’s a Kryptonian, General Zod has powers comparable to Superman. And as his name suggests, he’s a general. So, he has military training. That makes General Zod a Superman-powered general who desires to subjugate humanity and turn Earth into a New Krypton. Yep. He’s terrifying.

General Zod may even be my choice for Superman’s first major villain if I were to reboot the character. He ties in perfectly with Supe’s past. General Zod knew Kal-El’s birth parents after all. And he hated them. It made sense that Man of Steel featured General Zod as its main antagonist. Too bad the movie wasn’t better.

2: Brainiac

There have been many Brainiacs and with that several origins for the character. No matter the origins or version, Brainiac is often considered Superman’s second-greatest villain. You can probably guess who takes the top spot. Usually, writers depict Brainiac as a superintelligent android or cyborg from the planet Colu who is obsessed with collecting all knowledge in the known universe. He even goes so far as to shrink cities like Kandor, the capital of Superman’s home planet Krypton, and Brainiac has destroyed countless civilizations.

If his body ever gets destroyed, Brainiac uploads his artificial consciousness into a new body and begins anew. This makes Brainiac pseudo-immortal and a major threat to Superman. One of my favorite versions of Brainiac comes from the Superman Animated Series. Brainiac was an AI present when Krypton exploded. We learn that Brainiac destroyed Krypton so he and he alone would have the knowledge that Krypton ever existed. This put him at odds immediately with Superman. And the reveal was fantastic. Sorry. Spoilers for an almost thirty-year-old cartoon series.

1: Lex Luthor

What more can I say about the man who would be Superman? Most people know Lex Luthor. He’s one of Comicbook’s greatest villains, let alone Superman’s greatest villain. CEO of LexCorp, Lex Luthor as I mentioned in the Most Powerful Rogues Gallery Top 5 is DC Comics’s version of Tony Stark if Iron Man decided to go a different path. Lex hates how much the world loves Superman. He doesn’t trust all that power belonging to an alien. While I could mention several large-scale, DC Comics affecting schemes, my favorite Lex Luthor story, the one that shows how evil he can be, comes from a much smaller story.

Lex visits a diner outside Metropolis. He offers a waitress at the diner a large sum of money to sleep with him. The waitress knows who Lex is, everyone knows him and what he’s done, and she’d rather not sleep with the devil. But the money Lex offered was too good to pass. As soon as she decides to sleep with Lex, he leaves the diner. Lex’s chauffeur asks why he left before completing the “transaction,” and Lex said—and I’m paraphrasing—She will always know that she would’ve slept with me. Now she hasn’t a penny to show for it.

Like Outkast once said, what’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold. That sums up Lex Luthor.

Did we get the list right? Let us know who you would add or remove in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Gacha Game Review: Honkai: Star Rail

Published on November 11, 2024September 25, 2024 by KyraLeave a comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I return with another Gacha game review. This week’s review will cover Hoyoverse’s Honkai: Star Rail (HSR).

HSR improves upon Genshin Impact’s graphics (if you want to read our review on Genshin Impact, follow this link) and merges elements of older Gacha games with the improved production quality found in modern Gacha games. How does Honkai: Star Rail hold up against our updated video game criteria? (If you’d like to see the Gacha game review criteria, you can follow this link.) Let’s see how Honkai: Star Rail fairs.

Mechanisms: 7/10

Honkai: Star Rail is a turn-based JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) at its core. It doesn’t deviate too much from the formula set by games like classic Final Fantasy titles, Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveler, and the Pokemon series. Turn-based JRPGs inspired many of the first Gacha game titles, so again, HSR doesn’t stray too far from its roots, but it does a couple of things that elevate its Mechanisms score beyond an average five.

Like Pokemon, all enemies have an elemental Weakness. Using a character with an element that matches an enemy’s weakness will result in extra damage. Nothing out of the ordinary yet. Honkai: Star Rail shakes this up just a bit by adding a Weakness bar to each enemy. If a player lowers the Weakness bar (which functions like a second health bar), the enemy becomes vulnerable and won’t attack for at least one round.

Honkai: Star Rail characters not only have an element, but they also have a path they follow. These paths aid players in building teams. Abundance path characters heal. Preservation characters shield themselves/teammates. Path of Harmony characters buff teammates, while Nihility characters debuff enemies. The remaining three paths (Destruction, The Hunt, and Erudition) feature HSR’s main damage dealers. Honkai: Star Rail explores what each one of these paths means, so it gets more convoluted than this. Overall, the path system works.

Image from GameDesigning.Org

Gameplay Loop: 7/10

Honkai: Star Rail’s region-based map (as opposed to an open-world map) does mean that players can run out of things to do faster than in Genshin Impact. But I appreciate that. I’ll go more into that in the next segment. Getting back to HSR’s gameplay loop, it uses a lot of the same tricks as classic turn-based JRPGs. You’ll need to grind, but the grinding gets time-gated, meaning that you can only do so much grinding each day. Honkai: Star Rail includes an auto-battle system, which improves the grinding experience even more. Again, I’ll discuss that in “Respecting Time.”

I enjoy the events and timed content in Honkai: Star Rail more than Genshin Impact or even Wuthering Waves. HSR reduces the element of FOMO (fear of missing out) by allowing players to play older and major timed events. You can even play an event, not finish it, and return to it months later. This is a game-changer. I can duck out from Honkai: Star Rail and return to it not feeling like I missed too much. Some older Gacha games included a catalog of older events. I don’t know why Gachas like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves insist that their player base will play every event or suffer the consequences.

Respecting Time: 8/10

In this first group of Gacha games I covered, Honkai: Star Rail does the most to respect a player’s time. The auto-battle system I mentioned before is a godsend. I can set up a battle and let the game play itself. There’s little to no need for me to do actual grinding. This system reminds me of auto-battling in the original Final Fantasy Tactics. I let my Playstation run overnight and ended up with a powerful team the next morning. Honkai: Star Rail’s system doesn’t allow for that, but it’s close enough.

I like the auto-battle system a lot, but I would prefer a system more like Punishing: Gray Raven’s (part of the second set of Gachas I’ll cover), which allows players to clear a domain once and then auto-clear the domain again, multiple times in seconds. But an auto-battle system is better than forcing gamers to play the same domain over and over like Genshin or Wuthering Waves. I’ll take it. But the lack of an auto-clear function lowers Honkai: Star Rail’s “Respecting Time” score.

Honkai: Star Rail also has a better character-build suggestion system than Genshin Impact or even Wuthering Waves. Gamers can see suggestions for the equipment they should use for each character at a glance. Genshin added this function years later, but HSR included this system at launch and HSR’s system is more robust. Again, I’d like to see HSR adopt another Punishing: Gray Raven function, which allows gamers to see which team compositions other players use. This wouldn’t stop me from looking up guides online, but it would immediately after picking up a new character. I like having a brief roadmap.

Then, there are a few smaller things that add up. Honkai: Star Rail uses an assignment system like Genshin. The assignment system has gamers sending their characters out on expeditions once daily. After the time elapses, gamers receive the items the characters went out on assignment for. Unlike, Genshin, gamers receive more items they’ll want Honkai. Things like character upgrade materials. Items from chests, breakable items, and enemies are automatically collected by the gamer. No need to run around a mountain face collecting treasure. Players can set their playable character as sprinting, so they will run faster consistently, instead of sprinting for a second and forcing the player to constantly press sprint.

While there is at least one other Gacha that respects its player’s time more, Honkai: Star Rail does a great job at minimizing the tedium. HSR deserves a high “Respecting Time” rating.

Battle Pass: 4/10

Hoyoverse, Honkai: Star Rail’s publisher, doesn’t do the best with battle passes. I gave Genshin Impact an identical score. I could’ve given HSR a five instead because they did include self-modeling resin (which allows players to craft equipment with specific main stats), but the battle pass weapons (light cones in this case) leave a lot to be desired, and Hoyoverse hasn’t changed Honkai: Star Rail’s battle pass since its launch a little over a year ago. I hold little hope that Hoyoverse will improve HSR’s battle pass.

That said, it’s far more difficult to complete HSR’s battle pass than it is Genshin’s. That’s because Genshin’s BP can be completed in a couple of weeks. Another element that lowers Honkai: Star Rail’s battle pass score is that gamers receive the same reward for the last twenty or so levels of the battle pass. Wuthering Waves does a similar thing. This does make finishing the battle pass less stressful. I don’t feel like I’m missing out if I don’t finish the battle pass because I’m just getting the same thing. But it does feel worse when you complete HSR’s battle pass. There must be a good middle ground.

True Cost: 6/10

While not as generous as other games (I’m looking at you, Wuthering Waves), Honkai: Star Rail does a great job of keeping the Gacha costs lower. HSR beats the pants off Genshin. That’s not saying much. The character banner stays mostly unchanged from Genshin to Honkai: Star Rail. I never had too much of a problem with Genshin’s character banner. A 50-50 chance of getting a banner character followed by a guaranteed banner character after failing to win the 50-50 is fair. The game needs to make money.

Genshin’s issue stems from its weapon banner. Honkai: Star Rail reduces the number of times a gamer needs to lose the featured light cone from twice to once. Furthermore, HSR increases the likelihood of gaining a featured light cone from the banner from 50-50 to 75-25. Players are almost guaranteed the banner weapon the first time. Again, Wuthering Waves ups the ante by making it a guarantee, but we’ll get to our Wuthering Waves review. I promise.

Honkai: Star Rail also provides enough stellar jade (the currency needed for Gacha turns) to get at least one five-star character or light cone. The five-star may not be the one featured on the banner, but each player is almost guaranteed one five-star each patch. Genshin players sport less. Couple the fact that Honkai: Star Rail gave away Dr. Ratio, a stellar five-star damage unit, and the rumor that they intend to do something similar on HSR’s next anniversary and can’t deny that HSR is above average for “True Cost.”

Keeping the needed Gacha turns to guarantee a five-star on a banner at 100 prevents Honkai: Star Rail from getting an even better score. I don’t see this changing. Hoyoverse is married to 100 Gacha turns.

Narrative: 6/10

I like the Genshin storyline slightly more than the Honkai: Star Rail story. That doesn’t mean that HSR’s story is horrible. It’s quite good. I may also need to play more of the story. Genshin has a few more years of storytelling on Honkai: Star Rail. What exists in the story is great. It even facilitates the flow of a Gacha better than Genshin.

In Genshin, gamers search for their missing sibling. The sibling story gets lost when exploring new regions. In HSR, the player’s character gets a mysterious object named a Stellaron placed inside their body. Stellarons function like planetary cancers. Each planet the player visits will have a Stellaron wreaking havoc on it, so each planet links the player character’s story with what’s happening during that specific planet’s story. Gachas release their stories slowly and over time, almost like serial storytelling. Honkai: Star Rail’s premise works better with a serial story.

That said, Hoyoverse doesn’t deliver the best stories in gaming. I may grade HSR harsher because it follows a turn-based JRPG lineage. Turn-base JRPGs are known for better stories.

Storytelling: 5/10

I mentioned this in the previous segment: Honkai: Star Rail has a better setup for serialized storytelling. Hoyoverse still manages the story, and Hoyoverse exhibits horrible storytelling tendencies. Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t have a single character as annoying as Paimon. A few over-the-top characters like March 7^th, Bailu, and Yunli do pick up the annoying slack. And you still can’t skip any of the dialogue.

Also like Genshin, HSR does a great job with character stories. I get more out of individual characters than I do from the main storyline. And the storytelling tends to get chopped into pieces and thrown around. But not as much as Genshin’s. I can keep up with the story by watching HSR’s official YouTube channel. That’s a huge plus. Still, I’d like to have gotten more of Acheron and Black Swan’s meeting in Honkai: Star Rail’s gameplay. There are fewer places to search for HSR’s story. But I shouldn’t have to search for Honkai: Star Rail’s story.

The most recent couple of patches (2.4 and 2.5 as of me writing this) concern me in terms of HSR’s storytelling going forward. One patch started a filler storyline of a villain escaping their jail cell. Our main cast is stuck in prison with this villain at the prison’s entrance, and the story stops. To be continued flashed across the screen. I don’t like that. It took me out of the story as I could play these characters outside of the prison. There’s no way a story chopped up like that can keep gamers immersed.

The funny thing is that I don’t recall the main storyline having that hard of a break from one patch to the next. Honkai: Star Rail did a good enough job of leaving the main party in a precarious spot, keeping me wanting more, but also giving me an out for continued play until the next patch release. Why do something like this for a filler patch’s story?

Presentation; User Interface: 8/10

Honkai: Star Rail continues the example set by Genshin Impact. HSR has a clean interface that’s easy to read and comprehend. It still has a few too many sub-subcategories, but not as many Genshin Impact. HSR does a good job of showing the most pertinent information. The quick-select menu is where Honkai: Star Rail puts in the most innovation.

Full disclosure: I play HSR primarily on PlayStation 5. The quick-select menu may work a bit differently on another platform, but Honkai: Star Rail allows me to hold down one button and rotate a joystick around to select what I want from a circular menu. Genshin tries this but I prefer moving a cursor as opposed to pressing two buttons at once. With Genshin’s quick select menu, I must read what each button does. HSR’s quick select menu is far more intuitive.

Presentation; Graphics and Audio: 10/10

Honkai: Star Rail’s graphics improve upon Genshin’s graphics. But graphics aren’t the reason why HSR receives a perfect score. The audio can’t be beat. Honkai: Star Rail’s soundtrack does double duty. It’s memorable but also adds to HSR’s storytelling. I struggled with adding HSR’s soundtrack to its storytelling score. Music theory YouTuber Jonathan Barouch does a great job of breaking down what makes Jarilo VI’s soundtrack so amazing. You should check out his deep dive with this link. So good!

Spoiler alert for Jonathan’s video: he shows the viewer how Honkai: Star Rail music reflects the story’s characters. No fooling. So much thought and care went into the making of HSR’s music. This won’t be the last time you’ll hear from me that Hoyoverse invests a lot into their audio production. Also, make sure you check out Jonathan Barouch’s channel. Hoyoverse soundtracks feature a lot in his work, but he covers more than Hoyoverse games. I like his videos about the NieR series, too.

Aggregated Score: 6.78

Honkai: Star Rail suffers from many of the same shortcomings as Genshin. Storytelling and battle pass issues persist. But HSR takes several steps in the right direction (not wasting as much time) to make me think that future Hoyoverse projects can and will get better. HSR even manages to improve upon one of Genshin’s strengths, the user interface.

Hoyoverse tends to shift its assets and focus to newer projects, but Honkai: Star Rail is new enough that it’ll take some time before it begins to suffer from brain drain. I’ll enjoy the ride while HSR continues delivering the goods.

Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Late 1970s

Published on November 9, 2024March 24, 2025 by Kyra3 Comments

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games of an era. We’re keeping the trend of breaking a decade into two halves—for now. Today’s list will be the Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Late 1970s (1975-1979)

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: Guess Who? (1979)**

Guess Who? kicks off this list with a simple guessing game. Players pick a card with a character depicted on it, and their opponent guesses who their opponent’s character is before their opponent can do the same. Guess Who’s? game board features several rows of cartoon characters, each with distinct looks. Players ask yes/no questions about their opponent’s character (typically about their opponent’s hair color, eye color, hair style, hats, etc.) and flip down the portrait of characters who don’t match the answer their opponent gave.

Guess Who? like many other children’s games (like Operation) has spawned a lot of brand-themed versions. Disney princesses, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even Cars 2 have had variants of Guess Who?. Guess Who? is a quick and easy game to learn and yet another game that has introduced many to the tabletop game hobby.

**4: Ogre (1977)**

Ogre is the first Steve Jackson design to make one of these lists, but we’ll most likely see more of his work in future lists. Ogre is a tactical ground combat game set in the not-so-distant future. Combat has become faster and deadlier in the year 2085. Hovercraft, tanks, and infantry dole out damage with tactical nuclear devices, but no weapon is as feared as the giant cybernetic (pretty much AI-driven) tank called the OGRE.

One player takes control of a military force with infantry and armor. They must defend a command post. The other player has only one unit, the OGRE. Ogre plays with asymmetric powers. It may even be one of the first to do so on a grand scale.

**3: Dungeon! (1975)**

Dungeon! plays out a lot like Dungeons & Dragons, if D&D was simplified and converted to a board game. Players explore the titular dungeon that is divided into levels of increasing difficulty. Players fight monsters for treasure. As you journey deeper into the dungeon, the monsters grow in difficulty and the more valuable treasure you’ll find. Dungeon! uses a lot of the class-types one may find in Dungeons & Dragons.

Each character’s fighting style is unique and suited for specific regions in the dungeon. The winner is the first player to bring a certain amount (value) of treasure back to the Dungeon’s entrance. Dungeon! holds a special place for me. It was my first exposure to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, sort of. While the game shares plenty of similarities, Dungeon! doesn’t follow D&D to the letter. And it plays fast and furious.

**2: Rummikub (1977)**

Rummikub holds the distinction of being the first recipient of the Spiel des Jahres (German Board Game of the Year) in 1980. You may notice that Rummikub was published in 1977. It didn’t become widely published until a year or two later. Rummikub plays similar to several other central European card games (like Rummy) which are played with two decks of playing cards. Ephraim Hertzano invented the tile game Rummikub in the 1940s when Communists outlawed card playing.

Rummikub didn’t catch on in the rest of the world until after Hertzano published his 1978 Official Rummikub Book. Like Rummy, you try to get rid of all your tiles by forming numbers into runs of 3 tiles or more, or 3 to 4 of a kind. The colors of the numbers on the tiles function like card suits.

Rummikub proves that people want to play games, especially when an over-bearing regime tells them they can’t. This act of rebellion made Rummikub the perfect first recipient of the Spiel des Jahres.

**1: Cosmic Encounter (1977)**

Cosmic Encounter takes the top spot because it popularized one of the most beloved game mechanisms of all time: Variable Player Powers. Each player takes control of a unique alien race with a special power. They battle each other for galaxy supremacy.

But Cosmic Encounter is far more than just combat. To win Cosmic Encounter, players spread themselves onto five foreign worlds. Players will often enlist the aid of opponents to take out another opponent or allow them to accomplish one of many challenges. Alien powers, which are unique to each race, give players ways to bend or outright break the game’s rules. The game continues until one player occupies five planets. Shared victories are possible, and a player doesn’t need to occupy their own system to win.

Like I implied, Cosmic Encounter has inspired so many modern board games. The Variable Player Powers mechanism tends to sell board games. And even games like Magic: The Gathering owes their inception to Cosmic Encounter. These alien powers allowed players to break the rules; one of the statements in Cosmic Encounter’s rulebook suggested that if an alien power deviated from the rulebook, follow the rules on the alien power. That’s like Magic’s golden rule of cards. Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. Collectible Card Games owe their existence to Cosmic Encounter. It had to take the top spot.

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 of the Early 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the Late 1960s
Top 5 Tabletop Games of the Early 1970s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1982-1983
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

3 Lists of 3 of Tabletop Games for Miss Kitty

3 Lists of 3 Tabletop Games for Miss Kitty

Published on November 4, 2024March 24, 2025 by KyraLeave a comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I promised something different with this post, so let’s give it a try. Today would be my mom’s 74^th birthday. Her name was Catharina Beenen Rackley, but her friends called her Kitty. I wanted to make a 3 Lists of 3 in her honor and had some trouble picking the topic. I could’ve picked music, food, or travel. But we don’t cover those topics on Geekly that often. Miss Kitty also enjoyed television and movies, and those would’ve made good choices. But I decided on tabletop games.

Geekly covers tabletop games, and Mom and I played board games together. She even got a kick out of me designing the occasional game. So, let’s do a 3 Lists of 3 Tabletop Games for Miss Kitty.

Games Miss Kitty Played

Miss Kitty played a lot of different games, and typically, she played games depending on who she had as company. She would play certain games with her children and others with her mother and siblings. And I’m sure she played even more games with her friends. I only have my perspective to go off on here and the accounts of others. Also, we may have more than a few honorable mentions. One cannot boil someone down to a handful of anything, not even board games.

Liverpool Rummy

Liverpool Rummy was a prerequisite whenever visiting Miss Kitty’s family, so this one may be more of a Beenen family pick. But I’m going with it. Miss Kitty and I played Liverpool Rummy a lot. I would go into the gameplay here, but I want to keep the entry short. Perhaps I should cover Liverpool Rummy in a post but it’s a card game using a standard deck.

Each round, players either try to collect sets of cards (at least 3 of the same number) or runs of cards (4 cards in the same suit in sequential numbers). If a player has all the requirements for a round, they can go down (which means revealing their cards with the appropriate number of sets/runs). Once down, players can play cards from their hand onto cards that are “down.” The first player out of cards wins the round and everyone else tallies their score. The lowest score at the end of the game wins.

I picked Liverpool Rummy instead of Wahoo (another Beenen family favorite and a good choice for this selection) because of a moment that happened the first time my wife Jen played with Miss Kitty. Miss Kitty kept saying that she didn’t know why I was so competitive in games. Later that same game, Miss Kitty sported a devilish grin and then bragged as she went out concealed. Jen laughed. Miss Kitty asked her why. Jen said, “I can see why they’re so competitive.”

Balderdash

Another game could’ve taken Balderdash’s place here: Scattegories. In fact, Miss Kitty and I played more Scattegories than Balderdash through the years. Both games are word games and while Miss Kitty would come up with strange answers for Scattegories (“Oreo” or “Knuckle” as forms of sandwiches), Balderdash created more memories.

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. Miss Kitty worked as a surgical technician. She knew a few things about medicine and used that knowledge liberally in any game of Balderdash. If we heard a definition begin with “a medical term meaning…” or “inflammation of the…” or “a doctor’s tool for,” everyone at the table would turn to look at her. She’d turn beet red and try not to smile. And typically failed. If two “medical” definitions got read, we’d curse our bad luck. Which one’s the real one and which one’s the fake one?

Ticket to Ride

Miss Kitty had a history of set collection games, so of course she’d love Ticket to Ride. The rules are simple to learn and each different flavor of Ticket to Ride would add a wrinkle or two to the core rule set. Ticket to Ride was a perfect game for Miss Kitty. She could play a new game with a few “new rules” and not feel lost. I covered Ticket to Ride some time ago. Here’s a link to the original write-up.

The one game of Ticket to Ride I remember best with Miss Kitty involved her playing with her older brother Paul. Uncle Paul did nothing but build trains on the eastern seaboard. He didn’t complete any tickets. He didn’t do much of anything except block everyone else from building on the eastern coast of the United States. Miss Kitty growled at Uncle Paul. “You’re playing it wrong. Stop playing the game wrong!” I fell out of my seat laughing. It was a window into Miss Kitty’s childhood. This wasn’t the first time she had told off her older brother.

My family and I are currently playing a game of Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West. This version of Ticket to Ride has a story. Each player assumes the role of a railroad tycoon. The board grows as the railroad gets built from the east coast to the west coast. Hey, Uncle Paul wouldn’t have been playing the game wrong with this version. Anyway, there are four of us playing Ticket to Ride Legacy. When we finish, I intend on dealing out the fifth player stickers (you can place stickers claiming routes and cities for different players and we plan to use the fifth player) for Miss Kitty.

Games Miss Kitty Didn’t Play

This next list is of games are ones Miss Kitty never had the chance to play for one reason or another, but I know she would’ve loved to play them.

Marvel United

I wouldn’t have thought it possible if I didn’t hear this from her myself, but Miss Kitty was more into the Marvel Cinematic Universe than me. Marvel United is a cooperative tabletop game where players assume the role of superheroes in the Marvel universe as they try to stop a supervillain. Like Ticket to Ride, the rules are simple to learn with each hero and villain adding a small wrinkle or two. Since it’s cooperative, Marvel United eliminates competitiveness and players are encouraged to help each other. I just know Miss Kitty would’ve wanted to play out a few of her favorite movies.

And there’s some precedent for this. Miss Kitty and I played X-Men: Under Siege. My father and I played more of this game, but Miss Kitty liked this game, too. Marvel United would’ve scratched a similar itch. And it doesn’t hurt that the miniatures and art have cute designs. Miss Kitty liked cute things.

I haven’t written a review for Marvel United yet, but I started a guide. You can check out the newly posted Guide to Marvel United here.

Flamecraft

Flamecraft is the most complex game on any of these lists so far, but I’m sure Miss Kitty would’ve struggled through a difficult game or two because it’s so cute. And dragons. One of her granddaughters (my niece) is obsessed with dragons or at least she was at one point. Flamecraft uses a game element popular with recent tabletop games. Whenever you take an action that action has a global effect and can benefit your opponent on future turns. This element also makes Flamecraft feel like it’s a winnable game or at least a board game that has closer outcomes.

And did I mention the puns? I can hear Miss Kitty cackling every time I read one of the dragon shops’ names. Either that or I’m hearing my daughter’s same laugh. Critical Rolls. Bizarre Bazaar. Potable Potions. Outback Drakehouse.

Sixes

I first played Sixes recently at a party and thought of Miss Kitty. It’s a word game like Scattegories. Sixes plays out in six rounds—naturally. Each round has players making lists of six things that match a category. The twist comes from what players are trying to do each round. Some rounds, you’ll want to have unique answers like Scattegories. Other rounds, you’ll want to match other players. And the third and sixth rounds are lightning rounds where players answer 6 categories with a single answer. The person with the most points wins.

Miss Kitty would’ve loved playing Sixes. It’s a great ice breaker game or a way to reconnect. I found players saying things like “I knew I liked you” or “we think so much alike” whenever they answer a list similarly during a matching round. Of course, there’s the classic Scattegories response whenever you match during a unique round. “We think TOO much alike.” Or “Get out of my head.”

Games that Remind Me of Miss Kitty

This list is more nebulous than the last two. Some may be games Miss Kitty played at one point. Others may be games she would’ve liked to have played but never did. And there are a few games on this list that just remind me of Miss Kitty.

On Tour

During On Tour, Players assume the role of a rock band’s tour manager. Miss Kitty listened to classic rock and pop music. She would’ve loved this premise for a game. But she may have gotten frustrated with the gameplay. On Tour has simple enough rules. The amount of player choice can get overwhelming.

Each turn, a player rolls two ten-sided dice and then each player must simultaneously place the numbers depicted on the dice in a state (if you’re using the United States map) depicted on two of three cards (the cards will have specific states and regions and players may choose whether to use the state or the region). Players do that by drawing on their own game boards with dry erase markers. Once each player’s map is filled, players score points depending on how many states they can travel through starting from lowest to highest number value in sequential order. For example, you can go 5-9-13, but you cannot go 5-13-9.

Players must cut their losses and admit that they will not be able to visit each state (or country on the Europe map). Miss Kitty would’ve struggled with making a route that goes through as many states as possible. She may have frozen before placing each number. But whenever I play On Tour, I’ll name my band (there’s a space for that on the United States side of the map) something that has to do with Rick Springfield. Miss Kitty would listen to Springfield whenever her husband was away and would scramble to hide her teen magazine cutouts whenever he returned home. I may call my next band Working Class Dogs.

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

Miss Kitty bought me the original Fireball Island for Christmas one year. I don’t remember if she played the game with me, but she certainly got me the game for the holidays. The original Fireball Island had players race to pick up a gemstone and race back to the finish line with the booty. Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar improves upon the original. Players take pictures of the island for Instagram (or some other social media), but they can still snag a precious gemstone for extra points.

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar reminds me of Miss Kitty, my mom, because I have video of the Christmas when I unwrapped the original Fireball Island. A younger me paced back and forth with the box as Christmas continued. Miss Kitty opened the gift I had bought for her (or I had picked it out for her): Hope perfume. She liked new and unique fragrances, and I had found Hope, which was supposed to change with each person’s body chemistry. It sounded unique. Modern-day Kyra recognizes Hope’s description as a marketing ploy. It was the thought that counts. Anyway, the video shows me geeking out with Fireball Island, while Miss Kitty was geeking out over Hope. Parallel geeking.

The Real Ghostbusters Game

The Real Ghostbusters Game, based on the 80s cartoon series of the same name, reimplements Ghost Castle that released in 1970. It’s a dated game; it doesn’t hold up to modern tabletop game design techniques. But The Real Ghostbusters Game holds a special place.

I brought the game to a kid’s birthday party. Miss Kitty dropped me off at the kid’s house and some time during the drive she shared that my father wondered why I hung out with a loser (the kid whose birthday party I was attending). I told Miss Kitty that even losers needed friends. This was Miss Kitty’s favorite story to share about me and my childhood.

I miss you, Mom. Happy birthday. We’ll play some games for you today.

Let me know of any games that remind you of your loved ones. Or the games you love playing with your loved ones. Or even the games you wish you could’ve played with them. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Top 5 Tabletop Games from the Early 1970s

Published on November 2, 2024March 24, 2025 by Kyra15 Comments

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: Landslide (1971)**

Landslide has a simple premise. Each player is running for President of the United States. 2024 is a Presidential election year, so Landslide can scratch the itch for an election game. These rashes flare up every four years. We don’t have too much information about this game’s production; Landslide released when Parker Brothers (the publisher) didn’t credit their artists or designers. That will change in the coming eras.

Landslide uses “votes” as a form of money for players to bid for states. Players can even attempt to steal already “bought” states from each other. And while an actual Presidential election requires one candidate to gain more than half of the total number of electoral votes to get elected, or the vote goes to the House of Representatives, the winner of Landslide is the player with the highest number of electoral votes. There may be more than two players.

I played Landslide a lot growing up. I spotted a couple of copies at my local board game café, Mana Games, and may have to play it a handful of times real soon. The gameplay moves fast, and at the time of its publication (1971), the electoral votes for each state reflected that year’s electoral votes.

**4: Mastermind (1971)**

I have a love/hate relationship with Mastermind. I appreciate its simplicity, but my brain struggles with finding the solution. For the few of you who don’t know, Mastermind is the basis for Wordle. Instead of deducing a word, you use logic to deduce a sequence of colors. One player sets a secret code, while the other tries to crack the code.

Mastermind has spawned a ton of imitators: Wordle, Fiction, and many others. Not only do I struggle with these puzzles—I flail whenever I play Wordle—I find it grating that whenever a TV show or movie wants to show someone as smart, that “smart” character always has a copy of Mastermind. Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper constantly had Mastermind on a shelf in the camera’s frame behind his head. Yeah. We know he’s supposed to be smart, so Mastermind. Ugh!

Still, you can’t deny Mastermind’s cultural impact. Even if I stink as the codebreaker.

**3: Connect 4 (1974)**

Connect 4 (also known as Connect Four) plays a lot like Tic-Tac-Toe (connecting 4 of your pieces in a row). The board stands straight up, and players take turns dropping “checkers” game pieces into the stand’s top. The player who connects four of their pieces in a row first wins. Connect 4 is easy-to-learn and has about as much strategy as Tic-Tac-Toe.

Connect Four just may be a lot of people’s first board game. Its simple rules make it a great game for kids.

**2: Uno (1971)**

Uno continues two trends. The first, 1971 was a banner year for board games; four of the five games on this list released that year. The second, take an existing game and give it a spin. Connect 4 changed up Tic-Tac-Toe; Uno turned Crazy Eights into a colorful and commercial success. Who knew it could be that easy?

In Uno, players race to empty their hands and catch opposing players with cards left in theirs, which score points. Each turn, players play cards by matching the played last card’s color or number. If unable to play, players draw a card from the draw pile. If they’re still unable to play, the player passes their turn. There are several Wild and Special cards to spice up the gameplay. Oh! And you must say “Uno” whenever you have one card remaining in your hand. If anyone calls you out for not saying Uno, you’ll draw two cards.

Uno may also continue a third trend. It could be a lot of people’s first tabletop game.

**1: Sleuth (1971)**

Sid Sackson makes another appearance on one of these lists. 1971’s Sleuth (hey, this is another 1971 release) tasks players with deducing the location of a hidden gem.

The hidden gem is one of 36 gem cards and gets hidden before the start of the game. The remainder of this gem deck—with each card showing 1-3 diamonds, pearls, or opals in one of four colors—is distributed evenly among the players, with any remaining cards laid face up. A second deck contains 54 search cards, each showing one or two elements, such as pearls, pairs, red opals, or an element of your choice. Each player receives four face-up search cards.

During a turn in Sleuth, players will ask other players about the cards in their hands based on the search cards they have. The asked player must show every card that matches the asking player’s question. This generates partial information in Sleuth. You may know that one player has two diamond cards in their hand, but you won’t know which color they are or how many diamonds are on the cards unless you asked the question.

Players are encouraged to keep notes for both negative and positive information. Sleuth can reach brain burning levels. It boils down a game like Clue—and Sid Sackson’s own The Case of the Elusive Assassin (1967)—to its deduction roots. It’s a simple but deep concept. Would you expect anything less from a master game designer like Sid Sackson?

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 Late 1970s
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1980-1981
Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1982-1983
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

Top 5 Horror Tropes

Published on October 31, 2024April 1, 2025 by Skye2 Comments

Hello, Geekly Community! My name is Skye, and I love movies and TV. You could call me a “Screen Geek.” I make deep dives on TV shows and movies on TGIMovies (here’s the link to my website). Everyone who clicks the link gets a free year-long Netflix subscription (JK, just kidding). I’m excited to write for this site and get to know you all. Thank you for inviting me to this platform, it means a lot to be here. Without further ado, let’s begin my very first post. Woo-hoo!

Happy Halloween! Since it’s that time of year, let’s talk about something scary. But not too scary. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). While I view myself as a refined connoisseur of visual media (don’t we all?), I’m drawn to certain tropes (whether they’re good or not). Sure, I love killers and dumb idiots dying as much as the next person, but there are other tropes in horror that I just can’t resist. With that said, these are my 5 favorite horror tropes.

5. Creepy/Evil Children

The Evil Children trope has been done to death. Sometimes, literally. Creepy Children show up a lot in horror because children are supposed to be innocent and non-threatening, and this trope flips that expectation on its head. It can be jarring when done well. Unfortunately, I’ve seen far too many poor implementations of Evil Children to put it higher on the list. But let’s focus on good Creepy Children.

4. “Final Girls”

While mostly associated with slasher films, the “Final Girl” trope has experienced an expansion in recent horror media. In the past she was the most moral character of the movie, typically a virgin—and usually white—she suffers more hardship than any other character. She’s always the last to survive, hence the term “Final Girl.” Since Sally Hardesty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this was the purpose of “Final Girls.” Look pretty, be nice/modest, and maintain innocence throughout her ordeal.

3. The Slow-Burn

The type of horror that scares me the most is the kind that takes its time. Too many movies are desperate to get reactions out of people and blow their load in over-the-top jump scares which only exist to create the illusion of fear. In case you were wondering, jump scares didn‘t make the list. When it comes to legitimate horror, you must get your audience invested in your characters, story, atmosphere, and of course, pacing.

2. Monsters/Practical Effects

Monsters are awesome! I love a good creature feature, and that’s because you can do so much with monsters. My personal favorites are the ones created through practical effects and shot in front of the camera. It makes them more real and horrifying. I’m not entirely against computer-generated effects but considering Hollywood’s overuse of these kinds of effects in the past 30 years, you can’t deny that CGI has become easy to spot. If I had to choose between a bad practical effect and a bad digital effect, I’d choose the former 10 times out of 10.

1. Music/Sound Design

This one is a cheat. Music and sound design are less a trope and more an essential part of filmmaking. But I believe music and sound design are the most important parts of filmmaking when it comes to Horror. Music instills emotions. Horror needs to create specific emotions to get its audience on edge. It’s been scientifically proven that jump scares almost entirely lose their power without the assistance of sound.

-Skye

Top 5 Recently Spotted Cryptids

Published on October 26, 2024October 24, 2024 by KyraLeave a comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. It’s still spooky season, so I figured I share another Top 5 that fits that theme. This week’s Top 5 is recently spotted cryptids. Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist but whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated by science. We’re talking the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. I don’t buy into cryptids. But they can be fun to speculate and since it’s still spooky season, let’s talk about the Top 5 recently spotted cryptids.

5: Nantinaq

What if Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) turned man killer? If you’ve ever asked yourself that question, you don’t have to look much further than Nantinaq. In fact, the Nantinaq is blamed for the abandonment of the Alaskan fishing village Portlock. The killings become so plentiful that people fled for their lives.

Nantinaq sightings began in the 1700s when Europeans conducted expeditions, and Native Alaskans began encountering the mysterious creature. The Nantinaq is believed to rip out trees from their roots and plant them back into the ground upside down. I don’t know how accurate these images are, and I don’t know if there may be another natural explanation for this, but that sounds weird.

The Nantinaq has also been known to kill huge moose and carry the moose on their back several yards. Discovery+ filmed a reality television series in Portlock. The series, Alaskan Killer Bigfoot, follows a team exploring the abandoned village. It aired at the end of 2021 and recorded the most recent sighting of the Nantinaq.

I may have to watch the Alaskan Killer Bigfoot. It’s most likely a trash docuseries, but a trash docuseries can be fun.

4: Dobhar-chu

The Dobhar-chu is a giant carnivorous lake monster that lives in Ireland. It most closely resembles a large otter. That can’t be too intimidating. Only its alternate name is Irish-Crocodile. The Dobhar-chu attacks in pairs and they are known to get aggressive with humans and dogs. And because the Dobhar-chu is a huge, nightmare fuel otter, it can chase its prey on land and in the water. Great.

There haven’t been as many sightings of the Dobhar-chu as there had been in previous decades. The most recent reports came from 2003 by an Irish artist and his wife on Omey Island, Connemara. The couple saw a giant creature with dark coloring and membranes on the feet to swim.

The Dobhar-chu sounds goofy but these artist renderings make them more formidable. I wouldn’t want to run into one of these things. Yikes!

3: Orang Gadang

We have another Bigfoot like creature, but Orang Gadang comes from Indonesia. Orang means person and gadang means giant. Since Orang Gadang are giant people, they stand between 7.5-12 feet tall and are covered with bushy dark hair. They’ve been spotted for centuries in Sumatra and Malaya. They can also be named Orang Tinggi (Tinggi meaning tall), so Tall Person and sometimes Hantu Tinggi or tall ghost.

The most recent sighting of the Orang Gadang occurred in 2013. Seven people were injured and sent to the hospital. One was in critical condition. The group had been attacked by 10 monkeys. The monkeys in question stood upright like gorillas and stood between four to five feet. Monkeys exist in Indonesia, but none of them grow to that height. The group described the creature as having “stub noses and glaring eyes.”

Who knows? This one could be true. A lot of primates, both extinct and living, have been found in Indonesia. Even hobbits. Yes. Hobbits were real and found in Sumatra, which happens to be where the Orang Gadang originate. Oh no!

2: Fresno Nightcrawler

Fresno nightcrawlers may be the oddest creature on this list. They only grow to about five feet with most of their heigh made up of their legs. In fact, they look like a walking pair of pants. The Fresno nightcrawler is also the youngest creature on this list. The first sighting occurred in 2007 with the most recent on April 25^th, 2020.

The earlier sightings happened around Fresno, California, hence the name, but the most recent happened in two distant locations. The first occurred in Poland of all places. A man caught the creature on a handheld camera. But the most recent sighting happened in Billings, Montana. A home surveillance system spotted the creature at 9:45 PM in April, 2020.

Okay. This one is silly and sounds like it came from an old Dr. Seuss story “What Was I Scared Of?” where the main character repeatedly meets an empty pair of pale-green pants. “I said, ‘I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them.’ I said, and said, and said those words. I said them. But I lied them.” I kind of want this one to be true because it’s too silly. Shout out to Dr. Seuss.

1: J’ba FoFi

I had to include a large spider; my wife hates spiders. Love you. The J’ba FoFi, pronounced CHOO-Bah Foo Fee, has been spotted in the Congo. It weaves a trap-door like web to catch its prey. There are plenty of spiders in Africa that hunt this way, so that doesn’t raise eyebrows. What does is that the trap-door this spider weaves must be gigantic. The J’ba FoFi can grow as long as four feet.

J’ba FoFi sightings began in 1850 and remained plentiful until recent years. Many of the natives blame the lack of sightings on the J’ba FoFi becoming a vanishing species. Encroaching civilization and the rain forest being converted into farmland have driven the spiders from their natural habitats.

Some have posted pictures of a massive web system. I don’t know if this is photoshopped, AI, or another creature building this web system. Again, J’ba FoFi is supposed to be a trap-door spider, so webs like these, while impressive and large, must be the work of some other animal.

The most recent sighting occurred in March 2013. A video surfaced on YouTube of an alleged J’ba Fofi caught on night vision camera near a waterhole in Mozambique. The J’ba FoFi appears out of the darkness for a moment and scurries into the darkness on the far-right side of the screen.

I don’t know. Giant spiders, like the goliath birdeater, exist, but they only grow to a foot long. There may be a reason for this. Ahem, a spider’s body construct cannot maintain a body larger than about a foot. But a large spider could exist in Africa. That isn’t far-fetched.

So, which one of these cryptids do you wish are true? Heck, which ones do you think are true? And should I plan a trip to try and spot one? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Top 5 Most Powerful Rogues Galleries

Published on October 21, 2024September 18, 2024 by Kyra1 Comment

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. It’s still Spooky Season, but I’m going in a different direction with this week’s Top 5. What’s more horrifying than a strong series of villains? In this list, we’ll discuss the 5 most powerful rogues galleries in comic books. This differs from the most popular rogues galleries. If we did the most popular rogues galleries, Batman and Spider-Man’s rogues would certainly make the list. But most of Batman and Spider-Man’s rogues are street-level villains. And not as powerful.

So, who made the list? Let’s find out.

5: The Flash

Flash has an underrated rogues gallery. I may be showing my bias here; I don’t know. Flash begins with a lot of great street-level villains or villains slightly above street-level with Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, and Captain Boomerang. But then you get into Gorilla Grodd who has brains and brawn, and the Thinker who is the most intelligent being in the DC Universe.

And then Flash’s rogues reach a new height with evil speedsters. Speed is a given in a Flash story, but each of these evil speedsters can reverse time and change events. That’s Reverse-Flash’s MO. He went back in time to kill Barry Allen’s mother. Our next hero may be able to claim a more powerful set of rogues, but that level of pettiness raises the Flash’s rogues.

4: Thor

This one’s a cheat. Most of Thor’s rogues are god-tier villains, so they can get powerful. Perhaps too powerful. Mangog is the physical manifestation and sum of the hatred of a billion beings. Mangog is a threat to the entire universe. Then, there’s Surtur, the king of the fire giants. Surtur possesses a sword that can destroy universes. And there’s Gorr the God Butcher. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) may have done Gorr dirty in Thor: Love and Thunder. He’s far more menacing in the comics; he has killed hundreds of gods with All-Black, his sword that gets more powerful with each god Gorr kills. Oh, wait, I didn’t mention Loki. Yikes!

3: Superman

Most people think of Lex Luthor first when thinking of Superman’s rogues and with good reason. But there are quite a few people who may think Lex is a normal human. He’s not a threat. Lex happens to be DC Comics’ version of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Both Lex and Tony have money to burn, a power suit, and super genius intellects. Lex Luthor is Iron Man if Iron Man decided to break bad.

Then you add all the evil Supermen, and there are a lot. Bizzaro, Cyborg Superman, and General Zod lead the charge here. General Zod is Superman with military training. Supes may be in trouble. Brainiac is another universe-level threat. Darkseid who is a DC-wide villain can also be a solo Superman villain, and Darkseid inspired the creation of Thanos. And that’s all before we get to Doomsday who literally killed Superman. Throw in the imp from the fifth dimension, Mister Mxyzptlk, who can warp reality itself, and you can’t deny that Superman’s rogues contain a lot of heavy hitters.

2: Fantastic Four

Galactus. This being literally eats planets like Pac-Man gobbles power pellets. Galactus alone makes the Fantastic Four’s rogues gallery ridiculously powerful. But it doesn’t stop there. Doctor Doom may be one of the deadliest villains in comic book history. He has taken the Beyonder’s powers more than once. The Beyonder is an otherworldly being with universe altering abilities. Kang keeps trophies of the hundreds of heroes he’s killed while time jumping. And there’s Annihilus, ruler of the Negative Zone.

The Fantastic Four are unique in the world of comics. They tend to act than react and bump into many of their enemies on their adventures, and their adventures take them to some crazy locales like the Negative Zone. I can’t wait to see which version of the Fantastic Four the MCU will give us.

1: X-Men

But our number one spot must be the X-Men. The Fantastic Four may have Galactus, and Galactus may be more powerful than any one X-Men villain, but the X-Men have a power classification system. This makes it easy to figure out who can destroy or severely alter the world. The X-Men have at least eight Omega-level evil mutants. Madelyne Pryor (evil clone of Jean Gray), Dark Phoenix, Apocalypse, Exodus, Cassandra Nova, Stryfe, Proteus, and of course Magneto.

That short list doesn’t even include Mr. Sinister who cloned Jean Gray and has caused havoc. Sentinels and the upgrade Nimrod. Or even Bastion who is part mutant-part Sentinel. It doesn’t include Shadow King and the Adversary who can haunt people psychically. I think I forgot to mention the Brood in there. And so, so many more ridiculously powered villains who would be at home facing off against the Fantastic Four or Superman or the Justice League or the Avengers. The X-Men’s rogues gallery tops just about any comic book rogues gallery in terms of sheer power.

Did we get the list right? Let us know who you would add or remove in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.