It’s at this point that I feel compelled to mention that Ryan is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And talented. And nice. Super talented. Maybe doesn’t have the best grasp of time. But very nice.
@@EfrainRiveraJunior Still a lying title! The empires you play as may be small, but the max player count is five. Where are my OTHER THREE Mi-NUTE EMPIRES???
7:55 How about a game called 4 seconds. It's a 4 player game where each player plays as the "second" in command of an army. The game actually lasts about 4 hours.
Vindication is also a lie because you are not trying to be vindicated, but be redeemed. Scythe is also a lie because that's not a scythe on the cover, it's a sickle.
Here’s one. Feast for Oden. The lie is that Uve tells you a bold face lie right in the rules. There’s a little cartoon of his face and he says to try the animal breeding strategy because it’s good. And then you lose horribly.
I definitely had Scythe in mind. I also vote for At The Mountains of Madness: gorgeous cover art, looks and sounds like a Lovecraft game. It's a party game about following silly restrictions while trying to pronounce gibberish. That's it.
14:15 Zee that card exists in Magic the Gathering, it's the "Blood forged Battle-axe" Equipped creature gets +2/+0. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, create a token that's a copy of Bloodforged Battle-Axe.
7:56 The prime board game example of this is Barrage. BAR-ij (like baggage) refers to dams, which bar a waterway. bar-RAHJ refers to a bombardment. I have heard zero people pronounce the game about building dams the correct way.
For Founders, I remember in the Kickstarter Isaac repeated time and time again "This game is nothing like Gloomhaven, I'm happy it's doing so well but please know that it's nothing like Gloomhaven!"
Then he would show the Vermling artwork for the game, and I’d fool myself into thinking I’d enjoy it. “If we pass one more stretch goal, I’ll add the Aesthers!” “I need that!!!!!”
About "8 Minute Empire Legends", it's actually called in French "18 Minute Empire" probably because the publisher wanted to emphasize the longer play time.
My biggest pet peeve ... games which are in HUGE boxes with compact-size components. Maybe they are allowing for expansions, but it is morej likely about pricing. Bigger box = higher price.
Andor is on my list. The look made me think sandbox, but it is TRULY a puzzle game. Spirit Island as well. That game is far more complex than I would have guessed when I saw that it's cooperative, and saw the theme.
29:10 So true! When I first got into the hobby, Scythe was a big hit - and from the moment I saw the cover - and the mechs - I SO thought it was a war-game.
OMG. I got Yetisburg as a gift and thought it would be a light silly filler. When my son and I finally got it out to play, during set-up we kept looking at each other, I think daring the other to be the first to say, "This actually looks good." It definitely is not what first glance would make you think. B+ for the game, A+ for Zee remembering it and adding it to his list!
Mike had me there at 11:15. Never heard of that game and when I saw the title "Founders" I thought he put the wrong game or the one doing the power point messed up. And when Mike did that surprised face I thought "HA what a fool!" But it then turns out it is set in the Gloomhaven universe and Mike planned this. I was the fool all along.
This list gave me an idea for a new list. 10 I.P. s that deserve a great game. Off the top of the heah, some of my picks would be: 1. The World of Lonewolf 2. The Expanse 3. Breaking Bad....??? Okay, but maybe you get the idea.
20:42 "You are implying that this people rushing at your city are a pandemic - uh-uh, not very nice". Yes, when people come to pillage and burn your city, please be mindful of their feelings when you're addressing them. :P
Scythe was the first game that came to mind for this video. It’s a big factor in why I don’t enjoy it: that theme to gameplay disconnect just breaks it imo
@@arthursimsa9005 I have not. I didn’t enjoy my handful of plays years ago so I haven’t looked at it since. But I might take a look at high level play to see if that makes it appear more interesting
Commander always felt the most board-gamey version of magic the gathering, even where you can make 4 decks pretty balanced around each other and never really upgrade them
Assassin's Creed Arena is a fine game. You move round, avoid or kill guards, get weapons and gear, kill targets, even kill each other (optionally). Has Zee even played the boardgame?
Philosophers have long debated what would happen if the Mace of Duplication were ever dropped. Would only the planet itself be duplicated, or all the plant and animal life as well?
Zooloretto - on the outside a cutesy game of "let's make a Zoo, collect the animals, let them have offsprings" is actually a very cuttroat game of "oh, you wanted that animal? I'll take it and set it free in the city just so you can't have it!"
This is one of my favorite top 10’s you guys have ever done! Hilarious! And true!! I was really glad Scythe was on there. That game’s cover and board/pieces are awesome and misleading. Good game though.
Zee should check out the old movie The Specials with James Gunn in an acting role. "Hey, are you Minuteman? Can we have your autograph?" "It's My-noot Man. Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War? I don't think so. Am I wearing a three-cornered hat? No. I turn small. Think."
A hidden gem that was hurt (I believe anyways) by its cover that made the game look like a sprawling fantasy war game, but was instead an amazing bag builder? If you guessed Hyperborea then you are he winner. What a great game.
Point Salad is a lie because it's titled after a common trope in board games in which doing anything can earn you points, but Point Salad is a straightforward set-collection game.
Well, except every card in the game is a different way to score points, and every turn you're either gaining a new way to score points or collecting veggie cards to score more points...
I'm pretty sure Assassins Creed Arena is based on the multiplayer mode for Assassins Creed and to that extent it did feel thematic. The squares on the board are rooftops. Its a shame the board and art aren't very good to draw you in.
I am surprised Vivid didn't make it. I have not played it, but the review suggested it didn't live up to the promise of what they suggested the game was about.
Mike might be confusing Augustus with Ave Caesar, which is a F1 racing game rethemed to chariot racing, where the pit stop is replaced with pulling to a stop you can call out "Ave Caesar".
My number 10 is Petrichor, which looks like (and was marketed as) a serene game of moving drops and rain clouds around while growing little sprouts. Instead, it's the most cutthroat and dense math/efficiency puzzle I've ever played. Stressful and thinky.
Words that are spelled the same, but are pronounced differently would be called Homographs. They are the opposite of homophones. When they are pronounced and spelled the same, they are homonyms. Homophones: Knight/night Bear/bare Fair/fare Be/bee Accept/except Pail/pale Mail/male Board/bored Homonyms: Bat (animal/sports device) Palm (body part/tree) Trunk (tree/elephant/chest) Bank (river, money) Jigger (bartending/lathe - there are like 30 definitions) Rock (music/geology) Bark (tree/dog) Date (Outing/time) Lie (on a bed/flower) Tire (sleepy/car) Homographs: Bow (and arrow/ship direction) Bass (fish/instrument) Lead (take control/element) Wind (moving air/spool up) Object (thing/what Phoenix Wright does)
Bunny Bunny Moose Moose - looks like a cute children’s game, perhaps with an off-brand Bugs Bunny theme. Actual game involves doing math in real-time (addition, subtraction, multiplication, inverting sign, to calculate most valuable or least punishing combination, as cards are being added or replaced in a row)… all while looking stupid. It’s sort of a party game for extraverted math whizzes… which is obviously an oxymoron. Monstrous - AMAZING art depicting mythical beasts ready to battle to the death. Actual game is an underwhelming and forgettable “toss a card at the table” dexterity game. Hopefully they can sell the artwork assets to somebody who can make a good game - such a waste…
Tom's #6 pick is identical to how I feel about Stardew Valley. I love the video game and the board game but the board game does not emulate how it feels to play the video game very much. Stardew Valley is a laid back, relaxing experience where you can take as much time as you want to do practically everything where as the board game is a race against time as the year moves by quickly and you scatter to get everything you need to complete a scattershot of wincons as quickly as possible. So I like both, but feel like I'm in the minority and most people who love one wouldn't love the other
My wife and I like both as well, but mostly because we fell in love with the video game first. If the board game had a different theme I don’t know if we would like it as much as we do.
I would put "Amazed" by Neil Patric Harris on this list. It tries to sell you on a gameboard that can be shaped into multiple designs for infinite replayabiltiy, but it is a puzzle game that loses its mojo as soon as you are through the limited number of included cards. I was not amazed.
Those ratings are not current. It’s something I want to update at some point, but that will take some time. My gaming tastes have changed a LOT since that came out.
I'm glad Mike mentioned Parks Memories at the end there. I've not yet played Parks. I bought Parks Memories thinking it would be a sequel like Azul Summer Pavilion or Patchwork Americana. I thought it meant "Memories" in like a "Cozy Nintendo Game" type of way. Like these are our memories of our travels.... now knowing it is a memory game I feel dumb having thought that.
Technically the original theme of Love Letter was thematic as a follow up to the area control game called Courtier. You were trying to coax the princess out from her chambers after her mother got arrested for treason. If you were thrown out of a round, it was your letter failing to be delivered. It was thin, but it was definitely there. As soon as we got to the spinoffs, it all fell apart.
I had such hard time explaining the original theme that our games have evolved into an interrogation game where we are all trying to kill the princess. Unless you are unfortunate enough to be the princess.
The original theme of Love Letter existed before AEG bought the rights and put it into their Tempest world. They hadn't changed anything about the theme, only added backstories to the characters and changed the art. But Courtier is the reason why the AEG (and later the Z-Man) version has a King but not a Queen, because she was arrested in Courtier. (The original version had neither.)
Maybe Andor should be on this list. You expect some classic fantasy adventure but you end up with a very thinky optimization game (which is still good).
Alien Artifacts should be up here. It's a great game but it's a tableau builder with a sci-fi theme. The problem is the box markets it as a 4X, which it is not.
To be fair to living card games, you do “need everything” but they’re still not collectible, because the whole idea is there’s no chase cards, you know what you’re getting and you get it all each purchase. They’ve always been more of a subscription than a collectible.
The first game that comes to mind for me on this topic is Way of the Panda. That game is a dadgum brain burner wrapped in a light, fluffy ameritrash looking box. Fantastic game that totally fooled my wife.
Ha, I own & really like Minute Realms. Pretty underrated. I never realized it was supposed to be “Mi-NOOT”. I mean, I know it’s not SUPER short, but for a civilization-building game, it’s pretty short.
Played Kingdom Rush the board game first. Liked it. Tried the app. Liked that too. They certainly are different. But one got me to buy the other, and I'm pleased with both, so good marketing.
I love the books and read up to the latest book. (5th) and the game is great! Your “summary” of Red Rising isn’t fair. Jamey did a great job capturing the characters and colors.
Loved this video. Though I wouldn't call Magic (MTG) a liar, as much as it is a "pusher". Also Tom isn't wrong on the hypocrisy of gamers against Magic, and then gamers buy games to fill a small wagon at a con. We call those con hall semis.
For $50 bucks or so you get a full gaming experience in a box though. If you play Magic at any kind of discovering the intricacies of the game level $50 gets you 10% of a deck. Maybe. Usually that’s just the land base.
