Ive grown to love the videos in this 'I Played So You Don't Have To' series, because, not only are they usually funny, they sometimes include games I think look fun. Sometimes 'negative' reviews are really helpful in an unintended way!
Hey Dice Tower, I have an idea for a show! Have a big Let's Play, but of the worst games! Not like Uno or Candy Land which would just be boring and lucky nonsense, but *aggressively* bad games whose badness is entertaining. This would simultaneously be an amazingly entertaining thing to watch, and it would serve as a fun How Not to Design Games experience. Also, you guys can enjoy torturing your coworkers for our amusement!
Hate drafting definitely only works well when the player has to sacrifice taking a better card/tile in order to deny others. Without that it just leads to both players not getting the chance to build something cool or fun
Man… MonsterBusters sounds like it could’ve been sooooo good!! It sounds a bit like Incan Gold or Dicey Goblins with maybe a touch of Munchkin, except fortune does not favor the bold. It punishes them with no incentive to have that luck pressed. I still almost want to get it and see if it’s one house-rule away from being a good filler. 😎
It seems like a better game to play while drinking, and yes, and extra rule might help to fix the retreat system. You could also play Cutthroat Caverns instead, which is basically a spicier version of this game but with more depth.
Space cow did another kids game that was a total dud with my 5 year old. I can't remember what it was called but it was something island and you played with a blindfold. It was bad
I don’t see why being “punished” for making larger areas is a bad thing if the game values diversity. Bigger isn’t always better. One McDonald’s is great, but 20 on one street block is not so great. Large areas of manors(circles) not so great if you don’t have fields. Maybe the Dutch value balance? Plus the assignments award most of something so why would another player make large areas of something if it has diminishing returns? Because they’re going for that goal - you should block them? Never played the game but that’s what I can infer.
I love games that have competing priorities, but this one basically created a complicated math system to prioritize something, then an even more complicated math system to then disincentive it. The real punishment for building bigger was multiplying by decimals.
Ive grown to love the videos in this 'I Played So You Don't Have To' series, because, not only are they usually funny, they sometimes include games I think look fun. Sometimes 'negative' reviews are really helpful in an
unintended way!
Hey Dice Tower, I have an idea for a show!
Have a big Let's Play, but of the worst games! Not like Uno or Candy Land which would just be boring and lucky nonsense, but *aggressively* bad games whose badness is entertaining.
This would simultaneously be an amazingly entertaining thing to watch, and it would serve as a fun How Not to Design Games experience. Also, you guys can enjoy torturing your coworkers for our amusement!
Hate drafting definitely only works well when the player has to sacrifice taking a better card/tile in order to deny others. Without that it just leads to both players not getting the chance to build something cool or fun
As watching the video... "Catronauts was the best of the group?! Oh boy..."
Sharknado was engineered to be bad. One assumes the game was not. But who knows?
A bad movie can be a fun watch but a bad game is rarely a fun play
Man… MonsterBusters sounds like it could’ve been sooooo good!! It sounds a bit like Incan Gold or Dicey Goblins with maybe a touch of Munchkin, except fortune does not favor the bold. It punishes them with no incentive to have that luck pressed. I still almost want to get it and see if it’s one house-rule away from being a good filler. 😎
It seems like a better game to play while drinking, and yes, and extra rule might help to fix the retreat system. You could also play Cutthroat Caverns instead, which is basically a spicier version of this game but with more depth.
Great reviews, Chris! I enjoy this series as well, just to see the negative sides of some games that might have been interesting.
Thanks, Chris! You're the Velocipastor of board game reviewers. But, y'know... in the best way.
That is taken in every way the compliment it is meant as!
"Clever g-guy."
I might pick up Catstronauts if I can find it for cheap because I collect cat games.
Chris, you should check out Dark Side of the Moon live, premiering today on Pink Floyd's channel!
What’s the rating for the last game?
2
As a 2 player game polders was a fun game, the scoring is indeed complicated but not too complicated. Can't speak for higher player counts though
Space cow did another kids game that was a total dud with my 5 year old. I can't remember what it was called but it was something island and you played with a blindfold. It was bad
I could see a game incentivizing diversity of fields but you've got to give bonus points for breaking it up not reduce points for homogeneity.
😢 Sad to see wonderwoods on your list, I think it is a great 15min filler game like the game 'for sale' 😅
Why you picking on Urkle! 😂
I don’t see why being “punished” for making larger areas is a bad thing if the game values diversity. Bigger isn’t always better. One McDonald’s is great, but 20 on one street block is not so great. Large areas of manors(circles) not so great if you don’t have fields. Maybe the Dutch value balance? Plus the assignments award most of something so why would another player make large areas of something if it has diminishing returns? Because they’re going for that goal - you should block them? Never played the game but that’s what I can infer.
I love games that have competing priorities, but this one basically created a complicated math system to prioritize something, then an even more complicated math system to then disincentive it. The real punishment for building bigger was multiplying by decimals.
are we SURE that Poldarz isn't a parody game? I only ask because I'm designing a parody game right now and this seems to hit all those beats
I keep wondering why I've never heard of any of these games. Then I see they're terrible. Oh...