Let's Review the board game "What's on the Menu?"

 

We recently added a new game to our board game collection that is quickly climbing up the ladder to join the rest of our go-to favorites when we have a game night. Our new game is called What's On The Menu & it is a culinary themed game. It is created & sold by Boiling Point Games. The rulebook is very straight forward with plenty of diagrams showing exactly what needs to be done, and it is very simple and quick to learn. The goal of the game is to compete with one another to become the newest head chef of a restaurant. This game can be played with two to six players ages 12+ & each game will take anywhere from 25-60 minutes. 

Every player is given a menu which will be laid out in front of them & over the course of the game, you'll be collecting menu cards and curating a menu of your choice to have the best food & the most stars. But, watch out! Your fellow competitors will have chances along the way to steal your food ideas, cause you a loss of stars or even force you to ditch a dish. Every dish has a star rating from 0-3 & some of the cards have bonus for pairing certain foods together. You will of course want to aim for having all three star food dishes on your menu, but the luck of the cards and how competitive the other players are might prevent you from that. 

The game lasts for fifteen rounds which each consist of two phases. The first is the Prep stage which is where you will collect the menu cards along with action cards which are used to gain perks for yourself or sabotage others. The second stage is the plating phase, which of course is when you will add items to your menu. At the end of the fifteenth round, everyone will tally up how many points they've collected to determine the winner. 

The art work on the cards are fun to look at & see what might come up next. Some of the dishes are delicious traditional dishes like chicken fried steak or cannolis, while others are nasty one star dishes like hot dog pie. It also comes with two well made wooden markers which will show where you are on the round tracker & who has the first player marker, plus there is an actual chefs hat for the winner to wear. 

We've been playing this with four to five players and sometimes it takes everyone a moment to think about how they want to lay out their menu or sabotage others so our games have been lasting closer to the one hour mark or slightly longer if we are joking around. However, it doesn't feel like that much times passes because you will be having too much fun to pay attention to the clock. Whether you are just starting into a board game collection journey, or are a pro already this is a fun game to check out either way. You can pick this game up on their shopify page for $39.99. 

⭐ Does this sound like a game you would enjoy playing?

If you want to find more great board games like What's On The Menu? head over to check out my Board Game Reviews section.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Boiling Point Games for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Cuteness alert - Super Kawaii Pets the card game!

 

Today I have a short & sweet review to share with you about a cute kid friendly game called Super Kawaii Pets. This is a quick and easy animal themed card game sold by Arcane Wonders for $14.99 up to four players can play at one time and games last twenty minutes or less, it is recommended for ages 8+. 

The goal of the game is quite simple, you need to adopt (draw) sad animals that are looking for a loving home. After you draw a sad animal card, you need to collect the help cards that match that animals needs which could be a vet visit, food, or some love from a human. Once their requirements have been meet you can flip them over to their happy side! You will also try to match some of your animals to location cards. The first player to reach a combination of ten happy animal cards activates the end of the game, everyone will take one last turn then count their victory points to see who the winner is. 

This game & it's rules are simple and easy to learn, it is a great game for families especially families with younger children wanting to get into the world of card games and board games. Seeing as how it is geared towards younger children it is also nice that rounds can go fairly quickly and doesn't have any complicated steps. The game box is also small so this would make a easy one to take along on trips to play in a hotel room or out camping. 

If you want to find more great board games like Super Kawaii Pets head over to check out my Board Game Reviews section.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Arcane Wonders for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Red Rising - A must have for your board game collection!

Four out of five times when we've wanted to play a board game recently we have all voted to play Red Rising which is one of the newest additions to our board game collection, We can't get enough of it. It is a thrill to play & it is a rather beautiful looking game. Red Rising is sold by Stonemaier Games, the standard version of it goes for $45 and they have a collectors edition that comes with extra products like stands for your cards. This is a mainly card based board game that is based off of a book series of the same name, it can be played with 1-6 players. I hadn't heard of the book series prior to selecting the game to review, but based off of the characters in the card game, I now want to check out the book series as well. They have a separate rule book & game pieces for playing a solo game, none of us have tried out a solo game so I can't make any comments about how that game play works only the multiplayer. This game gets pretty competitive and you really have to plan out your strategy at every turn otherwise someone could swipe the card you need out from right under you. You'll work against each other trying to build the best hand/deck you can to get the highest score at the end of the game, careful though as some of the cards can take away points at the end if their goals aren't completed properly.

All together there are 112 character cards & each one is completely different! You'll only need to shuffle the cards once each game & depending on how long the games last you will only get through a small portion of the stack. There are so many cards that even though we've played this several times already there are a ton of characters that haven't been played yet or even seen. I love the graphics on the cards, there are so many unique & interesting characters to look at that it will be hard to select a favorite. The cards are made from a pretty durable material & since you only have to shuffle once per game you won't have to worry too much about the wear and tear that happens with cards that get shuffled too often. 

This game isn't just cards, there will also be some dice rolling along with collecting & placing pieces which help you earn additional points at the end of the game. In the beginning you'll start off with five cards in your hand, & depending on how you play you may have just five in your hand at the end or several more. Each time you take a turn, you will take one of your cards and "deploy" it out onto the board by placing it at the top of stack. Deploying it allows you to use the special ability on the card, for example one of them might be "Gain 2 Helium" which is like money & earns you points. After you've deployed a card, you will pick up one card from another stack that you did not deploy to or you can take the top card of the deck. Depending on where you pick this card up from, you will also get a bonus such as one helium (money), move up once on the track (points), etc. There are some cards that will allow you the ability to pick up additional cards which can come in handy with scoring points at the end, however there is also a penalty of -10 points for each additional card you have past seven cards in your hand at the end of the game. During some of our games I tried to collect quite a few cards over the seven, because even though I would get negative points from having so many cards in my hand the amount of points I received from good scoring cards was enough to out weight the negatives. 

The game ends once three end game conditions are meet. The three end game conditions are if seven is reached on the track, seven influence tokens are at the institute & one player has seven helium in hand. It can be a combination of three players each meeting one of the conditions, or if one person manages to complete two of the conditions that is game end as well. Then point counting can begin and you can see who the champion is. Points from the cards themselves vary, you will get a set amount of points on the top of each card - you get those points no matter what. Then each card has additional points you can earn by meeting the goal, for example some cards need to be paired with another to get the bonus or say a orange card needs to be with a second orange card along with a gold then you would get those bonus points. It comes with a score sheet, however I find it a little easier for us & the kids to use a sheet of paper to write down the different point values and keep track of everything that way. 

The website & game box states that each game takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes, I would say that is about right. Honestly though, we have so much fun playing this game and get so concentrated on what we are doing with our hand that we have never stopped to actually look at the time while we were playing. The game is pretty straight forward and even though there are quite a few things to remember & do while playing it is simple to learn and easy to understand. Both of my kids enjoy playing this & haven't had any issues with the game play, in fact my ten year old won the very first time we played this. I look forward to the many games to come & can't wait to explore some more of the characters we haven't seen. If you are looking for a new game to check out, I recommend looking into this game or checking out the rest of the Stonemaier Games catalogue. 

Does this look like a game you would enjoy playing? What is your favorite aspect of this game?

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Stonemaier Games for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Nimalia - Build the best animal reserve!

 

When you are in the mood to play a board game, but want something short then a card based game can be the way to go. We recently received one of the newest games to the Lucky Duck collection called Nimalia which can be purchased for $20. In this game you'll try to build a better animal reserve than your opponents while gaining the most points completing similar goals. 

It is recommended for ages 10+, The game is simple to understand, quick to learn & setting everything up only takes a minute or two. This game can be played by up to four people and each game will last between 25-30 minutes so it is one you can play if you are short on time but still want to get a game in. The box is also the perfect size to bring with on a road trip or vacation for when you have a bit of down time in your hotel room. The cards are lovely, they are bright and the animals are easy to tell apart from one another. The guide book has the rules for each goal laid out to where it is simple to understand and doesn't take long to locate.

Each game will consist of five rounds that each have three phases before the round is over. When playing a game, you'll lay down four different goals however not all of them are used at once. There is a small token & a card that will help show you which goals are in play for each round. Completing these goals will help you gain points to race the other opponents to the most points. There are only fifty spots on the track so once you reach fifty you will lay down a small "50+" token to show your actual total, and on the other side is a "100+". So far non of us have managed to get over 100 points, but we will work towards that as we play more. 

The first card you play will be laid down as normal, then every card after that will need to have at least one square that gets placed over an already existing square in your reserve. You can not go past a 6x6 layout & you are also not allowed to tuck a new card under an old one so you will need to be paying attention to how you are laying your cards down. On our first game because of the way we put cards down none of us completely filled a 6x6 grid, but on the second one of the goals gave you bonus points for having a complete 4x4,5x5 or 6x6 grid so we all worked on that and ended up with a full reserve. We are all enjoying playing this, so far I haven't quite won a round, but I will get there! This is a great family game that would make a excellent addition to your personal collection. I will put up a short video on my Instagram showing how easy the game is to play!

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Lucky Duck Games for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Turn Psycho Killer into a drinking game with Bloody Mary!

Last year I found a card game that quickly become a favorite in our household, that game was called Psycho Killer by Escape Tabletop Games. I did a review on the base game which can be found by clicking HERE. We also did a review on two expansion packs that come with the game, that review can be found HERE. Now I am going to share another of their expansion packs with you that takes the base game and turns it into a fun drinking game for you & your friends. The game can get a little intense and will create a lot of laughs along the way!

The name of the expansion pack is "Blood Mary" which is quite fitting for it being a horror based game and a drinking game. You will need the base game in order to play with this expansion pack otherwise it won't work, the base game cost $29 and this expansion cost $14.95. The base game is recommended for ages 13+ for 2-6 players, however it depends on the parent, my son is nine and he loves playing this game with us. We have also played with more than six people at a time by playing with the base game and mixing in the other two expansion packs at the same time. For Bloody Mary, you can choose to play it strictly as a drinking game or you can come up with another way to play it if you aren't a drinker such as eating candies or drinking a normal drink. 

Bloody Mary will replace some of the cards in the base game so be sure to check the rules & instructions before playing. The Psycho's will be replaced with Bloody Mary and a few of the other cards will be swapped as well to turn it into the drinking game version. 

Some of the new cards in this edition include "Book of the braindead" which tells you to finish your drink in order to be able to pick up a card from the discard pile. "The Priest!" This is a fun one, it states "Each time you make the sign of the cross, the last player to copy you must take a drink". This is the first card where the other players really need to be paying attention after it is played so it adds an extra layer of intensity to the game. As you can tell with the right combination of cards you can get buzzed pretty quickly playing this game and it adds a new twist to party games. Like they always say in alcohol commercials drink responsibly, and have fun while playing the game!!

Disclaimer- Escape Tabletop Games provided a box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Here is a peek of a upcoming card game: Clash at Rook's Point.

 

Have you ever wanted to be part of a brand new game coming out? There are tons of board games and card games that get their start because of Kick Starter and those who help donate towards the kickstarter get to become some of the first people to play the new games. I was recently reached out to about a card game called Clash at Rook's Point and seeing as how my family loves playing board games together, how could I refuse checking it out?  It was created by a man named Myke Greenlese, who currently has a kickstarter up to get this game off the ground and get it running at full speed! I was recently sent an early copy of the game to check out with my family and I wanted to share some photos and information on the game with all of you here!

The copy I received is just a prototype, when the actual game comes out the cards will look even better than they already do on better cardstock. Even being just a starter copy of the game, the artwork created for these cards is beautiful & really feels as if you are playing with characters from out of this realm. 

Rook's Point is the epicenter of this universes world it is where power, magic and mystery can be found in overflowing amounts, the one who controls Rook's Point controls the world. It is a two player game where players will go head to head using a deck of 25 cards along with three characters of their chosen faction to fight for control. 

One card deck is enough for two players, if you would like to play with up to four players you will need to purchase a secondary deck. Every deck comes with four different player factions to choose from; Wardens of the light, Chaotic Lords, The Fallen, and Caldera's Phalanx. Each faction has three playable characters, You can select your faction based off of their strengths or simply select your faction based off of how they look which is what I did because I love how Mistress Ambrosia looks. 

Both players will receive a deck that contains twenty five cards, each deck is the same so it is up to the luck of the draw & the wits of the player that will determine how the game goes. Cards in the deck can be played at different points in the game, there are attack cards, defense cards and abilities. However only four cards will be in your hand at one time so you'll need to think of the best strategy to use what you have at hand.

You will play this in rounds, each round the player whose turn it is will choose two actions to complete during their turn. You can choose between - Discarding a card & selecting a new one, Performing and action on one of your cards, or Attack one of your opponents characters. How do you determine who to use and who to attack? In the top left corner of all the cards you will see a "P=" this is how much power that card has, you can use cards to stack onto your characters already existing power or chose to attack a lower powered character with just the strength your character already has. If your power is higher and your opponent has no cards to counter your attack, you win and that character is exhausted. When a character is exhausted you will turn the card ninety degrees to show they are hit, if they are hit again before they heal they become wounded and you'll turn the card another ninety degrees (so it is upside down), then one final blow will knock the character out of the game at which point the card will be flipped over.

After both players have gone, the rounds start again and exhausted characters are able to be turned up normally while wounded characters can only be brought back with help of a card from your deck. Knocked out characters will remain knocked out, the rounds will continue until one player has all three characters knocked out. 

The cards are fantastic to look at, I like how there are a few different artists who contributed to the artwork for this deck, once the kickstarter of the game is completed and a retail version of this game comes out a few minor details such as the white boarder around the cards will be cleaned up. The first & second time you play through it goes a little slower because the players are still getting used to the cards & figuring out how everything works. Once you have everything down the rounds progress much faster making this a fun and quick game to play anytime you are up for a challenge. We play a lot of board games together as a family, but sometimes one or two people don't want to play so this will be great to have as a one on one game when only two people want to play something. It is also the perfect size to pack for a trip. 

Clash at Rook's Point is almost to their kickstarter goal, if you want to check out more about how to play the game, see more cards or contribute to this upcoming game check out their kickstarter page by clicking on this link. 

Disclaimer- Clash At Rook's Point provided the product above for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Extend your Psycho Killer fun with the expansion packs.

Last month I shared a post with you about one of our new favorite games called Psycho Killer (in case you missed it you can check out the post Here) by Escape Tabletop games. We've played this game a lot since we first received it, & we even brought it with to a family dinner we had so we could play together. I am back to tell you about two of the expansion packs they have, that will add more game play and crazy moments to your games. 

Both expansion packs are $15 (each) and they add a new horror element to the base game, each pack is unique with different cards and themes. You can play them one at a time with the base game, or you can go nuts and add them all together for a longer game with twists and turns.  We always like playing with both packs included and keep everything in the base game box. As a reminder the goal of the game is to have the lowest score possible at the end of the game, the higher your score the more damage you have on yourself, so you are trying to pin as much damage on the other players as you can. I will go over what each pack brings to the table below:

Psycho Killer Z - This pack is obviously Zombies, the name, gas mask card and green goo give that away. You'll receive one new predicament card, In this case it is "Give one card to every player, then draw the same amount of cards from the deck". I don't mind getting, sometimes it can be nice & instead of being more of a punishment it could help you get rid of bad cards in your hand for a possibility at better cards. Watch out though! It could also bite you in the butt and you'll end up with worse cards than you started with. It also contains new weapon cards and survival cards all based around the zombie theme. 

The weapon cards in this deck are special because instead of being played when a Psycho Killer is found they are only played to your injury pile if you have an infection card along side the weapons. If you've been infected there is still a chance of surviving if you are lucky enough to find the cure and play it before being weighed down by bites, scratches, etc.

Gratuitous Violence - This deck really makes you leave your friends and loved ones in the dust! The weapon cards in this deck aren't played to your own injury deck, instead you use them to sabotage your friends by putting it into their injury pile. Weapon cards include flamethrowers, crossbows and more all of which are essentially used to shoot your friend in the foot to slow them down so you can get away.

The predicament card in this one can be a disaster if there are several people playing all at once as it can really push you into the left for dead zone. It can be a disaster because it forces you to pick up one weapon from everyone's injury pile, you could also get lucky and there is only one or two injury piles out. Some of the cards in this pack are pretty neat, for example there is a "Creepy Old Man" card that helps you get a card you want from another player, if you think you know what is in their hand. 

Is this game family friendly? Yes, we've had a blast playing it with just our children and also as a larger group during a family dinner. The youngest age we've had playing this game is eight and the oldest is in their seventies. It can be a pretty fast paced game so we normally play several rounds in a row every time we pull the box out. 

This game is quick to set up, and learning the rules doesn't take very long. Everything is simple to understand, and if you aren't sure how to use a card on the bottom of each they tell you how to use the card. The base version of the game is perfect for 2-6 players, however with both expansion packs in play as well we managed to play a successful game with ten people in total playing. It is fun going back and forth if you were to play one on one, however it is even better with friends or family alongside you trying to outrun the Psychos. It was interesting playing with the larger group of ten, you get to see who decides to target specific people, who really pays attention during the games and who the sneaky ones are that hope no one is paying attention to the fact they have no injury pile. 

Along with the two expansion packs shown above they also have one more expansion pack available, and I look forward to seeing if they add anymore.

What other type of horror/scary movie aspect would you like to see added to the game as an expansion pack? 

I think a neat Carnival pack based off of IT would be a fun addition.

Disclaimer- Escape Tabletop Games provided a box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Psycho Killer the game - A review.

 

I recently found a card game that is perfect for anyone who loves slasher/horror films (you don't have to be a horror fan to love this game though), it is called Psycho Killer by Escape Tabletop Games and it is a fast paced, easy to play, card game that will have you laughing and smirking the entire time. As a family we love playing board games and card games together, but we aren't always in the mood for a long drawn out game so it is nice having games that can be played in ten to twenty minutes if we want to squeeze a game in before other plans. This can be a two player game or you can have up to six people playing at once.

What is Psycho Killer about? It is about trying to avoid getting attacked by Psychos while trying to throw other players under the bus and into the psychos way instead of yourself, it is survival of the most cunning. This card game consists of a deck of cards that fit into six categories;

1. Predicament cards - These are the cards you want to avoid drawing on your turn, they include dreadful fates such as having to take hit points, or losing some of your cards. However, depending on how the game plays out one or two of the cards can be used in your favor. For example the card "Car Troubles" requires you to keep only one card from your hand, shuffle the rest back into the deck and draw four new cards. If you one good card and a bunch of crappy cards, you can use this opportunity to get rid of those cards which is nice, not so nice though when you have nothing but good cards in your hand. 

2. Weapon Cards - This is also a category you want to avoid getting in your hand, they can turn out to be a psycho killer who will wound you or weapons that can be played against you. 

3. Survival Cards - These can help you avoid getting caught by a Psycho killer and can help you get rid of cards you don't want in your hand.

4. Selfish Cards - Just like the category says, these cards are played to sabotage your friends/family while playing. Some of the cards like "Hitch-Hike" aren't too bad for the other players as it just allows you to steal one card from another player, however cards like "Betrayal" can be deadly as it forces all players to put any weapons from their hand into their injury pile. 

5. Power Cards - These can prevent you from getting attacked, and help you get rid of bad cards.

6. Healing Cards - This is self explanatory. 

To set up a game you'll need to remove all the black cards and shuffle the remaining cards together, then deal out seven cards to each player. After the cards are dealt you can shuffle the black cards back in and put the deck out in the middle of the table and select who will go first (we usually play rock paper scissors). Your turn will consist of playing as many cards as you can/want to play during that turn, some cards will end your turn after completing a goal so be sure to pay attention if you want to play a different card first. Once you've played how ever many cards you can, you end your turn by drawing one new card from the deck. 

You can use certain cards to avoid Psycho killers and unwanted predicaments if you are lucky enough to have them in your hand, for example you can "Slam the door" in the psychos face and leave them for the next person in line to be fated with them. If you draw a psycho it immediately gets played in front of you this is called a Injury pile, if you hit ten or more points in your injury pile you are "left for dead" meaning you can still play the game, but you no longer have to play predicament cards drawn right away. 

There are five psychos in total, once all five have been revealed the game is over and the person with the least amount of injury points is the winner. Some games will move pretty quickly, while others might take a little longer, but every game is completely different because you don't know how the cards are going to play out in your favor. 

We've had games where a psycho killer comes up, but someone uses a card to try and pass it to the next person and we all end up being lucky having cards to avoid it so it bounces around until the first person runs out of ways to prevent themselves from being attacked. Sometimes we take pity on each other and play a litter nicer while other times a ton of cards get piled onto just one person, it is funny to see how the kids usually target one person instead of trying to spread the injury pile count to increase their own chances of winning.

The game is easy to understand, easy to learn and a lot of fun to play. Perfect for any friends or family who don't like overly complicated games. We've played this game quite a bit since we received it to check out for a review and it is one we will go back to play time and time again, as an added bonus they have two expansion packs for this game which I will talk about in another post. 

What kind of games do you enjoy playing? Board games or card games?

Disclaimer- Escape Tabletop Games provided a box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.