Roberto Fraga’s Dragon Delta, first published in 2000, was nominated for several awards that season due to its simple-yet-engaging cross-the-river gameplay for up to six players. Similarly to RoboRally, each player programs five actions each turn, but whether or not those actions will play out as intended remains to be seen. Dragon Delta has been out of print for a while now, but Asmodee recently reissued it under the new name of River Dragons, which is the version I’ll discuss here, although with one exception the two editions are essentially identical. READ MORE
Thus far the offerings of designer Xavier Georges have been somewhat mixed in my eyes. I appreciated the Wild West development of Carson City, but it was a little too much work for the amount of entertainment I got from it. Troyes, on the other hand, came up with some interesting dice-worker mechanics but got bogged down by too many options. His latest Z-Man published title, Ginkgopolis, is much more streamlined and as a result faster-playing, but will it stand up to repeated plays where his others have fallen flat? READ MORE
In previous columns I have discussed Fury of Dracula and Letters from Whitechapel (reprint from Fantasy Flight coming Q2 2013!), two games featuring one player making hidden movements while everybody else tries to track them down via various clues they discover along the way. This time, I’m digging all the way back to 1983 and one of the originators of the hidden-movement mechanic, Scotland Yard (most recently published in the US by Ravensburger). Yes, 1983. My version is the twentieth anniversary edition that was just re-released in time for its thirtieth anniversary, and the gameplay is still as solid now as I’m sure it was revolutionary thirty years ago. READ MORE
In 2011, 7 Wonders just narrowly missed being named my Game of the Year. A lot of excellent games came out between my first play of it late in 2010 and the finalization of my Year-End column, and through them all 7 Wonders continued to impress me with its fast-playing draft-style take on the popular civilization-building genre. And in similar fashion, a lot of other excellent games have passed over my gaming table in the last year, which left me little time to re-explore 7 Wonders via two expansions released in the interim until very recently. READ MORE
And so another great year of gaming draws to a close. 2012 was an important year at Snackbar Games, and for me personally as well. A couple months ago I hit the 100-column milestone here at Gaming Unplugged, and earlier this month the site itself observed its tenth anniversary; I’ve been on staff for seven of those years, and writing this column for the last four and a half (starting July 2007). It has certainly been an interesting ride, and it shows no sign of slowing any time soon.
I keep wondering how I will continue to find new topics to write about in this space, but the wealth of gaming just keeps giving. I have three or four boardgaming projects that I backed via Kickstarter that should start shipping in the early part of 2013 (one of which will actually pay off twice over the course of the year). I have also experienced several games this year that I have yet to cover, some new and some old — and that’s not even counting the ones I’ve played that didn’t impress me enough to discuss them (or were actively bad, but those are thankfully rare). READ MORE
