A Review of Jungle Speed

By Firestone Remember the classic youth group game Spoons? What's it known for? Bloodshed... Well if you like Spoons, you'll probably like Jungle Speed—which plays up to 10 people. Once it's out of the now-unnecessary box, it's a simple cloth bag, a set of rules, a deck of 80 square cards, and a plastic "totem." The goal is simple: Get rid of all of your cards. Like Spot It!—which we reviewed a few weeks ago—there are a few variants that mess around with how you deal out cards and how the game is played and so forth. In the basic game, you place the totem in the middle of the table, shuffle the 80 cards, and deal them out as evenly as possible to everyone playing. In turn, players flip over the top card of their stacks—using only one hand—to create a face-up discard pile. The cards feature various designs of various colors. Whenever a just-flipped card matches the design—not the color—of another card on the table, those players are now in a duel! Both players try to be the first one to grab the Totem. The loser takes the winner's cards, their own discard pile, and any cards that might be in the middle of the table (from other card effects I'll get to), and place them face-down under their draw stack. Play continues as before, with the loser of the duel starting.

The insidious thing (and I mean that in a good way), is that the designs look VERY similar. So often people will incorrectly grab the Totem—and in that case they have to take all of the face-up cards on the table. That's the same penalty you take if you accidentally drop the Totem as you're trying to grab it. There are a few special cards, such as one with a bunch of arrows pointing in, and everyone is basically in a duel as soon as that comes up, with the winner placing his or her discards in the middle of the table under the Totem. There's also one that changes what triggers a duel to matching colors, rather then designs—so one more chance for you to accidentally grab the Totem and mess yourself up.

That's basically it. So let's talk about the Totem. It's just a plastic piece that you grab. You're not worshiping it or praying to it or anything else related to the traditional Totem you think of in other religious traditions. Since it's just a name, if you felt strongly about it, you could easily change the name of your Totem. Call it the banana, or the grabby stick or the whatever.

Bottom line: It's not the best party game I've played, and it's certainly not the worst. But it's a fun, party game that everyone can play, and would be great for a group of teenagers.

Thanks for reading!

What You Missed...

Well, we're not sure why it happened, but it was a record-breaking week here at Theology Of Games! And we couldn't have done it without you. (No, seriously. That's how it works.) Thanks for reading. Here's the week's wrap-up. First we told you about the 2nd Netrunner pack that's coming (we haven't even seen the first one!).

We reviewed that great, cheap, fun, and easily-found-at-Target game Spot It!

We gave you a bonus interview, with the folks behind the Extra Life benefit.

Then we interviewed the folks behind the upcoming deck-builder Pixel Lincoln—both Jason Tagmire and President Lincoln himself!

We gave you the news that Looney Labs is launching an iPhone version of their popular card game Fluxx.

This week's Kickstarter spotlight was We are Dead, a zombie game—from the zombies' perspective...

And finally, we revealed that the GenCon exclusive adventure in the Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is now available as a print-and-play deck.

Again, thanks so much for giving us a chance. We're doing everything we can to bring you fun, interesting, thoughtful, and useful posts regarding this crazy hobby of ours. Have a great weekend.

We Review Spot It!

By Firestone When it comes to board games, if there’s one question I’m asked more than any other, it’s “Where do you get these games?” Usually I have to tell people that they can get it on Amazon (if they’re lucky), and on online retailer or game store if they’re not lucky. That’s why it’s great when I can tell people that a fun game is available at their local Target store.

Spot It! comes in a round tin, and it’s just 55 cards with symbols on them. Each card has 8 different symbols on them—from a larger pool of more than 50 symbols. In the basic game, you’ll flip over two cards, and whoever can first spot the lone symbol they each share has to call it out, and then that person gets the card. What’s hard is that the symbols aren’t just different from card to card, but they vary in size, too. A ladybug might be gigantic on this card, and tiny on that one.

The game comes with many ways to play—but they’re all versions of be-the-first-to-spot-the-matching-symbols. Our favorite is called The Tower. Each player gets one facedown card; the rest of the deck is placed in a faceup pile in the middle of the table. At the same time, each person turns his or her card over, and then everyone has to find and call out the symbol their card and the center card has in common. Each person will have a different symbol that matches the middle one. If you win, you get the card and add it to the top of your pile. That will reveal a new card from The Tower, and you look for a new matching symbol. When The Tower is gone, you count up cards, and whoever has the most cards wins.

It plays from 2 – 8 players, the rules are super simple, and it’s really portable, so this would be a great game to play with a group of teenagers. Or your family.

So the next time you’re at Target, consider Spot It! It’s fast, fun, and cheap, and portable. What more could you want?! Thanks for reading!

Quarriors—A Quawesome Queview...Errr Review

By Firestone Maybe the most influential game of the last few years is Dominion. It’s made a TON of money and spawned a ton of similar games. WizKids' Quarriors is one of the more unique “copycats” to emerge from the pack.

It’s called a dicebuilding game, rather than a deckbuilding game. Rather than buying various cards, as you do in Dominion, you’re buying dice. And let me tell you, these dice are cool. They’re all sorts of colors, and each type is unique and engraved with a different design.

Quiddity is the currency in the game. Just like in Dominion, you start the game with a few “coins”—in this case, a few dice that either give you 1 point of Quiddity (on 5 of the 6 sides of the die) or 2. You also start with a few weak monsters.

I won’t go into all of the details for a turn—they’re kind of involved, and MUCH easier to explain when someone’s sitting in front of you where you can explain by showing. Basically, if you have any creatures left alive at the beginning of your turn, you score VPs—then they go away. Then you draw six dice and combine them with any that were already in your Ready area, roll them, and decide what to do with them. Any Creatures you rolled will now attack each of your opponents. (That’s one of my favorite things about this game. There’s no trying to decide whom you should attack. You just attack each opponent, regardless of how many there are.) Your opponents’ creatures may be killed because of the attack, but any that survive and are still alive at the beginning of that player’s turn will score VPs. Now you buy dice. There are two “classes” in the game—Spells and Creatures—and you can use any Quiddity you rolled to buy one of those die.

The game ends when someone scores a certain number of VPs—which varies depending on the number of players.

There are a few things for Christians to consider before playing the game. Spells are the first thing. It doesn’t feel as though you’re “casting a spell.” You’re just rolling a die that gives you a certain boon if it lands on a certain side of the die.

Another thing to consider is that the second expansion is called Rise of the Demons.  One of the Creatures you can purchase is a Demonic Overlord. I know it’s “just a game” but I’m not comfortable with my kids using a Demonic Overlord to help them out in the game, so I won’t be purchasing that particular expansion. They’ve since come out with another expansion called Quarmageddon, and there’s nothing questionable in that expansion.

Let’s be honest: When you’re dealing with dice, the luck factor goes way up. But the bottom line is that it’s just a ton of fun to roll these terrific dice. I’ll play Dominion with my gamer friends, but I play Quarriors with my family. It’s lighter and luckier, but it’s also more fun.

We Review Plato 3000

By Firestone I like being surprised by a game—well...pleasantly surprised, anyway. I opened up my recently arrived, Kickstarted copy of Glory To Rome and found a small card game that I’d completely forgotten was a stretch goal. It’s called Plato 3000, and it’s basically rummy with special powers.

The game comes with a 54-card deck of illustrated cards. The artwork is pretty cool; it’s kind of an apocalyptic steampunky series of machines in different kinds and colors. There’s also a rules reminder card—it would have been nice if there’d been more than one, though.

You shuffle the cards, deal 10 to each player, and then place the remaining cards on a Draw deck. There are two discards on either side of the Draw pile—a Scrap discard and a Research discard. A turn consists of drawing a card—either blindly off the top of the Draw deck, or off the top of either discard pile. If you draw off the Draw pile, you draw two and keep one—discarding the other to the top of the Research discard. Then you can play one Theory card (which all have special things they let you do), lay down one meld of three or more Job cards, and/or lay off on melds your opponent has down. Then you discard a card to the Scrap pile.

The various colors have special powers once they’re down in front of you as a meld. The Priest lets you lay down a meld when you have only two of a color. The Farmer lets you keep both cards when you draw off the top at the beginning of the turn. And the Soldier lets you attack your opponent’s melds and remove cards from them.

Just as in Rummy, once someone discards his or her last card, the hand is over. Cards in front are positive points, and cards in your hand are negative points. There are a few other scoring cases, but that’s basically it: rummy with special powers. You continue playing until someone reaches 100 points, which seems to be four or five hands. There are rules for team play, but I haven't tried that yet.

It’s a fun little game! Easy to teach, portable, based on a well-known game, and nongamer-friendly.

I guess the best endorsement I can give is this: I got my copy for free, but even if I hadn’t, I would still buy a copy.

Check back soon for our review of Glory To Rome, and thanks for reading!

Finding Lost Cities

By Firestone Some people have spouses who love to game with them, but for most of us, we’re always on the lookout for a game that might entice our significant other to join us in this hobby.

For many people, designer Reiner Knizia’s Lost Cities is the quintessential Spouse Game: It’s easy to teach, it’s 2-player only, there’s a decent amount of luck, and there are interesting decisions throughout.

If you’ve read our review of Reiner Knizia’s Battle Line, these mechanisms will be very familiar: play a card, and draw a card.

The theme is paper-thin, but every little bit helps when it comes to getting your wife or husband playing. You’re heading up a series of expeditions looking for fabled “lost cities.” The game comes with a small board, and a deck of 60 cards—45 of them run 2 through 10 five colors (or destinations), and then each color also has three Investment cards. You start the game with eight cards.

On your turn you will play a card—either down to one of the five expeditions in front of you, or into the communal discard pile for the color. Then you draw a card, either from the facedown deck or the top card from one of the color discard piles. You’re trying to get as many cards into as many expeditions as possible. The catch is that once you place a card for an expedition, the next card you play has to be higher than the last one played. It doesn’t have to be the next card in sequence; it just has to be higher. But the numbers only go two through 10, so if you start on five, you only have five more cards you can play—and that’s only if you’re able to draw those cards!

Since you’re forced to play a card each turn, sometimes you just want to delay having to start one of your expeditions until you can get some small numbers in that color, so you ditch a card onto a discard pile. You run the risk that’s just the card your opponent needed, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil.

Another twist is those Investment cards I mentioned earlier. There are three in each color, and you have to play them at the beginning of an expedition. You can play all three if you’re lucky enough to draw them—and brave enough to play them. That’s because the first one doubles the value of the expedition at the end of the game; the second one triples it; and the third one quadruples it.

Why is that brave, you ask? Well, that’s because each expedition you launch has 20 points subtracted from it at the end of the game. Thematically, you can think of this as the money it costs to launch these endeavors to the ends of the earth. So let’s say on the green expedition you’re only able to play an Investment card, a two, a three, and a five by the time the game ends. You’ve only scored 10 points, but you subtract 20 points from that and you’re now at -10…except that Investment card now doubles it. You’re at a cool -20. Be very careful where you Invest…

One other small rule is that there’s a bonus of 20 points for any expedition that has eight or more cards in it—including Investment cards.

The game ends as soon as the draw deck runs out. You add up the points in each expedition, subtract the 20 points, add the 20 points (if applicable), and multiply (if applicable).

The game suggests playing three rounds, and since the rounds are short, it doesn’t take long at all.

Lost Cities is part of the Kosmos line of 2-player games. If you play a lot of 2-player games, I highly recommend checking these out—especially Jambo, Odin’s Ravens, The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, and Balloon Cup. The artwork is colorful and evocative. The cards are oversized, and despite the fact that they have black borders, they don’t seem to be showing much wear.

Lost Cities is a very good 2-player game, and if you’re looking for the game to hook your spouse, this might just do the trick. Check back later in the week for our review of Lost Cities: The Board Game, which ramps this game up a notch.

Thanks for reading!

Fluxx—No Capacitors Needed!

Review by Jeremiah In 1997, Andrew J. Looney better known as Andy Looney released Fluxx, through his upstart gaming company "Looney Labs." Since then the game has taken off, generating four different editions of "Original Fluxx" and spawning seven different versions of the game, each with its own unique theme and flavor. Not to mention the available expansions for most versions.

We'll be posting reviews of the versions at a later date, but today we'll just cover the original version, known for being the "ever changing card game".

Yes, the game Fluxx, is in a constant state of Fluxx; if you're like some of my gaming friends, honestly this may not be the game for you. The randomness and unpredictability of this game has claimed many a casualty over the years. At the start of the game there is literally NO WAY for anyone to win. The rules are simple: Draw one card, play one card. Through the course of the game, the cards that are played determine the rules, game-play, and goal of the game.

There are several types of cards that can be played -

New Rules: These add different rules to the game; they can be as simple as how many cards you draw/play. Or in some versions they may dictate the type of accent you must speak with in order to gain the ability to draw more cards or gain some sort of advantage.

Actions: Play these cards and do what the card says. They often let you swap a currently desirable card with another player, or snatch that "Rules Reset" card from the discard pile so you can get rid of the large pile of new rules that takes an engineering degree to keep track of.

Keepers: Simply a card is played in front of you that remains in play until something happens to rip it from your clutches. These are often the cards that Goals cards will refer to as an objective for winning the game. By having the right pair of Keepers at the right time you can claim victory, or not. Keepers are typically a card that represents an object: Money, the Sun, Brain, Cookies, Time, Rocket, etc.

Goals: Finally, we know how to win the game! Goals generally require players to have a certain pair of Keepers in front of them in order to win.

Yes, you can win this game by having Milk and Cookies.

Creepers: Creepers are a newer concept to the Fluxx franchise; these are literally cards that creep right out of the draw deck and into your play area. They keep you from winning the game (unless, of course, the current goal, or a New Rule states otherwise), and are a general nuisance. There are only a total of  four of them in Original Fluxx: War, Death, Taxes, and the ever present and dangerous Radioactive Potato!

Most gamers love and/or hate the fact that you constantly have to rethink and adjust your strategy during the game. You could literally be holding the card that would guarantee your victory, and by the time your turn comes around the goal has changed 3 times and someone has stolen that card from you anyway. It is also quite possible that the rules will dictate that you play a card that instantly claims victory...for another player! It happens—deal with it!

This is a great family/youth/group game that supports up to 6 players, and is generally a quick play (I've played games that last as little as 3 minutes or have gone up to 35 minutes). It sells for under $20, and because of the random aspect it has a pretty high ceiling in terms of re-playability.

In case you haven't picked up on this, Fluxx isn't a game for everyone. If you feel the need to plot your strategy out 3-4 turns ahead, you will probably get a little flustered with the game, but for some quick-moving, light-hearted, think-on-your-feet, silly fun, it can't be beat.