Game Review: The Game of Meme

Ages: 14+
Playing Time: 30 min
# of players: 3-6 players

Meme (n.) /miːm/

1. An element of culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other-genetic means.

2. An image, video, piece of text, etc,; typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.

Source: The Oxford Dictionary at OxfordDictionaries.com

It should come to surprise to no one that I spend a lot of time on the Internet. I spend 8 hours at work using the Internet and then come back home, eat dinner, spend time with my family, and then go back at it for another 2 hours to work on the website. That’s at a base minimum. 10 hours out of my 24 hours (41.67%) In that time, I’ve come across a fair number of memes. Heck, we even make memes on the odd occasion! They’re fun and light-hearted which makes me feel good when others like them.

Imagine my delight when a card game came out that allowed you to play to see who had the best memes! When my good friends pulled out this game, I was positively giddy with the thought of destroying them with my previous meme-generation experience.

The goal of the game is simple: make a meme that the judge will think is funny and relevant to the theme. Themes are decided upon by a random card deck in the middle of the table. These memes consist of two types of cards – an external frame with text and pictures sized to fit within the middle of the frame. By presenting these two together, you compete with other meme-generators to win over the judge and claim the theme card. The first to 5 cards wins!

The flow of the game is a little counter-intuitive for some players. The first part of the round includes a card management round where the player to the left of the judge picks up a picture card, chooses whether to pass it or another picture card on to the player to their left. The last player discards their picture card. The same is done with the frame cards in reverse (right to left). We started with this rule and with a vote of 2 to 1, it was changed.

I would recommend this game for a quick game or as an alternative to a light game of Cards Against Humanity. It’s better with fellow Net-ophiles since they are more likely to understand the pairing, but previous knowledge is not necessary.

For more information, ask your favourite gaming venue for The Game of Meme.

Game Review: Dice Masters

Age: 14+
Game Time: 30 to 60 min
Players: 2

Front of Age of Ultron Dice Masters starter set box

Dice Masters is a competitive game that is part card-collecting, part hand management, part deck building, and all fun!

The gist of the game is to take your opponent from 20 health to 0 by attacking with a variety of villians, heroes, and sidekicks. To bring a die into your bag, you must purchase it using energy. This same energy is used to bring the hero dice into the battlefield. Once drawn, these dice have powerful abilities that work within different teams and rolls. Add in the possibility for special action cards to be used and you have a game where strategy and risk management is paramount to bringing you to victory.

Mats like this D&D one are used in play to track turns. It looks confusing, but gets easier the more you play.

I was introduced to this game by a friend who was looking for people to play with and found that the community was dwindling. I was so surprised because this is an affordable game using a gamer’s best friend – dice. It even has so many flavours that I can’t imagine why more people aren’t getting into it! Below here are some of the flavours you can find:

• DC Comics
  • Batman
  • Green Arrow and the Flash
  • Justice League
  • Superman and Wonder Woman
  • War of Light
  • World’s Finest
• Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)
  • Tomb of Annihilation
  • Faerûn Under Siege
  • Battle for Faerûn
• Marvel DC
  • The Mighty Thor
  • X-Men First Class
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Defenders
  • Iron Man and War Machine
  • Deadpool
  • Doctor Strange
  • Civil War
  • Amazing Spider-Man
  • Age of Ultron
  • Avengers vs. X-Men
  • Uncanny X-Men
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Heroes in a Half Shell
  • TMNT
• Yu-Gi-Oh!

I honestly wish I could collect the sets. They appeal to all my fandoms. Didn’t find one you like? Just wait a little bit. They are releasing new ones all the time. From what I can see on the WizKids website there is a Warhammer 40K one coming soon. Find one you like? You can probably find these in your gaming venue for a fantastic price.

What’s that? Not cool enough? Did I mention that it has organized play? The last Canadian National Championships were held in Gatineau, Quebec right outside Ottawa! The World Championships? This year at PAX Unplugged in Nov 2018. The prize? Apart from the bragging rights you also get a factory set of The Mighty Thor.

For more information on the WizKids network, check out: http://win.wizkids.com/wp/ or check in with your local gaming venue.

 

Game Review: Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards

Ages: 15+
Playing time: 30 min
# of players: 2-6

Do you love the idea of being a powerful wizard with the ability to channel the cosmos? Do you love magic, but think that Harry Potter just simply doesn’t have enough blood and gore? Welcome to the magical world of Mt. Skullzfyre where mages duel to the death. Cue the heavy metal soundtrack, because this game will rock your world!

Creating some gnarly and epic spell wars on the box art

The art of this game is reminiscent of old heavy metal albums and features dark themes not suitable for younger children. There is one particular card called Gorenado which is a tornado of gory-bits. Super cool to cast on your opponents, but not cool if you don’t want to see bodies with entrails being whipped around by supernatural energy.

The game play is simple enough to pick up on. Basically there are three different types of cards you can play: source, delivery, or quality cards. You can play any combination of these three without duplicating a card type. For example, you can play a source card by itself, play a source card with a delivery, or play all three, but couldn’t play two source cards. The wizard with the highest initiative (a note on the cards) goes first and then chaos ensues.

An example of a source, quality, and delivery card

Game play continues until one wizard is the last wizard standing. This repeats until someone wins 3 rounds.

This is one of my favourite games to play while people show up for the game. People can be added easily in between rounds. Great for something short to play.

Game Review: Over|Under

# of Players: 2+
Age: 12+
Time: Approximately 30 minutes

While in Terra, the purpose of the game was to approximate using a series of scales and geography. Over-Under takes a different approach by simplifying down to whether a given number provided by a card is either over or understated. It’s like a less thought intensive trivia game. This is understandable given that this is also a drinking game.

Over Under board game

I’ve struggled a little bit on whether to review this because there are so many brilliant games out there that we could review. Of the three that we reviewed at Mancala Monk, this one was my least favourite. It wasn’t because of the drinking elements (we were sipping on water, tea, and soda – #partyanimals), but the game’s premise just never really spoke to me.

 

Over Under board game layout

A round goes something like this. The active player’s turn rolls a die. On the die there are four colours, ‘+2’, and ‘-2’. If you roll a +2, you move ahead on the board 2 squares, the inverse if you roll a -2. If you roll a colour, the player reads a card to the other player(s). The box has a good example of how it goes: “Over under on the longest ear hair ever grown. The line is 3 inches.” The opposite players not make votes using tokens on whether they think the answer is over three inches or under three inches. Their level of certainty is also added to the token (1 is the lowest level of certainty, and 5 is the highest). If you are right, then you move that number of squares forward along the board. If you are wrong, you move back that number of squares.

Our game took us about half an hour with three players.

This game is great for gaining a bit of knowledge, having a few laughs, and is great for larger groups such as classrooms (less the drinking) or a BBQ in your backyard on a sunny day.

Game Review: Fortune and Glory

Players: 1-8
Age: 12+
Playing time: 60-180 minutes

Grab your news cap, and put on your best old timey news golden voice because Fortune and Glory will launch you into the pulp adventure of your dreams as you battle to find relics, fight Nazis, and unearth tombs to gather the most fortune and glory.

Fortune and Glory cover from BoardGameGeek.com

I originally saw this played on Tabletop a long while ago and I knew I had to play it. My love of character voicing meant that I could bring this game to the next level. Pair into this my love of antiquities, mythology, and Indiana Jones, and you get a fanboy of epic proportions.

The game has two modes to play: cooperative and competitive. Our review will focus on a two-player competitive game using quick start rules.

My partner and I randomly picked our characters and it was the Russian scientist against a New York journalist. From the get go, it had a story of epic proportions. Communist versus Democracy, Science versus Art, Man versus Woman, there were plenty of themes that made this an epic confrontation.

Fortune and Glory near the end of our game.

As we got started, there was a lot of rules looking up, but it felt light and fun the more we played. Even my partner who doesn’t enjoy strategy loved the narrative that this game provided. Most adventures have a bit of chance to them, so the dice rolling felt exciting to see if we would end of a cliffhanger or continue throughout our adventure.

With lots of cards, tokens, dice, and miniatures, this game is huge. The box itself had considerable heft and is bursting out the seams with fun. I am definitely putting this on my must have list.