Week In Review - February 16, 2026

0:12 Hey everybody, I'm Tom Bassel. Welcome to Week in Review, a series where we tell you about all the different things we did over the past week, in this case, two weeks, and we give you short summaries of them. And if you want to see the full review or the full video, you can go check it out. Let's get started.

0:27 Hey everybody, I'm Z Garcia. Here's what I reviewed over the last couple of weeks. I reviewed Thorgal, the board game. I gave it a 7 out of 10. I think it's good. I think it is uh a little esoteric. You It helps to know the comic, which I vaguely do. And it helps to enjoy games that are mechanically a little bit weird, a little quirky, which it is, but if you enjoy those two things, it comes together in an interesting cooperative package. I reviewed three tiny pocketsized games for two players each. They include Sukiji Market, which I gave a seven to. It's a fun simultaneous reveal game with a push and pull mechanism. Dust Biters, uh, which I is a I give an eight out of 10 to. This one is a post-apocalyptic game of utilizing special abilities to have your opponent run out of vehicles in this dust storm before it happens to you. And then Dionia, which I also gave an eight out of 10, too. And this one is a uh a game in which you're drafting cards and putting together a threeact play and scoring based on special conditions. Uh I reviewed Insurrection.

1:35 I gave it a 7.5 out of 10. Insurrection is a neat uh card game in which you are collecting cards in your hand, but also then trading them possibly for cards in the center of the table to influence that pool. And there's that that push and pull between what you keep and what you play. There's a binary scoring, one way to score or another one if something triggers. I like everything it does. It could have used a little more oomph for me, a little wilder. It's sort of a bigger swing than what it does. I reviewed Carnut, which I gave an uh eight out of 10. This is also a card game, a set collection kind of game with lovely components and I think it is a perfect game as a welcoming kind of game. I I think I called it an afterdinner mint kind of game and it very much fits that category. If you have some folks over to your house, they're not gamers, but you want to show them a little something that is cute and welcoming and very easy to figure out, Carnuda is a winner for that. And then lastly, I reviewed the new printing, the new version of Niroshima Hex. I gave it a nine out of 10. It is an excellent production. It is everything you've come to maybe know and love about Niroshima Hex, which I have, but it also includes a brand new bunch of scenarios. They call it like an a map atlas or something like that where you can now flip to a page in this book and it gives you a scenario with some special rules and abilities and you play

3:07 on that scenario or you can just put that away and play on the normal board with two of the factions included or three or whatever. Uh so Neuroshima Hacks new printing very well put together printing of the game. And that's it for me. Let's keep on rolling. Hey folks, it's Chris time. big weekend review this week. So, starting off we're first off with D and D Edge of the Realms, Fade of F, something like that. This is a a five. This is an okay Phil Walker Harding card drafting game, and it is a very subpar Dungeons and Dragons game. The themeing doesn't really bother me. You're making a map, you're moving adventures, it's fine. It's a five. Uh, next up, The Four Doors. Also a five. Disappointing. This is a a Matt Lecock cooperative game, very much akin to Forbidden Island. Matt Riddle and Ben Pinchback, great designers, but overall I didn't think there was enough to differentiate this. This is basically Forbidden Island, the card game with too few spaces and a little too much swinginess with the feeling of when things go wrong. Not as good. I've replayed Forbidden Island classic for a reason. Pick and Packers, I gave a seven. This is a game where two players each put a finger out to try to fly a drone and you stack pieces up up on it and see how far you can make it fly.

4:22 Stupid. Fantastic. A seven. Uh, next up, rowdy Partners 7.5. A trick-taking game. Best played in partnership. I really appreciated this most of four players. And it is this idea of wrestling trying to set each other up, trying to tag each other in and out of the ring and do damage. Nice implementation of the theme. Fun trick den game. 7.5 for me. Formagio also a 7.5. This is a sequel to Formage. If you played Formage, you're gonna like this one. Do you need it? Not necessarily. But I find there's a few little improvements here and there. So, G from 7 from 7.5. Fest Season. This is a cool, you know, game about running a, you know, music festival. Big crunchy Euro game. Lots of good decisions. I give this one an eight. one that I think is phenomenal production and one that I want to play more after fessies and high society in eight. This is the allplay reprint. U looks very it looks just as nice I think as the Osprey edition has a few extra juicy cards in there. This game has grown on me. I like it a lot. An eight.

5:26 Uh Mad Kala I also gave an eight. Dueling game using Moncala. Pick up pieces, drop them off. The last space you land and you activate. I really like that setting. Asymmetric characters. Lots of variety of them. Over the top production, sometimes a little over the top, but still good. Eight. Orlloy. The Prague Astronomical Clock. An eight. Game that I had some little production issues with. I wish that it was visually cleaner, but a crunchy, good, satisfying Euro game. Great tracks to move up. Nice clockwork mechanism. And I like how much it integrates the idea of what the thematic setting of it is. Star Wars Unlimited Intro Battle Hoth in 8.5. a great entry point if you want to dip your toes into a collectible card game without having to do any of the collectibleness or deck building or anything. Super welcoming, easy, nice thematic pack, more consistent artwork than the other set. This is a great if you have you just want to try it. Good entry point, good affordability, everything. And then lastly, The Two Towers, the trick taking game. I give this one a nine. Excellent cooperative trick taking game as you're trying to complete missions. This is a follow-up to the Fellowship of the Ring two Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taker. And I think that this one is just as good, if maybe even just a teeny little bit better. So, nice improvements. So, that folks has been my week. All right, been a busy couple weeks. So, let's jump in here. First up for me was Mad Kala. Um, I came in at a disappointing 5.5 on this one. I grew up playing Mancala. I really enjoy that mechanism. I enjoy the game, you know, from my childhood. Um, and I

6:56 really enjoy the the Alice and Wonderland theme here as it's presented uh by this company with um oh, off with their heads and and they've had a couple other in there. Wonderland's War. That's the one I was struggling to come up with with Wonderlands War. But this combination of the two just didn't work for me. I found that some of the cards were not very clear on what to do with them, and there was just a really frustrating barrier to entry um that I just I really didn't enjoy even after multiple plays. So, a 5.5 for me on that one. Next up, took a look at Fest Season. Came in at a seven on this. I was definitely the low score on on this gameplay. Uh, here I enjoyed my time with it. Absolutely. I think it's fun. I would happily play again. I would even recommend it, especially if you're into music and you enjoy the idea of this, not running a band, but running the whole festival and kind of the organization and planning and and plotting that goes with that. I think it's especially fun as you're making your lineup of your different bands, like a lot of comic moments, but ultimately it was just it felt too comboastic and got in its own way with those combos, and that's what brought it down significantly for me, but still a a recommendation for me at a seven. Then I took a look at the 365 adventures. This is a calendar that you work through the year. I am still working on it, getting ready to wrap up February, well, midFebruary here, and really enjoying it. I'm enjoying the different changes that come each each month on this one.

8:23 I'm playing through the Cthulhu one. Joey is playing through the dungeon one. I think the Cthulhu one has a lot of really neat things going on as you go monthtomonth and it's still taking me less than one minute per day. So enjoy starting my day off with 365 adventures. Came in at 8. And I also came in at eight on Alice through the looking glasses. It's going to be a rolling right. really neat mechanism here where you are going through the I guess Alice in Wonderland um scenery and then at some point you're going to go through the looking glass and you turn your whole sheet over and start working on another path on the other side. So as you're playing through this you're flipping back and forth between the two sides of the paper. At the end you fold it together to combine your scoring. Really neat things happening in this and I I was charmed by it for sure. I did prefer the player versus player or every man for himself, I believe they call it, version as opposed to the uh team-based one. So, that's what brought it down a little bit. But, wow, was really really charmed by Alice Through the Looking Glass. Last up though, and the highest for me was Thorgal, the board game. This is a new one from Portal. Came in at 8.5. Oh, this one was fun. This is one of those games that makes you care about the theme. I don't know anything about the comics and unfortunately I do think that that maybe suffered a little bit from it because some of the story points I had a hard time following or really deducing what are we supposed to be doing and how does what I do tie to what plotline? I understand I have these two choices and I want to do this one but which choices lead to that plotline, you

9:55 know? And so I had a little bit of a disconnect with that, but I think that's because I don't really have a connection to the theme. So I'm excited to start reading these comics. Um, but I think that it did some really neat things bringing Polyominos in to not only exploration, but your own health and things like that. So, I really enjoyed Thoral came in at 8.5. That's going to be it for me. Like I said, busy couple weeks. So, let's keep going.

10:16 Hey everybody, I'm Joy Evans, and here's what I reviewed these past week or two. Uh, it wasn't as much everybody else. I was out for a week and a half. So, these are the ones I reviewed. Uh, 365 Adventures: The Dungeon. It's kind of like a day-by-day calendar. I reviewed this with Camila. I enjoy it. It's a great activity. Takes a couple minutes every morning to do, but I think it's enjoyable. I like this. I give it a 7.5 on that. Another one is pick and packers. This is where you are a drone operator with a person next to you. You have to kind of float this drone around picking up different pieces. It's a dexterity game, but it's enjoyable. It's small box. It's a fun, silly end of the night or filler game. And then Unmatched has a new um I guess segment or whatever, a new box called Unmatched Ali versus Bruce Lee. This is fantastic. I gave this a nine. This is enjoyable. Two of the greatest fighters of all time and they fit perfectly into that unmatched universe. Anyway, those are three games that I have reviewed these past two weeks.

11:14 Hi, I'm Winnie and this week I have two games I was a part of reviews for. The first one is Aona. Uh, this is you're building up stables, you've got cards, and there's a lot of spatial component to it. I usually love that stuff. However, this game has a lot of rough edges. Uh, the two different modes in the rule book. There's some It's really weirdly laid out. Anyways, um, I liked I liked it. Didn't love it. So, 6.5 for that. I think it could have been a lot better. Uh, the next one is The Four Doors. This one I gave a 5.5. So sad. So disappointing. Um, this fits I mean there's there's multiple designers, but this fits that Matt Lecock um vibe of game or like progression and flow of game, but it has a lot less of opportunities for table talk and planning ahead and really enjoying that crunchy cooperiveness. So, there you go. If those are interesting to you or you're just curious why I was not a big fan, uh, especially of the four doors, sorry. Um, then check those reviews out. And other than that, let's go ahead and see who's next.

12:18 Hey there everybody. It's Mike Delisio and this week I reviewed two card games from Korean publisher Plate games that are new additions of games that had been released in smaller editions prior. The first one is called Two Sloth to Win, which I gave a 6 out of 10. This is a shedding game where you're trying to get rid of the cards in your hand, but in this one, in most cases, you're trying to be the second one to get rid of all your cards. Um, it's a cute theme. Sloths in a race. So, that obviously is cute. It has some table presence. Um, but I have a couple issues with the game. One is that for a game that has such a simple shedding structure, what you're doing when you play cards is so simple, there are a bit too many exceptions, edge cases, alternate win conditions that to me just feel out of step with how simple the card play is, and a slightly less uh of a feeling of agency than I like to have in card games in most cases as well. So, a 6 out of 10. Then there's Gachapon Trick, and this game I gave a nine. Outstanding, man. I love this trick-T game that also includes set collection. And so, um, there have been other trick-T games that include elements of of set collections, but this one is so pure and so clean, and it's such a satisfying feeling game where what you're going to be doing is you're going to be playing out cards into a trick. The winner of the trick is going to have a chance. They have to buy at least one of the cards because each

13:49 card represents a toy that you'll get out of a gacha pond machine. You have to be able to buy at least one of the cards, but you have the option to buy every card out there. And additionally, you can take a lucky dip, spend 500 yen, and take a uh top card off of a faceown deck of cards. So it it just leads to this really fun experience where everybody is kind of looking at what other people are trying to collect, trying to get their own uh collections to be the best. Taking some push your luck in there, too. Trick taking plus set collection plus push your luck. Love it. Fantastic. That is Gotcha Pon Trick. All right, that's going to do it for me this week. This is Mike Delisio. Let's keep it moving.

14:31 All right, I played Sousayers. This is a small little card game from Play to Z in which you are building like a little engine to catch um to catch or capture tarot cards. Don't really love the theme of the game, but the actions back and forth and the interaction between the players is really quite fun. Eight out of 10. Rowdy Partners. This is a great trick- taking game with a really strong theme of wrestling where it's 2v2. You can play other ways, but the 2v2 is my favorite way to play it. And you your trick taking determines the damage you're doing to the opposing wrestlers. Uh 8.5. Very fun. Bridge or bust. A giant game. I It's more of a puzzle than a game. It's made by the same people who made Turing Tumble, but if you want to learn how to build bridges, great for STEM uh education. Eight out of 10.

15:21 Barbarian Kingdoms is kind of a weird game of um almost chesslike area control in Europe, but there's some cool ideas there. Seven out of 10. the networks prime time. I really like this new version of the networks. I think it making your own TV station a lot of fun. An eight out of 10. And I went over the new Summoner Wars packs, too. One I liked a lot, but the other one, the Dragon Riders, is one of my favorite packs of all time. A 10 out of 10. I also reviewed Mad Kala. Um, uh, Manala mixed with Alice Wonderland. It is definitely has a needs to be fixed rule book, but other than that, I found it to be really fun. back and forth two-player game. Nine out of 10. The Two Towers tricktaking game also just incredibly thematic trick-T game. It's two in a row. Cooperative, a sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring. Very good. Um an 8.5 Formagio.

16:18 Um this is the sequel to Formage. Uh more it's basically the same game with some minor changes to it and they can be mixed together. 8.5. Insurrection. A fun card game. It's similar to Magic Realm, but uh the bad guys can come in or the good guys can win, and that will change how your hands score, which is fun. 8.5. Epona. This is a game about horses. There's a lot of things I like about this game, building combos, but the symbology, and it just doesn't look great, isn't helping the game. So, it's a six out of 10. High Society. This is just a solid bidding game from Ryan Kitia which has gone up with some few small changes and a good production from all play an 8 out of 10. And uh if you think that I'm just Oh, and then Fest Season, which what a great game. Love this game about making your own music festival. 9.5.

17:10 And if you think I'm only positive, I've done a lot of things. I did 39 reviews in 16 12 minutes and then a couple quick reviews combinations and not all those games are positive and I got more negative stuff on the way but lots of great games coming out anyway. We did some live plays, we played Rurick, we played Almighty, um and we played Logic and Lore. All those you can check on the channel. We did some top 10s, top 10 games that start with the letter L and top 10 games for six players and more. We continue our RPG. Just so many different videos. I hope you enjoy them all. Thanks so much for watching Weekend Review. I'm Tom Vasel. We'll see you next time.

17:53 Hey folks, thanks for watching another one of our videos. If you like our videos, if you like our channel, you would love to game with us at one of our conventions. Check out Dice Tower Cruise, Dice Tower East, and Dice Tower West. fantastic inventions where we play games with wonderful people, a humongous library, and lots of other events and stuff. Also, don't forget to check out our channel, like and subscribe. I'm Tom Bassel. Long weekend review, huh? Real long. I bet you're hoping for something nice and juicy. Extra little silly thing at the end here. Sure would be disappointing if you watched this extra long weekend review and just kind kind of ended.