Week In Review - July 13, 2026

0:00 Need something to lift me up. And those chair cushions over there, they don't come out. They're stuck to the chairs, which makes no sense. Why have a cushion that looks to be removable and not make it removable? It's bad design. Sitting on somebody's sweatshirt. They don't know. Ain't going to hurt them.

0:34 Hey everybody, I'm Tom Vasel. Welcome to week in review or weeks in review as it might be here in this case. We're just coming off directly off of Dice Tower East and so this is a bit of a truncated week, but we're also talking about the week that we did before Dice Tower East. So a bunch of videos, this is kind of a short summary of all of them. And then if you want to know more, just click the link in the description below.

0:55 Hey everybody, I'm Zee Garcia. Let's take a look at what I've been up to. I did a a look at Unmatched Battle Box and Go Bags. Uh that is storage solutions for Unmatched. You can get that to replace the boxes they come in or the bag then and take it on the go. They're really neat. We're using them in our library now, the boxes anyway. Check that out if you're uh curious. Uh I also did my top 10 heroes in Marvel Champions. My 10 favorite to play, that is. So check that out if you are a Marvel Champions uh fan or if you're just curious what I think of the characters in the game. You're going to get a a sort of an idea of the ones I tend to line up with. And then I reviewed a few games. I reviewed The Last Druids, which I gave a seven out of 10 to. This is a neat little game, gorgeous look. The gameplay is doesn't scale super well cuz it sort of doesn't really matter what player count you're playing at, but you're going to drawing cards, giving everybody one, and then you all simultaneously build that thing or throw it away and take resources, or build one of these uh special sort of end game scoring things. It has a little bit of a Seven Wonders vibe, but it is it doesn't have as much progression. It feels a little more repetitive than that. And again, the scaling is just not there. It's kind of it doesn't matter the player count. You're sort of doing the same thing anyway. I reviewed Flip Voyage, which I gave an eight out of 10 to. This is the follow-up to Flip Town.

2:23 Uh and this one is a little less interesting to me. It's a little less complicated, too, though. So, I think if you're going to introduce one of these games to someone, you might actually want to start with Flip Voyage. And I I love the you know, Captain Nemo, 20,000 Leagues thing going, you know, going on in it. And it's a cool look, as well. Um the card deck doesn't make as much sense in this one as it did in Flip Town being a Western setting. But, the game's good. It's a good flip and write. Uh I really enjoy it. And then lastly, Borealis: Arctic Expeditions, which I gave an 8.5 to. This one's really a lovely little game. Very unassuming look. Very unassuming gameplay. But, it is such a wonderful family-style game. One of those games you can teach to just about anybody. You'll be scoring for a few different things, but everything's kind of simple. It is a very pleasant game. Kind of cozy-esque without screaming that. Uh easy to approach. Easy to teach. To enjoy.

3:29 The differing, you know, skill levels aren't going to feel as punishing in this. I really, really like it. I think it's it's a lovely little game. One you can play with just about anybody. And there you go. That is it for me. Let's keep on going. There hasn't been Chris time for a while. Well, it's back, everybody. It's back and better than ever. I'm starting off this time with a with Cork, a game that I gave a six. This is a very silly party game. You one person rolls dice until they roll sevens or double and then everyone has to yank their corks out and the person who's rolling tries to grab everyone else's cork with this cup. It's a super simple party game and and I like it but a six means that I wish that there was a little more gusto to it, a little more pep in its step but it's it's fun. If I ever saw a table playing and they said, "Do you want to play Cork?" Yeah.

4:16 Sure. Sure. I would. It's a six. Next up, Vanity Plates. This is a game about making license plates. You're writing in shorthand to give clues about who would own that car. It's a seven for me. I think this is a funny little party game. I enjoy it and the and trying to use a a bunch of character restrictions, you're actually forced to use some weird letters and numbers in there and try to make a clue. It's a good hook and people walk by and definitely say, "Hey, what's going on?" Haggis, a 7.5. This is a card shedding game for two to three or four players. And this has a very classic feel to it like an old school game. It feels like it's been around for centuries in in good ways. It feels like a classic for a reason and I enjoy this card shedding game quite a bit. So, yeah, some nice little hooks, some nice little special powers here and there. And then lastly, Jibber Jabber, I gave a nine. I really like this party game. This is one of those party games where it feels good if you're playing well and it's hilarious when you're playing poorly. It is kind of like Telestrations or some of those games where yeah, I guess technically there's a score to it but I'm just having such a riotously funny time as you're trying to spell out clues one letter at a time but you're not allowed to communicate with each other about how you're trying to spell out those clues.

5:35 Great cooperative party game if you want something Yeah, I can't speak high enough of it a nine out of 10 and that folks has been Chris time.

5:43 I'm Wendy and these last couple weeks I had a couple compilation videos, a rapid-fire roundup, and then a few disappointing games. But, on top of that, I did review Haggis, and it is a shedding game that I gave an 8.5 to, and I don't really like shedding games. So, this one I think had some really cool unique moments, and really you got to watch the review to like fully get into it, but I love the idea of the wild cards in front of you, and just the power that that gives you so that you can make really good decisions, and I find that it's enjoyable even when you're not winning because there's still some good things to think about. Anyways, go check out that review, and let's go ahead and see who's next.

6:28 Hey there everybody, it's Mike Delisio, and let's cover the weeks before and after Gen Con. These are games that I reviewed during that time period. We're going to start off with Morty Sortie Magic Shop. I gave it a four. Not a fan. This is actually nominated for this year's Spiel Spiel Spiel des Jahres Spiel des Jahres. I hope it doesn't win. I don't think it's very good. I think every game that was recommended on that recommended list was better than this game by a wide margin. I feel like this was boring, played it completely safe, by the numbers. I feel like they shaved off every rough edge, and what you're left with is a game with almost no personality. It feels like games that were designed 12 to 15 years ago, and not even ones that should have been up for the Spiel. There we go. Then, I also reviewed Moby Trick. I gave this a six.

7:25 It's not It's a trick-taking game. It's not a bad game, but it's one that I didn't really feel comfortable recommending for a couple of different reasons. Number one, I felt like it was a little bit too far on the chaotic scale. So, if you like chaotic trick-taking games, this might be one for you to check out. I like some chaotic trick taking games, but this one was also coupled with a feeling of really not a whole lot of agency, and also there were some production issues, especially the orientation of the numbers on the cards that really were bothersome to me. Um and so, not quite a recommend, but uh not bad. Uh next up is Club Unlock, which I did recommend this one. I'm giving it a seven out of 10. This is an old uh Wolfgang Kramer co-design that is being brought back by Plate Games, the Korean publisher who uh a lot of the games that they bring back are games by uh old, well-known, older, well-known designers like Wolfgang Kramer, Alex Randolph, Sid Sackson, things along those lines. Club Unlock is a very, very simple card game.

8:32 So simple that when you hear the rules, you might think where is the game? But there is enough, there are some clever ideas where you're really just collecting colored cards to crack safes. It is a contract fulfillment game, but the little thing that's different here, almost makes it feel a little bit like Ticket to Ride, is that oftentimes you're incentivized to collect big, big handfuls of these uh colored cards because if you can break more than one safe on a turn, it's going to get you bonus points. And the risk of doing that is that other people might come and snake the ones you've been trying to get before. Clever enough game, it's fun, I could recommend it, maybe not the deepest game in the world. Um and then finally, uh Wonderous Creatures expansion, the first expansion, well, the first major expansion for this game called Winterfall, I gave this an 8.5. Now, this is an expansion that I like a lot, but I do want to put out there that this expansion makes the game uh more complex, and and already at least a mid-weight Euro, and uh it could even add to some length to the game and so keep those things in mind. Um but if I would not recommend this as something you would play for the first or second time you've played the base game. Uh it's stick with the base game for a while. I think this is for people that have played the base game a whole bunch, really like it, are very comfortable with the systems, and want to add a little something extra.

10:02 Um Winterfall adds some neat ideas that adds a whole new uh kind of like an egg type of spirit uh uh type of card and egg and things along those lines. Some new scoring elements that I like a lot. Uh so yeah, very nice expansion for a great a really good game, Wonders Creatures. Also did some top 10s, did top 10 monster games, which was a solo top 10, top 10 horror games, which was a solo top 10. We had a live uh top 10 we recorded at Gen Con, the top 10 unwritten rules that that got reuploaded so you can check those out. It's a feast of riches. That's going to do it for me. This is Mike Delisio. Let's keep it moving. Last week's These are some of the things that I went through.

10:47 Um I did a uh I re- I reviewed some stuff ahead of time where I took a look at some small things like Metro Bingo, which is a uh a game it's kind of like it's it's a remake of an older game. Uh but in it you're pulling tiles from a bag and everybody writes them down. So technically this could be 100 different people playing. But I gave that a 7.5 out of 10. I also took a look at Dynasty League Baseball. Just I love baseball. I love stats. But I'm not sure who this is for. It's so complicated and at the end of the day you're just rolling three dice to see what happens. So I gave that one a five out of 10. I also did a video where I reviewed games live. Went through a huge pile of games live um just to try it out to see how that worked.

11:32 And uh Mike and I did Club Unlock, which is a small older game from Wolfgang Kramer, where you're collecting cards and turning them in. Almost like it almost feels like Ticket to Ride the card game. And I enjoyed it surprisingly, seven out of 10. Thieves' Market, and I split game. I split, but like you're you're taking some dice, and everyone's splitting dice, there's not enough dice to go around. So, you start stealing them from other people, but then you lose a die in the process. Very fun filler, eight out of 10. And then Wild Blooms, a game in which you have these flowers that you're collecting. A nice a nice game. Uh you collect a flower, and it activates everybody else. Interesting ideas in it, seven out of 10. And then this week we did a bunch of top 10s. I did my top 10 food-themed games, my top 10 time travel games. Me and Chris went and ranked all the legacy games.

12:21 Uh we did a big top 10, top 10 unwritten rules at my game table. And uh then I I just a couple small reviews. Uh Morty Morty, which is nominated for the Spiel des Jahres. And at this point, you know if it's won or not. I don't know if it's won or not. But at the we didn't like it at all. I gave it a five out of 10. And then King of Tokyo Godzilla, what a great breath of fresh air, great themeing, really cool. I like King of Tokyo anyway. This is the best version since I played, a nine out of 10. So, there you go, folks. Those are all the games and things that we did over the last few weeks. Thanks for watching. We'll see you have some more stuff for you this week. Until then, I'm Tom Vasel.

13:07 Hey folks, thanks for watching another one of our videos. If you like our videos, if you like our channel, if 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 conventions 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 Vasel.

13:34 False Logic Puzzles by Norman D. Willis. I haven't read a good book in a while, and I'm afraid that trend is going to continue here. All right, these are actually just logic puzzles. Who owns the mule? This is the simplest one. Three farmers have shared the use of a mule for some time, and they disagree as to who owns the animal. It is not certain, however, that the responsibility of ownership is desired. They have asked Socrates to settle the issue. The three make the following statements. Each makes one true and one false statement. Person A says, "It is C's mule, and I can make no claim to it." Person B says, "C has no right to it. It is A's mule." Person C says, "It is my mule, and wrong fingers. It is my mule, and B's second statement is false." Socrates hesitates for scarcely an instant and determines the owner. To which farmer does the mule belong?

14:30 Easy. But, you know, just just in case, why don't you comment below? And, you know, cuz I already know the answer. So, I just want to see if you know it.