Top 10 Criminally UNDERRATED Games!

Mike, are we underrated? >> Yeah, man. I I think >> I think a lot of people would disagree with that statement. >> In our interest say we're underrated. Everyone else is like, "No, we we don't need more." Yeah, >> you're properly rated. These be underrated games though. >> What's up everybody? I'm Mike.

I'm Nick. We the brothers Murf and yes, it is time to talk about games that we feel in our humble opinion are underrated. They're not talked about enough. >> Yes. Yeah. Not talked about enough. Not rated high enough. Whatever you want to say about that. Uh yeah, games that we think need more love are very underrated, criminally underrated, you would even say.

Uh because we love these games. Absolutely love them. >> Absolutely. So there's there's nothing really else to talk about other than uh you know, if you got some you got a body, you got to put some merch on that body. >> Put some merch on it. >> All right. We have new merch. Uh go check it out. If you are not subscribed to us, how dare you go ahead and subscribe.

And if you want to support us even further and become a patron, uh we have bonus content, including 10 more underrated games that we're going to talk about right over there. Uh so become a patron today. And with that, let's get to number 10. Number 10 is a game that's been around for a while. And and people like this game, but I really think it should be like it's one of the best dexterity games ever.

And this is be Dimension. Yeah. And one of the cool things about Dimension is Dimension is both a dexterity game. It's actually it's more of an abstract puzzle game than it is even a dexterity >> game stacking stuff but it's not the purpose is not dexterity but like you're trying to figure out this kind of 3D puzzle spatial situation where you are going to be stacking these balls into kind of a pyramid.

>> Yeah. >> Um and there are going to be certain rules that you have to adhere to in order to uh kind of score at the end of the round. And so these balls have different colors and there might be rules where it says like, "Hey, blue and orange cannot be touching." So as you're building your thing, you got to make sure that they're never cozying up.

Uh there might be certain things where certain colors have to be higher than other colors. So you have to make sure that you know as you're building up, you know, the levels. >> Black has to be above yellow or something like that. >> Yeah. And you're trying to build a complete pyramid that that follows all of these rules and stuff.

So it's that's really all there is to it. It's super simple. >> You're trying to do it quickly uh to put the pressure on everybody else. Um, and there's just something beautiful about like the simplicity like a the pieces are really fun to stack up. >> Yes. >> Um, and each time, you know, the mix of different rules that come out because you're going be drawing out multiple cards that are going to give all these different rules are going to create a whole new puzzle every time.

So, it's just a good like brain exercise, but I think it's super duper fun. >> Yeah. >> Uh, you can kind of play it with anyone in the family and stuff. And I think it's just like >> Well, yeah. And I think it's especially good for like I don't know how young of kids you could do, but like pretty young, honestly.

get rid of the timer and stuff and just be like, >> "Yeah, maybe work together because it's just like this has to be above this. This can't be touching this. Build a little puzzle." It's really great for like brain work. There's actually also like >> there's like a little dimension pocket version where it's like a little solo game where it just has a whole bunch of these different puzzles.

You have similar piece. They're not balls. They're kind of like little discs. >> And I'll play it like on road trips. I'll just like sit there and play because it's just puzzles and stuff like that. It's this great like So again, the game's been around for a while. It's gotten reprints. It's not like that's why it's number 10.

It's not like the highest, but I feel like no one really talks about Dimension about being like one of just the best like simple puzzle games out there that you can really play like Touring Machine. You're not playing with like 10 year olds, right? They're just geniuses. So, it's a but Dimension you can play in a lot of different ways with a lot of different age groups.

I think it's really really outstanding. >> Absolutely. It's a unique puzzle. I think everyone should play it. >> Next up is going to be Hookie. Hookie is a great deduction game. Um, >> shread your mind. Yeah, trying to run um got brought over here by Rio Grande games. Um and yeah, if you like deduction games, this and and word games, that's what I like about Hookie is Hookie is a really wonderful game where you are trying to figure out which three kids are playing hookie, which three kids are not at school.

Um every single kid has a name that starts with a letter of the alphabet. So A, B, C, D, all the way up to Z. And there's going to be three of those letters are going to be missing basically is what it is. And so how you deduce what is missing is everyone is given a certain amount of cards um that you know will be letters.

So I have like J, K, M, Z, and you know B or something like that. So I know those letters. Those kids are in class, right? Everyone else has letters and then there's going to be a couple more letters that'll be revealed throughout the game. But basically at the end of the game there will only be those three letters that are not there.

So, what you're doing is you are then trying to deduce what other people have so that you can figure out who's not in class that day. And you do that by asking word questions. So, I'll be like, "Mike, um, brush." You're asking fiveletter words. So, br us h. And then Mike will tell me how many matches that makes for him.

If Mike had two >> two matches, >> I could be like, "Oh, that means he has two of BR." and you can start getting um kind of shifty where you be like sassy and if Mike has s he's be like three because the s is all this. So you're doing all these things. So it's this interesting combination of like wordle where you're trying to think of these words that are going to allow you to deduce more information from your opponents >> while also doing that deduction of like trying to track everything and like oh no now mine can't be G because this has to be G over here and stuff.

It's gone. >> Yeah. Or in your example, you you asked the word brush, but you laid out earlier that you have B. So, you know, that's not one of them. So, really, you're asking about four letters. >> I don't know about >> Yeah. And if you get two correct, you're like, "Okay, well, now I can start to to learn things." And what's kind of also cool is that you're saying your clue out loud.

Everyone else is hearing the answer. They're hearing the word that you always You're getting the answer. So you're getting information uh that you can then cross reference because someone else hears brush like well I have the H. I know it's not that you don't know that but I learned something even though it's not my turn.

Uh so that's what's really really fun is the ability to you know always be engaged with the game. You're always trying to potentially learn something. You're cross referencing against all these other different things. It's really really fun. I have some games where I'm put together. I have some games where I'm could not be more lost.

Well, my thing is I do this with all deduction games, but I really do this with Hookie where like I'll get two turns in and just convince myself that Mike has the why. >> Yeah. >> And then later on I'll find out he does it, but I won't realize that. And so like I've just been working off this false information the entire game and then I'm like, >> "Oh, that can't be." >> Just running just running with that.

>> And you have to constantly go back through all the all the things be like, "Where did I mess up?" You're like, "Oh, that this has to be here." It's If you like deduction games, particularly tough deduction games, it's so good. If you like word games, word association games, it's so good. It mixes those great.

Oh, Hookie is so so good. >> Next up is going to be a little deck building game. Uh >> Don Gilstrap. >> Yeah, shout out to uh introduce us to this game. >> This is going to be a game called Avant Cards. Yes. >> Uh this is a game where you're going to be having these cards. You're going to be playing out a sequence of them uh uh almost kind of Uno style where the each card that follows the preceding card either has to be the same letter or the same number.

So, you're kind of trying to build out as long of a sequence as you possibly can. >> Same color or same number. >> What' I say? >> Letter and number. >> Sorry. Color. I'm thinking to hook you. Color or number. Um, as you go down the line, you want to build as long of a sequence as possible because that's going to give you more buying power.

The more cards you can play, there'll be more uh abilities you can activate. Y >> and you're just racing to collect these kind of like trophies, these these >> awards or whatever they're called. >> Yeah. These awards, these points and stuff. But it's got a really kind of cool, you know, avantgard art style.

Yes. >> Uh to it. And um I think for us, this is one that >> um is interesting because it's it's just like straightforward. Like we we talk about this a lot. Like there's not really many like pure deck builder games anymore. Often times this is a mechanism that's put into a a larger game or something which I think is fantastic, but it's kind of nice sometimes to have something where this one in particular has a way of kind of storing itself and making it the setup for the play.

So, it's very easy to kind of travel with. You roll it out and you have all these numbers of different values and colors and stuff this this kind of market. >> Um, and you're just trying to buy, you know, build yourself >> a deck so that ideally every turn you can just lay out a ton of cards and draw more cards to build the biggest sequence possible.

Yeah. >> Um, and so I think it's kind of cool the way that you build up your little >> and yeah, you that's the whole thing is it really is like an I mean all deck builder games are engine building. you really are building a little engine because again as you're playing out these cards you have to like follow number or color.

You're like, I'm going to play a yellow two, then a purple two, but then I can play this purple five cuz it's still purple. And you're basically trying to build out stuff so that you can play everything you can. And as Mike said, you start off the game with >> twos and like 11, 12, 13, but you don't start off with anything in the middle because all of those are like the various patrons, the people you're kind of selling to.

And all of those cards be like three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, whatever they are specifically. Each of those will have a special power along with they might give you more money. They might do this kind of thing. And there's multiple sets of those cards, which is cool. So, you can kind of switch it up.

But like Mike said, it's very, very simple. Again, this is not like the deepest game ever. It's not like, you know, you can play this game forever and ever and ever, but it's like it's a great travel game particularly because it does fold out as you put it away. You basically put each of the stacks of cards on a specific part of the board and then it just folds into itself and literally just rolls up.

So, when you play it next time, you go, "Oh, let's play this." Boop. Unroll it. You're literally ready just to go. It's super quick. It's a re really great little gimmick that makes the game way more playable. Yeah. >> So, like as a anytime we're traveling, anytime we're going anywhere, I'm like, I'm just going to grab all my card cuz it's so easy to play.

It's so quick and again it's a small little indie game, but it's just it's really really good. I love on card. >> So, next up is going to be My Shelfie the Dice game. Uh, which I quite like. My Shelfie is also fantastic, but praise be. Praise be >> and the dice game also has Simone Luchiani is a designer.

>> It does. Yeah. >> Um so this is based on my Shelfie. Uh it's a great game >> which is a really cool game where you are organizing, you know, your shelves with books and board games and trophies and trinkets and pets and things. Um and in that one you're you're gaining these tiles and kind of dropping them and kind of connect style which is fun.

It's a great gimmick. >> Super cool. And I think that could be on an underrated list as well. >> Yeah, true. >> Um I really like the dice game version as well. It uses kind of yatsi style dice me uh mechanisms where you can roll your dice. Uh and they're going to show different faces of those types of things that can be on your shelves.

There's basically a little board that are going to have rows. Each of the row is is for one type of thing, a house plants or, you know, board games and pets and things like that. And when you roll out your dice, you can lock in one or more dice and then choose any amount of dice to roll. Lock in more.

You could potentially roll a third time and, you know, changing your mind about what you lock in or don't. And then what you end up with uh if you have like two um books dice for example, you can mark off the second space in the row. So in the second column essentially of the books if you're you know the fifth that gets you the fifth one.

The higher numbers basically meaning you need to get more of that dice space are more valuable. But you are trying to complete rows and columns um and and get kind of progress on rows and columns as quickly as possible because if at any point someone gets to the entire three column for example, the three of all the different types of of things you can put on your shelf, it locks out that column for everybody else.

>> And the thing is is if you're familiar with um crisscross, you have to have at least three marks in any one row or column for that column to score anything. Yeah. So, you have to be making progress on stuff. If I get one or two things and then that column or row gets locked out, it's like great, now I can't work on this anymore and I also score nothing, but I spent time Yeah.

>> you know, trying to go for these things. So, it's a super simple game. You're just rolling dice. You're choosing um you know, one or two uh different markings to make based on what you roll. There's these these jokers which you can apply to a thing to kind of build out a bigger set. But I just enjoy that kind of the little elimination of a row or column.

I think when two rows or two columns uh or three maybe are are crossed off by a player that ends the game. So you're also not exactly sure when the game's going to end. >> That's always nice. Yeah. >> Um and then that the idea of which again I love from crisscross is like I'm trying to balance working on on rows, but I don't want to ignore my columns and stuff as well because if I just do one or two, it's like well it's not worth anything.

So you're really trying to kind of think in those two different directions at once. I think it's really fun is it's like a easy breezy great little filler game. Uh uh very approachable and stuff, but um something that I play kind of infinitely more than my Shelfie just because it's a little easier and a little quicker and I think it should get some recognition for that reason.

>> Yeah. >> Next up is going to be Mystic Paths. This is >> pretty unique game. A few of these on our list I'd say are like fairly unique. Like dimension is very unique and and Mystic Paths is pretty darn unique. >> It's pretty darn unique. Exactly. It's it's a word association game. So if you like games like So Clover, Just One, those kinds of big games, Mystic Paths, in my opinion, is like right in there with them, except for no one plays it, no one's ever talked about it.

Uh it's just it's this really interesting word association game where it's a cooperative game. Um and you basically were going to make this board, this big round board, and you're going to put all these like tokens, these kind of circular tokens in all the open spaces on the board, and they're all going to be words.

And those words will be like anything and everything, right? Just kind of like one of those games. It's just kind of like code names. It just has all these words on there. >> Satellite bridge >> satellite a Lincoln like lots of different kinds of stuff all over the place. And then every character uh every character, every person is going to essentially get a path.

You're basically your little mini has minis in the game for absolutely no reason, but basically your mini will start here and it basically says you need to have your mini go. >> You have to traverse the board. You have to make a path. But those are the various words. >> Exactly. Go to 10 spots. Go this word, this word, this word, this word, this word.

So you need your your um uh I almost say compatriots. >> Yeah. You need your teammates. Yeah. >> Uh to comrades. >> Yeah. Comrades to guess the right word so that your person moves there. And you do that by giving clue cards. You have these clue cards. Each clue card has two different clues on it. And so you will choose um put down a clue card.

This is for the first movement. This is for the second movement. This is for the third movement. like this is where this is ideally where I'm headed. And they're all kind of adjectives. They're sort of descriptors. >> Exactly. And they're bas So this might be like hairy or something like that. And if I'm trying to get them to go to beard, I'm like, "Oo, I'm going to put that down there." They guess beard, I get to move on.

They then get to guess on my second card. If they guess wrong, I'll put a nope token on there. Basic shade. Like that was incorrect. Don't guess that again. And then next round, I get to put a second card on all those things. And again, you're trying to get your teammates to move you through the path.

But like a lot of word association games, straight up word association, like um even like code names, which is I say more basic of word association, they always got to have a little bit of a twist, right? So in so Clover, you're trying to give one clue for two different things, right? In this one, it's like >> you're trying to go down this very specific path, but you can only use the cards that are in your hand.

You can't give any other clues otherwise. You have to try and make it work. >> And they're like, "Oh, this could be this, but >> maybe it could be this." And it it makes it gives out that wrinkle that I think makes it really good. So again, if you like word association games, Mystic Path is great and I feel like I've never heard anyone talk about it.

>> Yeah. And it's kind of cool because you do see like where someone's mini is. And if they're on this certain space, they're only adjacent to certain words. So you give a clue. You might be limited by the cards you can play. And I think you can play it so that it either is or isn't like this. So you can kind of play it either either way.

>> Yeah. >> But um but you're not you're not having to consider the entire board at once. And and believe me, just having those few is plenty difficult enough. It is a hard clue giving game, >> but it's possible. But it's really interesting. Yeah, I think it's a really a unique one. The idea of like I need to traverse this path >> uh through these words and then also the kind of giving clues for like the first, second, and third thing.

So, ideally, I go one word, two word, three words through to kind of figure out hopefully people can kind of figure out >> even if they fail on this term, they can get more information about where they're headed so we can try to figure out the route to get there. Um, and it's really uh interesting. Yeah.

Mike, what are you doing? >> Huh? >> What are you doing? >> Oh, dude. I'm making a stained glass window. How sick. >> Why? >> Oh, because like it's I think it's fancy. I think the coolest buildings have stained glass. Like the Ziggraata. Sigraata Familia. Do you even know the Sigraata Familia, bro? Yeah, dude.

I know what the Ziggra Familia is. Obviously, there's this new cool version. There's a new version of cigarata. >> But why are you doing the whole window? >> Yeah, we got to do the whole I'm doing the whole panorama, man. Look, Jimmy's into it. He's knocking that one out. >> How long is this going to take?

Oh, this is going to take ages, dude. It's going to take forever. It's going to be worth it. It's going to be worth it. Probably two 300 years tops. I got some time on my hands. I guess I'll do this ad read. WOW. OKAY, let's go. Along with the new version of Sigra, you can purchase the Panorama expansion.

This is a modular expansion that has three different modules. Let's of course start with the one that is named after the panorama module. This is a kind of joint expansion where now you're going to have these panorama cars in between your neighbors. You'll have one on the left and one on the right. To score these panorama cards, you are going to have to work with your neighbors and they'll have some kind of a stipulation that you both need to do to score those points.

There's the focal point private objective module where you will get one of these focal point cards that will have certain spots shaded in and whatever sum of dice are in those spots, you'll get those points at the end of the game. There is the lightboard module where you will have a light board and that will have two of each color of dice that you will roll at the beginning of the game.

And in this one, you no longer do a snake draft. You will only get one turn per round. And on your turn, you can draft a dieice from the die pool and a dieice from your light board. You can mix and match all of these modules however you want. So, if the Panorama expansion looks interesting to you, make sure to check it out down in the description below.

And a big big shout out to Floodgate Games for sponsoring. This is another game that kind of came out during the I would say the big kind of rolling right >> in the boom of it. >> The boom roll, right? This is going to be Sonora. Uh it's got similar colors behind us. It's very purpley orangey kind of >> today.

>> Um the suns are this these colors, right? It's very southwest. >> It is very southwest. Yeah, very very southwest. Um, so Sonora is a roll and right game, but instead of roll and right, it's actually a flick and right. It's kind of >> dexterity to it. >> Yeah. It's kind of a mix between like kind of like Crokenol.

Yeah. And a roll and right. And if you like games with We should You should have worn your combo wombo shirt. >> I know. >> Um, if you like combo wombos, this game's got crazy combo wombos. It's one of the most comboy like rolling rights out there. >> Massively. But yeah, this is a flick and right where basically on your little player board where you're marking stuff off, doing all your roll right kind of stuff.

There are basically four different regions. There's like a desert and you know a river and all these different kind of stuff. >> Yeah. Different. >> And then there is the kind of crocodile board in the middle where you are basically on your turn or everyone's going to do this part. You're going to take these discs and you're going to flick them onto the board.

And basically this board has those same four regions like the desert and the river and the can kind of stuff. And your discs have different strength values. So there's like 1 2 3 four and five. So if I flick my five over into the desert, I then will get to mark off like five things on that part of my board.

But everyone's flicking in here. So you're flicking all your discs and then once everyone's flicked their discs, then you kind of figure out your strength and all the areas and you do all your rolling right stuff. So it's this really interesting thing where you're constantly trying to like bat each other out of the way and like get into these various spots.

If you get to like the middle, the crocodile part, >> you can choose which region. Yeah, it's really really fun and it's one of the things like there were so many roll particularly at this point there were so many of these roll and writes come out that I thought this was a really really interesting way to go about like the roll the random part of the roll and right whether it's flip and right or roll and right or flick and right in this situation I was like this is a fun tactical way to do this.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think again that's like if there's a theme to this other than just purely underrated. It's like if something does something that's a little bit different, a little offkilter >> but works but works is really charming to us. And I and that could also be why it maybe wasn't as remembered.

Uh but for us like something really works and every round the whole board will kind of rotate. So which regions are directly in front of you which versus further away will change. Yeah. >> Um it's just fun to flick the discs and stuff. It's just kind of like a silly way to to add in um randomness, but also the chance to have skill because you could maybe pull off a really good shot or you just completely flub.

Uh and and you know, it's a little more dynamic than simply rolling dice or something like that. Um and the combos you can pull off are really satisfying. Like you'll have some turns where you just >> do this thing which gives you, you know, a bonus move in this whole other region which then triggers back to this one and on and on and on.

Um, and each region, you know, can reward you heavily if you really invest in it. So, you kind of want to focus your energy a little bit. Um, but yeah, it's a really fun one that, um, I just >> I feel like we talked about it for a long time and I just I've never seen I I don't think I've ever seen anyone else just sit at a convention sitting and playing it.

Like, it should be played. It's fun. >> This would be Mythic Mischief and Mystic Paths and Mythic Mischief. >> We're very mystical today. Yeah, exactly. >> And mythical, in fact. Uh this is by Ivy Studio. This is a uh abstract strategy game uh kind of chesslike um but set in a >> uh fantastical high school.

Yes. >> Where you have various factions. You'll be each playing as your own unique faction. >> Different clicks. >> Different clicks. You got like the vampires and you've got like the werewolves. The werewolves are like jocks and they're super strong and stuff. I just want to see a cartoon like show set in the world of this.

But ultimately uh you are going to get based on your faction certain ways that you can manipulate the board state that are unique from your opponents. There's going to be certain things like simply moving around that are the same for everybody, but there's also these walls. You're in a library. You're sneaking off into the library after hours.

Um and you can move the walls around and stuff. And you can also move uh your other teammates or your opponent's pieces. And what you're ultimately trying to do is you're trying to get your opponents caught by the tomekeeper. There's this kind of programmed um you know uh disciplinarian uh walking through the library trying to get to these different checkpoints >> um and they will always take the shortest route to their next checkpoint.

So if you put a wall in front of where they would normally be going, now they're going to be going over here. And so what you're trying to do is move the walls, move people so that you're putting your enemies into the path of the tome keeper because every time they get caught, you score a point. >> They go to detention.

They go to detention real quick and they pop back on the board in a second. Is, you know, detention never very long in this world. >> Um, and so you're trying to manipulate, move these things around. And each, you know, again, faction will have their own kind of ultimate ability. uh you are have the ability as you're gaining these books uh which are scattered around the board, you can kind of level up your your uh actions.

I guess you can get more action points for >> leveling up how many times you can do those in a certain actions. Yeah. On a turn. So there's a little bit of an engine build there as well. Um yeah, for our money it's like Ivy Studios obviously very successful as a >> and this has had like two successful Kickstarters, but for Ivy Studios, this Kickstarters I feel like always disappointed.

They always seem to be like >> performing a little bit less than the rest of their products. And like for us, I'm like, this is like some of our favorite games of theirs are the Mythic Mischief games because they're so clever. The minis and stuff, the production, which of course is no surprise that IB Studio is off the chain, like amazing.

>> Uh yeah, it's like why isn't this bigger? >> Yeah. I don't know. It's like for an abstract strategy game, which is what it is. I mean, it's it's an abstract strategy game. >> Yeah. It's just not I don't No, I just feel like it's not heralded. Other like Mike Delissio really likes this game. This game is also really good solo.

Speaking of great, solo is really cool. >> So like I don't know. I just feel like this game is massively underrated for how good it is and the fact there's so many factions at this point like like Mikey said like all of them can move the the bookcases and the people in a different way. So even though there's only slight differences between them, they play very differently and you really have to learn how to use them well.

It's so much fun. I play this game solo all the time. Yeah. >> I never get tired of it. I will just play a faction kind of over and over and over again until I think I get like okay at them and then I'll move on to >> I think there's like so much content just even in the base box games there's expansions with more uh factions and stuff but like >> just you can take spend so much time with this game learning factions before you move even move on to the next faction and like >> yeah I think beautifully done um uh and successful but like like we're not even abstract game.

No, people really like games, >> but like I love this game. It goes beyond just liking. I was like, "No, this is super cool and I will seek it out." So, that is, you know, for us quite something and I think more people should be playing it. >> Next up is going to be the art project. >> Uh, this is a cooperative game.

Uh, >> this is like one of the biggest surprises for me, I think, ever in terms of like what I've fine and loved it. >> Yes. This is from the OP. This is uh you know which they've been moving more into like proper hobby games in the last few years and this was like one of the first ones they did where they're like no no no like this is for >> this isn't just mass market stuff.

Um and this is a cooperative game where there are basically these people stealing art from around the world >> hand fancy art. They're like white glove art. Yeah. >> Yeah. And I think I think art stands for like art retrieval technicians or something like that. You're a team of people who are basically trying to get this art back >> uh and manage the White Hand as they kind of spread influence into different cities.

And there's different >> uh country maps you can play on which are each going to have, you know, obviously a different layout of the board. Uh some additional rules and things >> very different >> to change the game up uh and offer new challenges and things. Uh and you are basically having to play cards uh to this kind of collective pot each round.

And the cards are all going to have, you know, an action. They're going to they're going to provide uh resources. >> Yeah, these kind of icons. You're sort of doing set collection to be able to generate the art and find it and then go retrieve it. And then these resources which help you move around the board, fight off the hand, and then kind of uh beef up your dice pool uh to overcome, you know, these these challenges to actually retrieve your art.

Um but each of the cards will often also have like a negative side. Sometimes it's more major than others. So you're you're kind of having to contribute problems as well as solutions to your to your problem, which makes for just like a really interesting like choice you have to make. >> And it's a big if you like the pandemics or loop, you like we we always refer to them as crisis management games.

>> Yes. Big time. >> Crisis management co-op games. This one is great because there's a lot of stuff you're having to manage. you're having to manage the white hand because again if they ever get I think five of them in a city they basically take over that city and it's basically lost which means you can't go into that city anymore um you're managing that but also your resources are a joint pool of resources and they're very very scarce so like to move around you need gasoline because again you're in a whole country right you're having to move around these cities and it's very very hard to do the resource management you're trying to get this art before that that white hand can you're trying to get it out it's really really tough And then you add in the fact that like all the different maps are like very very different.

So if you go to like the second map or one of the next maps, it's like you're in Egypt. So you're basically instead of it being kind of like a city, it's just one big line because you're on the Nile. And so like going down the Nile is very very easy. I think I think it's free, but then going up is like two gasoline each one.

So go back up the river is really really hard. And that massively changes the game. the fact that you're on this kind of very linear thing. It's so good. I It's really hard. >> Yeah. >> But it's so good. It's got great Vincent Detroit art. >> Some of my favorite of his art. It's really like this is again something like I would love to see a TV show >> set in this world cuz it's very kind of colorful and cool >> and kind of a teamy where like you have all the different kind of characters.

They're all very personal big personalities and stuff like that. You know, there's like the kind of like hippie dude in his van and stuff like that. There's like all these different characters. all a ton of stuff in the game because again there's all these different maps. It comes in a box like this big.

It's not a huge game. Yeah. >> It's so good. And I think like unfortunately like a lot of the ops games because people associate the OP with like big party games or things like Flip 7 or or like Monopoly, a lot of times their hobby games kind of go under the radar when they're actually pretty good a lot of times.

And the Art Project is probably my favorite of so good. >> Yeah, there's really a lot of great games kind of in that series that they're doing. Um, and yeah, the art project was one that was again one of the early ones. And when we played it, I was like, "Oh, this is way better than I thought." Like I was I was just expecting to be good or whatever.

I was like, "No, this is a really solid tough co-op game." >> Uh, that definitely deserves people's attention. >> This one might be a little too new, but I just feel like ain't nobody talking about Citizens of the Spark, and they need to cuz I I'm showing this game to like everyone. >> Yeah, this is a a Thunderworks game.

This is not a super old game. And that's why we say like had time. >> I don't care. I like this game >> to find his audience. But yeah, I agree. This is a really cool interesting game >> uh where you are uh going to be playing cards in in front of you uh that are going to be these different kind of citizen types.

There's going to be this is the anthroorphic animal world, which is really cool. The arts are really awesome. >> Uh and you are going to be uh playing a card to your tableau. uh and then activating a type of of citizen uh to be able to score spark. You're trying to get these uh these victory points.

Uh and all of the different types of citizens in the game, I think there's like 30 in the box. You're going to have like eight to 10 types in a game. So, you're not going to have nearly all of them. They're each going to have their own kind of vibe, their own kind of thing they can do. They're going to provide certain icons.

Uh because some of them are like farmers and some of them are like your military people and stuff like that. Uh, and the cards are going to often react and and be based off of other things you have in your city or your neighboring cities. Like for every sword uh icon that my neighbor to the left and right have, I can get spark for that.

Uh, and then there's like an action follow mechanism as well. Uh, where if I activate this certain type of animal will then go around the table and anyone else who has that animal can choose to activate theirs as well. Now, there might be a reason you don't want to do that. is because you can also get multiples of the same animal type.

And if you in fact have two or three of an animal type and then activate it, that action is going to be much much stronger than if you only have one of them. goes around the table quickly because your turns aren't super long. Again, you're drafting those cards, choosing an animal to activate, even if you want to activate anything, but then everyone else gets to activate two, and then it moves on the next player.

So, one, there's not much downtime because you technically >> might be able to activate something on every single turn, but then on top of that, um the turns are just quick. The again, the art's great. And like Mikey said, depending on the player count, the player count determines how many different citizens you're playing with.

So, again, a three-player game, I think it's like eight. four player game it's like 10 or something like that but again there's like 30 in the box and you can there are in the rule book I love when games that have this kind of variety in them do this they're like hey you want like a really like a really teddy bear game where no one's fighting each other choose these 10 >> you want something where you're messing with each other choose these 10 you want like ones with a lot of points choose this one on like no points choose this one there's all these different things or you can do what we mostly do where they have um essentially yeah randomizer cards so you can just D 10.

That's what we're playing with. And it's going to massively change the game. We played a game recently where there was like a bunch of characters that like got rid of other characters were like super attacky and so we're just like, "Oh my god, this is totally different." >> Yeah. >> I just love the fact that like I love games with that kind of variety.

But that also that variety is very easy where you're just like you just shuffle up 10, put them out there, they're very easy to learn. They're going to tell you basically exactly what they do. So it's not like, oh, now we're playing a whole different game. I now need to learn a new game. You don't. You just have to like read what's on the card and then do it.

I just think this game is great from like the art and then the variety and stuff. The way it plays, how simple it is. I just I'm trying to show this game to everyone because again, like it had a successful Kickstarter campaign. It came out last year, so maybe it's too new to be on the list, but I just feel like we talked it was on our top 10 games of the year last year and we talked about them being like, I feel like no one's talking about this.

This game is so good. >> And so, you know what? It's here, too. Dang it. >> Get over it. Subscribe. There's one game that's more underrated than them all. You know why? Cuz it's this big, baby. >> Cuz it's this big. >> But she's thick, though. >> She's thick. This is Village Rails. >> I love Village Rails.

>> VILLAGE RAILS. >> GOSH, I love Village Rails. >> Awesome. I played this uh I think last fall, most recently at BGcon. >> We did. We played it. Yeah. >> We played with I think Mick, right? >> M Charlotte. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Or I guess maybe the spring that anyway sometime in the last year. Uh this is a game where you are are building out these little rail networks in the kind of countryside of England and uh these cards are going to have these different rails that go through and you're building a little 3x4 grid.

You're taking 12 turns uh drafting a card, playing it down. Uh, and what you're going to be doing is ultimately making different um kind of rail lines uh from the border of your uh your little grid which has these these two little cardboard pieces to the edge of that you know 3x4 space. So once a rail hits the end of what that grid would be, it's going to immediately score at that time.

And you're going to >> uh assign >> I I guess like scoring conditions, the locomotive cars, >> these locomotives to your to your line that's going to make certain things valuable. There's different icons like there's like little farms and stuff and there are uh city signals. There's all these sort of icons.

And so based on those locomotives you play, you're going to want to score uh, you know, have a bunch of a certain type of icon along a line. >> There's also different terrain types. So it might be like, oh, for every different terrain type along this line, you'll score one point or for every like grassland on this line, you'll score this many point.

However long this line is. So that one you want to try and like snake far as far as you can. >> Again, it scores as soon as it hits the edge of the thing. So you might want to avoid that in the way you place your stuff out. Uh, the thing I like about this game is like it is contained. The cards are like little mini cards, so it doesn't take up a ton of space.

It's a it's a 12 turn structure, so you feel that pressure of time right away. Uh, it can be tight financially. Uh, and it does that kind of drafting style where there's going to be a row of cards and if you take the bottommost one, the oldest card, it's free. But if you want to take the next card, you have to drop a dollar off on every card you skip before you take a card.

And then now if someone takes that car in the future, it's like, "Oh, cool. There's some money on here. I get to keep that." Yeah. Uh but you might need to get to the the types of cards you need. The locomotives are something that you can you don't have to put on, but you can put up to two on those lines to increase the scoring.

But then you also have these kind of uh these needs cards of the people. So there's also going to be uh you're going to be attaching one of those to every line when you go to score it, and they will give you money. So that's basically the local saying like you better have like a bunch of bunch of this signal, you know, on this line and I'll give you some money uh which is going to help you purchase locomotive cards and have better draft uh flexibility and stuff in the future.

So again, >> you're trying to like score the native scoring of the of the types of icons, >> uh maximize the locomotives you can play and and make sure that those are pumping up the value of your points, but also keeping the locals happy to get that money to keep building uh better stuff in the future.

It's just >> it's so good. >> There's a lot of fun stuff to consider. It gives you a nice little brain crunch, but it doesn't take too long. It doesn't take up too much space. The game can go in your backpack. Like when I first saw the image of the cover, I assumed it was like a castle of burgundy box.

And then it was like this big. I saw it at Gen Con like a they had a demo copy. >> I was like, "Oh, is this just like a standin like thing?" They're like, "No, that's just the buck." And I was like, "Oh, it's like is this big?" They're like, "Yeah." I was like, "Whoa, that's awesome." And then like it's this little compact game with like some like heft to it which I just like appreciate so much.

>> It's just so good. It's that great like travel. It's the perfect epitome of like small box big gameplay. Oh yeah. >> Like it's just so so so good. Pretty quick, pretty easy to get into. It's just I don't know. I'm so charmed by this game constantly. I love the little puzzle you do because again every single round you have to take a rail card so you're like trying to make it work.

I just I think this game's incredible. >> Yeah, it's super good. So that is our list everybody. Those are 10 underrated games according to us. Now you might be like man people talk about this game all the time. Well we only see the people we see and only hear about the things we hear but we feel like for our money they're not talked about enough.

True. >> So what I like to do with these types of lists is we like to get a big suggestion uh list in the comments. So give a game or two that you think like why is no one talking about this game? I love this game so much. I play it all the time. Blah blah blah. get some recommendations in the comments for other people who are looking for underrated games because we need more people playing these gems so that we get a chance to play it with them.

Yeah. So, name your underrated games in the comments. Again, if you got somebody, put some merch on that body. Okay. >> Put some merch on there. You can see uh just below the video here, uh links to our merch. If you want more games that are underrated, join our Patreon. Become a patron today. And I think that's going to be it for us.

Shout out to Plug Games for sponsoring this one. >> We appreciate you plugging it. Get you some of that new sagrada that >> Quanshai art. >> Uh, not bad. Not bad. So, that's going to be it for us everybody. We'll see you all in the next top 10. Bye, everybody.