Look Back - 10-7-26

0:17 Hey everybody, I'm Tom Vasel. Welcome to look back, a series where I go through uh the reviews that I did last year during the same time frame and 5 years and 10 years and 20 years ago and I tell you what I think about them if I think about them at all. So, let's go back 20 years ago. I played a game called Conquest of Pangaea. Very excited about this game, you know, taking control of this Pangaea as it's breaking up and these things moving around. It was a pretty bad game. Did not like it at all. Four out of 10. Crumble. This is a game that used every trope of adventurers. I think Lara Croft, Indiana Jones, and more are in this game sort of, you know, parodies of them. And you're trying to escape out of this this place before it falls apart.

1:03 It's okay. 20 years later, not as good. Six out of 10. And Iliad. This is a little card game, combat style card game from the same designer of Condottiere, although this one does not nearly have the love as the first one. I remember enjoying it. Seven out of 10. 10 years ago, I reviewed Pirate Lords. Uh not so great card game from Hobby World. Five out of 10. The Daedalus Sentence. I remember this very distinctly. What a huge box. This is before all boxes were huge in board gaming these days, but a big longer thin box, a big with these spinning wheels and you're in this prison and trying to escape. It was a cooperative game and it just wasn't that great, especially for how big it was. It was a much smaller game than that.

1:49 Five out of 10. Fight for Olympus. This is from Matthias Kramer, a two-player game from Mayfair. Um just well, Fight for Olympus was an okay back and forth two-player game. Six out of 10. Castles of Burgundy the card game. Now, this isn't as good as Castles of Burgundy. It is just a card game after all. And it is also pretty much there's a lot of similarities between it and Castles of Burgundy, but it's fine. I enjoy it. A seven out of 10. The Heroes of Castle Ryia. This is a HABA game for kids, but it's a fun little adventure one for them. 7.5. And then Winner's Circle. Winner's Circle is a remake of Royal Turf. Royal Turf is the uh uh Reiner Knizia horse racing game. Winner's Circle is a newer version of that. This is an excellent game where you're trying to the bet on these horses and you're maneuvering them and trying to almost control which horse gets to the end first. 7.5.

2:46 All right, 5 years ago I reviewed Disney Sidekicks. This is from Eric Lang and we were excited to see what this cooperative game would be, especially with Disney, but it's kind of a mess. It's way too complicated for the mass market. And at the same time it's also too hard and just not that particularly fun. Five out of 10. Enchanters Deluxe Box. I have a soft spot for Enchanters. I like this idea of you have one item and you're enchanting it, making the item better in different ways by just playing cards together to make a pair of cards as you play through this deck and [snorts] then the combination of that gets better and better. The deluxe box is probably bigger than needs to be with tons of cards, but I still enjoy it. 7.5. Bitoku. This is a pretty good game. Um, kind of there's a some deck building. I mean, the theme is really fun here, but this was a big grandiose game um, that I think holds up really well. A lot of different moving parts. Eight out of 10.

3:42 And 7 Wonders Architects. This is such a simple game. Very I mean, I just talked about Bitoku all these moving pieces. 7 Wonders Architects is very easy. It's one of the best games to bring out period for people who don't play a ton of games. 8.5. And then last year I reviewed Gangster, a very very forgettable, not very good uh well, Gangster game. Five out of 10. Elden Ring Limgrave, ah, I've been playing Elden Ring the video game a lot these days. Whenever I think about this board game I feel sad. This is just a first in a big series they did of this Elden Ring stuff. And it's just not very good. There's it this game doesn't need to be made into a board game, but uh I the more I think about it the less I like it. Five out of 10. Photo Tour North America. Well, let's start talking about a bunch of games I liked last year. Photo Tour the North America, very simple game moving around, collecting pictures of things. I really enjoyed this one. Eight out of 10.

4:36 And then a lit Oliva, olive marketing game from Pythagoras. I really thought this was a fun game because the card you played the power of it was how many of that card you had in front of you and in front of other people. Very good. 8.5. Or Rapa Space. What a fantastic version of Or Rapa. I love Or Rapa Mine, the original one. Or Rapa Space is basically the same game with some minor changes. Just absolutely fantastic deduction game for two players. 9.5. Magical Athlete, another 9.5. They did a fantastic job. And in fact, I think Magical Athlete for me at this point is a 10. It just is an absolutely fantastic game. Uh it has stood the test of time. It's so quick and simple. I've been tooting the horn of this game for you for years and now lots of people have a chance to play it and I'm really glad.

5:26 And then Origin Story. Uh Origin Story, a wonderful trick taking game from Stonemaier Games where everyone has special abilities, superpowers. I like it a lot. The only reason it doesn't get a 10, 9.5, is I don't love the art for it, but still a great trick taking game. Wow, a lot of great games last year. Well, at least this week anyway. Okay, so uh those are the reviews I did 1, 5, 10, 20 years ago. Thanks much for watching. I'm Tom Vasel. We'll see you next time.

5:56 Hey everybody, thanks for watching this video. If you like this review or whatever you just watched, wasn't it amazing? Check out our channel, Dice Tower. We have all kinds of things we review, games, we do top 10s, we play games live. It's all about board games, but especially the people who play them. Check out Dice Tower YouTube channel.