Games that Left Our Collections | January-June 2025

0:04 Hey, I'm Ryan. This is my brother Daniel. And this is Rolls in the Family. And today we are here to talk about games that are on their way out.

0:12 They're leaving. They're gone. They're dead to us.

0:15 Child moving out of the house. You know, you've

0:17 Yeah. Sometimes, you know, there's different reasons games leave the uh collection. Sometimes they're evicted more like like a pest or like a bad tenant.

0:26 Uh sometimes they've they've graduated, right? They they we've had our time with them and they're moving on to another home.

0:35 Yes. Uh so we will talk about the reasons for all these games. Uh

0:40 leave. Yeah. Which uh analogy which metaphor they fall under? But uh we will include links below if you feel like checking any of these games out. Some of them I would say we recommend. I'm looking at our list here especially Daniel's games and I'm like there's a lot of games here I think we would recommend to people. Uh there's some here that I would not recommend, but you're still welcome to talk them out if you want.

0:59 Um yeah, let's see. We do this every six months. Uh we have a good batch. I think we had a smaller batch last time, but we got a nice batch here.

1:07 It's been a uh

1:09 and we're going to start with the lowest rated lowest rated one and work our way up to highest rated. Um which in this particular list means you get to hear a lot of me early and a lot of Daniel late. We'll see. Uh that's right. Apparently Danielle's getting rid of games.

1:24 I like getting rid of good games, you know.

1:25 Yeah.

1:26 Or better ones.

1:27 But I will kick us off with our lowest rated one on the list. This is one that I had suspicions before. It always never always.

1:39 I didn't buy it for the longest time because I suspected that it wasn't going to quite have enough legs to it, but I always was intrigued because of the theme and it being kind of something that I thought my wife might like. Uh, this is the game Walk and Roll, which is very much a roll dice, check off things, you know, kind of a roll and write style game. Very yachtsy like with the roll and you get a couple of rerolls. And then you've got this whole menu thing that you're using your results to complete different recipes. And um, it's got kind of an interesting thing that the I think there's four of the dice that are a different color than the other two. and the active player after rolling everybody else gets to use just the four dice but not the other two whereas the active player uses all of them. So there's maybe a little bit of strategy with like what you need for the other players and everything.

2:29 Um and this game I'm rating it a five out of 10.

2:34 Um which is you know not great.

2:36 That's not great. It's

2:38 it's got a great presentation and it's like really kind of well executed from a product standpoint, but when it comes to like a dice game, roll and write style game, this game just really lacks any kind of excitement and drama compared to other games.

2:56 Um, you know, it was kind of like you roll and you,

2:59 oh, I can do this recipe. Oh, I might go more for this type recipe cuz they get more valuable, but like you're kind of just rolling. You know, we've talked recently about a game like Sausage Sizzle, which has these kind of like shoot the moon opportunities or like these really high

3:13 That game is the epitome of excitement.

3:16 This game feels like it would be difficult to have roles that you get very really excited about. I mean, there could be situations where it's like you're really trying to go for the specific thing. um the strategy wasn't very compelling as far as how you work through your sheet. If I compare it to a game like that's pretty clever where there's a lot of interest with like where do I put things, what do I invest in? Um plus that's pretty clever has a stronger sense of excitement with the roles and kind of how you use things. And so it was one of those things despite it being a fun theme that I thought you know that my wife does like like that this kind of like

3:53 um Asian cuisine theme and the presentation was nice. It just

3:58 there's so many good dice games and and if I'm going to have a game like this, you want it to have these really big highs and push your luck and and this one just really kind of lacked it. Uh I felt uh compared to a lot of other games I've played. I've heard the expansion for it for a lot of people elevated it. I looked into it a little bit, but I just didn't feel like it was going to change my opinion on this one.

4:21 It's always hard when it's like, oh, the expansion will make it, you know, this story before, which sometimes can be the case, you know, but but it's a hard hard gamble there.

4:30 Um, yeah, it feels like excitement for games like that is like

4:34 one of the most critical things you have to deliver on for a kind of like uh, you know, push your luck type thing. uh like that.

4:43 Well, and the joy of rolling dice and getting stuff like it just is so much amplified if the game is giving you ways for these these exciting moments.

4:52 Well, the real question is Ryan, you said the game didn't have enough legs. How many legs did the game have?

4:58 Well, there are shrimp in the game. Shrimp have several legs.

5:02 Okay. How many legs do you need, Ryan? Come on. Ryan's a man.

5:06 So, those are probably legs for that might be all of the legs in the game from the shrimp. Well, very nice, Ryan. That's a I like the like the name of the game. That's a uh you know, if nothing else, it's at least a four out of 10 just for the name. So,

5:21 very cool. Ryan, we're going to go to my uh uh lowest rated game that left my collection. And honestly, you know, I we're thinking about what scenario this is. This game, I think, just never had a fair chance given the way it was acquired. Uh this is going to go to Medici the card game. uh which is one of the few games that I've owned where I never intended on owning owning it. Um I honestly don't remember how I got it. I want to say I want to say I got some

5:52 was purchasing some game and somehow this was included

5:55 with it. Um kind of just you know a throwin bonus or whatnot. Um but honestly a fine game. You know it's it can you know play with a kind of a a little bit of also a push your luck. you're trying to kind of you have your ships and you're trying to kind of get cards and and build up uh you know kind of this best uh collection for your for your ship. Uh that's the extent to what I know about what you're doing because it's been a long time since I've played this game.

6:19 Did you just play it once or

6:21 I think I played it a couple times. It was with my wife's family, but we're talking years ago. Um and you know so one there's always you know how when you buy something yourself you have this like you have some investment

6:34 whereas you get something gets thrown in you don't maybe they don't have that initial bias going into it so I already maybe had something going going not for it and then you know played it and it was what I would have expected of like it was a fine game but fine games don't stay in the collection games

6:52 we don't got time for fine games so a 6 out of 10 I can't I don't know if I said that already, but uh uh yeah, one that I think uh there's people out there who probably probably enjoy it, but didn't really have anything that was was grabbing for me. So, you know, I honestly I feel bad for it, Ryan, cuz it's the it's the child that just never uh it was like the black sheep of the family, right? Never had a chance and just just, you know, left and went on went on to bigger and better things. So,

7:20 there's my Medici, the card game.

7:22 There you go. Okay, we got a little bit of a stretch here of games from me. And uh every year I'm always looking for new party games. And uh

7:34 I'm very willing to like try a lot of party games, you know, cuz when you find new ones that really work,

7:40 that's but but that's the uh the other side of it is you try a lot of party games, you know, and the more you play a bunch of them and have more in your collection, the harder it is for ones to stand out and kind of find their their legs. I'll just keep using the legs now. I'll just do the whole video including the metadata. How many?

7:56 But we've got I think three party games here in a row that I got in the last one to two years that just didn't quite

8:03 make the cut. Uh the first one here is Itto.

8:09 Did I play this?

8:10 You did play this. So, we played this with our family when we were together at the Airbnb. You'll probably remember it as I start describing it. Um, so this has some similarities to another party game I have called Wavelength where it works with these like spectrums where it'll be something like cold to hot or like

8:26 famous person you would least like to be versus famous person you would most like to be or whatever. Um, and in Edo you're all getting dealt a number from like one to 100.

8:38 Oh,

8:38 and you're needing to come up with a clue for that spectrum that you think would like clue people that I have a 23. It's like, okay, it's going to be more.

8:47 Um, and this is a cooperative experience where then we are all going to say our clues and put our cards face down and as a group work together to try to put them in order only based on the clues that we've g given. And I had very high hopes for this one actually cuz I had heard very solid reviews of it. I like that whole spectrum thing. Um, I liked it in wavelength. wavelength I enjoy, but found um it's still one I have in my collection, but there is a little bit of kind of like downtime with like the team element and someone coming up with clues, whereas this was like, okay, everybody's kind of doing it at the same time. It turns into cooperative. We've had huge success with games like Just One and So Clover that brought a cooperative party experience.

9:31 Um so we tried this one out and it was like

9:34 it almost worked. I know

9:36 it like almost worked, but it was it was a weird dynamic. So there's a rule in the game that you can after you say your thing, you know what it is,

9:46 you can change it based on because maybe you realize like, oh, this is not a good clue for it. But that introduces a very weird dynamic of you're hearing people, you know, talk about it and you know people are putting it in the wrong spot or you think you are. You don't know. You don't know it's wrong because you don't know what other people's are. But you definitely suspect from what everybody's saying that's like, "Oh, they think this is like way over 50 and I meant for it to be under 50." You know, like you know if people are off that way

10:16 and so then you're like trying to come up with something new, which just the fact that you're you're clearly trying to come up with something new, everybody's like, "Well, we're definitely not discussing theirs the way they intended." And so then it almost turns into this like they're just kind of like trying things until they

10:34 feel like people

10:36 feel like they can accept. Yeah. Which was just a weird dynamic cuz then we were talking about well would it be better if you couldn't change it and it's like maybe it eliminates that but now you have the problem of like you could just be so way off

10:48 game would be really hard

10:49 from the beginning um and you maybe lose some of the the elements of the discussion. And so it it kind of I won't say it fell flat for us,

10:59 but it definitely didn't meet my expectations of what I thought it could be.

11:03 Yeah.

11:04 And it was like I could see taking it out again, trying it again with the right group, but I really, you know, there were several times after those initial plays that I could have brought this game to something or brought this out and I found myself shying away from it, which

11:17 that's starts to be that's kind of a nail in the coffin for like a party game if I'm not bringing it out in like perfect party game situations. And so I don't know, this one's worked really well for a lot of other people. I've heard really good things about it. Um, for us, and maybe it's like if you're trying to win, it starts getting a little weird with with the rules, like maybe if you're just a little more casual with it or I don't know, but I struggled to see the path to our group

11:44 having a really good game with it.

11:46 Yeah, I agree. I This was honest. It was sad for me to I knew nothing about it beforehand, but when you were telling me the rules,

11:54 I was like, "This is awesome." Like I was really excited about this whole like,

11:59 okay, it's a little bit of almost like, you know, I have the mind, you know, where you're just trying to like play in the order, but you're doing it now with like trying to do give a clue. So, it's like the mind and wavelength almost come together a little bit

12:09 and it's fun discussions that come out of it of like, you know, is this thing is this clue more or less on this scale than this other clue? like it's leading to some of the funny discussion you get in Wavelength as well.

12:22 So, it was like they had this like gem of a like mechanic that like fostered like a really awesome thing

12:28 and then just couldn't quite polish it out to deliver.

12:33 I don't know what you would have done differently. It is hard cuz it's like, okay, we're all working together, but like when people are talking about where to place my card, should I be giving a lot of input in that? Yeah.

12:50 If I am

12:53 like, oh no, this should definitely be further down here, right? Like, push it this way.

13:00 Um, so yeah, I I don't know if I said that. I I rate it a six. Um, you know, I even our not so great games of it were still enjoyable. with it, but it was like, man, I just don't see this one

13:14 see me wanting to get it back to the table, especially when I have a lot of other party games that land so much more reliably,

13:20 right? Yeah, we really do need our party games, I feel like, to be I think a core thing is to deliver consistently.

13:28 Uh, you know, like you think about our some of our top games, they they always deliver it feels like, you know, so um yeah, that's tough. H so sad, Ryan.

13:38 It is sad. Yeah, it I I honestly got it wondering, could this replace wavelength? Like, if this had been amazing, I could have seen myself being like, okay, I actually prefer this. But, you know, this is why you this way you play the games. You don't know. You can't just trust somebody on the internet to tell you that some game.

13:56 Trust us.

13:57 Yeah.

13:58 Yeah.

13:58 Well, maybe us, but

14:00 that's true.

14:01 Not those other.

14:01 We're objective.

14:02 Yeah. We we like to stick to objective facts.

14:07 That's right.

14:07 Uh like Ido being a six out of 10.

14:09 Yeah, that is objective.

14:10 Uh so continuing on here with another party game and actually one that I have very similar feelings to in that I love like an element of this, but it just doesn't quite work the way I want it to and kind of ran into some weird things with it. Uh this is Blob Party. And so Blob Party has one of my favorite like new mechanisms I've seen in a party game. Um, where everybody starts with like a little piece of Play-Doh with like a googly eye on it. It's like your little blob. And in the game whenever you answer like everybody's going to be uh putting down an answer to some question where there's like a category and a prompt word and you put down what do you think other people are going to put down? And anybody that puts the same one gets to combine blobs. So you could have three of you that are now blobbed and now you're a team for the future round. And so you have these like adapting teams and the game can play out in different ways where like maybe everybody's absorbing into one and you end up with like one person and a big blob. Maybe you have like

15:08 three medium blobs because of the way things went.

15:12 Absolutely love that. And it got my game designer wheel spinning of like how could that be used in like other games? This dynamic of like

15:21 Yeah.

15:22 You know these these teams shifting throughout the game. Yeah, it would be interesting. Uh, the thing for me that just didn't make this one work is I felt like that core mechanism of the category and prompt just wasn't like strong enough to drive the game. And we definitely found found ourselves when we were playing it kind of like trying to figure out like, okay,

15:44 do you play that you have to say something that's in the category? Like whatever your word should be, you should be able to say yes, that is in that category. and you know the prompt word is just like what you associated with which I think is kind of the intention but there were definitely times where like you know you're trying to match people so you know we're starting to find ways you can kind of cheese it a little bit to like just go with like the most obvious thing

16:11 for the I don't know there was just some weird we ran in again of the weirdness where both these games I blob party were sitting around there talking about

16:20 okay how do we need to kind of set the ground rules here so that this will work, right?

16:25 Right.

16:25 And it was like we just didn't quite get there with it.

16:29 I could see this game being amazing or at least being a very strong experience with a really really big group like you think of like some event where you've got a bunch of people and you do this with a big room of people and have people walking around at their different

16:44 blobs. Um, right.

16:46 I think that could be could be very cool. It's a little bit reminiscent of the game uh Green Team Wins where Green Team Wins you want to be in the majority. I feel like Green Team Wins the prompts and cards are just stronger for what they uh provide.

17:01 Um you know, it's very like clearcut like Green Team Wins has the word and then blank. So it'll be like free blank and then everybody puts like what's the word that you think would fit there and then the other ones are like true or false and like best of three. use the green team win prompts.

17:19 I literally thought about that. Um I think it wouldn't work great. It wouldn't work because with the uh true false and the best of three like you're just auto blobbing a lot of stuff.

17:29 Yeah, that's true.

17:29 Right. You could maybe do it with the blanks where like there's more variance in what people could put.

17:37 But yeah, I almost feel like this blob mechanism needs to just be like I don't know like some stronger system behind it. Yeah.

17:46 Um, and you know, again, this is one I've heard to other people, it's worked pretty well for them, but for us, it it it just didn't quite click and I couldn't see myself uh wanting to get it to the table knowing that like it just wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. So, six out of 10 also for

18:04 Blob Party. A slightly better party game that uh is leaving my collection. Actually, I like this one uh quite a bit.

18:12 I enjoyed this one.

18:13 It's leaving probably more. There's some other games that are kind of similar that I like more and it's maybe a little obtuse like for people to wrap their mind. We talk about a game like Decrypto. We love Decrypto and Decrypto I would also say is obtuse. Like it's

18:28 understanding how this works. But it's so good. Like it's so good when you play it with the right group that it's like, okay, I'm okay that this isn't a party game I'm pulling out all the time, but when I get the right group, this is amazing.

18:39 Um, this is a little bit similar. So, this is the game Phantom Inc., which I'm going to give it a seven out of 10. Um, and this has this uh it's a little bit similar to Decrypto where you have team versus team. Um, and oh my gosh, I'm going to start to forget how this game works cuz the basically the players are passing these clues to the these questions to the ghosts or whatever. M

19:07 um and then they're having to write a word back to their team, but their team can tell them to stop at any time because you're writing it letter by letter. And so you're like not wanting to give the other team too much information because um

19:25 you know what the prompt was that you gave your ghost, but they don't. So, you know, if you can just do a couple letters, you can maybe figure out what they were hinting at and maybe the other team doesn't. where if you let too many letters go, the other team's like, "Oh, we know what that word is, and that actually can like help us um with this." And so I found, and I I know I'm forgetting a little bit about the exact uh details of how this works. It's been a while since I played it.

19:50 Um but it is definitely something that like like the crypto requires the group to kind of get it to know how to play well. Like it was very easy in this game. I remember we had quite a few games of it where like the human team or whatever was just not good about telling the ghost to stop and then the game was really really short because it ended up being too too much information had been revealed and like the game ended really really quickly.

20:14 Yeah.

20:14 Um and so I always saw like how this game could go really well if teams knew how to really dial that right um and play with that back and forth. Um, I think for me it just it made it hard enough to get to the table or like me hesitant enough to bring it out over other party games and then it's like well if I'm gonna bring it out if it's going to be in that category now it's competing with like the crypto and I I like to crypto quite a bit more.

20:40 Um,

20:41 and so really clever game. I think if you had a group that played with the same group,

20:45 which that's that's maybe a big caveat here because a lot of times when we're looking at party games, we're trying to have games that we can pull out with people that haven't played it before and have a good experience.

20:54 This is one that if you played consistently with a group, I think the group would dial in and I think you'd have a really, really good time with it.

21:00 But for me, it wasn't worth holding on to for that

21:04 scenario coming up.

21:05 Makes sense.

21:07 So there you go. Phantom Inc. That is the end of my uh Ryan trio party games leaving the collection.

21:14 Uh let's go to one that is a filler little game that is based off of a game that we love quite a bit

21:23 very much.

21:23 Um and you know basically the thought was oh I could get this game that I really enjoy. It'd be fun to have it in a little 15-minute package and there's not that many 15minute games. This is Ticket to Ride London. Now, I should have realized given that Ticket to Ride doesn't get much play these days. Like, that isn't often what people are choosing off the shelf. I would love to play it more than it does get played. And I'm still holding out hope that as my kids get older, it's going to have a

21:49 Oh, yeah.

21:49 resurgence. It's not that far.

21:51 Yeah. Um, but I should have known that Ticket to Ride London was not going to get, you know, selected much. I probably could have pushed it more in these situations. We're like, we just want a really, really quick game.

22:03 Yeah. Um, but yeah, at the end of the day, it wasn't getting played much. It for me, it's a fun little snack size ticket to ride experience, but it's not nearly as fun as playing Ticket to Ride.

22:17 Um, and so it was like, okay,

22:21 they're just And admittedly, I guess another thing is we've I've had an addition of some other pretty strong really short games into the collection like Strike has been be played a lot and um,

22:32 Tumblr and Dice. Maybe we just need to dexterity games. I feel like there's some other ones.

22:36 Yeah.

22:36 Um and so, you know, after a long time of this sitting on the shelf and not seeing a lot of play and realizing that if I want to play Ticket to Ride, I definitely would rather play a full version of Ticket to Ride. Uh it just made me realize this one probably isn't going to get played much.

22:49 Yeah, I I agree. It's honestly I enjoyed this one um when we played it together. And I think that's the hard thing is when would you pull it out? Um, and it's like if we were together and we only had 15 minutes, but even then like there's some other good options. So, yeah, it's just uh but but it it like gives you a little taste of Ticket to Ride, but in some ways that's almost

23:15 a negative T because it Yeah, it's like

23:18 you it's almost like, hey, start if I started playing a game of Ticket to Ride and then just like stopped before it got like most exciting.

23:24 It's it's more like it jumps to the most exciting. So, I'll give that to it that it like

23:30 it feels kind of like the end of a game of Ticket Tide where everything's really tight and you don't have much time to finish things.

23:37 Um, but yeah, I just love the arc of a tried more in the scale of it. Um,

23:42 so a good little game. Seven out of 10.

23:45 But but it wasn't it wasn't seen a lot

23:48 a lot of play. My next one, going back to our metaphors, this is this is the child that had we had a really good, you know,

23:57 yeah, I I'm ruining this metaphor. Uh,

24:00 it's the graduating child, though. Like, this this is like we had a really good time with this game. It kind of served its stint in the collection. It's just I've played it over 20 times. I think my wife liked it, which definitely helped it stay in the collection more as we've added more games that my wife also liked.

24:21 You know, it starts to be like, okay, maybe we don't need this one anymore. Um, but fond memories with one this one. This is Dragon Castle, which I'm giving a seven out of 10.

24:31 Nice.

24:32 Um, kind of a cool twist on Ma Jang. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but uh with the those like nice and it has these nice like blocky tiles. The components in this game are very good.

24:44 Quality is very good.

24:45 Um and you're basically removing them from this central structure. It's actually more like the solitire computer version of Maong than the actual game, but you're looking for pairs of tiles that can be removed and then that that match. And then you get to add those to your own personal little castle that you're building up. And then there's rules for how you build up with colors next to each other and then can flip tiles to get points. And every game there's a unique like dragon scoring condition that you might want to do. And like whenever you flip, you also get to put these pigotas out that score for how high they are but also block you from building on it. So then you start building up three dimensionally cuz you want to get those pigotas higher. It's really clever and like I like a lot of what's going on here. I think for me after playing it 20 times the depth of strategy here is not very deep um

25:37 I started to feel like I had kind of seen everything I would want to see with it. I have a good time playing it if I play it but um

25:45 it I was I was feeling every I would say every play the more plays I logged the less I was feeling compelled

25:53 to continue coming back to it. Um, and so eventually when you're on that trajectory, you hit a point where it's like, okay, right,

26:01 I think we're we're okay moving on from this one.

26:04 Yeah. I didn't have this I cuz I owned this game as well. I think it was in a cold video um previously. Um definitely didn't have it as long as as you, but I remember playing this with you first

26:15 and a lot of things I love about it. I mean, I got you the Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. The components are fantastic. I mean, gosh, those little the the kind of domino style or not domino, sorry. Uh, but just material wise. Yeah. Yeah.

26:32 Um, so great. And the and just the visual of like I love how you can, you know, each game, you know, they've got some preset uh, you know, you can like make different structures and then taking the pieces and putting them on your own. Like just that is all so great. Um, and my wife enjoyed it so that was the reason we got it as well. But I agree with you. It just like I don't know. I played it just, you know, more times and I just didn't get that exciting of moments. It was just the whole game was kind of just like okay, like nice and but even like a cozy game.

27:06 It's very cozy.

27:07 It's just a This is a game to just relax and drink a little bit of tea and

27:12 but like don't have to think too hard.

27:14 Yeah. It's I just it didn't for me I feel like a game has to have you know a moment where like I make a move and I'm like you get this excitement this gratification and I just didn't feel like I got that from very many very many things. I don't know.

27:30 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, you start to figure out some of the little strategies of like, okay, how I can position my tile so that they don't flip until it's a bigger group because I connect it later. And it's like, okay, that's kind of a fun strategy. And, okay, how do I layer to optimize getting my pigotas up or like going after those dragons to get the bonuses? Yeah,

27:52 I just felt like for my personal strategy in the game after about 5 to 10 games, I had like locked in a flowchart in my mind of like how to how I would approach it.

28:04 And so it's hard cuz it's I don't feel like I'm discovering new strategic considerations as much as just kind of like executing my personal.

28:15 Um I had a pretty good record in this

28:17 game.

28:17 Cuz if you're not undefeated, that means your flowchart is flawed. Yeah, cuz the game I guess does it have any luck? It's all

28:24 preset. This is like chess, Ryan. Come on. It's basically chess.

28:27 You should dive into it like that.

28:28 Um, so yeah, one I'm glad I had glad I played so much. Um, for the right

28:34 person, I would still even recommend this team if you're looking for a light,

28:38 good presentation, quick

28:41 um with two players, it actually is a

28:44 not very confrontational. And with two players, it's a little bit more strategic because you get your turns back. so you know exactly like what you're reviewing for your opponent. Um,

28:53 so yeah,

28:54 I I salute Dragon Castle on the way out of my collection. I had I had a good time with it.

28:58 Well, that's been enough talking from Brian, so I'm going to I'm going to jump back in here with a game that uh I had uh pretty high hopes for. Uh I constantly, my wife and I, we love Polyomino games and so uh always am intrigued uh when I see um see ones come out. This one got some pretty solid reviews. Um, and this is going to go to World Wonders, uh, which I'm going to be giving an eight out of 10. I think World Wers a pretty strong rating.

29:28 World Wonders is a is a I think a really really solid game. It's got a lot of things going for it. I uh so you've you know got your kind of polyomino board where you're going to be building up this uh city but kind of interesting the way uh the way the building works in that uh you know you're going to be drafting these different shaped pieces to be placed out on your board but there's some different kind of building restrictions. One being you always you have to place a piece either next to a road which the whole bottom of your board is a road but then you can build roads out or next to a piece of the same color. And that little restriction is just makes it really interesting. So you kind of are trying to keep different, you know, putting colors together doesn't really do anything from a scoring perspective, but obviously happens because of, you know, just from a like being able to to build things.

30:19 And then often times you'll try to like shoot a road out quick so that you can get some

30:23 Oh, I shot a road out when I played this.

30:25 Ryan did. I hope we have a picture of that cuz Ryan uh

30:29 I can't remember even how it happened but something happened that like my only option left was to like build a bunch of roads and I was like well I guess I'm building roads all the way to the top of my board.

30:39 And I really love in this game the currency. So you have I want to say it's like seven gold every round and and buying you know each piece has a different kind of gold amount to buy. But the catch is that there's also these monuments which are the big 3D structures that look amazing. Um, and each there's also, you know, a few monuments out and really the goal of the game like you're ultimately trying to obviously optimize but be getting those monuments. Those are kind of, you know, one of the big big scoring things. But the interesting thing is when you take a monument, the cost is the rest of your gold for that round. So obviously, so this now puts you into a tension of the monuments. you know, if there's a monument you want, like it fits really well in your thing, you're going to want to go earlier to get it, but then that might cost you more gold because it's the rest like obviously from an optimization perspective, you would want to wait until you have one gold left to take a monument. Um, but if you wait that long, then it might get taken. So, that's kind of the tension, you know, everyone everyone is facing as you're um as you're kind of building out and whatnot. I thought I think visually the game just

31:46 has a really just a gratifying uh thing as you watch this kind of unfold. So all of that really really um enjoyed the reason it's leaving my collection. Uh couple things. First, it just I think was a little longer than I wanted. like it, you know, we played this five players. Um, and like I, you know, it's just hard cuz like the type of game it is, I would love if I could play it in an hour,

32:18 you know, with like five player. Like that would just be like such a nice, you know, but it was like I, you know, I can't remember the exact, but I want to say it was like an hour and a half, maybe even close to two hours. And it's like, man, you're hitting that.

32:32 You're starting to kind of touch the best of the best that we have.

32:36 Well, or just like a sit the type of situation with this weighted game, you're just not looking for that long of a game with that group.

32:44 Totally. Totally. And so there was that part of it. Another part, and this is again something where I I I think they have an expansion that might help this a little bit, but the monuments, while the visually awesome, were a little underwhelming to me in that, if I remember correctly, I think they all just give you like a different amounts of points, right?

33:07 It's just points. And I want to say most of them are like the same amount. And so like I I'm like, "Oh my gosh, you have these unique monuments. Like how cool would it be if they had like different scoring things, like variable scoring based off the monument? Like that would be incredible. So it was like

33:28 it's like they it's almost like they felt they didn't want to make the game more complex, like they wanted to keep it more accessible when they made that decision. It does almost feel like a missed opportunity though with how cool and unique all the pieces are for that to not translate into mechanisms of also like feeling like, "Oh, this game felt way different because I got the Sphinx and I got this thing." It's like it looked different.

33:55 Well, there's there's very, you know, monuments aren't the only way to score points. You know, in the game, you're also going up on these tracks and it's kind of like some other games do this too where it's the lowest where whatever you're the lowest in uh is ultimately what you're going to going to score. And so even like they build it up like monuments are going to be like the the the gamechanging thing if you can get a monument like that's how I want to feel and then in re as I like took a step back and realized like how many points they were getting me it was like okay they're they're fine

34:25 good to pick up along the way as you can do it efficiently.

34:28 It just didn't feel like the the visual like the monument to the what it was actually doing for me didn't feel like it matched. So, um, yeah, ultimately I, you know, so it ended up just like it was a good game. It's fun. Totally would, you know, enjoy playing it again, but just a little too long and then I think just didn't quite deliver that oh excitement that I think could have happened if the monuments would have been maybe a little more little different. So, I I really liked this one, too. And honestly, it was one that I probably would have considered getting, but I at the time was waiting for Planet Unknown to come. and I knew Planet Unknown was going to be kind of a similar

35:07 category. Um, and I think if Planet Unknown had like for some reason fallen flat or whatever and I didn't keep it,

35:14 I would have maybe had my eyes on this one again cuz I really did enjoy it. Um,

35:19 but yeah, for me it's like okay, Planet Unknown kind of ended up filling this niche and it has a lot more simultaneous play which helps with that time and keeping everybody engaged. Um, so I know for me personally that's what kind of bumped this to where

35:36 it's still like it still is like one that I really liked and if it wasn't for Planet Unknown maybe I would even consider getting it. But

35:43 yeah, I don't own Planet Unknown yet but after I played it I mean that was ultimately the thing that made me go

35:49 this is just it it completely replaces World Wonders for me. Um

35:54 I and and that's saying a lot given World Wonders is an eight. So, yeah. Uh, I don't own it yet, but

36:01 stay tuned, folks.

36:02 Stay tuned. All right, this is my final entry, and then we get a bunch of bunch of Daniel's highly rated rejects. Um, and this is kind of a weird one for me because this is actually me getting rid of some content for a game, a game that I love and I'm keeping. Um, but there, as I've gotten more and more content for, and I've realized that, uh, and in any given game, you're only using some of the content. It's like, okay, man. It's really only worth me keeping the stuff that I really enjoy the most playing with. Uh, this is for Final Girl. Um, and I got rid of two feature films and one of the vignette expansions. I'm going to call this a an eight for the whole rating of this, which is still high, but you got to understand most Final Girl stuff I would rate 99.5. So, this is this is on the lower end of it.

36:53 Uh the first is uh a new one from the season three. Season three. I'm season two.

37:00 I'm mixing up my seasons. Series two. Uh final go Merrick Murders. Um and I'm not going to go into this in detail. We actually have a video where I go into a lot of detail on the whole series of and I talk about a little bit about why uh some of these didn't land for me. Uh, but this is one that I just didn't enjoy either the killer or the location that much, which when you get a feature film, uh, those are both mix and match with everything, which actually I kind of was happy that the location and killer that I didn't like that much were together cuz it meant I could get rid of it as a set instead of feeling like I was losing something I really liked.

37:34 I also from the series 1 decided to get rid of Slaughter in the Groves, which is kind of just the most punishing in my experience. Like there's a lot of hard things in Final Cut. This one felt the most punishing and not like the most fun way. Um, so decided to get rid of that one. And then the newest vignette expansion, Terror from Destiny,

37:54 just didn't land for me uh very well. It sounds like for a lot of people who maybe know the theme better of these like Final Destination films that I have not seen.

38:02 Yeah, you got a lot of correction on your

38:04 Yeah. Yeah. People explained to me how that why it actually was the theme made sense and I get it now. Uh

38:11 but it still just wasn't one that really clicked for me. eating to go watch.

38:16 So, this is this is actually a big big move for me to, you know, you you turn off that completionist gene and be like,

38:23 I'm shocked

38:24 I don't have to have everything. And yes, I'm losing some variety and mix and match. And there's some things that are a bummer to lose here. I got rid of the final girls that came with those sets that like otherwise I would have liked keeping in rotation, but at the end of the day, I have so much of it and ones that I enjoy more. I only play it so much, right? It's not like this is the only game I play.

38:47 And so, if I'm going to be playing, I should be mixing and matching with the stuff that I like the most. It also makes me feel like I could get one of the new cuz they're continuing to make feature films for it. It makes me feel like I could, you know, get another one if I'm willing to drop some of the ones I'm not enjoying as much.

39:03 Um,

39:04 I am, you know, Ryan, I'm proud of you because I, Daniel could never do this of like have cuz it's so funny how for so many of us like that completionist mentality of like

39:15 it becomes more than even just play what you're playing. It's like I got to I got to have this.

39:20 Well, they looked all so nice on the shelf. all the feature films right next to Well, no, it's just there's fewer feature films there now. So,

39:27 I thought they like I didn't know if they had like a progression,

39:30 but like I no longer series one and an incomplete series two, you know.

39:38 It's good. It's good.

39:39 It's a step in the right direction.

39:40 That's good.

39:42 Very nice, Ryan. Well, uh I'm going to bring us home here. Four games. Uh all great games and excited to talk about why I hate them. No, I'm just kidding. Uh why they uh did not stay in my collection. First one is game that I've had for a while now. Uh I want to say maybe you gave it maybe it was like a birthday gift a while back or something like that. And honestly I get Yeah. I mean a really solid game. Like I could see a lot of people loving this game

40:11 and I Yeah. And just wasn't getting played a ton. I've got a few thoughts about that. But this is gonna go to The Quest for El Dorado, which I'm gonna be giving an eight out of 10. Now, I believe there was a new version that came out.

40:25 It's kind of a confusing product line cuz there were like different versions in different countries and then there were like expansions, but they were like different. It was

40:33 Yeah. But anyways, this is a this is a really cool game in that it's a you know, you you've got all these um kind of pieces of terrain that uh you build out to basically make this race here. It's a race uh from start to finish. Um and you've got your little adventure, but it's a deck building race. So on your turn, you're playing the cards from your hand and the cards correspond to kind of different the different terrains and stuff. And so you might have a spot on out on the map where to get through the passage, you need a four of the like, you know, grass or whatever. And so the only way you can get through that is if you play a four or higher grass card. And so that's where buying cards from the de for the deck building element. Uh and it's cool because you can kind of you can see the whole map. So you can kind of be like, okay, what path do I want to try to go and how do I want to build my deck to try to, you know, try to work with that. So super super cool. I think the the the deck building is sweet. I the like that combined with racing it just was something that you know I I'm not haven't really seen that in like uh actually you know what I guess Clank Catacombs a little bit has like the racing dynamic and definitely a heavier

41:47 Yeah. Yeah. But I just was thinking it's you know in some ways uh like that. But

41:53 so very very fun. I've had I've had games of it where it kind of comes down to the wire um and all of that. I think a few things. This one's kind of silly. I in a deck building game, I don't like small cards, Ryan.

42:08 Yeah, the little tiny cards

42:10 like and there are these little tiny and I don't know if they've if they've if it's bigger in new editions, I don't know. But the one I had, it's like these little cards and and when I have a deck building game, I want a fullsize card so I can hold my hand. That's a very minor thing, but uh I I find I didn't

42:26 shocking that you rated an eight with that.

42:29 It is shocking. It overcame a lot.

42:31 Yeah.

42:31 Um

42:33 the other another thing is every game, and there might be an expansion that adds, again, this is the theme of our video, expansions that potentially could have fixed it, but it's the same market every time. Well, and this this was the thing I was going to mention is the biggest thing for me. Had this game had like a core market but then like a bunch of stuff that was variable from game to game, I think I would have been interested in picking up this game.

42:57 And the expansion, the one that I had looked into does add new cards,

43:03 but you just add them to the market like it's all of them are there.

43:07 Which like I guess on the positive side, players get very familiar with the market. You're you know, so from like a familiar familiarity perspective, that's good. balanced like you're not gonna have an unbal it's more about how do I build to this particular map

43:23 map the map is the the varial part which is cool like and you can build your own maps and all of that

43:29 but it just kind of reduced the excitement because you're using the same cards every time and so you're never getting a card I mean obviously there's there's you know more expensive ones but even the most expensive ones it's like okay I've I've you know seen that before and I love in deck builders getting to get combinations or things that you've not done before. Like it's such a fun genre to explore trying some

43:59 new combo or new thing and this didn't really have that very strong. It was more about applying the same tools

44:06 to a fun, you know, light race thing. But I think we missed that piece of the deck building. I think the other hard part, and this could be this is really maybe just an inherent thing with any racing game, um, is it doesn't the game doesn't have a catch-up mechanism at all. Um, which

44:25 it has a slight one, right? Cuz there's those little zigzags that whoever's the first to cross them.

44:30 That is true.

44:31 You have to like spend extra, but I think it also like gives you a benefit.

44:34 It's the tiebreaker. Yeah.

44:36 Yeah. Which a tie is very possible.

44:38 It happens a lot, right? So, that is true. That's a good point. And uh I totally forgot about those those barriers.

44:43 I'm surprised I remembered. I played this game like six years ago.

44:46 That was phenomenal. Ryan, congrats coming through.

44:48 Um but I just I had several games where someone fell behind early and it kind of just was the writing on the wall, you're going to lose the game. And so the last half of the game wasn't that exciting for them. Um, and again, maybe that's just inherent with a racing game, but

45:07 it's one of the really hard things about designing racing games, right? Is like the victory point track is the game. So, you're forced to like just if you're losing, you're just forced to stare and strategize from your losing position.

45:19 Yeah. So, super honestly really great game. I think a lot of people would would uh enjoy checking it out, but wasn't getting played for for me. So, give it an eight out of 10. Now, we're going to move to a game that honestly I would say of all of these is the one I'm most sad it's leaving my collection.

45:38 Wow.

45:39 Because I would say this is the game that Daniel loved so much but just could never find the situations or people to play with. And I probably could have if I tried more. Uh there's actually a second reason it's it's leaving. Um this is going to go to Aon's End, which I'm giving a nine out of 10. and wow

45:59 is a great game. Like I the way it can obvious is also a deck building game, but the way it can just like you've got a you select a boss, you've got variable characters, a variable I mean oh my gosh, talk about like maximum variability every game. um variable market like and then you're work you're building your deck to to ultimately you know fight against this against this monster and and each one feels so different. Um this game has just so many fun elements. I think about the part of uh the order that you go especially if you're playing like let's say we're playing a two-player game. Uh you have these turn order cards that get shuffled into a deck. So you'll have some for me, some for you, and some for the the boss monster, but it gets shuffled. So you don't know the order exactly things are going to go. But as you go through the deck, you can start to be like, "Okay, this has happened already, so now we know this is going to happen." But I find just that little shakeup really makes the game interesting in like the how you know it's not just going clockwise like so uh and can create some brutal moments where you like get backto back bosses at the end of the deck shuffle and you try it again but then you know okay we've got a long period where these you know if we can survive that so so really really cool thing with that there's so much content for this game I mean I had the core set in War Eternal and so like I wouldn't even need to get any more of it. There was plenty

47:30 uh plenty of it. Um honestly only leaving the collection one because like my wife didn't like this game which means I would need to find someone else and I probably could have if I if I worked at it. Uh but then Ryan I played uh Slay the Spire with you and I don't own it yet. I will own it someday. And and they're very different game like Slay the Spire is much longer.

48:00 It is longer definitely to do like a full

48:03 but the like when I'm playing this game I I'm going for the deck building

48:08 fight against

48:09 the cooperative

48:10 cooperative deck building experience and you know the downside is it's longer and that you know it is a downside but oh my gosh is Slay the Spire incredible. And so it was so incredible that I just

48:25 if you're if you're rating on Zen a nine I mean Slire must be

48:31 must be a nine at least. I know.

48:34 I mean if there's a big gap there.

48:36 There is a big gap. I know. Maybe I should have laid it lower. I don't know. But Aon's End is a great game and there are a lot of people I think that and honestly I might have made a bad decision cuz it's uh it's like shorter and plays plays fairly quick. Uh, but maybe someday we'll be talking about Danielle getting Nan's again. They also have the newer kind of streamline version, Astron Knights, that I know when it first came out, a lot of what I heard about it was

49:04 like it's good and it's cool how they streamlined a lot of things, but uh for people who are coming from Azend, it was like they took away too much.

49:11 But part of it was like, oh well, give it time to expand. Aon has had so much time to expand. So, I don't I know Astronauts has been getting some expansions and stuff, which is intriguing. Um, but we'll see. I remember one one other thing that's interesting with Aonz is the whole thing that you don't shuffle your deck, you just flip it, your discard pile,

49:29 which it's like one of those things that on paper it's like, oh, that's a really cool twist on deck building and you can actually potentially use it strategically to like

49:37 try to I actually found in practice I didn't really love it, right? I think one because it made that discard action suddenly feel like I should be thinking about what I'm doing of like

49:49 okay like it actually matters like what order I put these and like what things and it's almost like I didn't want to have to think about that action and like

49:59 um and then the second part is I like in a deck builder where when I have all these cards I like the shuffle of like what am I going to get in this hand and like am I going to get these cards together or not and so it like maybe removed a little bit of that

50:12 variety in the types of hands you're getting.

50:16 Um, but it is interesting and I know a lot of people they really like that about the game. It gives a little bit more control.

50:21 Um,

50:22 but yeah,

50:23 I had fun the times I played and end.

50:25 The problem is that every time we played it, I wouldn't have played it in three years and didn't remember how to play. But

50:30 either.

50:31 Yeah.

50:32 Okay, Ryan, we're going to move on to another game.

50:34 Another nine. What's Daniel doing? And this is, you know, talk about a child that graduated and and moved on. This, honestly, the last two are the epitome of

50:45 This is like your child got adopted by a good friend, right?

50:49 That is true. It's a good example. Yeah. Um, this is going to go to Star Wars Imperial Assault. Um, I'm giving this game a nine out of 10. Um, I have such fond memories of Star Wars. Uh, this I played it in high school, played it in college. uh played it. Just finished a campaign recently.

51:09 Um and it it really is just a fantastic, you know, dudes on a map, you versus the emperor, uh you know, the upgrading of the game, the campaigns. So much fun. I still and still would love to play, you know, some of the the more of the campaigns. You know, I've played the base campaign, I think, three times now. It's like it's great, but I'm ready to like, you know, experience some more. Um, honestly, the only reason it's leaving my collection is because I've got a buddy who owns, you know, the Star Wars stuff. And so, if I'm going to play Star Wars, uh,

51:44 and he was in the group,

51:46 he was the one we were using his content. And so, I was like, "Okay, I've I don't see a situation like there's if I'm playing a campaign not with him, I'm there's plenty of other things out there I could play." Um, and he has it. So, really not leaving the collection for anything of its own fault. Uh, but it really says something about this game that I've played three base campaigns, a mini shorter campaign, part of a the return to Hoth campaign. We didn't finish that one. And uh, still has me coming back and I it's just a really

52:20 really solid game. does it does have a little bit like I was talking with the guy who was playing as the on the emperor side that is a like hard role because

52:32 you have to when you're playing you versus four people like obviously you're trying to just even understand like your abilities and how to best use them

52:40 but you have to remember what everybody else has cuz like that's your decision you know you could make a crucial mistake because you forgot that oh Jyn has this ability that can do this and as the campaign goes on where you're just getting more and more upgrades like that is a very taxing thing and it never feels good when you do something and then you're like oh well I wouldn't have done that if I remembered that you had that ability you know so there's a little bit of that that's that's challenging I do love that you can as the emp you know the emperor side play as hard as you you know you don't have to like go soft to make it a good campaign pain like you can play hard and it it delivers often times a really tight uh tight experience. So great game, great game and uh there's still some sadness to see it go just because I have such great such great memories uh owning it. But there still

53:38 freed up a bunch of shell space.

53:40 I tell you what, man. I do do need to continue to

53:43 Okay. Well, and speaking of that,

53:44 speaking of freeing up shell space.

53:47 This goes to my uh top cold game, graduated, and I had a fantastic time with it. This goes to Gloom Haven. Uh yeah, this is a lot of shelf space. Um I played all the way through Gloom Haven. Uh this was really me and two other guys uh during my uh time at graduate school and we uh every Wednesday we had we had classes off that day and so every Wednesday we would meet we would get together and play through this uh Gloom Haven is fantastic. I love the, you know, the characters obviously are all so unique and but you have this deck of cards and I love them how you start out with like the full, you know, uh, you know, hand of of cards. And so that's interesting, but it's also like your health. And so as you're playing, you know, as you go through playing all your cards, you're going to have to, you know, you're going to slowly be like, uh, burning cards. So, your health is going to slowly kind of be dropping and you potentially can push things and sacrifice, you know, more and whatnot.

54:55 Um, that card play mechanic of, you know, the cards you play that's also going to have your initiative on it. So, trying to figure that out and

55:04 um

55:05 then coordinating with your teammates to on the tactical play on the map. It is such a great system. It it just works so well and it's a system that then when you get different I love that as the campaign goes you're not just one character like you get to over the course of this campaign play four you know three four different characters and and the characters are so different and it's fun to watch how the group dynamic changes when you retire a guy and a new one comes in it's like okay wow we got to change how we play um and whatnot. Uh so yeah, man, what a fun game. And it's just it's fun to experience the fullness of a game. Um there were thoughts at some point of like, oh, do I, you know, do you keep it around and try to reset things? But honestly, it's like I think I experienced the fullness of this game.

56:00 I don't need to play the existing thing. You know, if I wanted to, I could go to Frost Haven. If I ever wanted to do the Gloom Haven experience again, then that's probably what I would do. Um, but man, you know, I know I think I'm even higher on Gloom Haven than you are. Um,

56:17 cuz we both basically played I didn't quite finish the full campaign, but basically played the full campaign. We kind of have ended up at the same place where I ended up selling off mine and you now are with yours. I think I was a little more burnt out on it by the time I sold it out to where I was like, "Okay, I didn't even feel I was losing my desire to like really want to play it more." Yeah.

56:39 Um even though I enjoyed a lot of what it was doing.

56:41 Yeah.

56:42 Um but you're so right that like

56:44 even if you want to play again, there's Frost Haven, which is like even bigger than Gloom Haven. And we just live in an era where there's so many other campaign games. You talked about Star Wars Imperial Assault. It's, you know, it is hard to say I want to play the thing campaign I already played. Especially when you're talking Gloom maybe. I mean, we're talking like 70 plus games.

57:07 Yeah. I think I was like I think I might have been over like 80 or something.

57:10 Yeah.

57:10 Uh so, but but you know, I like feel like I got my money's worth. Like, oh my gosh. Absolutely.

57:17 Played. I mean, you look at it, we both played with groups of three, right? You had two other Yeah. Yeah. And so it's like, okay, three people, we played 80 games that were each, you know, maybe an hour and a half on average with the upgrading and stuff. It's like, you do the math there. You you

57:33 this is going to be pretty cheap for the entertainment value that you got for this group. So it it feels great to just have gotten a game. You know, you wonder like, oh my gosh, am I actually going to be able to play Gloom Haven? I'm going to be able to find the group. You find the group. You play through it all together. And it is one of my favorite games of all time. I think I said I gave it a 9.5 out of 10, but Gloom Haven uh will always stand as one that I have such fond memories of. There you have it. We talked about some really great games, some games we didn't feel were quite that great. You can check out any of them down in the description uh below. But most of the other content in our channel tends to be pretty positive about games that we do enjoy. And you can check out a few of those videos here.