Reviewing 17 BoardGameArena Games Round 3 - Map Masters, Luz, Arigato & More!!!

0:01 Hey, I'm Alex Radical from Board Gameco. And today I'm going to be reviewing 17 board games from Board Game Arena. This is a series that I do that I've already done two in the series and there should be a bunch more coming cuz actually there's a whole lot more games. But I just the first time I did the series, I chose 17 as an arbitrary number because that's how many random games I had played in the past 2 months or whatever. And then I decided that the series is now 17 board game arena games. Why 17? It's a random number. It works. We're going to keep at it. But anyways, I do have a bunch more of these to go through cuz I have like another I have a bunch more games that I've been playing. Basically, what I like to do is I like to hop over to Board Game Arena and I like to learn new games on a regular basis, learn a new game, play a new game, just see what else is out there. Most of the games that I play on Board Game Arena when I do this are games that aren't really worth playing again. In fact, I should be very very specific here. I'm saying 17 games that I'm reviewing. In general, in a regular video, if I call it a review, please know that in general, a review is a game I played at least twice, usually more, versus a first impression is a game that I've played one time. Many of these are first impressions. So, that is the caveat. I will give you my thoughts, my score, and all that. But, I do want you to know that for most of these, I have only played them on Board Game Arena, which I do know can affect your experience. There are some great games that I love that I do not think Board Game Arena is the best platform for them. And then secondly, many of these I've played once. If I've played it more than once, I'll generally mention it because that'll happen to a few of these. But honestly, I found some really I I have found some really good games on Board Game Arena. Darwin's Journey, for

1:32 example, is a game that the first time I played it was on board Game Arena. Then again, it's not like I found it at Board Game Arena. Either way, I played a lot of games that some of them I only played because of Board Game Arena. Some of them I played for the first time in Board Game Arena. I played a lot of stuff online. Board Game Arena is just my current platform of choice. But also, there are a lot of games that are just not worth your time or at least not worth my time. And I think that I want to let you know uh which games worked for me and which ones not. So, I will be going over these 17 games. I will be going from least fun to most fun. I will be assigning a score to all of them. Again, caveats, most these are going to be first impressions, but nonetheless, I'll assign a score and I'll be giving my thoughts on them. One of the reasons I do this is cuz I find it's very often quick and easy to pick up a new game. And I like that process, which is a good segue to our channel sponsor because if we head over here to All Play, Allplay in general has a ton of games that are quick and easy to pick up. And in general, their games are their games are are better than the average board game.

2:25 There are many games on board that are better than AllPlay games, but the average Allplay game is better than your board game. You can check this out. Go to allplay.com. Check out their games category. They have a lot of games from themselves as well as other publishers that they work with. With that, let's go ahead and start off with number 17, which is Mind Cycling. Mind Cycling might be the only one on this list that I didn't even know I did finish it. I was going to say I didn't bother to finish it. It's not true. I did finish it. I did finish this game. I debated not finishing it. Uh Mind Cycling is a racing game. It's a racing game. It's a 5.8 over here. I I think that's being generous. I I didn't see. Now, to be fair, I should note I'm not really the target audience for racing games. I've yet to find a racing game that I loved. Racing games. I can enjoy. I can appreciate, but it's clearly not the um it's clearly not the genre for me based on the fact that I've yet to find something that was incredible within that genre for me. Even games like Heat that are well-loved for me is like Heat's a good game. It's a good game. So like the best of the best in the category to me I'm just okay with. So it should get that caveat. That said, I did not find my second cycling fun. I found it tedious. I I didn't I just didn't find it rewarding strategically in any way. Uh to me I'd give this a two out of five. Uh in general, you can check my rating scale down below. I'd give this a two out of five. Then we have DiceOn over here. Oh, I should note I meant to say at the beginning. Um, sometimes when I do these videos, when you get to the end, there are some really good games that I think you shouldn't miss out on.

3:38 I think feel free to watch the rest of this video. And I guess, um, if you keep watching after this, that's on you. Feel free to to watch the rest of this video. I don't think there's anything in this video that I think is a mustplay. Towards the end, there are definitely games that I've had more fun with and would happily play again on Board Game Arena, but nothing in this video is the mustplay. Usually the past two times I've done this series, there have been some really good games at the end. And in future videos, there will be some really good games at the end because there are a lot of great games that I find and play on board game. But this is not one of the videos where I have a lot of them. This is there there's like bad going to like decently fun. That's the ranking. That said, you might still want to watch it because um you might want to know what to avoid. Daon uh this one over here. This is actually not bad over here. We jump directly from a what's it called? From a from a two straight up to a three over here. Vice Spawn is basically checking off boxes. It's a roll and right. Nothing incredible about it, but I had fun. It was decent. It wasn't bad. Uh, Moonshine, same basic idea. Well, I mean, not really. Uh, not necessarily same basic idea. This is a totally different game. It's card collection. A lot of rolling dice. I thought the art was fine. The presentation was fine. I just found it to be not super satisfying. Again, it would be another three out of five. Not the worst, not the best. Map Masters.

4:50 Map Masters I kind of wanted to like. I like the general idea of what MapMasters is doing, but I found it to be way too tedious as far as trying to optimize. My main issue with Map Masters is I I didn't enjoy the part where I keep trying to reconfigure and adjust the cars cuz I'm like, "Wait, no, I can do better. Nope, I can do better." It it was that issue. It was the issue that way the cars are constructed kind of makes me want to keep getting a better like if I change this here and I move this here and I reconfigure this here and that that wasn't fun for me. made the game it made the game about a game that could have been fun and instead made it a I'm going to rearrange constantly until I optimize to the nth degree or just give up and just say it's good enough and I didn't like that process. So overall the game is pretty fine but that kind of held it back for me. Another three out of five. Elongo another three out of five over here. And again this is they they like it less than I do. I thought Elongo was pretty fun. There's no images here to show you unfortunately but Alongo is basically tile placement. Your tile placement while trying to create these groupings and then finish off these groups. It's like a Carcassone game, but if Carcassone were significantly harder to visualize what's going on. But other than that, I think the gameplay is pretty decent. It's just the visual the visualizations on this game were horrible. I'm actually curious what the uh ratings say. What do the ratings say?

5:57 Played on BGA. Multiple agreed to be less painful. Not points were lost. Uniquely shaped tiles. Yeah, I don't know. Could not imagine trying to score without the BGA. That's an interesting uh call out. I don't disagree with that. Yeah, Carson with lesser regrets. I don't know. It was This is It was fine. I thought it was fine, but it was not it was not great. And um I would just rather play Carcasson any day of the week. Then we go to Beyond. Another three out of five. There's a lot of three out of fives over here. At some point towards the end, we'll jump to some 3.5s, but doesn't get higher than that. Uh Beyond was another one where it's basically just card collection. You're you're you're drafting cards. There's an element of busting in the game. You're trying to create these sets of cards by creating those like squares over there. Different sets are harder to accomplish based on the uh flexibility of the cards. There's a degree of stealing cards from your opponent. It was fine. It was a totally fine game. felt very very luck dependent, but it's luck dependent. Push your luck. Not the worst. I'd rather play, I don't know, dead man's draw or anything else, but three out of five. We have brickage heads. No, it's called Kikai. Kikai. Why is it called Heads? I thought it was known Kikai. I don't know. Either way, Kikai over here, which I This is another one that I thought was decent, but I don't know if I fully understood. I This one might be a me problem. Okay, because I played this I actually played this one twice because I was like, you know what?

7:06 I want to try to iterate and figure out if I can do better the second time around. Uh, and and it both times was not really for me. Uh, Kikai is a game that basically has you I don't even know how to describe this game. It's so weird to describe. You're kind of placing things down into different districts. You're placing these statues down. No, that's not a good image there. Let's try to find a better image. You're trying to place like statues down in different districts. You're trying to like build these structures, whatever it is, while you attract people to those structures. It was interesting. I don't know if I fully grasped the strategy. Again, I played through two full games of this one because I was like, maybe the first game I just didn't really understand it well enough. And so, I did it again and I was like, nope, I still I still don't understand it well enough. Like, I understand all the things that are happening, but like at no point did a cohesive element of strategy come through for me. So, like, I'm still going to give it a three out of five overall. Again, I liked it enough to play twice, but I feel like I'm not fully groing what's going on in this game. Again, this is one where it might be worth it might be worth trying it despite my opinion because I do think I'm not fully grasping it after having played it twice, learned the rules, all that. Read the rule book, too, by the way, in general. If I'm not sure about a game on BGA, except very often I'll play it once and then if I don't feel I got it, I'll then read the rule book to dive into it again. And still with this one, it I I feel like I'm missing how it all comes together. But it's going to be another three out of five for me. Shen Totten, not a bad game over here. Uh, this is another three out of five. It's arguably should be better. It's basically uh what's it called? It's basically um The Lost Cities. Lost Cities, the card game, which I think is is pretty decent. I think it's held back a little bit for me. Honestly, no. I probably should give it a 3.5. Let's bump it up. I think we're getting to 3.5

8:36 territory. Uh this is 3.5 for me. Shan Totten was it's a Lost Cities. It's Lost Cities, the card game just with a different theme. I don't mind it. I don't care. I don't necessarily feel strongly one with the other. It's like if you like Lost Cities, you'll like Jan Totten. We have Yaka. Yaka over here was an interesting one. This is one of those games. Again, I I would give this one a 3.5. Definitely. It was one that you're kind of trying to stack this pyramid and as you create things, you block yourself off from being able to continue colors. So, it's one of those things where at first the premise seems like kind of open, but it gets tighter and tighter as you go. It was fun. I just don't think like this one I actually played a few times on BGA cuz like it's fun. It's simple and straightforward. I don't think there's a ton of depth to the experience. That's not a lot that's keeping you coming back to it. That's my main critique with it, but I still give it a 3.5. Sausage Sizzle. Sausage Sizzle, which actually I play the BGA version, which is called AA over here. I kind of like this. I see the appeal of Sasha Sizzle. Now, uh, this is a very light throw some dice and try to um try to what was it? You're basically trying to throw the the these dice over here.

9:32 What are you doing? Roll the dice. Get as many of the same critter. That's what it was. I have to remember the game. You basically have different sets of dice. You have numbers and then you have suits basically. And you're trying to slowly lock things off as you roll the dice, trying to bear things up. But as you score certain suits, you lose access to them. So, there's a constant uh game of when do you lock a die, when do you keep pushing because you possibly can get really high values or you can possibly bust it all. It is an interesting push your luck tactical game. I understand the appeal of Sasha Sizzle. I prefer the theme of AO is that is called AO. A Ee R O. I prefer the theme of that one, but I had fun with this one. It's definitely a light game, but it's a it's a good filler game. It's a good filler game. I give it a 3.5. Then we have Skullking. Skull King is a trick taking game that I've had in my collection personally for a long time. I've always wanted to I've always gone back and forth between keeping it and getting rid of it. Every time I've wanted to get rid of it, people have been like, "Oh, I love this.

10:20 I love this trick taking game. It's so great." So, I finally played it on BGA when I had a chance and then I got rid of my physical copy. Now, I don't mind it. Again, it's a 3.5 out of five. But, I played on BGA and I was like, "There's it feels like there's a little bit too much going on that makes it a little too chaotic." Now, that is something I will be fully clear up front. There are some chaotic trick- taking games that I really enjoy right now. Torch Lift. But speaking of All Play, Torch Lift from All Play is a chaotic trick taking game that I'm still trying to decide where I rank it cuz I really enjoy the experience, but it's kind of victim to like did you just get lucky enough on your predictions? We'll talk about it more. I plan on playing it more before reviewing, but like that's one where I'm trying to decide where it is. And I feel skullking could have the same criticism. So like sometimes it's just how you feel about a game, but overall I enjoyed Skullking. I had fun playing it. I just felt that it was a little bit too lucky, a little too I can make the best calls possible and then still get slapped with, oh, you had that one card. Okay, fine. You had that. Oh, there's too much chaos going on. It's fun. I see the appeal. Still a 3.5. D K Des the King of the Woods. Uh, which if you search King of the Woods, doesn't show up in BG, so I have to try to find this game. Uh, this is a hand management game where you're playing cards into your own side for the score value, or you're playing cards for their ability into your opponent's side, which gives this interesting trade-off of what do you want? Do you want the value of the card?

11:28 Do you want to uh play for the ability? It has you stealing cards from each other's hands. It's another one that I played a few times. Um I I thought it was charming. I'd give it a 3.5 out of five. It didn't wow me. Not by any sense. It is one of those games that's fun for if you just want to try to figure out how to optimize, go through it a few times. I I enjoyed The King of the Woods, but again, nothing here wowed me. Any another 3.5 out of five. Uh I think of the rest of these, by the way, they're all 3.5s from here on in. Aato is a one which you're trying to gather cars. you're trying to place them in different areas, either into your center or discard them or past them, and where you place those cards has different effects. I thought there was an interesting, like this is another one I played a few times. I thought this was an interesting degree of trying to optimize around the card abilities. I don't think I would want to play this in person, unless the iconography is really good. I found myself relying and constantly like hovering over a card to see what it does. Although, maybe that gets better as you actually play it. Uh, but overall, I definitely enjoyed this one. I thought it was a clever puzzle of optimization. It didn't feel super strategic. It felt like you're trying to make the best with what's in your hand.

12:29 But I enjoyed passing cards. I enjoyed trying to like figure out if I can optimize the abilities, if I can gain the resources needed without like throwing out and discarding extra resources. I really enjoyed the back and forth aspect of this. This was this is one like I don't think I need to play it in person. This is the tricky part because it's a good game. Like at this point, we're starting to move into some games that like I can understand if you wanted to have this in your collection. I just have to be mindful of like adding things to my collection if I already have games I prefer more. And I think that's what Aato is for me. In fact, I would say all of these, the next five, this one up, even though they're all 3.5s, not all 3.5s are are created equal. So, I would say from Arato onwards, the these last five are ones that I would have definitely considered having in my collection once upon a time for sure. In fact, some a little bit lower as well. Uh, but right now, I'm at a place where I don't think I like them enough to add them. But I these are all better experiences that I enjoyed. Then we have Viva Lacatrina over here. Viva Katrina, not Lacatrina. Viva Katrina.

13:22 Uh, again, this is a tile game, very carcasson adjacent. you're trying to create these uh pathways as you draft tiles in the display. There's an interesting element where the tiles are moving inwards. So, every time you take a tile, you're revealing tiles for other people. So, you kind of want to plan about not just the tile you have, but what tile is being revealed, which tiles really work. You're trying to create these sections of tile, but also also these pathways. There's a lot of things going on here. Another one that I've played several times. Again, most of these higher up I have played several times because they're they're kind of fun. Like they're there's more going on to them. So, I enjoyed Viva Katrina. Not one I need to own, but I thought this was pretty charming. Dual Vicardia. I've actually covered this in person in another video at some point. I don't know. But my first few plays of this were on board gamerino. So, I decided to include it over here uh because I again I discovered it on board. I played a few times in board game and then I picked up a copy at packs unplugged. Uh but to be clear, it was a review copy. I It was a review copy in a goodie bag from Asay. I don't think I would have asked for this to cover specifically because I already knew that I liked it but didn't love it.

14:15 And that's just not like I'm not I don't rush to cover things I'm not excited about. But dual cardia is a two-player game which you're going to be playing cards. uh you you kind of have the same set of cards. You're playing cards trying to utilize kind of similar to um a not to um the the king of the woods in the sense that you're trying to be mindful of the ability or the value. Although in this case it's more about whoever has the higher value wins that that matchup. Whoever has the lower value gets the ability of their card. That leads to an interesting back and forth. Again, I've played this several times in BGA. I think it's fine. I think it's enjoyable. I just think that I've seen what the game has to offer as far as the the the card puzzle of going back and forth. But I enjoy it. A 3.5. LE over here. Lose. I don't know exactly how to pronounce that, but L. This is one which is an interesting trick taking game in which you see the the the values, the backs. You see the backs that your opponents have as you're trying to predict which suits are going to win. And so, but you can't really you can't predict what's going to be played.

15:07 Sorry, other way around. You see your opponent's values and you see your backs. You see your backs in the game, which is interesting. So, you're trying to play cards. So, for example, let's say there's a 1 to eight in blue. I might know that I have four blue and I might see that you have a seven and a one and you have a six. So, you're going to have to play a six. That is known information. You are playing either a one or a seven. You don't know which one it's going to be, but one of those going to be played. And then I have all the rest of the blue. Possibly some cards are discarded and not in play. And I have all the rest of the blue. And so, I'm trying to figure out, okay, well, do I am I going to play the eight? Am I going to play lower? So, you're trying to make these educated guesses as to which cards are most likely to be played. And the thing that to me that's most clever about it is the fact that that on its own is kind of just comes down to look okay well did you play the one or the seven? You couldn't have known. But the the strategy of the game is trying to optimize out a pathway of how to best play your cards to ensure you have the most like the highest statistics in each play. That's where the strategy really comes in because it's not about any one play. Anyone play is just a very simple I have four cards.

16:04 One of them is an eight. I might win this trick. I'm you have a six. There's only a six. You're going to play the six for sure. So only a seven or eight can win. he has a 50% chance of winning and I have a 25% chance of winning. That's very straightforward. But when you start thinking it through, you're like, well, if I play yellow first, that means you're going to do that. And then depending who wins there, you're going to still have to deplete that. And eventually, you're going to have to play your blue. Then I can take control with green. And once I take control with green, at that point in the game, you'll have played at least one of your blues. I'll have more information. I'll be able to play a string of four blues. So, I can probably work it out to win all. That's where the real strategy comes in. I I enjoyed this. Still luck in it. Still definite luck, but I enjoyed lose. Another one I've played several times. And then lastly, we have Exhibition 20th Century, which I was surprised to see is only a 6.6. I thought this was fun. I enjoyed this. Again, only a 3.5 fun, but like I like some of the games like this is the kind of game I expected to have like a 7 to a 7.3 somewhere in that range. 6.6 feels a little low for what this is doing. Uh, but this is from 21st Century Games, I think. Well, it's swallow, but 20th Century Games. Um, but you're basically playing cards into this into this grid over here. So, as you have these cards, you're drafting cards from a row over here, placing them into your own personal board where they score differently depending. It's variable scoring. So each game is different, but you're placing them down to your personal board trying to optimize. But there's an element we have to be mindful of what cards you select because that's going to affect where you can select your cards from next. But again, overall, I thought this was a fun, charming game. A little timeline adjacent. Like it's a little bit like timeline, but not really like timeline, but it has that element to it. But it's just a card drafting mechanism with pointc scoring placement that you're trying to be mindful of. I enjoyed the puzzle of it. But again, a 3.5 out of five. Those are the 17 games. Again,

17:36 nothing here I think is a mustave by any means, but if you did want my recommendations of the best five, it's easily Ari. I mean, they're ranked, so yeah, but Ariato, Viva, Katrina, Duel, Ficardia, LSE, and Exhibition 20th Century are the ones that I think moved into a different territory for me. Maybe I'm debating this. I think I think I'm going to adjust Skull King and Sasha Sizzle. I think I'm going to say no, wait, wait, no, not Skull King. Sorry. I'm going to move Sasha Sizzle up two places. The more I think about it, Sasha Sizzle should be over here number six. I think I would rather play that over the King of the Woods or Skull King. Like that's Sasha is not a great game, but it's just kind of charming and fun. Like I would consider picking up a copy of Arrow because I think my kids would enjoy it. I think it's very straightforward. It's very charming. I think it's a really good gateway game. So my personal enjoyment wise, it's still a little lower down, but arguably this is the one that I might consider picking up the most because of the potential charm factor and accessibility for others. Although again, I definitely want the A-O version. Personally, I that might tell me tell me down below whether you prefer the sausage sizzle as a theme or do you prefer this AO as a theme. I'm curious. You can't see the components over here. That's look on board arena, I guess. I don't know. But I Yeah, I just I'm just pulled in more by that.

18:41 Anyways, that is basically it. These have been your 17 board game arena rankings of these particular batch of 17 games. I will be back at some point in the future with more of them because I am I am going through way too many BGA games. I just find it's um a good distraction that's not Facebook and I'm trying to avoid Facebook this year. Well, I was trying to avoid Facebook last year too. That didn't work out as well except for one month. Anyways, until next time, I'm Alex Radcliff from Board Gameco. I hope you enjoyed this video and as always I hope you have a good