R2D2 Operation Game Review

I bought my wife R2D2 Operation as a present a while ago. She’s a huge Star Wars nerd so she danced with glee. She had told me she loved Operation as a kid so I felt like it was a no brainer gift idea.

Well, no brainer is an apt term for Operation. I used to love the game as a kid too but as an adult the game isn’t as fun. The game is all about hand eye coordination and what used to be challenging for an over-excited little boy is basic and simple for an adult used to lab work.

For little kids this game is a blast and a fun way to introduce them to the idea of engineering (for the R2D2 edition) or surgery (for the original edition.) Sure much of it is bad science (water on the knee bucket) but it needs to be understandable and fun for kids. The game does require patience and hand-eye coordination so kids who get into it will definitely develop these abilities. Or else they just get used to loud noises.

I like how the R2D2 edition makes various R2 sounds instead of just a loud buzz. Everyone who picks up the game has fun testing out the sounds it makes.

All in all I don’t have a lot to say about R2D2 operation because there isn’t a lot to the game. Draw a card to figure out what you need to remove from the board. Don’t touch the sides. Claim money.

To sum up Operation is a great game for teaching kids hand-eye coordination but as an adult (or teen) the game becomes a simple time waster with little to no challenge. This game is definitely designed for children which is okay because that is who should be playing this game. Pick this up if you will have young kids around looking to play an attention grabbing game or if you are a Star Wars ubergeek (like the wife and I) Honestly if it wasn’t for our extreme geekiness and the growing horde of nieces and nephews (who I will use Operation to teach the love of gaming on) I would give this game a pass.

Stock Ticker Game Review

New additions to the gaming group can bring in great new games. When my cousin married her husband he introduced us to stock ticker. A game admittedly most people I know wouldn’t have purchased based solely on the box. Stock ticker is a simply designed game that actually makes the stock market fun.

In stock ticker you are investors buying and selling six commodities hoping to make the most money in whatever time limit you set. These commodities are Gold, Bonds, Oil, Industrials, Grain, and Silver (or tech in the newer version).

The game starts with all stocks at $1 in value. Players invest their $5000 starting money however they choose. Invest all, some, or nothing in whatever stocks you feel like. Each player in turn rolls the three dice. One die will show which of the six stocks is affected by this roll. Another die shows if the stock goes up, down or pays a dividend. The third die determines the value of the change.

Stock that rises above the $2 mark splits, each player has their number of that stock doubled and the stock price returns to $1. Any stock whose value drops below the 5 cent mark crashes; all of the stock owned by players is returned to the bank without a payout and the stock returns to the $1 value. Any stock that is above the $1 mark can pay dividends when it gets rolled for that stock. Basically just owning this stock can net you money without having to buy and sell.

Since stock value is changed with each roll of the dice all players will be involved on every other players turn. Maybe their stock value will plummet, maybe it will pay off big time or maybe your stock will stagnate over several turns.

Due to the randomness of stock fluctuations the game really doesn’t reflect true stock market changes. There is no news source to give fair warning of a grain shortage or war in some oil producing country that will make those stocks soar. However it does reflect the volatility and gambling aspect that the market does have. After all; that down and out stock could really crash costing you a huge investment. Or it could suddenly upturn and net you huge profits.

I like that stock ticker is such a random game. At the start there really is no go to stock that will win the game every time you play. So new players have as much of a chance of winning as veteran players. All of the stock is the same value and randomness changes everything. Experienced players will build strategies as many in the stock market do. Sometimes they work sometimes they don’t.

Personally I find keeping stock above the $1 mark is the most valuable strategy as it should net you money for 2 out of 3 die rolls (up or dividend) I tend not to hold out for stock to split. I find selling high value stock and buying more of a slightly lower value stock (that is still above $1) pays off better, after all dividends pay out by volume not by value. If I ever do own a stock that splits I dump everything and invest in other stock. After all I want something that pays dividends and anything really close to the $1 mark is too close to dipping below that line.

The big gamble I like is buying stock that is close to crashing. After all it’s cheap and even a slight increase can double or triple my investment. It’s a risk, money lost on a crashed stock is gone forever, but when it pays off it pays off big time.

To sum up stock ticker is a fun game of playing at the stock market. It is simplistically fun and your whole group should be able to understand the rules by the end of their first play though. It’s a great go to game when players aren’t in the mood for a strategy heavy night and is best played with a large group of people who are willing to gamble with imaginary money. The self set time limit is nice because it allows players to play to their own schedule. The random nature of the game does lessen the strategy element but only a little. Everyone seems to let their imagination run wild with their idea of what’s lucky or what works. It’s simple nature and rules may get repetitive if played often so this will be an occasional game or something to get marathon gamers started for a night. I still recommend this Canadian title for your table.

Othello

Othello (often called Reversi) is an old game that I think really stands the test of time. It's rules are simple, the game is easy to learn and it can be quite challenging to play against a skilled opponent.

Othello is a two player game with one player playing black and another playing white. Each play involves laying a piece in a position where two of your colored pieces flank an opponents. Any pieces between the two are flipped to your colour. This alternates until a player cannot make a move on their turn. Then the pieces are counted, whoever has the most pieces of their colour on the board wins.

As you can see the rules are very basic, however the strategy can actually get quite complicated. For instance a piece in a corner can never be flanked so it will remain whatever colour it was when it was placed. Therefor manouvering an opponent into a position where you can claim a corner is very important. Some placements can have multiple lines vertically, horizontally and diagonally allowing you to take more pieces. Sometimes taking fewer pieces limits an opponent's placement options forcing them to allow you to take a more strategic token placement.

This game is great for teaching novice players to think multiple placements in advance. It is also great for teaching players to see deeper strategy in a simplistic rule structure.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is that some players view it as childlike due to it's simplistic concept making it difficult to attract players, however this childlike simplicity does make it more attractive to non-gamers and children.

Basically it's a gateway game. Start playing this next thing you know you'll up all night rolling dice and flipping cards.

To sum up I would recommend Othello (or Reversi if you must call it that) to any player. This game is fun and easy to pick up especially for children. It is great for easing novice players into deeper strategic thinking. It is a great example of simple, classic style gaming that will always be accessible and playable by anyone.

Boss Monster game review

Sometimes I impulsively buy games purely on the packaging. Boss Monster is one of those games. I saw what looked like an old school 8 bit video game box and I couldn’t resist. It just went *bloop bloop bloop* into my buying pile. Let me tell you I am 8 bits of happy to have this game.

In Boss Monster you play as the Boss Monster of a dungeon from the old school side-scrolling games. You build up your dungeon in order to attract heroes to defeat. This would be easy if you weren’t competing with other players to achieve your goal.

The game seems a little complicated right out of the box. There are three card deck slots for the 5 decks. (Rooms, Spells, Heroes, Epic Heroes, Bosses) so setting up the game might be confusing if you have a friend who just grabs a stack of cards and starts shuffling.

To start each player is given a Boss Monster. This card will be who you are for the round. Your Boss Monster will have an XP rating; the highest XP rating has priority in play. The card will also have a level up ability. Once during the game when you have a five room dungeon the level up ability activates. Typically the lower the XP for the monster the more powerful the level up ability: bringing balance to these characters. Your Boss Monster will also have a treasure type.

Now the goal is to build the best dungeon to attract and defeat heroes. For that you need rooms. There are 2 types of rooms, Monster and Trap. These are built out from your Boss Monster to a maximum of 5 rooms. Each of these rooms has a damage value (for defeating heroes) as well as special abilities and treasure types. Advanced rooms can only be placed on top of existing rooms of the same type and treasure.

Spells will help you out during the game. Some, marked with a hammer, can be played during the room building phase and others (marked with an axe) can be played during the hero combat phase.

Finally there are the heroes. Heroes are attracted by one of the four specific treasure types. Whoever has the most of that treasure type attracts the heroes. If the health of the hero is lower than the damage you deal you defeat the hero and collect a soul but if the hero survives your dungeon you take a wound. You are eliminated if you take 5 wounds and you win if you collect 10 souls. Epic heroes have more health. They deal two wounds or award two souls. If players are tied for most treasure the hero stays in town until the tie is broken.

I like this game because it plays differently from most games. Most of the activities are performed as a group. Players reveal their next room together, they calculate their treasure totals together and attract heroes based on that. The game is great for strategy. Planning on which heroes to attract and when is very important. Sometimes ensuring ties prevents wounds. Sometimes breaking ties can cause a number of defeatable heroes to come to your dungeon.

The game becomes rather quick once you know how to play: roughly 20 minutes or less per game. I like this because it allows a player to play multiple Boss Monsters and try many room combinations in a single night.

The cards are a lot of fun to read. Each card is a tribute to old school gaming or pop culture references and are full of humour. Whether it’s the boss Cerebellus the brain or the Monster’s Ballroom you will have a laugh. I also recommend reading the hero cards, they are brilliantly titled and the quotes are great for a giggle (Bodon the Pantless.)

The downsides to the game mostly come from the rule book. It could have used more work and there are quite a few rules that need more clarification. It turns out our group was playing wrong in that we combined advanced rooms with the basic rooms when calculating damage and effects. (When rooms stack only the top room counts.) I also found that there isn’t much in the way of mechanics for gaining spell cards. This limits the number of spells you get to try out.

To sum up Boss Monster is an extremely fun game that is full of nostalgic gamer humour. While the rule book needs the dust blown out of its cartridge the game is still well designed and a blast to play. I would recommend this game if you ever enjoyed 8-bit gaming or if you just really want to be the big bad Boss Monster for once. This game is great for up to four players on the nerdy/game side. It won’t be as fun for grandma but for any child of the 80s or 90s it will be great way to level up game night.

Life update

I figured I should talk to you readers about my current issues with posting regularly. Being an adult really sucks for me lately. Responsibility has really been piling up.

For those of you who don’t know I made the decision to go back to school. I had expressed some dissatisfaction with my job to my manager in the fall. Being 35 and having the same job title as Beaker from the Muppets was getting me down. She was extremely supportive and directed me to a course I could take to advance in the lab. She even helped me secure funding to be reimbursed for the course if I complete it.

I’m less than a month from completing the course and I’m more than a little stressed. The work is getting steadily more difficult and intense. At least it’s also getting more fascinating. By the end of the course I will be a certified tissue specialist. Meaning I will be recovering and processing human tissue for transplant: a considerable step up from lab assistant.

Now I’m working full time, going to school, working on our new home, on top of the usual other family commitments. Some things are falling through the cracks. Right now school and work are my biggest priorities so I apologize if I don’t post as often in the next while.

The course ends on May 25^th so I should be gold after that. I took that week off of work so I can go all hermit at home with my studies and really hit the books for the big final exam.

You know what really sucks about this? I had to miss out on the Calgary Expo last weekend. My Facebook feed is full of friends posting about it. I keep seeing them with Bruce Campbell, The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond, the cast of Aliens, Alfonso Riberio, Danny Glover, and the Highlander Adrian Paul. At least staying home means I didn’t spend my money... or the banks money. And I worked on Ocular transplant stuff so I kept it nerdy and interesting. The wife… she really wanted to go too. But she has some plague and is a total snot machine. So I guess it worked out for the best... sorta kinda...

Ah well, there’s always Edmonton Expo in the fall. I really hope Sigourney Weaver comes to that. She’s one of my big celebrity crushes; same with Karen Gillian (Amy Pond.) Matt Smith would be cool but Tom Baker is my Doctor.

Well, I'm working on a few board game reviews but nothing is quite done yet. Hopefully I will have one up soon.

Thanks for your patience and once again sorry for my lack of updates!

The new Game Room

The wife and I bought a new townhouse recently. Now that we are mostly settled we decided to set up a game room in the basement. I’m really in love with the space but we haven’t had anyone over for game night yet.

To start off we had two bookshelves in the old apartment to store our games. They are a little full so we are looking for some more. Mostly for my RPG books to go down into the game room but some of the game boxes are too large so we need somewhere to better store them.

We wanted a new table for down there and asked at John at Mission Fun and Games where to get one. He went into their storage room and brought out some table toppers. We liked the one but I was on the fence about it. He offered us a deal and when I mentioned we would need to get a table he ran back into storage to bring out a round pedestal table. Turns out some were left over from when the building was a restaurant so he threw that in for free. I couldn’t resist the deal. I think he was happier than us because it’s out of his way in the storage area.

My sister is big into Kajiji shopping and she let us know about some chairs being sold for cheap: $60 for ten. We called only to discover we had sat in those chairs at our wedding. The hotel was selling off the old chairs because they were getting new ones in their renovation. Chairs elsewhere were $60 each so now we have an old school looking room.

It all fits in because the room has an outlet and phone jack every couple of feet: 13 in total. We think it was used as a call center. There was a debate on whether we should run a 1-900 number out of there to earn back money but my wife was a little against that. I’m happy with a game room.

My mom is big into knick knacks and has bought me a few over the years. So of course I put them up in the game room. The bear and buffalo heads are from her, as are the monkey clock and the African mask. I snagged the green man from my grandparent’s cabin when they sold it. The Kit Rae dagger was a collectible I bought. The light sabres my wife’s sister and husband bought us as a wedding present will be going in there somehow.

We added in our old microwave on a stand in the basement. We will be filling the stand with snack food to make game night easier. We have a small chest freezer and a wine fridge in the basement too so that makes for a lazier snack run. I’m wanting another beer fridge for right in the room but the budget is way to tight to get that any time soon.

Finally there is a washroom in the basement. It’s a toilet and sink in the ugliest colour scheme ever. Someday we will update it. I think my wife has that renovation higher on the “to budget for” list than the beer fridge. The old owner left room deodorizing spray cans in every room of the house. I moved them all down to the basement bathroom after my brother designated it his pooping bathroom. I also threw in some bathroom reading: Dilbert and the Big Book of Being Rude.

What I really want to get is a video game cabinet for down there. I know of one local supplier called Retroactive Arcade that I keep looking at. Again the budget it not really open to that yet. Maybe if my lottery investment ever pays off.

Hopefully we can kick off a routine game night session sometime in the near future.  We actually haven't used the room yet. School and work are holding us back right now but my schedule will clear up before summer. I can work on my nerd tan down there.

Battleship board game review.

My brother and I spent many an afternoon playing battleship in the basement. My parents even got us the electronic battleship. It’s still in their basement somewhere. The memory will no reset so it still has a game from the late 80s stored forever. I like to think that a piece of our childhood will live on forever and someday long after the machines have taken over they will pull up the memory. They will see my military genius and seek to clone the master of the electronic battleship.

Okay that will never happen. Battleship is a very light strategy game of guess where the ships are. Two players place their ships on a board the other player cannot see in the first part of the game. The second part of the game has the players alternately calling out coordinates as shots. If it hits a ship you call hit, if it misses you call miss. The whole point of the game is to sink the other player’s fleet.

The game actually plays very slowly and has little to do with actual naval warfare. The ships do not move, unless you are my brother then you cheat like crazy and we fight until dad gets home. The alternating blind guessing gets very tiresome after a while and then the game goes back into dust collection mode.

I do harbour a lot of nostalgia for battleship as I actually had fun playing it with my brother, especially the fighting over it. It’s a game I am willing to play only very occasionally. It just gets very dull very quickly.

I have no idea why there was a movie made after this game. I actually would prefer watching people play the game than watch that terrible movie.

To sum up Battleship is a mediocre game. I would only recommend this to those with nostalgia for the game or for parents who would like another source of conflict for their children. It will keep them busy up until they tire of the game and begin to argue over it.