A Noob Reviews : Tang Garden (the Board Game)

Tang Garden is a "Eurostyle" game from ThunderGryph games, which was brought to life through Kickstarter. ("Euro" games are those in which players work together or simultaneously on their own part of the game, but don't directly compete.)

The Game:

Tang Garden is set in the Golden Age of China. The aim of the game is to build a beautiful Chinese style garden which appeals to the various characters in the game. Players take turns to build up the landscape and add decorations such as pavilions, bridges, trees, and flowers to the board.

Features:

The game board is plain -- to begin with! There are landscape tiles to lay down in several variations, namely greenery, water and rock. There are also various decorations, some of which are 3D, including pavilions, bridges, birds, flowers, and trees. Landscape panels are placed vertically in slots on each side of the board, with room for up to 5 on each side. 12 character figurines with corresponding character cards, a character board with blocks to collect, decoration cards, landscape tokens, character influence tokens and coin tokens are also included. This seems like a lot of stuff, but it all makes sense once you start playing the game.

Gameplay:

Each turn, the player can choose to either build or decorate. Building involves placing a landscape tile on the board to expand the garden. These feature either greenery, water or rock, and the edges must match up to the adjacent tiles according to certain rules. This aspect of the gameplay is very similar to Carcassonne, if you've ever played that. On certain positions of the board, there are round landscape tokens. A player can collect a landscape token when placing a landscape tile on this spot, and then has the right to place a vertical landscape panel on the edge of the board.

Decorating involves adding a decoration to the board. It's probably best to wait until there are a good number of landscape tiles on the board before starting to decorate. The player picks up several decoration cards, chooses one to keep, then places a corresponding decoration onto the board. Points are awarded at the end of the game for each decoration, and bonus points for sets, and the decoration cards help to keep track of how many each player has placed.

After this, the player can choose to do an influencing action. This involves the characters in the game. Characters include the Emperor, Empress, Lady, Poet, Monk, etc. Each player starts out with one character and can collect up to three more during the game. The characters have their own attributes which can help or harm a player both during the game and at the end. For example, the Empress earns 6 coins for every pair of flower cards that the player collects. However, if she can see the Emperor or the Lady at the end of the game, the player loses 9 coins. (I'm sure there is an intriguing story behind this!) Three of the four characters that a player collects can be placed on the board, and the position and direction they are facing are very important. This is where the vertical landscape panels come into play. If the character is facing a landscape panel with a matching symbol (e.g. sunset, deer) they earn extra coins at the end.

To be able to acquire more characters, players must collect landscape blocks, which are earned through decoration cards, and then placed on the player board to keep track. Special lantern tokens are available to influence characters, such as allowing the player to change the way the character is facing.

Once the board is almost full (when there are three or less of the round landscape tokens left), the game ends and the coins are awarded. To some extent, you can prolong gameplay by avoiding placing tiles on a square with a landscape token on it, but eventually the game must end. The instructions guide you through the awarding of points in the form of coins. The player with the most coins at the end wins.

Pluses:

++ Everything about this game is visually stunning. The creator clearly put a lot of thought into the concept of an aesthetically pleasing garden, from the flowers and trees to the landscape panels around the edge which introduce the concept of skyline views.
++ The 3D aspects of the trees, pavilions, bridges and landscape panels added so much to the game. They helped to really bring the garden to life. The character figurines added to this as well.
++ All of the pieces were very high quality, made of thick card or wood, with beautiful colours.
++ The idea of building a garden is just a pleasing concept in itself to create a game around.

Minuses:

-- There are a lot of pieces and parallel things happening during gameplay which seems very daunting at first, but it was very quick to get the hang of.
-- The cardboard coins were a bit standard. They were nicely designed, but not outstanding. Husband is a bit of an aficionado when it comes to that kind of thing, so perhaps we're spoiled? He replaced them with some metal coin tokens from his collection. Similarly, the character figurines were just slightly too small for my average eyesight to appreciate properly, though having said that they were very detailed.

Final Comments:

Tang Garden is not only a beautiful game, but it has a lasting playability. It's complex enough to keep me interested, but not so much to be daunting. I can see myself coming back to it again and again.

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App Game Review: Furistas Cat Cafe

Furistas Cat Cafe is a casual app game by Runaway Play Studio, which came out in July 2018. You are the owner of a cat cafe, and your mission is to match cats with customers and keep them happy, while earning currency with which to decorate the cafe and upgrade the cats.

Customers enter the cafe with a preferred type of cat they wish to spend time with -- friendly, playful, shy, etc. Once you match them with a cat, they wander around spending quality time together. Minigames frequently appear, in which you prepare drinks for customers, give otherwise unoccupied cats a pat, or clean up kitty pawprints. These minigames earn you tokens. The games aren't timed and you can't "get it wrong", so they don't feel stressful. Occasionally cats will give you random tokens as well. These tokens can be used to buy furniture and other decorations for your cafe.

Periodically, baskets arrive, which contain currency and treats. There are 2 guaranteed daily baskets, and timed baskets, arriving in increments between 20 minutes and 12 hours. The treats in these baskets can be used to upgrade the cats (called "nurture" in the game). Higher level cats can spend more time with customers, enabling you to serve them more drinks and earn more tokens. As you level up, you get access to more cats and decorations, and your cafe gets bigger.

Aside from the minigames, it's just fun to watch the cats and the customers playing and spending time together. According to Runaway Games, all of the cats are modelled after real-life cats belonging to staff and friends, and there's a description of each one's personality on the cat screen. This makes them so much more charming in my opinion.

The developers have certainly gone to a lot of effort to make the behaviours of the cats lifelike. Cats will play with different toys, be cuddled, or petted, and sleep in different positions. Sometimes they sleep with one paw stretched out in front of them, just like my cat! They also knead the cushions, or rub up against the customers' legs. They make various different noises, from meows to purring to chirps. If you find the sound of cats purring relaxing, I definitely recommend having the sound on.

The decor of the cafe has a natural feel with many wooden items and plants to choose from. Similarly, the cats and customers are cute with large eyes, but aren't too far from reality, with realistic colours and features. This is unlike many games which are much more colourful and over-the-top. While I don't mind that kind of aesthetic, this is much more calming and appeals to my Mori Girl side. The mellow jazz soundtrack matches this feel. The sound effects -- including the cats purring when you pet them! -- aren't too obtrusive. While playing most games, I have the sound turned off as it can become annoying, but the sound effects in Furistas aren't overwhelming.

It's relatively quick and easy to level up when playing Furistas Cat Cafe. In the beginning, I was issued with a fairly generous amount of tokens, treats and kittykash. I started with one cat (Bon-Chan) and have collected another one at most levels so far. This is what my cafe looked like after only playing for about 2 hours (and I still had tokens left over!):

Many casual games these days have a plethora of advertisements, often playing involuntarily in between rounds. Furistas has no involuntary advertising. When a daily basket arrives (which occurs twice a day), you can optionally play an ad to double the amount of goodies in the basket. This is the only advertising in the game. The developers have chosen to prioritise the gameplay experience over getting revenue from advertising, and I really have to applaud this. When I come across games like this, I always enjoy the game more. I feel more positively towards the game developers, and open to purchasing upgrade packs or other things on offer. It also increases my feelings of loyalty -- I will often play the game for longer, and come back to it after a break.

Pluses
+ It's cats! And adorable ones, too! What more can I say?
+ The fact that they are based on real-life cats adds an extra dimension to the kitty goodness.
+ Made for cat lovers with realistic behaviour and sounds.
+ Generous supply of currency for upgrading cats and decorating cafe. Guaranteed daily baskets make you feel less pressured to return to the game and add to the relaxing feel.
+ Diverse customers (both in appearance and in names).
+ Natural and calming aesthetic appeals to me.
+ Minimal advertising makes for a really enjoyable gaming experience.


Minuses
- There are 4 different types of currency (5 when there is an event on). Even though tapping on a currency brings up an explanation of how to earn it and what it's for, it was still quite confusing at first. Now that I've been playing for a while, it seems to make sense though.


It was too hard weeding out the screenshots I took of the game, so I'll leave you with some photospam of the adorable kitties:

A Noob Reviews : Exploding Kittens

The Game:

Exploding Kittens is the result of one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history. Designed by the creators of the popular comics website The Oatmeal, the perfect pairing of kittens and explosions has seen this card game take the tabletop gaming world by storm. When Husband saw the game on Kickstarter and asked me whether he should back it, my response was: "It has kittens, and explosions!! HOW IS THAT EVEN A QUESTION??!!"

Features:

The Kickstarter deluxe version of the game consists of the original Exploding Kittens deck of cards housed in the First Edition box. An optional Not Safe For Work deck was also available, which we of course availed ourselves of. The first edition box has room for both sets of cards, and is styled to look like a kitty litter tray. There's also cute surprise in the box, but I won't say what it is as I don't want to spoil the surprise! Each of the cards has an illustration on it from the Oatmeal -- the Action cards, Explosion cards and Defuse cards all have unique illustrations, while Cat Cards have a range different but repeating pictures, enabling them to be paired.

Gameplay:

Exploding Kittens can probably be described as a cross between Russian Roulette and Go Fish, with a dash of Uno thrown in for good measure. The aim of the game is to survive until the end by not picking up an Exploding Kitten card. As soon as you pick up an EK card, you're exploded and out of the game, unless you have a Defuse card in your hand to cancel it out. Likewise, if you can force other players to pick up cards, you increase their chances of exploding. All of the Action cards assist you in this mission. For example, the Attack card forces the next player to take 2 turns, doubling their chances of picking up an Exploding Kitten card. The Skip card means that you skip your own turn and you don't have to pick up a card -- sort of like reverse Uno.

The rest of the deck is made up of Cat Cards. This is where the element of Go Fish comes in. If you collect a pair of Cat Cards, you can use them to take a random card from another player. The main purpose of the Cat Cards seems to be to pad out the deck and make the game last longer. They also add an unpredictable element, in that your opponent may have a Defuse card or another useful card which you can steal away. As the game goes on and the draw pile gets smaller, it gets more exciting because there's more chance of drawing an Exploding Kitten card. Depending on the pre-game shuffle, all of the players might be out after a few rounds, or the draw pile might be whittled down until there are nail-bitingly few cards left. That's when those Action cards start to look pretty darned useful.

The playing time is approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on the number of players. The original deck can accommodate 2 to 5 players, while adding in the NSFW deck or a second deck brings that to a maximum of 10. While the game can be played with 2 players, in my experience a minimum of 3 makes for the more fun. I have also watched a 10-player game, which worked just as well -- as long as you can remember whose turn it is!

Pluses:

++ It has kittens and explosions, what else can I say?
++ The unique illustrations from the Oatmeal and cute extra touches on the box make it a very collectible game. The fun pictures and bizarre scenarios are amusing even if you weren't previously an Oatmeal fan. The game's repeatability depends almost entirely on them.
++ The deck can be customised so that a few or many people can play.
++ The concept is very simple so players can hit the ground running. There's even a video on YouTube explaining the rules for the non-rule-reading types.
++ The game is fairly short and engaging, which makes it good for kids as well as adults.
++ There's a mixture of luck and strategy involved, so whether you like one or the other, there's something for you.
++ The optional NSFW deck makes things more interesting. The individual cards have varying degrees of NSFW-ness, and a few or many cards can be removed to suit the age level of the players. This doesn't affect the gameplay at all.

Minuses:

-- Although the rules are easy to learn, the dynamic can be a little daunting for new players. Each round, the player can play as many cards from their hand as they like, before picking up from the draw pile at the end. When you're still at that newbie stage, it's hard to decide which and how many cards to play and what the consequences will be.
-- The presence of both luck and strategy in the game could be off-putting for people that like one but not the other.
-- For someone who was hanging out for months for their deck to arrive, the game is possibly a little too short. But, you can always play it again....

Final Comments:

Exploding Kittens is a lot of fun for all ages. The unique illustrations on the cards make it a very repeatable game. It's a good game to play when you only have a short amount of time, or as a warm-up on a games day and, being a simple deck of cards, can be taken travelling, etc.

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A Noob Reviews : Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars

This is the second in my occasional series of tabletop game reviews. My first one was on Junior Monopoly: My Little Pony. Also, if you're interested in games, Husband has started blogging about them here.

Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars was another game that Husband got me for Christmas. I love Godzilla, so I was very excited to receive this -- especially when I saw that there were figurines inside! I think his quest to get me addicted to tabletop games is working....

This post also gives me another chance to show off our new games table!

The Game:
Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars is based on the classic Japanese Godzilla series of movies. The monster, born from radioactivity, rampages through Japan, fighting other monsters or the foolish humans who try to kill him. Inevitably, destroying any cities that happen to be in his way.

(l-r): Ghidorah; Megalon; Rodan; Godzilla.

Features:
The board represents Tokyo, already half-destroyed by Godzilla and the other Kaiju monsters. Before the game starts, the board is filled with buildings, parks and ponds for the monsters to destroy. Tanks and Personnel Carriers are also placed on the board. The configuration of these is different depending on the scenario. Husband and I played "Destroy Tokyo!", which uses the simplified combat rules and is recommended for first time players. Each kaiju is issued with a card that has health and energy trackers, not to mention a cool portrait of the protagonist. Several Action Cards are placed along one side of the board.

Godzilla is ready to rampage!
Gameplay:
Players take turns destroying Tokyo at their whim. Players may move, destroy a building, attack another kaiju or attack a Personnel Carrier/Tank, or all of the above during their move, until their kaiju's energy has run out. For each building, park or Personnel Carrier/Tank that a kaiju destroys, he scores Destruction Points. The taller a building is, the more Destruction Points the kaiju earns from destroying it. Personnel Carriers and Tanks can attack the kaiju back but, being weak humans, their attacks don't tend to do much damage.

The plastic building tiles have adorable stomp-prints on them!

Hmmm, what to attack next??
At the end of each round, a die is rolled to determine the Action for that round. The card corresponding to the number rolled is actioned. For example, all tanks from that point onwards will be fitted with bazookas and are twice as likely to hit the kaiju. This aspect of the game adds an interesting twist, and can range from a minor inconvenience to a major, game-changing pain.

Rodan attacks a building, with matching action and screeching!

All of the buildings have been destroyed, there's nothing left but to attack each other!
Each scenario has different conditions for winning. In the scenario we played, the first to score 35 Destruction Points wins. However, we were having so much fun that we decided to make it 50.

Oh look, I won! But only by one point!
Pluses:
++ It's Godzilla, what else can I say?
++ The board and tiles are very detailed, with buildings, rubble, craters and other assorted destruction. The building 'blocks' even had monster footprints imprinted on them. So cute!
++ The kaiju figurines are also very detailed and fun to play with.
++ There are several scenarios with a choice of simple or standard combat rules. While we've only played one so far, I'm thinking they will add variety to the game and extend its playing life.

Minuses:
-- Husband and I felt there weren't enough park and pond tiles. We wanted more to be able to destroy in the city!
-- Some pond tiles had ponds on both sides, and other tiles had a pond on one side and exploded rubble on the other. The instructions didn't adequately explain why this is.
-- The scenario we played was a bit short. There was still plenty in the city to destroy when we reached 35 Destruction Points. (On the bright side, however, the game was so fun we wanted it to go longer!)
-- It's just a small thing, but the Rodan figurine doesn't stand up very well on its own. We glued it on to a base, but now it doesn't fit back in the box properly.

Final Comments:
I found Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars to be a very enjoyable game. It would be a great addition to the games cupboard for fans of Japanese pop culture, as well as fans of general destruction of stuff. We will definitely play again.

A Noob Reviews : Junior Monopoly My Little Pony

Today I thought I'd try something new, which may turn into an occasional series -- if I feel like it!

Husband has become increasingly addicted to board games in the last few months, and to ease me into it as well, he bought me a couple for Christmas. We didn't have time to play them straight away, but our wedding anniversary is in early January, so we had a board games day to celebrate. I thought it would be fun to review them, from a beginner's point of view. The first one I'll be looking at is Junior Monopoly My Little Pony.

The Game:
It's Monopoly, the classic money-making, property-buying board game, but simplified for the kiddies, and with the adorably cute My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic TV show theme.

Features:
Instead of the normal, boring Monopoly tokens, players play with one of four pony figurines. The properties are represented by ponies from the TV show -- I've only seen the first season, so I didn't recognise half of them. But that's not important in order to play the game. When a player purchases a pony/property, they are issued with a property card and they place a Rainbow Token on the space where the houses would go in the adult game. Each player has 8 Rainbow Tokens. Presumably this is to limit the number of properties that any one player can buy, giving everyone a fair chance. (Technically the game is no longer "monopoly" then, but it doesn't really matter!)

Instead of the Treasure Chest, money is placed inside the the Book of Harmony, and instead of Action Cards, there are Cutie Mark Cards. The currency is in Heart Dollars.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is very similar to normal Monopoly, but with modifications to make it simpler and faster. In fact, when played as per the instructions, it only lasted 10 minutes. There is an advanced version with a few extra rules for older players, but this didn't seem to make much difference length-wise. Husband and I made a couple of modifications to make the game go longer and give a more satisfying experience. We gave ourselves 30 Heart Dollars each instead of 18 at the start. Also, we kept finding that when we landed on the Book of Harmony, the book had no money in it. There are two Book of Harmony spaces and two Cutie Mark spaces on the board, so there's an equal chance of landing on either one. We arbitrarily decided that one of the Book of Harmony spaces should be a Cutie Mark space instead. That way, there was more chance of there being money in the Book of Harmony when we landed on the space.

Pluses:
++ The game is simple enough for even young children to understand.
++ It's much faster than the original, so children won't get bored so quickly. (Or adults with short attention spans, for that matter!)
++ The bright, colourful design of the board, cards and Book of Harmony box is fun.
++ The pony figurines are fun and innovative to play with (though see the minus below!).
++ Many elements of the TV show are represented in the game, like the Cutie Marks and the Book of Harmony.

Minuses:
-- One huge Minus that I noticed immediately is that there are only 4 pony figurines. However, there are 6 core characters in the TV show: Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash are missing! And they happen to be my two favourite characters! So I was pretty peeved right from the start.
-- Played as-is, the game only lasts about 10 minutes.
-- The instructions were a little confusing in that you play with ponies (i.e. the player's pieces), but you also buy ponies (i.e. the properties).
-- The Heart Dollars are very boring. They're printed in black and white only, which is at odds with the bright, colourful design of the rest of the game. Not only that, but they only come in 1s. Denominations of 2 and 5 in different colours would have been great. Also, they're made of that clingy paper that's very hard to separate. So counting out 15 or more 1s becomes even more annoying.
-- It's difficult to tell the different-coloured rainbow tokens apart. I also wondered why there are property cards as well as rainbow tokens. The property cards don't have any essential information on them, just a picture of the pony. It would be just as easy to keep track of which player owns what, just from the Rainbow Tokens alone. It seems to be double-handling. But perhaps the cards are still included to get younger players used to the concept for when they play the adult game later.
-- Why is there a jail in a little kids' game?? Even the picture of the jail cell is exactly the same as in the adult version of the game. They could have made it school detention or something more kid-appropriate.


Final Comments:
I know there are a lot of entries under the 'Minus' section in my review! But I do think that, with a few modifications, Junior Monopoly My Little Pony would be a very fun game for both adults and children. Husband suggested getting some better play money to put with it (you could use the money from the Monopoly game if you have it, or any other kind of tokens or even real coins). I would like to try and get Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash figurines to complete the set.
Husband and I both decided that the game is worth playing again, perhaps as the appetiser to start off our next board games day.