Reviews
In this drawer you'll find a random batch of reviews of games, books, and magazines.
Game Fair Reports
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
- Spiel 94 in Essen -
a first timer's view of the biggest event in boardgaming
- Sumo on Essen 94 -
a preview of Mike Siggins' annual report on the same event
(please note that this is the short
version of Mike's report!)
- Moon Over Essen -
Alan R. Moon (of White Wind fame) reviews his Best of Essen
Other Lists
Games
- 1500 Gold -
the Ragnars pick up the pace after Backpacks &
Blisters
- 1825, Unit One -
with the economics straightened out, Stuart's tune has changed
- 1876 -
a small train game (the game is small, not the trains nor the fun)
- 54*12 -
another attempt to capture Tour de France cycling
(
en Français)
- 6-Tage Rennen a very clever bicycle race
where cooperation is a must
- A la Carte -
a very silly game of broth spoiling
- Ab Die Post! -
stormy flights of fancy in rickety US Mail planes
- Aerodrome -
biplanes dogfight over the killing fields of France
- Air Baron -
the Cataan virus strikes, again - will sales follow?
- Airlines a stock trading train game takes
to the air
- Armchair Cricket -
Harrison delves into that favorite of English pastimes -
Well held, sir!
- Auf Achse trucking across Germany for
fun and profit
- Automania the game of the motor giants
- Axiom a three dimensional strategy game
- Babylon 5 Component Game System -
and other spacey pursuits
- Bailiwick -
Parcheesi meets the Inferno in this American release
- Banquefatale
- Battletech -
a CCG constructed piecemeal in Mech tradition
- Beach Maze -
navigate turtles through a beach full of drifting dunes
- Blockers -
Football meets Chinese Checkers
- Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond -
spies, super-spies, counter-spies, beer, and pretzels
- Before I Kill You Mr Bond Revisited -
a short from Seattle
- Blue Chip -
buy low, sell high, live to tell the tale
- Bohnanza / Beananza -
hard tradin' down on the bean farm
- Burocrazy
- City of Chaos -
a good old dungeon crawl from days of yore
- Colliding Circles -
tesselated circles provide the game board here
- Campanile -
not just a house of cards - a tower of cards!
- Creeper -
a game with a unique board of octagons and squares
- CrossCribb -
a clever little Cribbage variant
- Daytona 500 an auto racing game
- Dino Hunt -
time travel, danger, dinosaurs - a Christmas treat for the kiddos
- Robin Hood & Don Pepe -
two birds, one stone, no letters from animal rights activists
- Elfenland -
Elfenroads Lite finally hits the shelves
- Elfenroads an excellent, beautiful, and strange
race game
- Elfenwizards -
a dicey competition for top dog at the pointy hat club
- El Grande -
dominate Old Spain in this clever, well balanced game
- Entdecker -
Teuber is at sea and seeking firmer footing
- Euphrat & Tigris / Tigris & Euphrates -
civilization building in the Fertile Crescent
- Ferrocarriles Pampas -
trains on the plains of South America
- Fluxx -
the card game where the rules are always changing
- Formule De - racing at its gear grinding
best - details on all the tracks
- Flusspiraten a tedious game of rowdy pirates
slowly sailing to the mouth of a harbor
- For Sale
- Formula Motor Racing -
Knizia drives hard (but the jury's still out
till Tim reports in...)
- Frisch Fisch / Fresh Fish -
Friedemann Friese floats fish fast for fleet footed factories
- Galopp Royal -
sedan chair races brought to you by Klaus Teuber
- Gangsters, Gun Molls & G-men -
gunplay, grand larceny, and good game
- GIPF -
a good first step on a large project
- Go Wild! -
Wizards of the Coast try to branch out with marginal success
- Golem -
fun and games with the Kabbalah
- G.O.O.T.M.U. -
WizWar meets sci-fi in Tom Jolly's polymorphic maze
- Guerilla card-based combat in a banana
republic
- Gunpowder Treason -
Guy Fawkes tries for Parliament, again
- Heavy Gear Fighter -
Mech combat in a fiddly future (warning: not fluffy)
- Auf Heller und Pfennig a medieval
marketplace game
- Hispania -
Britannia redux on the continent
- Honor of the Samurai -
unusual, mass market card game
- Honor of the Samurai -
a non-collectable card game of conflict in feudal Japan
- Icebergs -
iceflows and oil tankers with Tom Wham at the wheel
- Illusions -
it seemed like a good game at the time...
- In Teufels Kuche -
things are really cookin' In the Devil's Kitchen
- Insider Dealing -
a must for Ivan Boesky fans everywhere!
- Intrige -
a game of medieval court politics
- Iron Dragon -
Mayfair combines trains and fantasy for a wild ride
- Ironman Football -
manage the teams in the early, ragtag days of
American football
- Johnny Controletti
- KatzenJammer Blues -
Knizia card game gets the nod, but only just
- Die Kette von Saba / Sheba's Necklace -
ornamental but not functional
- Keywood -
village politics pit labor against capital in search of Utopia
- Keywood (redux) -
Mike Siggins takes another look at this great gamekit
- Kill Doctor Lucky -
get the good doctor before he gets you!
- Kill Dr Lucky Revisited -
a short from Seattle
- Kleine Fische
- Klondike -
panning for gold in the frozen North
- Klunker -
an analysis of strategies
- Knightmare Chess -
anything can happen in this variant that twists all the rules
- König & Intrigant / King & Villain -
the expansion for El Grande that is a whole new game
- Kunststücke -
the new abstract game of modern art from Moskito
- Kwaz -
an abstract game of patterns and placement
- Lang Lebe Der Konig
- Legend of the Five Rings - Beiden Pass -
leaping out of the CCG pack
- Das letzte Paradies / The Last Paradise -
short, strategic, playable business game
- Linie 1 -
tramway planning is fun; running the trams is not
- Long Short -
yet another attempt to model the madness that is stock
- Lord of the Rings Tarot -
just another struggle between the forces of darkness and light
- Lost Cities -
Knizia's card game of risky exploration
- Lowenherz / Lionheart -
Teuber latest game of land grabbing power struggles
- Mad Monks and Relics -
Randy Moorehead quests for the gaming grail
- Manager supply and demand in without
all the fuss of production costs
- Manhatten
a strategic, high rise real estate construction game
- Manitou
- MarraCash -
the fine art of fleecing tourists
- Die Maulwurf Company / Mole in the Hole -
musical holes just doesn't sound right...
- McMulti oil exploration and exploitation
- Medici -
Knizia trades Roman goods in Italy and comes out ahead
- Members Only -
a game of bluff and gamble
- Metropolis city planning in a pre-SimCity
world
- Meurtre à l'Abbaye / Murder at the Abbey -
The Name of the Rose meets Clue!
- Middle Earth: The Wizards -
Siggins hits the high points of this exciting new CCG
- Middle Earth: The Lidless Eye -
marshall the forces of darkness to rid the world of short people!
- Mississippi Queen -
Ab Die Post Seafarer?
- Mit List und Tuecke -
Palle redux
- Modern Art high finance and high art
meet for a night of light gaming
- Netrunner -
a great ICE breaker
- New York -
Sackson's Property with some new twists
- Nimm's Leich
- Njet!
- Norns -
a Pente variant with a unique game board
- Octiles -
nice components for playing several abstract games
- Once Upon A Time
an interesting, competitive story telling game
- One-on-One Hoops -
a quick, light basketball card and dice game
- Ostindien Company -
yet another crack at the East India Company
- Pirateer -
Avast ye, mateys! Prepare to be boarded!
- Plague & Pestilence
a fun card game set in the time of the Black Death
- Plateau -
bluff, surprise, and hidden faces
- Power -
featuring the ever popular MegaMissile
- Priceless -
not worth the paper its printed on
- Quandary -
Flinke Pinke all dressed up but will it go home with you?
- Quests of the Round Table -
unusual, mass market card game
- Quo Vadis
the politics of compromise in the Senate of Rome
- Rail Baron & US Rails: A Retrospective, A Variant & A Review -
what it was, what was wrong with it, and how to fix it
- Ransom -
cutthroat real estate deals on the isle of Manhattan
- Rave
the game of the search for frenetic, tribal dancing
- Reibach & Co -
Alan Moon's latest venture in train card games
- Rheingold / Highlanders -
review with variants on this game of castle combat
- Rheinlaender -
a short, sharp shock of a game
- Riddles & Riches -
brain burning riddles abound in this board bound treasure hunt
- Die Ritter von der Haselnuß / The Knights of the Hazelnut -
a nutty game by Teuber
- Robin Hood & Don Pepe -
two birds, one stone, no letters from animal rights activists
- RoboRally - two views on this game of robot programming
- Safe Return Doubtful -
the race to the pole, mile by agonizing mile
- Saludos Amigos! -
a German planning commission - with no twist!
- Schoko & Co.
some call this game of chocolate buying and selling the best business game yet
- Sea-Fleet -
a blast from the past
- Shadowfist -
how strong is your Kung Fu? Find out in this underrated CCG
- Shadowrun -
talks the talk but is a little short on the walk
- Sharpshooters -
dicey dueling for family fun
- Die Siedler von Catan -
Teuber's game of production, development and trade
- Sindbad and his Seven Voyages
- Sindbad -
the eighth voyage?
- Sixteen Thirty Something -
the politics are thick in this recreation of the
Thirty Years War
- Spanish Main -
a clever game of the destruction, err, development of new lands
- Speed -
head to head Set
- Stack 21 -
multi-hand blackjack with some interesting player interaction
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
a customizable card game
- Stealth -
stealth tanks but no hit tables
- Sternenhimmel -
a game where you can truly read your fortune in the stars
- Survival of the Witless -
gaining tenure - fun or tedious?
- Swoop -
Siggins runs afoul of this bird watching game
- Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game -
Gentlemen, start your engines!
- Svea Rike / Rule Sweden -
preserve Sweden from the French is this game of political intrigue
- Take It Easy -
a laid back race game
- The Terrain Game -
mountain building and climbing in a beautiful format
- Throneworld -
which, surprisingly enough, does not involve plumbing
- Tikal -
Kramer digs up still more hidden treasure
- Timberland
the game of forest management
- Tracks to Telluride -
and related games of Colorado railroading
- Trade Winds/Buccaneer -
swashbuckling on the briney deep
- Tracks to Titicaca -
building rail over mountain passes, with variations
- Trainsport: Austria -
a quick, fun (well, relatively, on both counts) railway game
- Turf Horse Racing -
Knizia by a nose (Really Nasty for the 3M Thinking Man)
- Tycoon -
business as usual
- Und Tschuss!
- Variance -
a shifty twist on Billabong
- Union Pacific -
Airlines on iron rails
- Vegas -
adventures with Reiner in the land of lost wages
- Waldesfrust
timber management and economics
- Waldmeister -
a technically accurate forestry management game
- Wrott & Swindlers -
clever bidding is required at this auction house
- Yucata -
a road trip game where the value is in the travel
- Yucata -
Mayan priests replace trundling elephants but we
gain neither speed nor color
- The X Files CCG -
clearly a government conspiracy to end CCGs as we know them...
- X Pasch -
a bit of business with some kingmaking thrown in
- xXenophile -
the adult collectable card game
- Zankapfel -
hear the one about the apple farmer's daughter?
- Zum Kuckuck!
Newsletters and Magazines
The Game Cabinet
- editor@gamecabinet.com
- Ken Tidwell