Designer Game Reviews

A strategic pirate-themed exploration game that plays best with four players.

Clever and quick, Clans is one of the rare 30-minute strategy games that feels much more substantial.

An arena filled with gladiators battling to the death, fighting each other and ferocious animals.

Dragon's Gold begins with players working together to kill various dragons. It sounds hard, but it's not. When it comes to dividing their treasure, however -- look out.

Fightball takes basketball into the future, with shooters and blockers, shots and balls being played all over the court at a furious pace. The best coached team will win.

Fish Eat Fish is a clever abstract game that can be played and enjoyed by novices and children, but offers enough depth to appeal to serious gamers and adults.

If you enjoy auction games with blind bidding, Fist of Dragonstones will be a welcome addition to your game collection.

There's a pile of cheese at the end of the race, and in Gouda! Gouda! each player controls a team of five mice eager to get their hands on it.

Fans of The Lord of the Rings will find The Confrontation to be engaging, challenging and entertaining. This is a brilliantly designed two-player strategy game.

One of the best deduction games I've ever played, Mystery of the Abbey also has some laugh-out-loud moments.

A review of the card game Nightfall, published by Alderac Entertainment Group. This highly interactive deck-building game about vampires and werewolves features a number of clever mechanics.

Players bid for the services of six great explorers, including Magellan, Columbus and Pizarro. A great auction game.

A review of the adventure game Runebound. Runebound is one of the big board games in the adventure game genre, having cemented its place with multiple editions and a small infinity of expansions. Good components and theme are two of the advantages that Runebound offers.

Players compete to build roads, settlements and cities on the island of Catan in this game, which has sold millions of copies around the world.

A review of the board game Simply Catan, designed by Klaus Teuber and published in 2006 by SimplyFun.

Ticket to Ride is an absolutely top-notch game with broad appeal, playing in less than an hour and providing a lot of depth without being complicated. Players compete to build railroads across the United States and Canada, both developing their own plans and disrupting the plans of others.

Competing flocks of sheep try to eat the best grass while avoiding the wolves in this two-player game.

A review of the game Puzzle Strike. Puzzle Strike combines the deck-building engine of Dominion with the feel of a puzzle video game, topped off with a roster of 10 unique characters.