Hot Game Magnet: Board Game Reviews

There is something magical about the boardwalk beach fronts and developments of coastal cities. Santa Monica is one of those iconic locations, and Santa Monica the board game with art by Jeremy Nguyen captures that magic on appearances alone. The game itself is a lovely lower medium weight tableau builder, that is adequately crunchy and plays very well with two players.

Is Zombicide the perfect board game? Well, they made a second edition so maybe it had some room for improvement. Is it now better than ever, or is it not worth the upgrade? What do I do with all my old Zombicide mini's? Today we talk all about Zombicide 2nd Edition and why we think it's the best Zombicide yet!

It's time for another round up of what's cool on kickstarter. This month we found a few big miniature driven games, on which you can spend all of your money (or maybe just a lot of your money). There are also a few very interesting mechanic driven games to talk about. I think perhaps there's something for everyone.

Travis and Holly Hancock launched Facade Games in 2015 with the kickstarter release of their first game, Salem. They never thought it would be anything more than a fun side project. However, it was a huge success and has lead to the creation of their dark cities game series. 6 years and five games later, I talk with Travis about his adventures in game design and what the future holds for Facade games.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Pete Walsh of Pigeon games. I talk with Pete about his games past present and future, and about how his love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lead into a career in Boardgame design!

Some games are an absolute must have, but for some reason I keep not having them. today we talk about one of those games that is so good there really is no reason for it not to be in my collection. Yet, for some reason I keep not getting it. Everdell.

What a magnificent haul of new games on kickstarter! I wish I could back all of them but I guess I'll just have to be happy to talk about them... and also back a few. LOL!

Have you ever had a great idea and then doubted yourself to much to try putting it out there? Creating something great can be a lot of work, but the hardest part is probably just taking the first steps. Today we talk to Jeff Pearce who almost on a whim entered a game into a game design contest. A few years later that game has developed into the hit game Silverwood Grove which is currently doing fantastically well on kickstarter.

Some games just have legs! Today we talk about a simple game that we can't seem to stop bringing back to the table. The surprisingly re-playable Love letter! http://kck.st/3kw2iWD

It's time to round up all our favorite games coming out on kickstarter! This month we talk about cowboy Zombies, warring factions of woodland critters, a monster cafe, aliens invading mars, and a game about racing up a mountain to get to a public toilet! (we're a little partial to that last one. LOL!)

Ah Raiders of Scythia. Who knew that doing math and learning about history could be so much fun? I guess everyone that already played Raiders of the North Sea knew. Are we late to the party, or is Raiders of Scythia the perfect game to jump onto the renegade game studios with? I certainly do like all the eagles and horses and blood lusting ladies with bows, and such lovely art.

This week is a huge episode! We talk about our Game BushPoo! It will be launching on kickstarter on March 1st. Click the link below to be notified on launch! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hotgamemagnet/bush-poo?ref=clipboard-prelaunch

This week we review a game that is completely different from any game we played before. Sonora is a "Flick and Write" game from Pandasaurus games. Is it a dexterity game or a puzzle game or both? is Fun? What's a Flick and Write? Where is the Sonora desert anyway?

In today's episode we talk about Wayfinders by Pandasaurus games. In this game you get a to pilot a seaplane and set up hangars on remote islands. It's a game of strategy and can be quite crunchy and yet is still whimsical and simple. Listen to our full review, and check out the game here https://pandasaurusgames.com/products/wayfinders 

is there anything more fun than building a fort with your friends in that golden era between being a kid and being not a kid? Maybe not, but Fort by Leder games comes close

2020 is all wrapped up, and so it time for us to wrap up all of our favorite games from the year and pick our best game of 2020! We played a ton of great games so it wasn't easy, but we narrowed it down to our top five. In this episode we talk about those five games and decide which one is number one!

I Think what I love about euro games is that no matter what the theme is the game can be fun. I have zero interest in trains, but the kids and I can't get enough of ticket to ride: first journey! Why is this game so much fun? because it's really really well designed. easy to learn, simple to play, but with depth of strategy that even a 6 year old can grasp. 

Time for our last round up of kickstarter campaigns for the year of 2020! We found a few games that look like they might be winners, but only time will tell.

We keep finding new types of games and mechanics that we haven't played before. Pendulum by Stonemaier games uses a unique version of the timed round mechanic, in which all players must carefully time their actions to benefit from the movements of three differently timed sand timers. What at first looks like a game of frantic play turns out to be a game of carful calculation. 

What gives a game staying power? Werewolves of Miller's Hollow is a game that has been around in one form or another for decades, or maybe even longer! It seems like it may be too old to be fun, but like the werewolf on the full moon, it just keeps coming back!