Shut Up & Sit Down

Review: Detective Club

travel? Regret? Sponges?, the Annual Art Critics Arguing Convention, a jazz lad

Ben: Picture the scene: you are in an art gallery. The curator asks you to pick two paintings that match a specific word. They won’t, however, tell you what that word is. You run off and pick two different paintings; one of a horse, the other of an apple in a window. The curator then tells you the word they were thinking of was “escape”, and asks you why on earth you picked those two paintings.

Welcome to the most unusual club in the world!

Detective Club is a party game that sees 4-8 players trying to match fabulous picture cards to different words. Each round, a different player will choose a word, write it on all but one of the adorable tiny notebooks the game comes with, shuffles them, and deals them out. Can you see where this is going?

Impressions: Yomi

a card with a heart condition, a seedy lady, the famous su&sd aaa system

Quinns: The people have spoken! After our glowing review of Combo Fighter on Friday, Shut Up & Sit Down was besieged by comments asking what we thought of Yomi, a well-liked 2011 game with a very similar foundation (as well as a teeming crowd of 20 playable characters).

We hadn’t played Yomi when we filmed the Combo Fighter review. Today, I can announce that we have played Yomi, and can provide some official SU&SD impressions!

So let’s start here: Holy kittens, Yomi is *bizarre*.

GAMES NEWS! 16/09/19

mash potato dreams, a kodak moment at the tower of silence, wrestling a ferry

Ava: Hlph um kumphlll. Mummph blumph fulmph bugublfu

Quinns: What was that, Ava?

Ava: *large tearing noise and a series of ragged gasps* Help me, Quinns, I’m stuck inside this baseball!

Quinns: …

Ava: It’s an allegory, Quinns, and a warning that this week’s games news is a bit more inside baseball than usual.

Quinns: I can just about understand that, but how did you get in there!?

Ava: Never doubt my commitment to a bit, Quinns. Also, I’m sorry I ruined your baseball.

Review: Combo Fighter

a sexualised forklift truck, a fist class ticket, intern inches tall

As anyone who’s seen us at conventions will know, it’s hard for team SU&SD to spend a day out and about without getting into a punching fight or muscle demonstration.

As such, it was only natural that we’d review Combo Fighter. An expandable, simple card game about kicking bottom, and a glorious team effort between designer Asger Johansen and artist Snorre Krogh. If you like the sound of a lightning-fast 1 vs 1 game that’s more intelligent than it has any right to be, do take a closer look.

(And if you’d like to see more of this kind of thing, check out our impressions of Critical Mass on podcast #84.)

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Tactics and Tactility #3 – Songbirds’ Pretty Little Vice

mind crumpling, heart burning, maw clenching, fun

[Tactics and Tactility is our column about the feelings, details and pleasures of tabletop gaming. This week we’re looking at Songbirds, and nasty little puzzles.]

Ava: There’s a specific sort of puzzle that takes you by surprise. You hear some rules, you start making gentle moves, pushing towards one path or another, placing pieces, making choices.

Then things start to tighten. The points and the prize and the folks sat beside you suddenly crowding in. Everything matters.

And it’s only going to get harder.

Songbirds is a beautifully sweet game of finding your favourite bird and hoping it’s eaten the most berries.

Except actually, Songbirds is a ruthlessly cruel game about second guessing, outmaneuvering, and slowly being left with no options whatsoever.

30 Comments

Review – Inuit: The Snow Folk

icy peeking, peppered players, what about them bears?

Kylie: Inuit: The Snow Folk is a deeply alluring card-drafting strategy game that sees 2-4 players vying for the title of the greatest leader of the Snow Folk.

First up, let me take you on a tour of the rules. Inuit is a breath of fresh air as far as rules go – it’s incredibly simple. On your turn you’re going to draw a card from the deck and place it face up in the middle of the table. This communal area is known as the Great White.

You can then optionally turn over some more cards before finally choosing to take one or more of the face up cards and putting them in the relevant space on your player board. The game ends when the polar nightfall card is drawn from the deck and whoever scores the most points wins.

That’s it. Rules tour is done. Phew!

Read moreReview – Inuit: The Snow Folk

48 Comments

GAMES NEWS! 09/09/19

wooly foxlings, weetabix tapes, sand chat, anxious almanacs

Ben: Oh jeez, I’m introducing the news. Please don’t let me break anything. They never let the intern pilot the Enterprise.

Ava: Luke Skywalker was basically an intern when he got a pop on an X-Wing, and he blew up an entire ‘that’s no moon’. Dream big, Ben! Blow something up!

Ben: Hello! It’s time for some gaming news! If you’re ready for it, great, if not let me know and I will tip you out of bed and shout news in your face until you’ve had your fill or I get tired.

Ava: That’s the spirit!

Card Games That Don’t Suck: Egyptian Ratscrew

This week, our series on the best games that you can play with a 52 card deck gets violent.

Egyptian Ratscrew plays a lot like Jungle Speed, except with more fire. Literally. This is the first game that SU&SD has covered with a greater than zero chance of ending in flames. Also, huge thanks to Gnalistair on YouTube for pointing out that the game gets even better if you require players to first slap their forehead before slapping the table.

If you like the look of the Carte Rouge puzzle deck in this video, the Kickstarter is right here.

Podcast #99¾ – Running from the Board Game Police

a bounty of beans, an unexpected tribunal, an underworld panty raid, breasticles

In this episode, Matt, Quinns and Ben report live from a secret hideout. Matt’s been breaking the rules of Gloomhaven (discussed at 26:54) while Quinns has been ignoring the laws of new, superb expansion Bunny Kingdom: In the Sky (50:12), and the cops could bust them at any moment.

The group also discuss the bizarre Undo games (02:56), the video game-inspired Super Motherload (10:05), the delightfully three-dimensional ShipShape (20:42), the wild grasping of Lords of Hellas (36:20) and the disappointment of Cerberus (48:02).

Thanks to our amazing community, podcast transcripts are available here, and are usually completed within a week of the podcast’s release.

GAMES NEWS! 02/09/19

palace summerin', park cuttin', monocle poppin', worms

Quinns: Sorry I’m late to the doc, Ava. I put too many news-chillies on my news-pizza last night, and it has caused problems with my ability to use the news-toilet.

Ava: Hey! Adding the word news to everything is MY thing. Let me make you some news-peppermint tea, while you decide if you need any news-ointment for your poor, spicy news-bum.

Quinns: I thought I’d put you on the back foot by talking about my body, but I just feel like I’ve opened Pandora’s Box. Which isn’t the only thing that’s been opened this morning, let me tell you.

Ava: THAT’S ENOUGH OF THAT! TO THE NEWS.