Review: Cacao

Review: Cacao

Paul: Do you like jungles? How do you feel about jungles? I think I would be a disaster in a jungle. Coming from the mild and unremarkable environs of suburban Hampshire, where any deviation from the overcast and temperate ambience causes wonderment and confusion amongst the locals, I would be helpless. It seems like everything in the jungle wants to kill or poison you. Everything is massive. The trees are massive. The cats are massive. The ants are massive.

But when I saw Cacao, I saw a safe jungle that I could enjoy, a jungle free of carnivorous plants, raging thunderstorms and toxic frogs. Yes, I will happily admit that the first thing that attracted me to the game was how Carcassonne-like it seemed. It has meeples. It has square tiles you lay down as you map out a patchwork world. How gentle! I thought. How soothing. There would be no rumble in the jungle here, just a… while with some tiles?

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Review: Codenames

Review: Codenames

Quinns: In an age where we can fit dice on rings and hold Battlestar Galactica LARPs in decommissioned warships, team SU&SD has learned that rules can only hold us back. The only rule we have left is that before we review a game, it has to be available for our readers to buy it.

Today, we’re breaking that rule!

Codenames was the smash hit of Gen Con this year. It’s still perched happily atop BoardGameGeek’s “Hotness” sidebar, it sold out despite having a terrible name and a terrible box, and it’s the game I heard most people gossiping about. Under such crushing hype, and knowing that articles will soon be flowing in, today we’re offering our review early.

Let’s start with two words: Vlaada Chvatil.

Then another five: He’s done it again.

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Review: Spyfall

Review: Spyfall

The English language version of Spyfall is finally available! …And stock has immediately drained out shops the world over like a vodka martini through a sieve.

Don’t worry, friends! Operating in a dangerous web of international intrigue, and with a little help from Starlit Citadel, Team SU&SD has secured a review copy. At last, we’re here to tell you if this party game live up to the hype.

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Review: Deus

Video review: Deus

Who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of empire-building now and then? Paul certainly does, which is why he was excited to look at Deus this week, something he did entirely of his own choosing and under no sort of godly compulsion.

With a modular board, lots of little wooden pieces to arrange and a huge deck of cards representing everything from legions to laboratories, could this be a new favourite game of centurions and conquest?

(Our huge apologies for this missing Friday after a mind-bursting five attempts, it uploaded! Have a lovely weekend!)

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Review: Witness

Video review: Witness

We’ve got a HUGE game for you this week! Witness might look like a pre-schooler up-ended their homework over your table, but it’s actually an inventive, sexy game of solving mysteries from the publishers of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.

But while Sherlock is a game of wild theories and sweet sherries, Witness is no less than a game of swearing, sweating and whispering. Come take a look. You won’t regret it.

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Review: Panamax

Review: Panamax

So it turns out that Paul has actually always had something of a fascination for big ships. It also turns out that Panamax mixes big ships with big business and (very) big bucks. After all these years, could this be the way that Paul finally makes his millions?

Of course not. It’s a board game. Still, it could be good, right? Let’s see what Shut Up & Sit Down’s North American Correspondent thinks in a video made in the style of some of our very first reviews.

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Review: Monikers

Review: Monikers

Remember when we told you that Skull was the game that’ll make you and your friends shout the loudest? Monikers (buy here) might be the funniest game we’ve ever reviewed. Weirder still, it might be more than 100 years old.

We’ve always suspected that old things were the best, but now we know. Time to cancel those forthcoming reviews of Armada and Dragon’s Gold. Next week, we’ll be reviewing whist, football and tuberculosis.

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Review: XCOM: The Board Game

Review: XCOM: The Board Game

It’s here! XCOM: The Board Game is now in shops the world over, with its computerised component, its little plastic snipers and its starched lil’ navy blue box. Oooh. You want it.

OR DO YOU? Let Quinns and Paul cut a path for you through the jungle of hype around this game, all the way to the UFO crash site of truth. “Welcome to Earth,” indeed.

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Review: Zombie 15′

Review: Zombie 15'

Roll over, Zombie Dice. Zombicide? It’s history. Zombie 15′ is our game for Halloween in 2014! A real-time, co-operative 15 minute game of 15 year-olds fighting their way past restless dead across 15 missions.

The question isn’t whether Paul and Quinns like it. It’s whether they can succeed at reviewing it in a single 15 minute take. Enjoy, everybody!

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Review: Samurai Spirit

Review: Samurai Spirit

One of the first reviews we ever wrote was of Antoine Bauza’s Ghost Stories, back when SU&SD was little more than a twinkle on our camcorder’s four gig SD card.

Clearly we’re getting old. This year will soon see the release of Samurai Spirit, an all-new Bauza game of protecting an all-new village. What will Quinns make of it? More importantly, what will he make of that box?

Have you heard about the box? Oh dear. We have some bad news. Are you sitting down?

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