Games for Two 2 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Review – Inuit: The Snow Folk

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!

At long last, Shut Up & Sit Down’s campaign for “More Worms in Games!” has borne fruit. Disgusting, wriggling, glistening fruit.

Silk is the first published work from designer Luis Ranedo, as well the first game from artist Roc Espinet. Considering that this this is their first effort, here at SU&SD we can’t wait to see what beautiful, nasty business they get up to next.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Ava: Le Havre could be the perfect resource shuffling game. It’s a tightly wound knot of decisions and possibilities, that unfurls and unwraps as you play.

An elaborate and ever-increasing roster of buildings offers ways to process, use, acquire and sell as many goods as you can. Tiny, square, double-sided tokens flood the board, spilling out of warehouses that heave with potential, begging for you to grab them before someone else does.

Today, we’re proud to present the finale of Chronicles Month, as we poke our flag into a most elusive game in the BoardGameGeek Top 100.

Crokinole is big, it’s bold, it’s 150 years old, and a good board will cost you $300. Those are some very frightening numbers. Could this ever be a reasonable consumer purchase? Click play, and find out.

Huge thanks to the fine people at Woodestic Crokinole for providing us with a discount on our board. If you live in Europe and were interested in a Crokinole board of your very own, make them your first port of call.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Ava: Let us take you on a tour of the weirdest, most beautiful objects in the world. We can show you the largest palaces and the most specific digging implements, the canniest navigation tools and the shiniest hats you’ve ever seen.

Welcome to Museum, a game of archaeology (stealing), curation (re-arranging), and prestige (letter-writing).

Quinns: With over 300 gorgeous illustrations by Vincent Dutrait, Museum is the definition of a labour of love. In fact, Ava and I approached it like a real museum, taking a leisurely tour of its exhibits across two days.

Finally, we’re ready to write our review. Ava, do you want to explain the game?

Ava: Let me be your guide through the byzantine corridors…of board game.

It’s time for the second review of Chronicles month, and oh boy, have we got a chronicle for you.

With a price point of $130, Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is the second most expensive game we’ve ever reviewed. If there’s a bat-thing you love, you’re bound to find it sequestered in one (one!) of this game’s many, many boxes.

But could some boxes of fictitious bats ever be worth that much money? Click play, let us tell you what we think.

Kylie: In Vladimír Suchý’s heavy management game Underwater Cities, players are competing to build the ultimate deep sea nation. But is it actually better, down where it’s wetter? Are there no troubles when life is the bubbles? Can we really trust a crustacean that sings? I guess we should find out.

Each player is given a personal city map which you’ll fill with a scattering of white and red biodomes, which will connect to a flourishing network of factories and laboratories. Ideally, this network will score you points, as well as act as an engine that’ll occasionally spew out resources such as credits, biomatter, and kelp. Lots of kelp.

Apparently when we colonise the seas, the only thing available to eat will be kelp. I’ve never tried kelp. Have you tried kelp? They tell me it’s the kale of the sea, but I’m pretty sure that’s a lie.

“Start as you mean to go on,” as they say. That’s why for our first review of 2019 we picked a fantastic game, put on the loudest shirts that Matt owned, broke out the eyeliner, and squeezed in an homage to The Muppets.

Don’t get distracted by all of those lovely colours, though. Featuring a bit of bluffing, a bit of logic, a bit of deduction and a lot of laughter, Treasure Island is a game that deserves some serious consideration.

For our last review of the year, Matt pulled out all the stops… and then Quinns appeared and started plugging them back in again.

It seems this pair can’t quite agree on Keyforge. Is it fun, or not-fun? Is the business model good or bad? Is the universe a joke or a failure?

Let us know your experience with Keyforge in the comments! Whatever our thoughts on it, Keyforge’s staggering initial sales hint that this game is going to be with us for quite some time.

The choice of which game of play on our Twitch channel this week was a no-brainer. Which is to say, we knew we’d have no brains remaining after flying back from PAX Unplugged, so we chose a game that could be enjoyed by eight-year-olds.

Men at Work is the next beautiful box coming out of Pretzel Games, makers of Flick ‘Em Up and Junk Art, and we love the heck out of it. And like those previous games, it functions as a lovely object, as well as a silly challenge, and – if you so choose – an arena where actual tactics can be deployed.

If you’d like to watch the full stream, with the beginning, the end and all of the hilarious comments in between, it’ll be available here for the next sixty days. And if you’d like to hear about us talk about Men at Work on the podcast, you’ll find that sweet ol’ chat on episode #88.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Review – Inuit: The Snow Folk

Review: Silk

Review: Le Havre

Review: Crokinole

Review: Museum

Review – Batman: Gotham City Chronicles

Review: Underwater Cities

Review: Treasure Island

Review: Keyforge

SU&SD Play… Men at Work!

Feeds