SaltCon 2021 End of Summer Fun

“Back in the Game”

That was the bold statement on the winning t-shirt design for SaltCon End of Summer 2021. And it couldn’t have been more appropriate!

It was awesome to be back at SaltCon this past weekend playing game after game for a couple of days straight.

SaltCon is the big board game convention in Utah, USA and it’s packed with gaming goodness. The event is typically held for 4 days in March each year, so I was sad when it was announced last Fall that the March event would be canceled. But, the news a few months ago that they’d hold an “End of Summer” SaltCon for 3 days at the end of July got me excited again.

Let’s dive in!

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Best Games of 2020! – The Dice Tower Awards

The best board games, card games, dice games, family games, and party games of 2020 have been awarded!

The Dice Tower recently announced the winners of The Dice Tower Awards — the annual crowing of the best board games published last year.

With thousands of new games published every year, there’s never a shortage of great new board games to play.

Top board game reviewers, podcasters, and industry contributors from around the world participated in the nomination and voting process.

Now, let’s see The Dice Tower Award Winners for 2020:

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Kingdoms Lawn Game – review

Ah, the lazy days of summer!

Time to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air. Or time to play some lawn games with your family like cornhole, bocce ball, ladder toss, horseshoes, or spikeball to name a few.

Well, now there’s a new lawn game on the scene that brings in some board game type fun to the mix – Kingdoms Lawn Game!

It’s a fantasy themed lawn game for the entire family.

Individuals or teams join mystical factions bent on taking down their enemies. Players throw balls (armies) underhand at their opponents lawn pawns (castles). The last team with a castle standing, wins!!!

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King of Tokyo: Dark Edition game review

In 2012 we reviewed one of the hot new board games that year, King of Tokyo.

King of Tokyo is a push-your-luck board game where you get to play “king of the hill” using dice, special ability power cards, and cool monsters.

It’s no wonder why it jumped to “hot game” status because it’s easy to play and a lot of fun for up to 6 players.

iello quickly published an expansion for the game, King of Tokyo: Power Up. And a couple of year later released King of New York.

Last year, they published a collector’s edition of the game called King of Tokyo: Dark Edition and we’re excited to share our thoughts about it.

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Got any Spies and Turncoats?

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

I’m sure many people may have uttered that phrase this past year. But we’re not here to talk about last year. Instead, we’re looking back to 1776 when Thomas Paine penned those words in The American Crisis.

Of course, we’re not here for a book report either, but instead to look at a social deduction card game set during the American Revolutionary War — Patriots & Redcoats by Green Feet Games.

In the game, players take on the roles of the Americans fighting to win independence and the British fighting to stop the rebellion. And like in typical social deduction type games, players are secretly assigned which side they’re on and must figure out who to eliminate to win.

But, be careful because players may also change loyalty along the way!

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Smart10 – Trivia Challenges That Are Fun

I really don’t like trivia games.

At least, the trivia game most people are familiar with — Trivial Pursuit. And I’ve tried to like it. But to no avail. It’s just not for me.

That’s why I was a bit wary when we got a copy of Smart10 from Bananagrams.

Yet, once we pulled it out and played it, Smart10 became the hit group game this holiday break!

And I’m happy to tell you why.

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Board Game Gift Guide 2020!

It’s that awesome time of year again when we look for great fun ideas for gifts for family and friends.

With this crazy year, we know many families have already been grabbing a lot more board games to pass the time together throughout the year.

But it’s always nice to get some ideas for fresh games to play too.

This marks our 10th annual Board Game Gift Guide and we love sharing great gift ideas!

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Sketchy Tales: Disney Edition Game Review

One of our family’s favorite party games is Telestrations. It’s a hoot every time we play it because things never turn out the way they start.

So when we heard about Sketchy Tales: Disney Edition by Big Potato Games, and that it sounded a lot like Telestrations, we were happy to give it a go.

I mean, why not take a crack at seeing how mixed up our Disney drawings could get?

And we’re happy to report we’ve had plenty of laughs with Sketchy Tales!

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Upside Drawn – No drawing talent needed

Telestrations is one of our favorite party games. It’s like playing the classic game of “telephone” but with pictures.

We always end up laughing a ton because of how the original depiction morphs over the course of the game.

So when we heard about Telestrations: Upside Drawn, we were very excited to get a copy from The Op to play.

Attaching the “Telestrations” brand name to the game is a nice move to get attention. Just don’t be fooled — because Upside Drawn it’s a much different game from regular Telestrations.

The great news is that it’s a lot of fun in its own right!

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Blinks Game System Review

There’s been a big meshing of digital and physical board games over the last decade.

Many physical board games have taken on digital form and can be a blast to play with friends at a distance. And other physical board games have incorporated a digital element that we love for extending the gameplay — such as the cooperative games Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition, and Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition that we love using the app to play the bad side.

Well, today we’ve got something quite different from anything we’ve reviewed in the past. It’s actually a digitally-driven complete game system called Blinks!

But it doesn’t use any computers, mobile devices, or apps. All the game data and rules are stored in the hex game pieces themselves!

The cool thing is that each hex game piece, called a Blink, stores the information/rules of one game. And that Blink “teaches” the other Blinks the rules of the game and then they’re all in!

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