Barbecubes is Major Fun!

12/23/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Rob Sparks, Brett J. Gilbert
Development: Joshua Perry, Anthony Howego
Publisher: Alley Cat Games
Artist: Rory Muldoon
2-6 players | 3-15 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $50 | BGG Entry
Time to teach and learn: 2 minutes

Game Synopsis

The coals are hot and the crowd is hungry. It’s time to get cooking!

Flip a card, then find a way to fit the food shown on the world’s tiniest grill.. using the world’s tiniest tongs. Make sure the food is touching the right number of bars along the grill and make sure not to drop anything into the fire. Burn too many things and you’ll have to turn in your apron and let someone else finish the meal.

Why We Love Barbecubes

Barbecubes is a game of simple joy amplified by its size.

The small tin the game comes in serves as the imaginary kettle for your grill, holding the hot coals. Two wooden grates are arranged over the tin to create the cooking surface. Charming wooden pixelated pieces of food: chicken legs, steaks, burgers, sausages, fish and pork belly all await the fire (the selection is surprisingly very meat-centric – why not an onion? Some asparagus? Maybe even a mushroom or some tofu?). Tiny plastic tongs are the tools of your trade. A deck of small cards depicts a specific food item and exactly how many grill bars it must touch.

If all these components were life size, the game would still be a lovely experience. But Barbecubes makes you adjust to its scale. The choice to make the game mini, maximizes its fun.

The squared off edges of the miniature 8-bit shaped food might seem like a blessing, but once you pick up something seemingly simple, like a burger, you’ll understand. The tongs may grip those corners, but they also make it devilishly hard to readjust things mid-stream without the food flying off out of your control. This means even when grill space is mostly open, it can still be a tricky challenge to get your food placed properly. And once the grill gets packed, that’s when the real fun begins. You may have to nudge a sausage or slide over a plank of salmon to clear space for your steak. And you might even be forced to tip that beef on its side, so it won’t take up as much room over the fire. Knock any food into the tin and you’ve failed this round. Fail twice and you’re out.

Player elimination is often vilified without paying attention to how it is used in a game. Every turn in Barbecubes is fun and full of tension because of the chance for failure and the chance for someone to be knocked out of the game. You can even try to set the next player up for failure by how you choose to place your food on the grill. You can be mean but the cost of that meanness is small. You can fail, but the cost of that failure is short. Even a long game of Barbecubes is less than 10 minutes. You may be crying after burning your bacon in one game and, 5 minutes later, be cheering as you are crowned the king or queen of the grill. As players, I think we hunger for chances at triumph and redemption. Barbecubes delivers us the potential for both multiple times in less time than it takes to grill the perfect steak. Dont let the tiny tin fool you. This game is no side dish. It serves up a heaping helping of Major Fun.

Congratulations to designer Rob Sparks and Brett J. Gilbert

More information on Barbecubes at Alley Cat Games

Duck & Cover is Major Fun!

12/23/202512/23/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Oussama Khelifati
Publisher: Captain Games
Artist: Adrien Journel
2-7 players | 20 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $18 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 4-5 minutes

Game Synopsis

It’s bath time and all your rubber ducks have decided to join the fun. It’s nice having the whole flock together until you realize one big problem. With all this splashing around, you won’t have any water left in the tub!

One by one, players try to consolidate their duck cards from a grid into stacks. Everyone plays at the same time. Like Bingo, the Captain draws a card and calls out a number. Everyone must find this number duck in their grid and use it to cover a neighor OR fly it to a new part of the tub. If your duck has already been covered, you QUACK to let folks know you didnt get to move. If everyone QUACKS, we are all one step closer to the end of the round. The bathtub with the lowest number of splashes after three rounds wins the game.

Why We Love Duck & Cover

There’s a puzzly challenge in each bathtub grid of cards you face in Duck & Cover. Every time the Captain calls a number you have the opportunity to improve your situation. You want to manipulate your ducks into fewer and fewer stacks before the end of the round. Points are bad in Duck & Cover, so each duck you can see at the top of a stack will add to your score UNLESS… you manage to pull all your ducks into a single stack. In this case, the value of this final duck is subtracted from your score!

There’s no middle ground here. High numbers could make your score skyrocket or plummet. From the very first card the Captain calls out, there’s a deliciously tense decision to make. Do you press your luck and keep high numbers face up in your tub OR do you play it safe and cover them the first chance you get?

This tension is created by the chaos of the shuffle. No one knows what the Captain will draw next. There are two of each numbered duck plus two special cards. If a round continues deep into the draw deck, players can make more informed decisions based on which numbers remain. Informal alliances or cheering sections will form each round because of the shuffle. Some players will be begging for a 7 while others booo 7s and chant to the soapy gods for a 5.

Every bath builds to a fun crescendo in Duck & Cover. It’s a game of fluid tactics guided by a sometimes fickle and sometimes forgiving deck of cards. This means victory for you on a given round could look very different from others. Maybe the best you could do was limit your losses, given the flow of the cards. There’s an ebb and flow to Duck & Cover that makes for engaging highs and hilarious lows. It plays so quickly that, even when our toes were wrinkled up like raisins from another round of baths, Duck & Cover kept us coming back for more.

Congratulations to designer Oussama Khelifati

More information on Duck & Cover at Captain Games

Oya One More is Major Fun

12/23/202512/23/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designer: Kenechukwu Ogbuagu
Publisher: Nibcard Games
1-8 players | 20 min. | ages 7+ | MSRP $24.99
Time to teach & learn: 2-3 minutes

Game Synopsis

Oya One More is a press-your-luck dice and card game. Players race to reach a point total by matching dice they rolled to the pattern on a card. Here’s the catch! You can match only a single die to a card or ALL the dice to a card. You can stop and bank your points, but if you want to keep going, you flip another card. Each card you score entices you to try for another, but if you bust, all your gains this turn are lost. Special cards may also entice you to keep going – allowing you to add points, steal dice, and manipulate or reroll dice. Bonuses for filling a card or using all the dice will have everyone chanting OYA ONE MORE as you decide whether to stop or keep going.

Why We Love Oya One More

Oya One More is a dice game that creates tension by how you spend your five dice instead of how you roll them. You roll only once each turn and then hope to apply the results on the dice to the card you have drawn. Sometimes a bust will happen right away. In this case, perhaps the dice gods really dont love you! In most cases, though, you’ll assign a single die to a card to score it or occasionally fill the card (which triggers a score multiplier).

Now the real fun and tension begins! Do you stop and bank your score or do you keep going? If you only have a couple dice left to assign, this can be a risky move, especially if they are the same value. Then again, it might be worth the risk, since bonuses for using all your dice or filling a card are tremendous. Special cards can also tempt you to continue since many of them help skew the odds in your favor. Oya One More is a game of relentless temptation. Can you resist?

Oya is the word for quickly in the Nigerian Pidgin Language and the game takes this word to heart. Turns are fast and furious. Every turn people are engaged. Everyone leans in to see whether a player busts or gets to keep going. Someone at the table will be cheering or moaning each time a card is drawn. Either the crowd will be cheering when another player busts, or the active player will be celebrating when they stop with a good score.

There are two other variants included, inspired by Blackjack and Poker, which add additional ways to explore and enjoy the game system – assigning dice to cards.

Press Your Luck games are accessible to such a wide array of players young and old. This can explain their popularity and success across many years. However, most press your luck games walk down a well worn road and fail to offer players a new or challenging experience. Oya One More creates a new approach for players to press their luck and in doing so carves a path straight to Major Fun.

Congratulations to designer Kenechukwu (KC) Ogbuagu

More information on Oya One More here

Whirly Derby is Major Fun!

12/23/202512/23/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Tedman Getschman
Publisher: Big Potato Games
Developers: Ed Naujokas, Drew Richards, James A. Vaughan
2-6 players | 20 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $24.99 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 2-3 minutes

Game Synopsis

Eight races down a metal cone stand between you and marble racing immortality. Secretly choose how many of your marbles to risk on each race, then load everyone’s marbles into the launcher and let them fly! They will spin around and around the metal disc until one marble drops through the center hole and wins the race. Finish first, second, or third and you get to claim a trophy and score points. Be careful as you spend your marbles, though, because you lose them as you use them. And even if your marbles are slow, there’s an underdog bonus that will keep you in contention. Whose marbles will score big and rule over the Whirlyverse?

Why We Love Whirly Derby

The subtitle to this game should be: Physics is Major Fun! Who knew gravity and centripetal acceleration could produce so many laughs and so much joy? The simple truth of Whirly Derby is this: everyone picks a number of marbles, then we all cheer them on as they spin toward the center of a gently sloping metal funnel. If this sounds both silly and ridiculous, by god, it is. You have very little control over the outcome of any race but, if you let yourself, you will become totally invested in how each marble traces its course around the track. You’ll indignantly curse the marbles who shoulder yours out of the way and you’ll take a victory lap and look for fist bumps when your marble rockets to the finish first. You’ll claim skill when it suits you and cry foul when physics betrays you. The advanced rules introduce an element of tactics and strategy with scoring cards that require some added thought and the Thunderball, a giant marble that can prevent any player’s marble from winning. The genius of Whirly Derby, though, is its gentle but stubborn invitation to relax and give in to the essential absurdity of the game. Whirly Derby reminds us that a game doesnt require skill or grand strategy or even success to produce lasting moments of pure fun.

Congratulations to designers Tedman Getschman

More information on Whirly Derby at: Big Potato Games

Cyber Pet Quest is Major Fun!

09/19/202509/19/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Brendan Kendrick, Bernie Lin
Publisher: Dead Alive Games
Artist: Alex Pei, Maria Zvonkova, Zach Leo
1-4 players | 40 min. | ages 8+ | MSRP $30 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 5-8 minutes

Game Synopsis

It’s 2050 and most of the citizens of San Lazaro have become techno-zombies, infected by a virus in their gadgets and implants. Stupid humans! Only your ragtag team of sentient cyber pets can save the day! Jane the cat, Clay the dog, Freya the raccoon and Roman the goose must search the city hoping to find their friend Howard the Scientist who vanished suddenly and mysteriously.

Over multiple chapters, your team will explore and investigate new locations, overcome enemies and solve puzzles. Your choices will advance the story and level up your abilities and equipment. Can your bionic brains band together to outwit these many dangers? Adventure is calling. How will your quest unfold?

cyber pet quest game components close up

Why We Love Cyber Pet Quest

Cyber Pet Quest adapts video game sensibilities into an engaging set of clever cardboard challenges. From the choice of pet characters each with their own skill tree and backstory to turn-based combat and waves of increasingly difficult enemies and boss battles, the framework of the game will be familiar. It feels like a story driven tactical rpg. the stakes may be lower in Cyber Pet Quest, but video games like Final Fantasy, XCom, Disgaea, and Banner Saga draw players into a rich world seen through the eyes of a cadre of characters whose abilities will mesh to provide new and interesting tactical combos. And with each objective you complete, the story will advance and unfold. Even the introductory scenario introduces concepts and rules much like the tutorial level to a console game. This familiar framework is purposeful and makes the game immensely approachable to younger players who might be less likely to cross the digital divide and play a game without a screen.

The game teaches teamwork. You quickly learn that flexible thinking is most often the best path to victory. Each round, initiative will bounce back and forth between two decks of cards, the player deck and the Cyms deck( Cyms are the dreaded techno zombies). Every pet will get a turn but you won’t know from round to round when each pet will get to go in the batting order. Each Cym operates according to a simple set of programmed rules, but you don’t know in what order they will go either. this means communication must be constant between all the pets and any plan could be contingent on turn order.

cyber pet quest pet illustrations and biographies

Even an individual pet’s turn forces flexible thinking. Actions like moving, inspecting, interacting, healing or attacking require energy. But the energy you have available on a turn is modified by a die roll. And because each pet has skills better suited to certain actions, you may need a higher roll to accomplish more tasks. When the dice cooperate, pets can get a lot done. Most often, though, the dice may betray you and you’ll have to find new options to make your plans work.

Perhaps the best example of true teamwork in the game is the choice between being aggro and sneaky. In order to attack and subdue your enemies you must be aggro, but this choice comes at a cost. Any enemy who activates will target and attack the pet who was last aggro. Deciding as a group who should be aggro and how they can distract or contain enemies is a key to success but it can also very easily lead to a pet’s demise and the end of the game.

all game components set up and ready to play

Cyber Pet Quest is an ambitious game with a big story to tell, all within the confines of a very small box. A spiral bound scenario book will guide you through each chapter in the campaign. locations, objectives, equipment, upgrades, charms and bosses have their own deck of cards. There are tokens galore and custom dice for energy and dodging damage, plus personal pet boards for each player. Even the magnetic lid of the box becomes a reference board for the menacing Cyms. Unpacking the game and setting the stage for each chapter feels like an event – a miniature world taking shape – a world that becomes your personal playground for an hour or two.

cyber pet quest box being held in one hand for scale

This bite size game offers us more than snacks, though. Each chapter feels like a satisfying course. And while you could race through the entire experience over an extended session if you tried, I think this is contrary to the spirit of the game. Cyber Pet Quest is meant to be savored over multiple sessions. You might squeeze in two chapters in a sitting, but don’t rush. Enjoy each new twist and turn of the story. Revel in your new levels and skills. The anticipation and excitement for what lies ahead is part of the fun for any good adventure, especially one with adorable robot cats.

Congratulations to designers Brendan Kendrick and Bernie Lin!

More information on Cyber Pet Quest at: Dead Alive Games

Lost for Words is Major Fun!

09/12/202509/12/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Ami Baio
Publisher: Pink Tiger Games
Artist: Roselly Monegro
2-7 players | 30 min. | ages 14+ | MSRP $25 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 2 minutes

Game Synopsis

Lost for words is a game about describing emotions. Structure for the game is provided by a deck of 350 cards each with an obscure word for an emotion and its definition and an icon. Select a card from your hand and read it aloud, then share with the group a memory or an experience or a story from your life or the life you might want. A simple scoring system is in place if you care about that sort of thing, but really lost for words is an invitation to explore how language shapes our feelings, and our ability to connect with and share them. Sometimes it takes just the right word for us to not feel so lost.

Why We Love Lost for Words

Lost for words gives players a chance to discover how language can confine and constrain the way we think. It does this by presenting English speaking players with hundreds of emotion words from other languages. The words on these cards describe feelings and scenarios that have no obvious or easy equivalent in English. Here are some examples.

Ewa inu (Yoruba): the beauty inside; your character or intrinsic worth

Razliubito (Russian): when you are no longer in love, but still hold bittersweet sentiments of nostalgia toward someone

Natsubate (Japanese): when you’re feeling particularly tired of summer

Neko Neko (Indonesian): someone who has a creative idea that makes the situation worse

Commuovere (Italian): to be moved to tears by words

Cwcth (Welsh): and embrace saved for those closest to you in sentimental times

Jugaad (Hindi): inventive, and flexible, problem-solving; often a hack because of lack of resources or budget

lost for words game card - trouvaille (french) meaning good fortune and luck

These are complex feelings and situations distilled and compressed into a single word. When we struggle to express a feeling, it may be language itself has failed us. Sometimes you might be lost for words simply because you’re trapped inside your own language. Each language is a window into how we humans perceive the world. The more languages we encounter, the more lenses we have to see and describe ourselves and others.

Lost for words is an experiential game, one that emphasizes the play experience over winning and losing. A basic structure is presented for those players who might need a winner and loser, but the soul of this game is in the invitation to share thoughts and memories when each emotion card is played.

It is not unfair to say that many players might balk at the idea of a game that nudges you to talk about your feelings. I have encountered this firsthand each time I have taught and played the game. However, within a few short turns, everyone at the table ends up, leaning in listening and laughing and commiserating with the stories that are being told.

Much to my chagrin, this style of game is often looked down upon, dismissed, or not even seen as a game at all. “It’s an experience, not a game” is the most common insult hurled. That mentality says games must have winners and losers. Otherwise, what’s the point? What a bankruptcy of imagination to exclude experiential games from the table.

Experiential games point to a primal form of playfulness just as valid as so-called “proper” games. The goal of an experiential game is to create memorable moments through play. The gentle genius of Lost for Words is how each player decides to assemble the words they will use in the game. Each player has a hand of seven cards. Once dealt, certain words will strike a chord immediately with players and go into the must play pile, while others may be boring or uncomfortable enough, players will set them aside to discard.

But here’s the thing. As the game moves forward and more stories are shared, you may discover you have the perfect follow up story that connects with someone else’s but only if you play one of the words you had previously thought was too uncomfortable to consider. One player‘s choice to open up can gently nudge other players’ willingness to do the same. Those moments are magic when they happen. No one scores more as a result, but everyone at the table has really won. For the memory of those stories will last far more than any final score.

Congratulations to designer Ami Baio

More information on Lost for Words at: Pink Tiger Games

Combo is Major Fun!

08/24/202508/25/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Ikhwan Kwon
Publisher: Happy Camper
Artist: Lisa Goldstein
2-6 players | 20 min. | ages 10+ | MSRP $17 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 3-4 minutes

Game Synopsis

Assembling fruit salad is a collective effort in Combo. Each turn you will offer a single face up fruit card, hoping it will be part of the strongest combination created by all player’s face up cards at the end of the round. Combos are ranked like Poker hands from Super Slushie (a straight flush) down to the Sweet Scraps (high card). High cards have a better chance of counting in the winning combo but score the least points. Low cards are worth the most points but harder to score. And beware of the dreaded tie! Truly tied cards in a winning combo have their score sliced in half. Add up all your winning fruit after a few short rounds, and the player with the highest score will savor the juicy taste of victory.

Why We Love Combo

You are part of an ever-shifting bowl of fruit when you play Combo. One by one cards are played out, each card pushing closer to a set of cards that might score. I play an 8 of cherries and the next player, plays a 7 of bananas. We are on our way to a Ripe Run. The next player plays a 7 of oranges. Suddenly a Smoothie (a four of a kind) is beginning to take shape. The next player has the power to shift focus toward one combo and away from the other. If they play another 7, we are only one card away from the Smoothie. If they play a 6, the run is in position to score. Every turn in the game has a sense of tension and anticipation because a single card can send the combo careening off in an unexpected direction, making some cheer and others groan in disgust.

You have seven cards to choose from each turn but your hand does not refresh between rounds. This adds a fun and challenging element of hand management to consider as you select fruit to play on any turn. The contents of your hand will change, but slowly, since you play one card and draw one to replace it. If you only have a few high scoring cards in your hand, you may hold them in reserve until the best chance to cash in presents itself.

Turn order is also a fun dance in Combo. The later you go in the turn order, the more you may be able to sway the strongest combo in your favor. One group may be hoping you will finish off a grape Flush (four cards of the same fruit – a Slushie) but you play a 2 of blueberries to complete a Run instead.

WHEN you play a fruit in Combo can be as important as WHAT fruit you play.

This uncertainty and tension creates a climate suited for bluffing and banter as each round builds to a crescendo. Some of the best moments happen when a big combo doesnt come together and everyone scrambles for the scraps. There will be cheering and cajoling and cries of mock outrage and laughter when the dust settles each round.

You can’t go it alone in Combo. You always need help and you never know from what corner of the table it could come. Your decisions are never made from a place of perfect information. You can nudge the combo in a direction friendly to your cause, but the magic card you need to bring it all together may not even be in the deck in this game. You do the best you can to find those who will help you succeed together, knowing it could all fall apart, despite your best effort. This seems like a wonderful metaphor for life and also a delicious recipe for Major Fun.

Congratulations to designer Ikhwan Kwon!

More information on Combo at: Happy Camper

Hot Streak is Major Fun!

08/18/202508/18/2025 - Stephen Conway

Designers: Jon Perry
Development: Alex Hague, James Nathan, Justin Vickers
Publisher: CMYK
Artist: Cécile Gariépy Mascot sculpts: Josh Divine
2-9 players | 20 min. | ages 6+ | MSRP $50 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 4-5 minutes

Game Synopsis

Degenerate gamblers can find just about anything to bet on – even minor league mascots. Four costumed kooks compete in an absurd footrace that could net you cold hard cash. Will it be Hurley the giant hot dog? Or Gobbler the turkey eating bear? Could Dangler the anglerfish flop its way to victory? Or maybe Mum, the world’s most off brand monarch, will barrel her way to the finish line?

Over the course of three contests you’ll have a chance to pick a winner and place prop bets, guided by some knowledge of how each mascot will bumble down the track. Or not. There’s a very good chance they’ll end up falling or crawling or sprinting off in the wrong direction. Bet safe or bet risky, then laugh and cheer and hope for a winning shuffle. In the end, you’ll count your winnings and see how your life turns out compared to the other bums. One Hot Streak could really turn things around….

Why We Love Hot Streak

The chaos and absurdity of Hot Streak are infectious before the first race has even started. Colorful chunky whimsical mascot figurines are visible from a window in the game box and the race track itself rolls out from the opposite side. The game looks weird and wonderful and it makes good on this promise at every level.

Hot streak is driven by a deck of cards that will move mascots based on the number shown forward or backward. There are also cards that can turn mascots around, make them change lanes, or even fall down. A lucky mascot might even recover, allowing them to dust off and head in the right direction again.

Before selecting betting tickets, you’ll get to see a layout showing the majority of cards going into the race deck. If Gobbler the bear has lots of move cards, maybe you take its betting ticket. Or maybe the prop bet is tempting. It says: at least two mascots will fall down. You see a lot of lane change cards going into the race deck so the chance of collisions seems high.

Hot Streak is a game of imperfect information, though. Every player gets to add a card to the deck which will skew the outcome in hilariously unpredictable ways. Will you try and help the mascots you want to win? Or do you try and sabotage the others? Mascots can wander off the board or be knocked out if they are stepped on while they are down, so there’s no guarantee anyone will even finish the race!

When playing, roles like banker and dealer and handler are divvied up to spread the fun amongst many players. At the end of each race 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will pay out, plus the prop bet – a random race condition determined by the draw of a card.

The utterly unsubtle genius of Hot Streak is how easily it entices players to become so invested in each move as every card is revealed and each mascot… even ones you didn’t bet on! You can’t help but cheer for the most ridiculous outcome, even when it’s not in your best interest.

That’s the magic of Hot Streak. The absurdity of the game itself will supersede the need to win. If the shuffle betrays your hopes and dreams, rooting for the underdog or the craziest result creates just as much fun and excitement as cashing out on top. This is not a lesson you learn from losing your life savings at the track or from the School of Hard Knocks. Hot streak is a graduate level seminar in goofiness. Along with cheers and laughter, Hot Streak may even inspire players to serenade the table with off key trumpets calling its wackadoodle mascots to the post. That is surely the sweet music of Major Fun.

Congratulations to designer Jon Perry!

More information on Hot Streak at: CMYK Games

Diatoms is Major Fun!

05/04/202505/28/2025 - Stephen Conway

D: Sabrina Culyba
P: Ludoliminal , 25th Century A: Nim Ben Reuven
1-4 pl | 30 min | ages 8+ | MSRP $50 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 4-5 minutes

Game Synopsis

A diatom is a single cell micro algae, a type of plankton, found in Earth’s waterways. They make up over half the biomass in all oceans and produce a massive portion of the oxygen in our atmosphere. Diatoms have iridescent silica shells which produce colorful displays, thus earning them the moniker “jewels of the sea.” Their shells form simple symmetrical geometric shapes.

In the 19th century, as microscopes opened our eyes to this magnificent unseen world, creative naturalists began arranging diatoms into artful mosaics on glass slides. This was an incredibly painstaking process, washing and placing each tiny delicate diatom into patterns.

In this game, each player is a dedicated naturalist, creating microscopic mosiacs from diatoms you collect from a nearby pond. There are many factors to balance when deciding what tiny shapes to collect and where to place them on your board. Create the most pleasing arrangement to score well and win the day.

Why We Love Diatoms

Diatoms is a tile laying game in two stages – first public, then personal. Each offers a cozy and engaging puzzle.

The public puzzle is the pond. Choosing from your hand of hexagonal tiles, you will add a new piece to the pond, a shared game board players will build as they play. When you connect a group of three pond tiles, you collect diatom samples based on how many color slices you have connected. The lens, a cardboard monocle of sorts, is an ingenious tool to help you identify each sample point and determine which diatom tiles you will take. Connect five slices? Collect a five pointed star. Four slices? a square. Three? a triangle… and so on. In many cases, you’ll collect a variety of diatoms from each sample point. The public puzzle is this: how to collect the best assortment of diatoms without leaving the next player an even better selection.

Once you collect diatoms, you move to stage two: how best to arrange these tiles on your “microscopic” mosaic board. Three concentric rings form a bullseye pattern and along each ring are recessed spaces matching one or more diatom shape. This is no free-for-all. Each shape will only fit on certain spaces on the board. You’ll score for arranging symmetrical pairs of diatoms across each ring. You’ll score for how many different diatom shapes you can collect on each ring. And you’ll score for collecting lots of diatoms of a color. These three scoring rules combine to create a devilishly fun puzzle as your mosaic takes shape.

Even in the world of modern board games where nerdy themes reign supreme, it is hard to imagine a more esoteric subject than creating art from algae. The danger in engaging such a geeky subject is becoming mired in the minutiae of the theme. Often this results in a long, involved, and overly complicated experience, enjoyable by only a select few. Diatoms deftly avoids tumbling down this rabbit hole. It embraces its fascinating theme and opens it up to the widest array of players possible. the concepts and skills needed to learn diatoms are approachable – create patterns of colors in the pond to collect and make patterns of tiles in your mosaic. One puzzle feeds the other in a relaxed and organic way. Some may play for blood, but in our experience, there is fun in helping each other puzzle out the best placements especially as the game winds to a close.

Diatoms never overstays its welcome. And, as you gain more confidence, you can add persnickety or easygoing judge cards who add bonus or penalty scoring rules. There are also commissions and a solo career mode for those wanting to explore the game from new angles.

Diatoms is a beautifully appointed game that leans into this unlikely marriage of science and art, from its Petri dishes to the iridescent diatom tiles. It is a triumph that celebrates and elevates a beautiful nerdy and accessible species of Major Fun.

Congratulations designer Sabrina Culyba!

More information on Diatoms at publisher sites:

Ludoliminal | 25th Century Games

Odin is Major Fun!

04/07/202505/28/2025 - Stephen Conway

D: Gary Kim, Hope S Hwang, Yolanda Goh
P: Helvetiq A: Crocotame
2-6 pl | 15 min | ages 7+ | MSRP $13 | BGG Entry
Time to teach & learn: 3 minutes

Game Synopsis

In Odin, you will play Viking villager cards to gain favor with the Allfather. Send cards from your hand to Valhalla by surpassing the value of your neighbor’s contribution. This is a modern twist on a classic climbing or “ladder-style” game. Start with a single card. Each card or set of cards must be higher than the last. Points are bad in Odin, meaning lowest score wins. Assemble the best combinations of like colors or numbers to shed your cards before everyone else.

Why We Love Odin

Odin adds a unique voice to this time honored genre by giving players two different ways to climb the ladder of cards each turn: you can play cards of the same color or cards of the same number. Arrange like colored cards into the highest number you can. My green 5, 7, and 4 become a green 754. You might counter with four like numbered cards, beating my combination with four 8s to make 8888. Each method allows you to see your hand in a new light.

As the card value climbs, Odin’s real magic emerges. If you play a higher combination, you must take one card from the combination you just eclipsed and add it to your hand. This means you must be mindful of the color and number of the card you take to make sure it will help your hand. This also means you must be mindful of the cards you use in your own combinations. One misstep and you could hand the instrument of your own downfall to the Vikings next door!

You must manage your hand as you climb, knowing that your next play will shape your opponent’s hand, too. Like ever extending branches from the world tree, Yggdrasil, each choice, even a single card, is interconnected and influences the overall shape of the game.

The game is fast and easy to learn, but subtle and satisfying strategies will emerge with each rung of the ladder you are able to climb. Every game is filled with surprising choices. Yes, the game does bear the name of the Norse Godking. And you may need his foresight to play well. But, to us, Odin celebrates the unconventional energy and cleverness of his nemesis, Loki, patron saint of Major Fun.

Congratulations to the designers and publisher!

More information on Odin at Helvetiq