This week we’re ranking: NMBR 9, Smile, Tash-Kalar, Monikers and Jump Drive
NMBR 9
NMBR 9 spawned my lifelong hatred for Polynomial games. Life long so far at least. Not because I think it’s bad, but I have a real aversion to games that have 0 player interactivity, or in this case -1 player interactivity. If your only interaction in the game is making me wait for my turn, then this is a game I don’t want to play.
However, if you’re unaffected by this. NMBR 9 is quite a good little puzzle. Creating a 3D space for you to put your tiles on is something you’ll get better at, and you’ll be rewarded with points for your mastery of the game.
Make sure to grab that mini-expansion though.
Tash-Kalar: Arena of Champions
I think Tash-Kalar is a fantastic game.
But it’s a victim of who I game with. To fully enjoy the game you need a gaming partner to take a big swig of the Tash-Kalar Kool-aid with you. This is true for any two-player abstract game but especially for Tash-Kalar. It’s a game that works best if you play it again, and again where you learn new tricks and more importantly how your opponent thinks.
Unfortunately, that’s not my playgroup, and I had to send this game onto more worthy owners.
Smile
Smile is the perfect game, if you’re looking for a small box auction game not named High Society.
For a while, this was one of my favourite small box board games. Unlike High Society, Smile is so tactile with its glass beads that you play with them like they’re meditation balls. It’s also incredibly evil, with its closed economy, you can corner the market, and force people into taking cards they definitely don’t want to be taking.
But.
You leave them no choice.
MUHAHAHAHAHAHA
The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was taking good cards early in the game because the likelihood of someone forcing you to take another card of that colour is so high. It kind of nixes the first half of the game.
Jump Drive
I really enjoyed Jump Drive.
If you only have 15 minutes to play an engine-building game this is the one you want to play! Your engine just goes berserk from about the third turn and it gets exponentially better from there. It’s the 100m dash of engine-building games, and it’s fun as heck.
Ultimately, I sold Jump Drive because it felt a bit too luck-driven, and uninteractive. I replaced it with Res Arcana, and two other Tom Lehmann games in: Race for the Galaxy, and Roll for the Galaxy. I didn’t feel like I needed more in that space.
But would I jump at the chance to play this one again?
Absolutely.
Monikers
Monikers is silly fun. It’s for the larger group gatherings – if you can remember those – where you want to let loose and just have a good time. It also creates lasting memories from the times you do play. From the one time someone had to mimic evil Kermit the Frog, to another time someone had to describe Tom Cruise’s smile in one word.
Psychotic.
It does cover adult topics and can be a bit embarrassing to play. But once you get over the shock of having to play Charades then you’ll find yourself having an amazing time. It’s one of my favourite party games, and now that I’ve brought it out, I really want to play it again!
Kept or Culled: Kept
The last three weeks have been a bit of a mess as I’ve come down with two separate illnesses. Which have destroyed the groove I was in for writing articles and reviews. However, it has helped kickstart a 6-week challenge of posting every day on Instagram.
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