Review: Forbidden Island
by Moss Scheurkogel
*THE GAME SHOPPER HAS MOVED!*
The new link for this article is:
http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegameshopper/2012/07/25/review-forbidden-island/
Thanks for your patience.
~Moss
2-4 Players, Play Time 20-45 mins.
Cooperative gaming is a notion that many people are hesitant about at first glance. Indeed, when I proposed to my parents that we play a game where we all work together to win as a communal group, they must have thought I was one braid away from joining the drum circle that lives down by the beach. But working as a team to overcome a set challenge is actually quite a natural form of gaming. We do it in video games, we do it in roleplaying games, and we even do it in sports. So why do board games need to be head-to-head, territorial fight-for-dominance bloodbaths? There are a number of fantastic cooperative games out there in which the players rely on teamwork to triumph over the game itself, and one of my personal favourites is Forbidden Island.
Review: Small World
by Moss Scheurkogel
*THE GAME SHOPPER HAS MOVED!*
The new link for this article is:
http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegameshopper/2012/07/10/review-small-world/
Thanks for your patience.
~Moss
2-5 Players, Play Time 60-80 mins.
NOTE: Skip this first paragraph if you don’t like Stuart MacLean-isms about teaching school in small towns.
I can’t express how pleased I was when I walked into the high school library one lunch period between English classes and saw a group of students merrily bickering over a game of Dominion. I gave some terrible advice involving a witch, and they all politely ignored my ineptitude in favour of being flabbergasted that I knew anything about games at all. It’s the entitlement of the young to assume that nobody over the age of 19 has ever even heard that dice come in different shapes, never mind that they might themselves be passionate about gaming. These were kids from a little cowboy town where the one hotel has never gotten around to replacing it’s ‘E’ (the Hot-L is actually becoming a bit of a brand) so their exposure to games was limited. They didn’t have an easy outlet to try new products, so they had to take gambles on which games they mail ordered. So when they asked me my recommendation for a new game to buy, I immediately said Small World, because it was something I could be positive that they would enjoy.
