Monday, December 14
121209 - Best of 2009!
THINK: The best games of 2009
2009/12/11
EDWIN WONG
From cards to strategy, here are EDWIN WONG’s pick of the best designer games of the year.
WITH more than 600 new designer games released this year alone, how does one tell what’s good from the rest? Here’s a quick guide and our take on what we think were the best of 2009! Four steps to spotting a good game
● It’s been designed and released recently.
For a start, a game that has been designed in the last one to two years is sure to be better than all the traditional games we grew up on (such as Monopoly, Risk, Clue, Game of Life, etc). They were, after all, designed more than 40 years ago. This is due primarily to the use of new and innovative game mechanics, among others.
● Look for the designer’s name.
It’s easy to separate mass market merchandise games from quality designer games. The designer’s name is always featured prominently on the box cover of designer games while mass-market merchandise disguised as games never feature the name of the designer anywhere.
● Look for the publisher.
Although there are a number of successful independent game publishers, you cannot go wrong with the following since they have a track record of popular and award wining games: RioGrande, Fantasy Flight, Days of Wonder, Z-Man, Asmodee, Atlas, GMT, Da Vinci, Splotter, Zoch, Amigo Spiele, Abacus Spiele, Kosmos, Rackham, Games Workshop, Battlefront Miniatures.
● Look up www.boardgamegeek.com.
This is the ultimate site for designer game enthusiasts. Almost every game ever published can be found here. Why is this resource so valuable? Well, millions of enthusiasts go there to check out and read about what others think of the games.
Below is the best of 2009...
Family Strategy — Ice Flow (Available from York House, Bangsar Shopping Centre)
The Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) is the industry’s most coveted award for Family Strategy games with “Small World” by Days of Wonder taking the honours this year.
However, our pick is Ice Flow, as it’s a fascinating game.
Each player tries to be the first to get his/her three explorers across the Bering Straits from Alaska to Siberia while avoiding the polar bears using only rope, fish and wits!
Advanced Strategy — Le Havre (Available from Toybox, Jalan 20/16, Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya)
Although “Dominion” won this year’s prestigious Deutscher Spiele Preis (a.k.a. gamer’s game of the year), its appeal is less universal than the runner-up, “Le Havre”. Dominion is a “card drafting” game similar to Trading Card Games (TCGs) such as “Magic: The Gathering” only that it’s non-collectible.
In the harbour of Le Havre, you take goods such as fish and wood from the wharves and use them to either feed your community, construct buildings and ship, or process them into finished goods.
The winner is the player with the greatest net wealth at the end of the game.
The real joy in Le Havre is that it allows many different paths to victory. Like all advanced strategy games, they have a steeper learning curve, but the more you play, the better you get at mastering the game.
Co-operative — Pandemic & Battlestar Galactica (Available from www.boardgamecafe.net)
Very rarely do you get two games that are worthy to be considered best picks, let alone in the co-operative category where so few games are actually produced! But this year, quite remarkably, Pandemic swept 14 awards between 2008 and 2009.
It is a brilliant co-operative game and truly represents the speed at which various diseases can break out throughout the world.
As specialists at the CDC/Atlanta Centre, Pandemic is tense, requires quick but incisive decision-making and good teamwork.
Battlestar, on the other hand, is about uncovering the deception and treachery of the Cylons as they attempt to sabotage your mission to get back to Earth safely! Like all family strategy games, both are fairly easy to learn. You’ll play it again and again especially in the case of Pandemic.
More often than not, the outbreaks will probably overwhelm your team.
As for Battlestar, the mistrust and intrigue with Cylons and the struggle for survival will keep you coming back!
Great For Kids — Haselwurz & Barenklau (Available from Borders Bookstore, The Curve & Gardens) The official game of the Zurich Geo-Botanical Institute, H&B is a charming game about discovering rare species.
Players are cute little pixies that travel via their friends — the badger, dragonfly, bird and grasshopper — as they race to discover habitats where they can find rare plants and animals.
Got a great travel photo? Can it win this photo contest?
Adults, teens and children from seven years old will learn of the many rare/endangered species out there and the types of habitats where they can be found.
Party — Wits & Wagers (Available from Mage Café, Jalan SS22/21, Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya)
If you’re planning a party this year-end, then you must get Wits & Wagers.
Each round, a question’s asked and each player secretly writes his answer, which is always a number, on his player card. And unlike Trivia games that makes you feel stupid if you don’t know the answer, no one’s expected to know the answer to questions in Wits & Wagers.
You just have to get the closest estimation to the correct answer.
Wargame — Pacific Typhoon (Available from www.squarkgames.com)
Although there’s a steady supply of new “hex & tile” wargames being released, and “Unhappy King Charles” grabbed the IGA Historical Games Award (International Gamers Association), the one that we fancied most turns out rather surprisingly to be a card game! Pacific Typhoon depicts all the major conflicts of WW2 in the Pacific theatre and is a game where every round, a historical battle is chosen together with the terms of engagement.
Would it be a land, air, sea or combined battle? Would it be a day or night battle? Broken promises, failed alliances, conspiracies and the occasional stab-in-the-back are what makes this actually a fun wargame!
Miniatures — Flames of War (Available from Toybox, Petaling Jaya)
Join the fastest growing hobby in the country!
The world’s No.1 15mm WW2 historical miniatures game’s now in Malaysia. And it’s attracting everyone from historians to captains of industry to students as they step into the shoes of their favourite generals to match wits with others!
More than just a game of tactics and strategy, Flames of War encourages research, analysis as well as the creative arts as enthusiasts assemble, construct and paint metal miniature models and terrain.
Thursday, December 3
NST 281109 - 'Tis the time for giving!
Think: ‘Tis the time for giving!
2009/11/28
EDWIN WONG recommends designer board games that’ll appeal to children and the young-at-heart this Christmas.
MOST people have heard of the popular sayings “It’s better to give than to receive” and “It’s the thought that counts”. But do you feel better after giving compared with receiving? Is it the thought, and not the gift, that counts? Either way, it really depends on what you give or receive.
So this holiday season, before you choose your gift, think about the person who will receive it. Recipients can always tell when someone has put no thought into their gift. What better than to give something such as designer board games which someone will enjoy for years to come?
FOR ADULTS
While some adults constantly seek challenges to sharpen their thinking, others swear they don’t want to do anything outside of work that remotely involves exercising their brains!
Puerto Rico This one’s available at Toybox, Paramount Garden — www.toybox.com.my/blog and perfect for those who constantly likes challenges. Many find this as a step-up from the introductory designer games such as Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne — but not to the extent that they’re complex to learn. Here, players try to run the most successful business growing cocoa, coffee, etc, processing and storing them, and then exporting them for profit. You also have to wear different hats during the game (as you juggle with the various tasks on hand) and the winner’s usually the one who uses the right hat at the right time.
Beyond Puerto Rico, there are a wealth of games that’ll test your strategic ability to the limit. From elections (Die Marcher) and big business (Wealth of Nations) to building your ancient civilisation (Tigris & Euphrates), designer games come in so many themes that, with a little thought, you’ll find something for everyone!
FOR YOUNG ADULTS
They say that it gets harder to find a thoughtful gift the older one gets. Not true! You can’t go wrong with my best pick for young adults!
World of Warcraft Adventure Game This one’s available at York House, Bangsar Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur. With more than 10 million people (mostly young adults and teenagers) playing World of Warcraft online, someone you’re buying a gift for is likely to be a fan! The board game offers an exciting and fast-paced journey through the world of Azeroth — where you can choose your favourite hero and embark on an epic journey from humble beginnings to immense power, battling vicious monsters and powerful overlords. And your treacherous fellow players as you strive to be the mightiest hero of the land! In that sense, it successfully offers the same “adventuring” experience without duplicating the online experience.
FOR TEENS
Fear not, for designer games have been successfully engaging many a teenager in this “lost age” group! As electronic games, online
Tide of Iron Here’s one for the boys. Believe me, they all love Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan and lately, Valkyrie and Inglourious Basterds. They all love WW2 action. Tide of Iron should be the choice for every teenage boy! It allows players to recreate the exciting but tense squad level action seen in all these movies, where you control a squad of soldiers trying to achieve your mission objectives. These can be anything from holding the line to clearing a village to a reconnaissance mission.
Settlers of Catan Not forgetting the girls, Settlers of Catan concentrates on exploration theme, trading and negotiation element and social interaction. The recipient can also try his/her luck at the 2010 Catan World Championship Malaysia Qualifiers to win an all-expense paid trip to represent Malaysia in the World finals in a lovely castle in Germany! What a gift this would be!
FOR THE CHILDREN
Since kids are usually the biggest recipients of festive gifts, take a look at some winners guaranteed to please. Warning! Adults and older siblings will find these games lots of fun and challenging, so they may attempt to pry them away from the recipient! Both are available at Available at THINKToys @ Bangsar Village 1, Gardens and Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur and the Curve, Petaling Jaya.
Techno Witches Any child into Harry Potter will love you for giving him this game! Kids and adults play the role of apprentice wizards equipped with the latest high-tech broomsticks and challenge each other in a variety of scenarios where reward awaits the apprentice who can best manoeuvre his broomstick! This is rather challenging since “feel” and “intuition” are replaced by “programming” and “sequencing” in this high tech age, and apprentices have to programme their flight paths in advance before they can take off. And once they’ve taken off, only time will tell if they will successfully reach their destination in one piece, or not!
Hamsterolle A beautifully crafted game where players test the limits of gravity at every turn! Players start with a set of blocks that come in a variety of shapes, sizes and weights. Each turn, they try to place a piece on any part of the “Hamsterolle”, a large round wheel resembling a pet hamsters’ exercise wheel. Every piece placed will cause the wheel to move somewhat, but if it moves a little too much thereby causing other pieces (previously placed by other players) to fall off, then the player has to keep all the fallen pieces as penalty. In the end, the first player to finish placing all his/her pieces on the wheel wins! Hamsterolle is tense but fun, challenging players to defy gravity and rewarding players with a good sense of balance.
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