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GameTotal ScoreTheme Integration
(out of 5)		Mechanic Integration
(out of 10)		Pacing and Replayability (out of 20)X-Factor
(out of 5)		Comments (short version)
Full reviews for each game can be found by clicking on this link
2
Don't Eat the Pineapple2755125Enjoyed the theme and the game play. Mechanics are solid, rules were mostly clear, and the game flowed nicely.

In my first play-through, I did end up winning on the second game. There was a bit of RNG luck at play in that I ended up with an island deck of 4 depleted cards, three of which had easy food available. Since I was able to keep cycling through these with explore it was simply a matter of "running out the clock" in the event deck.

My second play-through took a little longer as I wanted to get a couple refined tools under my belt to more efficiently gather resources. But there is a risk of getting a lucky draw of Island Cards that allows you to build your engine in a single game. Starting with tools can help overcome a bad initial draw, but are moot in a good draw.

Rule book could use some language streamlining. There are three different Island Cards and four different Island Card Piles. This leads to some confusing sentences in the rule book that need to be read slowly, often more than once. It's not outright wrong, just slowed down my comprehension of the rules while I made sure I was interpreting everything correctly.

Overall, very enjoyable but I wish the progression were slightly more impactful. I feel like with the right draw you can without it, such as in my first play-through.
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Hot Rockets
(Winner)		3359163Loved this engine builder. Mechanically sound, great theme, put together well, great playmat.

The rules were missing some important clarifications so I was never entirely sure I was playing it correctly. Specifically, the rules didn't actually define what an "ingredient set" is, so I had to guess that it means one hot dog, one bun, and optionally one or more toppings. More crucial to the gameplay, however, was missing clarification on when opportunity cards advance on the track. The only mention is at the end of the phase, but the rules also state that there should be one moving off the track at the end of every round. But this wouldn't be the case if you completed the right-most opportunity, leaving that space blank.

The game progresses at a steady pace, with each game starting with more advanced opportunities than the previous one. The meta progression allows you to chose 5 cards from your previous game to start your next game, allowing you to guide your engine the way you want to build it.Since the tech level (probably) increases with every new game, it did feel like I was steadily progressing toward my goal. Almost like a campaign, but with more player agency.

But all that said, I did find myself thinking about it between sessions and wanting to go back in and play the next game to keep building my engine. And that's a great feeling.
4
Ironflight2755152This game is deceptively difficult, which mostly comes down to chance. There are a lot of one-step-forward, two-steps-back situations where needed progress is erased to the point of frustration. I recognize that this will appeal to the more hardcore gamer who sees this as a challenge to overcome, so I will try to keep that mindset while reviewing it.

The premise of the game, which I adore, is that you are a little robot scavaging for parts to fix up your plane in order to escape a dangerous wasteland. During the day you scavenge, and at night you build. Discovering plane parts out in the wastes will upgrade your craft to give you a better chance of taking off and making it to safety. The gameplay during the day plays out in part memory, part press-your-luck, part deduction where you uncover terrain hoping to find scrap, parts, and oil while not revealing any raiders.

The penalty for encountering a raider is harsh. You lose all progress that day and possibly from the previous day while time marches ever forward.
5
Bard2535143This is agreat foundation for a game. It really just needs one or two more layers of depth to really shine. The abstract nature of the theme/story telling was both compelling and frustrating. I enjoyed interpretting each scene as it was wordlessly presented, but I also didn't feel like I had a purpose or goal I was reaching for.

The game plays out primarily as a map builder. Once you set on your path from the starting tile, you are locked on that path. On each turn, you decide which of two cards to play for the next tile. The decision is based more around whether or not you can pass the stat-based challenge on the card than any direction the path goes. Pass the challenge and a stat will go up, fail and a stat will go down twice as much. If a stat reaches zero, you must start over.

I do wish there was more decision making in the game. Once your stats get sufficiently high the challenges become obsolete, and it is simply a matter of drawing tiles until you reach the end. Having another layer of gameplay such as a market or upgrade system where I can spend resources to decide which stat to upgrade would not only add depth to the game but create the opportunity for a more dynamic meta progression. There is wonderful potential there.
6
Streetball Quest2558102So conflicted on this game. It's a great RPG that actually feels like an RPG, but there are some pretty major points of clarification missing from the rulebook that made me unsure how to interpret things like taking damage or beginning a match. The implications are that one interpretation makes the game very easy and the other makes it very difficult.

The game is divided into two halves - an RPG half and a Deck Builder half. The RPG system is excellent and invokes the feeling of playing a Fallout game. It is immersive and makes me feel like the way I have designed and played my character have a real impact. The deck builder half is where the bulk of the game is. It plays over 5 basketball matches - win all 5 and you've completed the game; lose any of them and you start over.

There is a lot going on in terms of stats for these two different systems to play into each other. There are 8 total character stats to keep track of - some only come into play during the RPG portion and some determine how well you play in the deck builder. When a match starts, there are even more match-specific stats to keep track of. It can be a bit much, and can lead to situations where you are stuck with your level up reward being unusable because you weren't focused on the particular stat it needed.

Overall I am really impressed by the potential of the game, but major rules questions prevented me from giving it a higher score. Without knowing if I am playing it correctly, I can't gauge the difficulty, pacing, or meta-progression properly. I can only base the scores off of how I interpreted the rules, which made the game a little too easy.
7
SCIDD League2646124Excellent little skirmish game. On the longer side for a board game, and around the average for a skirmish level hobby game. It's also the only game in the finalists that is a straight up competition between players instead of against the game itself.

As a former (reformed?) hobby gamer, I felt right at home going through the cards and building my crew for a season. Overall appeal for traditional board gamers might be lower for gamers who are not interested in a game that is focused around combat, instead of a game where players play independently within the game's framework to accomplish their goals.

The meta progression is optional as a season variant on the game. Players can play one-off battles or organize a longer campaign which takes on some RPG-like elements. This means the meta progression is more like a campaign or legacy game, albeit without any permanent changes to components, rather than progression toward some specific goal.

Loved this as a minuatures game but I don't know that my more traditional game group would go for it.
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