Alrightgames: Pretense

AEG Black Box 2015: Pretense

2015 / Deduction card meta game / 2-12 players

**

This secret role "game" played in the background while you all play proper games (or just go about your day) is a fun concept with underwhelming execution. We only found a few options in the deck that were really relevant for our lives and habits, and the fact that everyone will quickly learn what these are (which even seems to be encouraged by the superfluous tokens) seems to ruin most of the fun. It didn't take us long to start setting our own personalised traps on scrap paper that proved more entertaining.

Alrightgames: Lands of Amazement expansions

Lands of Amazement expansions

It doesn't take long to work out the solo puzzle, so fortunately, as ever, they provide some extra challenges to expand your... what was the pasted-on theme again? Ah, theme park. Of course.

Restorations ***

An only slightly annoying hard mode that adds more parks and more things to think about, while also bringing out the theme a little more, which was sorely needed. It's a keeper.

Family Fun **

Maybe I'll eventually master the game enough to enjoy these ironically-titled torturous obstacles, but for now, they turn an occasionally patience-testing finale into a frustrating ordeal.

Alrightgames: Lands of Amazement

Lands of Amazement

2025 / Solo card game / 1 player

***

I may not have needed another rotating spatial puzzle, but at least it's not another -Opolis game, and an economical print-and-play to boot, though I was slightly disappointed that the theme park theme doesn't really come through at all as you try to efficiently line up icons to form randomly differentiated grids.

It became clear fairly quickly that playing well involves careful clinical analysis to ensure you're only reserving optimal cards, but I prefer to enjoy the rides and struggle through the mess I've made at the end.

Alrightgames: En Garde (DIY)

En Garde (DIY)

1993 / Fencing board game / 2 players

**

Maybe this fencing simulator loses too much vital flavour when playing against yourself using random five-suited cards rather than properly themed ones and a cribbage board rather than shaped figures, but there didn't seem to be much to it. But I'll always give games a go when I can make them myself, and at least it was quick.

Alrightgames: Sketch (DIY)

Sketch (DIY)

2022 / Drawing game / 2-4 players

**

Extrapolating preliminary lines and shapes into pictures isn't the most fun drawing game in our repertoire. We only tried it once.

Alrightgames: Gloom of Kilforth – Encounters

Gloom of Kilforth: Encounters

2018 / Roleplaying card/board game expansion / 1-4 players

****

Loads more cards to extend the life of your cards-based sagas, plus new character options, some of which (Halfling and Druid) have joined my daughter's favourites in our tamer take on the game. I thought I'd have to do without until a bundle showed up on eBay at a tempting price, so I traded in the old set and got more optimised upgrades than were advertised or really desired...

Alrightgames: Star Realms – Stellar Allies

Star Realms: Stellar Allies

2018 / Deckbuilding card game expansion pack / 2-4 players

****

Oh, look, it's the missing combinations from the United dual-faction sets, which they cheekily made a Kickstarter exclusive you couldn't buy from shops. I didn't expect to ever have these until an eBay seller accepted my insultingly low offer for their unwanted Kickstarter bundle that must have been sitting around for the best part of a decade, so this rarity worked out as one of my cheapest Star Realms purchases ever. The lesson is, just be patient and tight and everything works out in the end.

Hm? Oh, yeah, the cards are pretty good. More of the same.

Alrightreads: If You Live on Fear Street, These Are the People You Could Meet

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Wrong Number 2

1995 / Audiobook / 165 pages

**

The original hardly stood out, and this even more forgettable continuation is only justified by the comic potential of young readers hoping for a story about some kind of evil poo.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Truth or Dare

1995 / Audiobook / 146 pages

**

Similar to the last ski break one I read, but with a dumber resolution.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Dead End

1995 / Audiobook / 147 pages

**

Another guilty secret, another credulity-stretching denouement, but some good tension along the way.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Final Grade

1995 / Ebook / 148 pages

**

If they'd had ChatGPT in 1995.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Switched

1995 / Audiobook / 150 pages

****

This seemed like it was going to be lighter fantasy fluff, but it didn't take long to pull out a bloody twist. This series doesn't have the highest hit rate, but this is another one I'll be able to recommend to my daughter unironically one day, depending on her squeamishness.

Workreads I

Secretly reading ebooks on my phone while colleagues probably assume I'm doomscrolling social media like a normal person.

Alex Horne, Birdwatchingwatching

2009 / Ebook / 384 pages

****

Littler Alex Horne embarks on a Hawks/Gorman/Wallace-esque kerrazy kwest for a year. I do like these silly things, though, and the enthusiasm and callbacks kept me hooked. It would also have been very educational about birds if I thought I was going to retain any of it.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Captain's Table – The Mist

1998 / Ebook / 271 pages

***

Maybe it was bad reviews that had always put me off from trying my preferred DS9 flavour of this nicely themed crossover series I'd enjoyed at the time and since, or maybe it was the off-model Sisko likeness that extends to such basic errors as the wormhole leading to the Delta Quadrant rather than the Gamma Quadrant, et al. A forgettably generic tale, not improved by the frequent, annoying interruptions, but it was still a nice return trip.

Robin Stoate and Andrew Shail, Back to the Future

2019 / Ebook / 96 pages

****

Stuffy academic revelations on genre and context that enhanced my appreciation even further.

John Cavanagh, Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2003 / Ebook / 136 pages

***

Informative if bland background notes.

Alrightgames: Pulp Invasion! X1

Pulp Invasion! X1

2021 / Bag building card game expansion / 1 player

**

Resold

An essential expansion if you want to convert the doomed solo mission into a competitive space duel, but it offers very little for players who aren't interested in doing that. It came with my second-hand base game, but it wasn't worth keeping for a few extra cards.