Alrightgames: Space Lunch

The Matchbox Collection: Space Lunch

2020 / Card game / 1-2 players

**

Resold

I had a feeling this was going to be the dud entry in the collection. The concept of gorging on an exotic buffet is fun (though crazy cartoon art would have been a better fit), and there are amusing opportunities to screw up your opponents' plans, but it's not something I'd want to play over all the alternatives. The automated solo mode works fine, but having to constantly move two coins in different directions at different speeds is just annoying. It's starting to seem like shiny tokens were the main focus of this enterprise over actually making worthwhile games.

Alrightgames: Dustbiters expansions

Dustbiters expansions

Kind of.

Reinforcements ****

This cheeky and nitpicky "expansion" is really just three cards from the original 21-card game that were selectively removed from Button Shy's "Pocket Edition" to maintain their 18-card standard, then sold separately as an add-on. The horse and bike are at least distinct enough to feel expansiony, then there's another truck. There's no reason you wouldn't want these to complete your abridged game.

Rustlicker's Convoy solo variant ****

Seeing this fan variant on BoardGameGeek was more incentive to buy the game that probably doesn't suit my six year old's level or taste. It's carefully fiddly in the automa's favour, so it doesn't waste too much time doing stupid and self-destructive things, and it wins by chance often enough to be satisfying.

Alrightgames: Dustbiters – Pocket Edition

Dustbiters: Pocket Edition

2021 (2025 edition) / Card game / 2 players

*****

A more exciting tug of war than Anthelion, because post-apocalyptic vehicles move faster than people, the cartoon art and humour justifying totally unfair abilities might make it the most fun two-player game I have, though I mostly settle for an unofficial solo mode. Hopefully this Button Shy abridgement of the original game will always come with the removed-and-reinstated "expansion" cards in tow, or that would be less amusing.

Alrightgames: Regicide (DIY)

Regicide (DIY)

2020 / Card game rules / 1-4 players

***

A well-devised and intuitive battle gauntlet in standard playing cards if you're away from your proper games and want to teach something different, but it's a bit boring and unnecessary when I have Eiyo at home.

Alrightgames: Jekyll vs. Hyde (DIY)

Jekyll vs. Hyde (DIY)

2021 / Trick-taking card game / 2 players

***

This two-player duel wasn't on my radar until I saw it mentioned as a game that was fairly easy to mock up for free using standard playing cards, then it became irresistible (this is sure to be a new fixation). I really wanted to use Atmosfear cards for the juju, but those decks were all one number short, so I gave the unloved Dos some purpose, along with those versatile Pocket Mars cubes again.

The actual game is pretty interesting, with the Jekyll player seeking balance and Hyde pursuing landslide success or failure with equal relish. Although playing two-handed by myself was apropos for the schizophrenic theme, this meant that every round ended in a 100% tie, which means Jekyll will always win, and that just doesn't seem fair to the repressed maniac.

Alrightgames: Forbidden Island – Fan Expansion

Forbidden Island: The Islands & Treasure Powers Expansion

2016 / Co-operative board game fan expansion / 2-4 players

The publisher preferred to release increasingly harder sequels to this game rather than milk it with unnecessary modular upgrades, but fortunately the fan community came to the rescue with printable overcomplications. Will any be keepers?

Island Variants ****

Some of these were included with some versions of the game anyway, and are patterns you could come up with yourself, so it barely counts. Most or all are guaranteed to make the game harder to borderline impossible.

Treasure Powers ***

Free, thematically-relevant power-ups that are handy and make use of spare cards, though actions are less likely to be going spare by the time you've earned them.

New Roles ***

These make interesting alternatives for solo challenges, though they look a bit complicated for the six year old, especially as the lack of matching coloured pawns means we'd forget who we were.

Alrightgames: SOS Titanic

SOS Titanic

2013 / Card game / 1-5 players

****

As a solo player, I was intrigued, amused and sceptical about what seemed to amount to debatably disrespectful Titanic Patience, but I was ultimately swayed by the involvement of Bruno Cathala (responsible for way more of our favourite games than I realised) and a heavily discounted, slightly battered foreign edition, which spared me from struggling to mock this up using regular playing cards.

It is mainly Titanic Patience, but there are enough twists with special powers and frustrating rules to make it an addictive challenge and the theme carries it the rest of the way. Just one more try, I know I can save the children this time.

Alrightgames: Carcassonne – The Phantom

Carcassonne: The Phantom

2011 / Tile placement board game mini expansion / 2-6 players

****

I'd been making do with disappointing and distinctly opaque DIY versions of these incorporeal assistants for years, but they eventually came among the bonus goodies in a Big Box I was planning to upsell anyway. They edge on being too game-breakingly good, but everyone gets one, or they can give inexperienced players a ghostly leg up.

Alrightgames: Kingdomino – Age of Giants

Kingdomino: Age of Giants

2018 / Tile placement board game expansion / 2-5 players

***

Domino times tables isn't our favourite family game, but I can never resist an expansion for adding spice, and it was something to do over Easter break. I was a bit disappointed that the pre-owned set I bought off eBay was unknowingly missing many components, but the seller generously refunded it, those pieces could be substituted and printed without any trouble, and we now randomly have two complete sets of base tiles as a bonus, allowing us to make unwisely massive maps. The giants themselves being an unremarkable feature is less of an issue now.

Alrightgames: Atmosfear

Atmosfear

1991 / Video board game / 3-6 players

***

Thirty years after playing the refined omnibus edition, I crossed paths with the Gatekeeper again. He seemed meaner in this first outing as he terrorised and trash talked my child, but after scraping a win at 55 minutes, she wanted to play again. I advised against it for sanity.

The game is functionally terrible, some parts of the video will only work the first time (and YouTube veterans will see the jump scare coming anyway) and the box fits really awkwardly on the shelf. But doesn't it look great?