My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – Magice / Scary Lights
DIY roleplaying game adventures
A quick improv double feature before bedtime: one in the traditional mould, incorporating dice and pony standees, as we explored the Everfree Forest to find a potion to reverse a spell and save the day; the second a Monster High doll play session helping her to process her first optician visit.
***
This seems like it'd be a bit too basic to be a satisfying expedition for grown-up dorks, but it served as a Sunday afternoon quickie for earning our ponies some magical items, and the setting meant I finally got to use the Quarray Eel standee. The young player unexpectedly called in NPCs from previous adventures for assistance, represented by her toys. Story arcs take care of themselves.
1996/1999 / Sony PlayStation emulator games / 1-2 players
****
Bashing into walls at breakneck speed is still fun, but now it also has the sediment of 90s nostalgia. I think they actually carried on making other racing games after these, which seems a pointless endeavour.
****
I was after this rarity for a while, eventually finding it hiding in an unloved discount compilation padded out with crap I could try to sell on for 99p a piece, but probably won't bother.
It was even more Love Letter-like than I'd been expecting, but it didn't win over the young Love Letter fan as much, so we won't get to play this variant as often as I'd like. She even preferred some of the crap.
Workable, if wonky, solo mode:
Wonder Tales: Rumpelstiltskin (Solo Mode)
***
When you build your success on Sprawlopolis, your clientele are going to demand solo variants for your duel games, and some feel more natural than others. This program to run an artificial non-intelligence is a bit clunky, but a satisfying challenge to overcome, once you learn how to keep it in negative points. The generic scoreboard cards are a slightly cheeky add-on to make this more than just printed rules, but I use them since they're there.
****
One of the more straightforward microgames in the eternally deep pocket of the Button Shy wallet range, the double-sided character cards are only used to swap colours rather than packing in dense info-blasts at 90-degree integers as in some titles, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Indeed, much like the fairy tales they're based on, these cute cards belie cruel ordeals, in this case about screwing over your friends and family in pursuit of pointless points. Not the addictive adrenaline rush of Dustbiters, but more fun than Anthelion.
2022 / Card game / 1 player
***
This five-suited solitaire variant talks big, but the luck of the draw means it's possible to win sometimes, and it's not a huge step up from children's maths matcher Dos. There's also no reason you couldn't play using two standard card decks (especially since the deck's face up, so different card backs and styles don't matter), but you can buy the designer's custom deck if you like it. I used Carson City cards again.
Okey Dokey (a.k.a Level 10) (DIY)
**
Before I got around to playing Carson City: The Card Game, I was more excited about the versatility of its six card suits (numbered 1–11) for mocking up other card games and getting the most out of that £5 investment, even if I wouldn't play them more than once.
This multicolour variation on The Game only needed five sets of 1–8, plus some reversed reset cards and optional jokers, and it was easy to get started with the ascending solitaire mode that would be difficult not to crack on your first go.
I wasn't convinced that the official expansions really improved the practically perfect game beyond bringing novelty, but novelty's good. Here are some free goodie bags.
Adapting this old expansion from the parent game to Duel probably occurred to the designers before they ultimately dismissed it as unnecessary, and I don't think it adds enough value to be worth the extra hassle. But it was something else to mess around with for a game, and maybe I'll come back to it eventually.
Empires ****
I didn't play through the whole campaign, but I like the modules that change things up while retaining the tension, particularly the express mode for busy conquerors.
77 Wonders ****
This is all I want from a fan expansion: simple, interesting variety. Even if it's not that practical to play without some good quality prints, and even if it's a little misleading by only really adding a paltry 57 new wonders after those already counted from the base game, expansions, other fan expansions and promos. Pathetic!
2016 / Deckbuilding card game expansions / 2+ players
****
I still play zap pow spaceships game often, and seeing some classic booster packs inexplicably appearing back on sale for low prices is an infrequent treat (though I still made sure to add another random, resaleable item to the order to excuse the indulgence and cover the cost).
Dual-faction fleets may not make much narrative sense, but they're some of the most distinctive cards in the deck and always a little event when they pop out. They're also grossly overpowered (especially in combination with some of the Missions and Scenarios), which is all the more fun. The main gripe is that they deliberately left out two of the permutations (blue-green and yellow-red) so collectors and those who need balance in their universe have to seek out a rare promo pack, but when you're only playing through a fraction of the mega deck each time, precision balance isn't a big deal.
***
Probably fun with other humans, but the four-way solo mode is like something I'd come up with in desperation to try to get more use out of a multiplayer game and isn't the most satisfying activity, though it's quite nicely fiddly. It was cheap too, and the number cards are already getting a lot of extracurricular use for mocking up games that need more than four suits.
Star Realms: Fan Solo Challenges
Theoretically brutal if the right combos come up, but in practice this felt like the olden days of playing the easy AI on the app and seeing how much gratuitously excessive damage I could build up by the end. Dos cards once again served as generic counters so I didn't have to borrow from a game that actually gets played.
A nice tease for a new coloured faction without having to go to the hassle of designing the whole fleet. Unfortunately, the aesthetics are about all it has going for it, as the battle over bases wasn't as tense as I'd hoped, especially as they don't even use their abilities.
SmashMechs of Scarabos (2017 Challenges #2 & #5) ****
Finally a challenging adversary, not being able to take out their assimilated tokens ramps up the difficulty nicely, and sometimes having to buy cards you can't use just so they won't benefit the opponent is a good decision, especially with the 1 in 4 risk that it'll only get replaced by another red card anyway. However goofy the title, I prefer it to the official, plainer Machine Cult scenario and I'd play again.
Basically more vicious Nemesis Beasts that make you discard good cards an awful lot. A decent, if annoying challenge.
That's a proper card from the game, so why is the image squashed like a bad YouTube upload? A simpler precursor to the Frontiers bosses that play the cards properly, though the added step of not letting you use Blob cards would have helped sell the story.
Fave: SmashMechs of Scarabos
More eloquent opinions on flicking through The Art Book.
Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude No. 27 (1962)
"I mean, like, what is going on in this? This is rubbish."
Jackson Pollock, Number 1A, 1948 (1948)
Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Woman Inspired by Lucretia (1533)
"This is very detailed, and I like the different colours in it and how they made it."
Morris Louis, Alpha-Phi (1961)
"Is that all on the painting? Because that's rubbish."
Lucian Freud, Girl with a White Dog (1952)
Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea (1952)
"Why is this even art? It's just scribbles like other ones, it's rubbish."
Willem de Kooning, Marilyn Monroe (1954)
"What is this? It's stupid."
Jeff Koons, Puppy (1992)
"This is so real and I love that they put lots of detail in it, but I think that it just looks very fake."
Odilon Redon, The Cyclops (1914)
