Barnes on Games- Barnes' Best Game of the Year Awards 2015

Not an awful list. But....no Kingdom Death. Everything on Barnes' list except for Shadows plays like a game we've all seen before. And this year we got quite a few things that feel oddly fresh. (Cthulhu Wars is awesome, and remarkably well developed.)

Abracawhat and Burgle Bros also would make my list. Possibly adding Dungeon Saga and Dark Moon. (OK. Dark Moon and Dungeon Saga are very familiar. Dungeon Saga actually feels a lot like a multiplayer Space Hulk with a fantasy theme. It is the first game I'd put against Space Hulk for that perfect mix of simplicity and tactical richness.


Abracawhat is a basic Take That damage people with spells game. The twist is that you are playing with Code 777 tiles. It is still as stupid and fluffy as all of the other games, but the one twist suddenly makes it feel like a game.

Burgle Brothers is a dungeon crawl without combat that plays like a board game version of Monaco. It is fairly simple, but with a completel random tile layout that generates really nifty puzzles.

And Kingdom Death. Completely reworks the dungeon crawl by getting rid of the dungeon, and focusing on the boss battle and the campaign system in absolutely terrifying detail. Couple that with completely new game systems, and a fairy tale hell setting that is unique, and you end up with a game which blows everything else out of the water.

I have to 2nd Frank -- Kingdom Death gets my game of the year vote. It is so different and interesting. Michael, have you played it yet? I imagine this is the kind of thing that you would really like just because it is so weird.

Other than that, my #2 and #3 pics would be Cthulhu Wars and Shadows of Malice.

moofrank wrote: (Cthulhu Wars is awesome, and remarkably well developed.)

Frank has spoken. To paraphrase, "Josh Look and Repoman are wrong."

Burgle Brothers is a dungeon crawl without combat that plays like a board game version of Monaco. It is fairly simple, but with a completel random tile layout that generates really nifty puzzles.

Burgle has me really interested. I just wish I had a money tree in the backyard.

SuperflyTNT wrote:

moofrank wrote: (Cthulhu Wars is awesome, and remarkably well developed.)

Frank has spoken. To paraphrase, "Josh Look and Repoman are wrong."

I think that Cthulhu Wars is one of those games you have to play a few times before it starts showing how good it is. Usually, that is expected when the rules are more complex (e.g., Magic Realm or even Mage Knight) -- here it is because you have to see how the asymmetric factions really work together, and some of them can be a little hard to start playing well the first few times.

Chapel wrote: And I still don't understand the geek draw to loopin louie, my four year old thought it was cool, but he's four!

I don't care how old you are, if you don't like Loopin' Louie, then you just don't like fun.

Space Ghost wrote:

SuperflyTNT wrote:

moofrank wrote: (Cthulhu Wars is awesome, and remarkably well developed.)

Frank has spoken. To paraphrase, "Josh Look and Repoman are wrong."

I think that Cthulhu Wars is one of those games you have to play a few times before it starts showing how good it is. Usually, that is expected when the rules are more complex (e.g., Magic Realm or even Mage Knight) -- here it is because you have to see how the asymmetric factions really work together, and some of them can be a little hard to start playing well the first few times.

I thought the game was merely OK until I played it the first time with players who understood what their factions were trying to achieve, and then it truly shone.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: I thought the game was merely OK until I played it the first time with players who understood what their factions were trying to achieve, and then it truly shone.

Yep. Hastur pretty much is destined to own just about every first game (anyone remember how "unbeatable" Nurgle was in Chaos in the Old World?). What really sold me on Cthulhu Wars is Sandy's article series on strategies for each of the factions which were part of the second Kickstarter.

In fact, my worst fear about that KS is that what is (now) a fairly small, tight (and psychotically overproduced) game will be overburdened with dubious expansion stuff. There is no way all of that can be tested cleanly. Way too many options when you start bolting on all of those expansions.

Kingdom Death is also getting a ton of expansions and options soon. Kingdom Death is a true onion skin of a game. Even after writing that review, I've ventured into a couple more layers which all contain "What....The....Fuck" comments in every play session. The game is surprising and weird and unfair and mean and evil. And it continually surprises me with just how cruel and twisted the entire affair is. We also just got challenge scenarios. Those range from interesting to awe-inspiring and without adding many new bits.

That also describes Pelopennes: THE CARD GAME.

So fucking brutal and horrible and delicious. If only it weren't so damned dry. If it had a post-apoc theme, better cards, and a more interactive design I'd be inclined to call it a masterpiece.