Mattel/International Games Inc decided in 1986 to branch out the UNO franchise by creating the game UNO Dominos. Combining the card play from UNO with the tile placement of Dominos they tried to combine two classic games. Unfortunately the combination leads to a game that is too easy to provide any really strategy or challenge to the players.
Before Jenga hit the markets in 1983, the Ideal Corporation made their own tower building game. In 1967 Ideal released Careful The Toppling Tower Game. With its’ huge tower, Careful had the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately due to some issues with the components, the game never reaches the heights that it could have.
Looking at the box, Ladder Splatter doesn’t look like much. It looks like a cheap knock off of other balancing games like Jenga. While it has its’ own issues, Ladder Splatter was better than I expected.
For those unfamiliar with Manga, Manga is a style of comics created in Japan that has become quite popular. Manga, known for its’ great artwork and creativity, had the potential to be a great theme for a card game. While Manga Manga is not a terrible game, it fails to do anything creative or original.
Alan Moon (creator of Ticket to Ride) along with Aaron Weissblum created a series of travel games called 10 Days. While not as good as the Ticket to Ride series, I enjoyed playing the USA version of the game. After playing the Africa version I have to say it is not as good as the USA version but it is still enjoyable and may teach you a little about Africa.
10 Days in the USA is a game in 10 Days series of games co-created by Alan Moon who is most famous for being the creator of the superb game Ticket to Ride. Not surprisingly I had high expectations for 10 Days in the USA. While it is not on par with Ticket to Ride, 10 Days in the USA is still a very solid game.
Do you like tennis but are too lazy to actually go out and play a game of real tennis? In 1975 Parker Brothers decided to create a card game based on tennis called Tennis The Smashing Card Game. While it relies too heavily on luck, Tennis the Smashing Card Game is a solid tennis card game.
Are you ready for an adventure? Do you want to explore a spider infested cave in order to uncover riches? In the 1989 TSR game Web of Gold you get to do just that. While the box’s artwork screams cheesy, Web of Gold is a surprisingly good strategic game.
Magna Force has a cool concept which ultimately doesn’t work as well as I hoped.
Trivial Pursuit Steal offers some refreshing changes to a series that desperately needed some new gameplay mechanics but there are also some ill-advised ideas that don’t exactly work.