These are my reviews of the games I played at Essen.
Some have a full post of their own, linked here:
Here are the games I wrote about in this post, click on the link to go down to the review.
| Altered | Boxtop Pinball |
| Curses & Coverns | Duck & Cover |
| Dungeon Days | Rumblebots |
| TrollFest | Vegetable Stock |
| Video Game Champion | Woosh: Bounty Hunters |
Altered TCG First Impressions
Altered TCG has you discovering a universe as you play.
Can you win the race?
Set in a universe of rich lore and visual design, this game is about exploring a new, reshaped Earth after a mysterious event, the Confluence, profoundly altered it.
Altered TCG Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
As this is a trading card game there are obviously a lot of rules, nuance and various cards that add complexity. I’m going to give a very top-level overview of how the game plays.
Each player builds their own deck of cards and brings it to the game.
Firstly, both players draw 2 cards and may choose a card from their hand to put face down as mana which will be used to cast spells.
Players then take turns playing cards which have various effects. Some are characters that are put in play either to the Hero or Companion side of a row of different terrain cards placed during setup.
When both players have passed, they compare stats on their creatures against the Hero and Companion side of the track. If the total is higher for one of the terrain types, they move the counter forward one space towards the middle of the track.
How do you win?
The first player to have their tokens meet wins the game.
Main Mechanisms
Deck construction is a main part of the game. If you’ve played any collectable card games you know that crafting a deck is part of the hobby. Also, as with any game like this, there is an element of hand management. There is also a touch of area control as you look to move your way up the track.
USP
I think the end game of moving down the track is unique for a TCG too.
Theme
This is a mix of Miyazaki and Dixit, according to the publisher. As fun as it should be based on the source material like a lot of TCG’s cards are just cards and the action takes president over the name and thematic element. If it wins me a game I don’t care if it’s called “The Mighty Colossus” or “Card Number 6/102”.
Setup
Build your deck, create the path, shuffle and play.
Components & Artwork
We played with really nice custom sleeves on the custom playmat so while everything felt good and looked nice, I’m not sure about the card quality.
The artwork is really nice though.
Ease of Teaching
This is quite easy to teach for a TCG. You can buy pre-built starter decks to avoid any deck construction to begin with. The crib sheets have all the turn information on them. Then the keywords on the cards are explained briefly.
Similar Games
Any collectable card game! Magic the Gathering is a classic and is still going strong. Pokemon is too. I’ve recently started playing Netrunner via Null Signal Games which is more in the living card game formula but worth mentioning here.
Altered TCG Review
Positives
The card art is great and it looks nice on the table.
The end game for a TCG is unique.
Negatives
The decks we played with at a demo at Essen were very unbalanced, I won easily.
Magic the Gathering is a better game and more versatile.
Disney Lorcana looks better even if it’s only a tad better gameplay-wise than Altered.
Netrunner is a better 2-player competitive card game and is asynchronous. You can also buy a full playset of every card legal in current tournament gameplay for 66% of the price of one booster box of one set of Altered.
On top of the price of the cards, they have a lot of (optional) premium products pushing that price up.
Summary
Look elsewhere, there are many better options available.
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House First Impressions
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House uses boxes as a pinball table.
Also, dice as balls.
Get ready to flick your dice, and roll to victory in this spooky game of haunted house pinball! Take down monsters, uncover hidden clues, and dodge trap doors as you try to rack up as many points as you can.
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
The box itself is laid out into a 3 layered pinball-esque-looking table.
Players take a die of their colour, place it at the top and flick it down the table.
How do you win?
When all players have flicked their dice the round ends
If they stay in play, they are worth the value rolled times any modifier they land on.
There are various monster standees and hitting different ones will score points. Around the table are clue tokens worth points if you hit them.
There are some other bonuses too and at the end of three rounds, the player with the most points wins.
Main Mechanisms
Dexterity! However, controlling cubes as they bounce and roll is not easy at all.
USP
The whole game is the USP. The boxes make a pinball table that you use to flick dice down is really fun.
Theme
Not interested in the theme, you just hit stuff and try to land dice in the right place. The Haunted House means very little as will the ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ theme of the next one in this series.
Setup
It was already set up so I have no idea how easy it is to set up the boxes, but everything else is very simple. A place for everything and everything in its place.
Components & Artwork
The boxes are obviously nice but everything else is pretty standard. The art is fun though with some interesting detail.
Ease of Teaching
Obviously very easy. Most things are ‘hit me and I score you points’ or ‘land here and I score you points’. Other than that, just make sure everyone knows that a die that doesn’t stay on the pinball table is worthless.
Similar Games
I would say Kung-Fu Zoo is very close. Here you are flicking D6-shaped animals into an area with the goal of eliminating your opponents.
Don’t forget Ice Cool which uses the boxes as the arena you play in, and you flick penguins.
Boxtop Pinball: Haunted House Review
Positives
Easy and fun, plus flicking dice is always fun.
It looks good on the table, it certainly catches the eye.
Negatives
It is what it is and that’s it.
Summary
A fun and unique game, for a bit.
Curses & Covens First Impressions
Curses & Covens is a one vs many social deduction game that involves forming covens and hunting witches.
Witch side are you on?
Curses & Covens is an all versus one card game where three or more friendly players represent towns facing off against the solo witch hunter.
Curses & Covens Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
One player is the Witch Hunter, the rest represent different villages. A turn has 4 phases so let’s look at an overview of each.
Census: All the village players will discuss their tactics out loud so the Witch Hunter can hear them. Witches can be revealed in sets to allow players to activate spells that are on the table for different abilities. Activated spells flip over to the other side for the Witch Hunter to use.
Arrival: The Witch Hunter will draw a Town card, look at it and pass it to the village player clockwise around the table until each village player has one.
Travel: The Village players pass cards to each other or swap with those face down in the middle of the table (called The Woods) secretly without communicating. The Witch Hunter can see how many cards players are passing but will not know what they are.
Hunt: The Witch Hunter tries to capture witches by choosing and revealing a card from a Village player’s hand, twice. The ‘normal’ townsfolk cards are given to another village player, witches are kept by Hunter. If they draw a fake witch they keep it, but discard all the captured witches they have so far. They also keep a Ritual card which makes them more powerful during the Arrival stage.
Go back to the Census phase.
How do you win?
If a village player can reveal 3 witches of the same suit during the census phase, or the Witch Hunter has 2 ritual cards the village players win.
If the Witch Hunter captures 5 witches they win.
Main Mechanisms
Hand management for the village team and set collection for the Witch Hunter.
USP
I don’t think there is anything truly unique here but it’s rolled up in a fairly fresh package.
Theme
Witches and Witch Hunters, villages, the woods, curses and scarecrow distractions. It’s a cute fairy tale theme, just don’t think about the real Witch Hunters and you’ll be fine!
Setup
Shuffle and deal right? I believe that’s it.
Components & Artwork
The cards are really nice. They’re oversized but not that silly tarot card size, some are also gold-tinted which is really cool.
The art is really good and each of the villager cards especially is really fun to look at.
Ease of Teaching
The game is easy to teach but you are hampered by the limited communication as you are in any game with a social deduction element.
Similar Games
Plenty! But there are few 1 vs many social deduction games where the ‘1’ is known before the game starts. If they are known, they’re not usually the baddies like in games like Werewords.
Maybe saying ‘plenty’ was actually quite harsh?
Curses & Covens Review
Positives
Interesting and fun yet simple gameplay. Trying to collaboratively create sets on one side while trying to disrupt that and aim for your own goal is fun.
Asynchronous play will keep the game fresher for longer.
The artwork is phenomenal.
I was taught the game at Essen by my ‘Game Teacher of the Convention’ award which is an award that lives in my head only 🙂 But it led to a really good experience.
Negatives
As mentioned, any game with hidden information/limited communication can have teaching issues.
Summary
A very fun and nice-looking card game that will have a wide appeal.
Duck & Cover Card Game First Impressions
Duck & Cover has you playing with ducks in the bath.
Will you Duck and/or Cover in the right way to avoid splashing too much water?
It’s a 20-minute goofy game in which you’re trying to have less water around your bathtub.
Duck & Cover Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
Everyone has a 4×4 grid of cards numbered 1 to 12 in a random order.
Someone turns over a card from a central deck and reads out the number on it. Everyone then has 2 options:
Duck, move that card to anywhere in the grid so it is orthogonally adjacent to another card in the grid.
Cover, put that card on top of an orthogonally adjacent card. From now on, this stack counts as the number of the card on top and the whole stack will move.
There are some special cards that can be revealed such as ‘activate the highest number you have’ etc
How do you win?
As numbers are covered, eventually a card will be flipped that a player doesn’t have in which case they say “Quack”. If everyone Quacks, the card is put aside.
When 8 cards are put aside, or a player goes down to one pile of cards the round ends.
If a player gets to one pile, they score -3 points. Otherwise, players score for the total splash value on all of their remaining cards.
The lowest score after 3 rounds wins.
Theme
I like the idea of you playing with your duck in the bath and trying not to spill water out of the bath.
Setup
Shuffle your cards and lay them out. Shuffle the main deck.
Components & Artwork
Each set of ducks has its own theme and cute artwork.
The cards are OK.
Ease of Teaching
Very easy, there isn’t much to it and it’s all open information.
Similar Games
It’s quite unique, I can’t think of anything!
Duck & Cover Review
Positives
Fun and quick gameplay.
The duck art is cute and funny.
Negatives
I think it can be figured out.
Summary
A very quick and fun game.
Dungeon Days First Impressions
Dungeon Days has you playing fantasy characters to the days of the week.
Want to adopt a rabbit?
Fill your week with dungeon creatures, scoring the most points in the process.
Dungeon Days Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
Lay out the 7 days of the week cards in the middle of the table.
Each turn, players take one action, draw a card or play a card. Cards are usually played on your side of the table next to one of the days of the week. Some can be played on the opponent’s side.
These cards are spells that have various effects and creatures that also have various effects as well as a point value.
How do you win?
When one player has a creature on every day of the week the game ends.
The player with the most total points on their side of the day’s of the week wins.
Main Mechanisms
Hand management with a bit of take that.
Theme
No idea why you’re filling your week with dungeon-related items.
Setup
Layout the day cards, shuffle the other cards, job done.
Components & Artwork
The artwork is basic but fun and the card stock is fairly low quality.
Ease of Teaching
The game is very easy to teach. The cards are not too complicated and each one has the full text on them.
Similar Games
Cheaty Mages has a similar card play/take that feel and also theme as it uses fantasy characters.
Dungeon Days Review
Positives
Buying the game raises money for a good cause.
Negatives
I hate to say this because the game is for charity but the game is not fun at all. I won just by playing 7 creatures on the 7 days. There are some trick cards but I found that just playing creatures to get points and end the game quickly worked well.
Summary
Donate to an animal rescue charity, but don’t do it just to get this game.
Rumblebots First Impressions
Rumblebots is an everyone-for-themselves auto-battler.
Gather your bots and fight!
There is no trace of humans anymore. Only plants, animals, and sentient machines continue to roam the Earth. They constantly seek energy and technological advances. The Bots were created for one unique purpose: FIGHTING!
Rumblebots Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
Players start off with some starting bots and some scrap.
First is the build phase where players can scrap their bots for scrap and then spend the scrap they have to buy new bots from a selection available.
The bot you buy can’t have a level higher than your workshop so scrap can be spent to upgrade that too.
The final action can be used to energise a crystal by moving it around your player board to gain scrap or draw 2 cards from the deck. These bots in hand can be built later.
Next is the battle phase. Players shuffle their bots to create a deck. Then they play an auto-battler game attacking the layer on their left.
They reveal cards one at a time, adding their power until they defeat the defence of the opponent. When they do, the defender discards their cards. The attacker then becomes the defender using the attacking bot’s defence but only of one faction, the rest are discarded.
This continues going around the table until one player remains.
After the battle players gain crystals which are added to their player board. they can also be recharged cycling them back around to be used again on future rounds.
How do you win?
At the end of each build/battle phase, if a player has 6 more crystals than anyone else they have a Dominance Victory.
After 5 rounds, if no one has won a 6th round is played with additional income and the player that wins that battle wins the game.
Main Mechanisms
Deck building in a way and that auto-battler system that seems to be cropping up quite a bit lately.
USP
There are a lot of fun mechanisms pulled together in a unique way, but none of them, including the theme is unique.
Theme
Battling robots, it’s been done before. The post-apocalyptic touch to the theme is pretty nice.
Setup
Give out the starting cards, set up the workshop boards and crystals then lay out the available cards.
Components & Artwork
The cards are fine, the dual-layered boards are good as are the crystal.
The art on the bots is fun.
Ease of Teaching
It’s fairly easy to teach with a few fiddly bits around crystals and the terminology on some of the bots. Most bots are purchased from the face-up supply so you can teach them as they’re bought.
Similar Games
Moon-Bots is a bot-based battler that uses dice.
Challengers! uses that auto-battler system to battle other players in a more fun and simple package.
More recently, games like Golden Cup and All-Star Draft have that competitive style of gameplay that Rumblebots bring to the table.
Rumblebots Review
Positives
A fun idea for a game.
I do like the auto-battler system…
Negatives
…but it needs a better game around it.
The ‘attack left’ format doesn’t really work for such a tight gameplay system.
I had the worst demo at Essen. The guy demoing got really angry when I didn’t sell all of my starting bots to buy better ones in the first round of the game. He held the game up for ages insisting I sell them all, but I did not. Firstly, if you have to do that to win then you should start with scrap not starting robots. Secondly, I won because my deck had great synergy from the beginning because I built new bots around my starting bots.
Summary
Good idea, poor execution.
TrollFest First Impressions
TrollFest has you tour the land to put on a show in varius fantasy towns.
Will you win the Race race?
For the first time, your band which so far had mostly played in shady goblin and vampire venues has been invited to take part in the great TrollFest, where you will be the opening act for such big names like the Rolling Gnomes and Snow White and the Dwarves.
TrollFest Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
The main bulk ot player turns involve moving to a neighbouring town on a map, placing a tour token there and putting on a show. You get a bonus for being the first player to put o a show in that ton plus a bonus for each member of your band matching that towns race. So points for Dwarves in a Dwarf town.
You can hire and fire band members from your tableau and draw action cards with goals to achieve.
How do you win?
When a player places thier last tour token the game end is triggered.
You get points if you played all of your tour tokens and ended the game in your home town.
Players score points for having the most strngth in each band member category: Energy, Charisma and Skill. Also for having a band with diverse races.
Points for collecting light tokens around the map as you play.
Finally, for having a a classic rock band (Singer, Drummer, Guitar, Bass), ,all female, all male or al artists from the same species.
Main Mechanisms
There is point to point movement around the board and set collection wiith your band members.
USP
This is in the theme and the mechanisms of the tour itself.
Theme
It’s a fun theme. It’s from Bruno Faidutti (and Camille Mathieu) who will add thematic elements to his games and they show.
I like the scoring that involves 4 ways of having a ‘classic rock band’
Setup
There isn’t too much to do other than shuffle two decks of cards. There are bits to put on the board but not too much.
Components & Artwork
The board and the wodden bits are OK. The tour bus and gopher (who gives a bonus if he’s in your gig location) are nice unique pieces.
The band art is a lot of fun.
Ease of Teaching
This is a family weight game so it is easy to teach. The only hidden information are the action card.
Similar Games
Roaming a map collecting things reminded me of Lords of Xidit which is a game I didn’t really like. That was a programming game and was really frustrating.
TrollFest Review
Positives
The game has very quick turns.
I like the look of the game and the art for the band members is really good.
It has a fun, unique theme.
Negatives
It’s a bit on the light side.
There isn’t too much interaction other than who gets to towns first.
Summary
A decent lightweight family game with a fun theme.
Vegetable Stock Card Game First Impressions
Each round, you reveal one more cards containing a number of vegtables than the number of players from a deck. Players take turns choosing one of the cards and placing it in their harvest pile.
The price of the vegetables on the card not chosen goes up by the number of that veggie on it. The price of vegetables wraps around so if this would put the price off the top of the chart, it crashes and goes back to 0.
How do you win?
The game ends after 6 rounds.
For each vegetable you have, ,you times it by it’s end game value and the highest total wins.
Main Mechanisms
Drafting, set colection and push-your-luck with the speculaton part.
USP
The USP is putting a stock speculation game like this in a very light package.
Theme
The theme is OK, but it’s been reimplmeneted with Hello Kitty which appeals mor to me.
Setup
Shuffle the deck and layout the speculatin cards, job done.
Components & Artwork
Everythign is fine, the art is OK but is clear.
The specualtion ‘card over card’ layout is fiddley.
Ease of Teaching
It’s very easy to teach and also, everything is face up.
Similar Games
It’s not too far from Point Salad which is more of a game and has a similar set collection thing, and fruit and veg.
Vegetable Stock Review
Positives
It has fun, push your luck gameplay.
The game is simple and quick.
Negatives
You need players to be awake to the game state to ‘not’ pick the right card to crash some prices.
Summary
A fun and qick game that might get tired after a few plays.
Video Game Champion First Impressions
Video Game Champion takes you back to your childhood in the 90’s
Depending on how old you are of course!
90s ; Explosion of 16 bits Video Games era in the world.
Time when the greatest dream of childhood was to be The Video Game Champion!
Video Game Champion Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
This is a fairly in-depth game with lots of moving parts. This summary will be top-level to give you an idea of how the game plays.
Players will pick a button tile from a grid which will be in a row and column of two action tiles. The player will then take one of those actions. These actions allow you to gain money which can be used for other actions such as renting games and buying gaming magazines.
Then players can play any of the games they own and rent by discarding button tiles in the right combination. When playing a game, you only need to match the first couple of tiles in the sequence to put a ‘played’ token on it. On future turns, this can be used as a wild when matching the full sequence to ‘complete’ the game.
Magazines that match the genre of the game you’re playing can also be used as a wild card.
How do you win?
After 5 rounds players score.
You get points for games played and games completed. Also, for playing the most games and playing the most new releases.
There are other elements including passwords and reputation in the game I didn’t get into here but you score points for those too.
Main Mechanisms
Set collection and action selection are the main mechanisms. You do both at the same time as the button tiles you are collecting also determine which action you take.
USP & Theme
The USP is the theme here so I’ll group them together.
The theme of 90s video games, going to the rental store to get a new game and buying the latest magazines was a real nostalgia hit! Keeping a password sheet also took me back.
Setup
Piles of cards and tokens all over the place! Once you know what you’re doing you’ll be fine.
Components & Artwork
The components are nice. The tiles are thick and the crystals pop on the cards.
The art is a particular highlight. The game covers are familiar yet new
Ease of Teaching
While there is a lot going on, it all fits together intuitively.
Everything is open information so you can help new players with their choices.
Similar Games
Lookswise it has a touch of Argent the Consortium. I can’t think of a gameplay-style match.
Video Game Champion Review
Positives
Looks great on the table.
The theme is really fun and comes out in the mechanisms.
The interconnecting set collection is fun and doesn’t feel like a chore.
I met one of the designers, Patrick, at Dusseldorf airport and chatted for hours about everything from game design to aliens!
Negatives
We had a bad teach at Essen so our experience was different to the one you’ll get when learning the rules correctly.
Summary
A fun game with a very fun theme.
Whoosh: Bounty Hunters First Impressions
Whoosh: Bounty Hunters has players capture monsters and collect the bounty…
…in a snap.
A fun, fast-paced reaction game in which players try to capture monsters and collect bounty.
Whoosh: Bounty Hunters Game Overview at Essen 2024
Quick Rules Summary
Three piles of monster cards are on the table with one card flipped face up. Each Monster has a number of requirements.
Players take turns playing a card from their hand to their own pile. If all the revealed cards on the table match the requirements of a monster, the first player to touch it captures it and gets to score its points.
If a player does this but the requirements are not met, they get it as negative point instead.
How do you win?
When a pile runs out of monster cards, the player with the most points wins.
Main Mechanisms
Snap! and pattern matching.
USP
There have been a few snap variants.
Theme
The theme of capturing monsters is fun and doing it with a speed element actaully make sense.
Setup
Shuffle the cards and make piles.
Components & Artwork
The cards are OK and the iconogrpahy is good as it needs to be in a speed game like this.
The monster art is fun too.
Ease of Teaching
Teh game is easy to teach, basically hit the monster if you see all the symbols it needs.
There are some trick symbols such as a sword, that instead of counting as a sword negates a sword so you have to make sure you teach that correctly.
Similar Games
I weirdly thought of Rooster Rush first which is a light, snap style game.
Other speed games like Ghost Blitz are worth a shout.
Whoosh: Bounty Hunters Review
Positives
Fun and quick gameplay.
Due to some of the symbols, it’s harder than it sounds…
Negatives
…but not too hard.
It’s just snap with extra steps.
Summary
It’s a 10 minute game thats fun for half of that time.
JestaThaRogue