We’re on a gaming streak with Johanna, it seems. Yesterday we were thinking of what to do and decided to play a game. The obvious choice was, of course, Historiallinen Helsinki, a game that I’ve owned for over a year now and haven’t played once. I know I haven’t been missing much, but it was definitely fun to try it — even though I then rated the game as 3 on the Boardgamegeek scale.

What’s it like, then? Very childish. Roll and move. On some squares you’ll have to draw a random event card, on others you get building cards. The aim is to get one building from each of the four eras. Then you’ll have to land on the beginning square with an exact roll. Very boring. The game design is really bad. There’s, for example, money, which is pretty much totally pointless. Getting money isn’t really an advantage, you can do fine without it.

It was still fun, mostly because I played it with Johanna. Won’t probably play it again. I guess I could try to sell it to some sorry fool… But that would be a bit cruel, so maybe I’ll just keep it with me.

Then we played another game I’ve played little: Top Hats (or Huippuhatut) by Leo Colovini. It’s actually quite nice little game and it’s a shame I’ve only played it once. The theme is totally ridiculous and makes it a children’s game. That’s bad. The game would be much better as a pure abstract. Also, it should be much smaller, so it would be easier to carry around. The basic mechanic is simple, but fun. I especially enjoy the three-player game. One of the players might be out of the game for a while and then come back as his or her hats are revealed later on. That’s a nice and surprising mechanic, there.

Really a shame I haven’t played it more! I should, I should…