I’ve now played Portobello Market twice, both two-player games with Johanna. She likes it, and so do I, to some extent.

It’s a pretty game, but what do you expect from Michael Menzel? The man knows his trade. The mechanics work as well — I suppose you can expect that from a Hippodice winner. The game is short and has some good hooks. Nothing particularly flashy, at least with two players, but it sure works and I’m really looking forward to trying this with more players.

So, another good game… The only problem is that I already know dozens of games this good or better. Pretty much the only special thing this one has is that Johanna likes it, which might be critical when I decide whether to keep it or not. I don’t have loads of gateway-level games (where Portobello Market quite clearly belongs), which also speaks for the game.

It seems there are plenty of these “oh, I’d love this hadn’t I played all these other games that came before” games. Hacienda comes to mind…