Gameblog

Category: More about games

  • Fairy Tale

    I wrote a review of Fairy Tale in Finnish. Fairy Tale is a drafting game with a very superficial fantasy theme. There are four rounds: in the beginning of each, five cards are dealt to the players. Each player takes one card and passes the rest to the next player. Of the four cards they…

  • Finnish Game of the Year winners 2007

    Last year was a disaster, now things look much better! The Finnish Adult Game of the Year for 2007 is Thurn und Taxis, the Finnish Family Game of the Year is Ubongo and the Finnish Kids Game of the Year is Piikkisiili. The list of finalists was very impressive, too, but I think they chose…

  • Players’ Picks 2007

    Finnish gamers, head to Finnish Players’ Picks 2007 voting page to tell me which games you enjoyed the most during the last year.

  • Teaching Go

    Way of teaching Go is an instructional article describing a method of teaching Go to children (guess why I’m blogging this). The article suggests playing Atari-Go (or Ponnuki-Go), which seems to be the recommended method of teaching Go to beginners. That is, play the simple capture game where the only goal is to capture one…

  • Portobello Market

    Review of Portobello Market in Finnish. Portobello Market won the Hippodice game design competition as East India Railways. Schmidt picked it up, switched the theme and here we have a game set in the London’s famous market street. Lautapelit.fi was quick to publish this in Finnish. Portobello Market seems to be designed for Spiel des…

  • Caylus Magna Carta

    Caylus Magna Carta reviewed in Finnish. Caylus Magna Carta is the card game version of Caylus, the big hit from 2005. Caylus is a good game, but for some reasons it just didn’t work for me that well. One thing is definitely the length: 30 minutes per player is just too long. Magna Carta definitely…

  • Yspahan

    Yspahan reviewed in Finnish. Yspahan is a game of camels and trading from Ystari Games. The initial buzz over this one wasn’t that big, and I would’ve missed the game altogether based on that. However, Westpark Gamers did a brilliant Windows version of the game (see Yspahan for Windows website), which caused a lot more…

  • Zooloretto

    Review of Zooloretto in Finnish. Zooloretto is the latest game in the Coloretto family. This zoo-themed family game is based on a familiar mechanism that works so well in the small card game. This big box board game turned out be another success for Michael Schacht. A simple idea The basic idea is the same:…

  • Tom Lehmann

    Before, Tom Lehmann simply didn’t register on my radar. I’m too young or something for the TimJim Games and Fast Food Franchise to mean anything to me. However, now I take a look at my list of three most-anticipated games — Caylus Magna Carta, Race for the Galaxy and Phoenicia — and hey, two out…

  • Himalaya

    Review of Himalaya in Finnish. Himalaya appeared on many radars when it was nominated for Spiel des Jahres in 2005. The game was formerly known as Marchands d’Empire and available as print-and-play. The new edition, published by Tilsit and by Marektoy in Finland, is rethemed: medieval traders became yak caravans in Himalaya. The new theme…