Episode 364 – Look Back: How Did 2023 Predictions Fare?

We often talk about new games. But let’s look back a little bit. We were excited for a lot of new games at the beginning of 2023 – how did they fare? Were all of them as great as we hoped?

364 fact

Guinness World Record: 364 people simultaneously playing Rock-Paper-Scissors online.

Sponsor message

Have you heard of the fun ratio? This idea comes from The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber, if you want to talk about other ways to equip your children for their future, go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to schedule a time to talk to First Move today.

What We’ve Been Playing

Calypso – because it’s so fast, Andrew accuses Anitra of using it to boost her game playing stats.
Villainous – Anitra compares this to Disney: Animated because of the way it siloes each movie universe.
Royal Visit
Dice Cards
Maul Peak
Suspend – a dexterity game we recommend. (Get the Jr version for kids under 10.)
10 Days in the USA
Monopoly Deal

FOR SCIENCE!

Is this cheating? There’s no possibility that this is gross: our options are “delicious” or “really delicious”.

Send us more weird food FOR SCIENCE! :
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SNAP Review – Smug Owls

Stretch your brain by answering riddles. The catch? These riddles are generated by decks of cards.

Read the transcript or watch the video.

Facebook Community Welcome

We have a lot of new members! Stop on in and say hi.

Revisiting the 2023 Hotness

We were really excited for a lot of games at the beginning of 2023, and we talked about them in episode 327.

Flashback: Zombie Kidz – Mildly disappointing. Pretty good, but not quite what we were hoping for. Our review. (Turbo Kidz was a surprise in the other direction – so much better than we expected!)

Fit to Print – Still haven’t played. Anitra has warmed to it, hopefully we’ll play it sometime this year.

Thunder Road: Vendetta – We haven’t played it, but Nick (who put it on the list) has been very happy with it. “The game is exactly what it said it was going to be.”

Qawale – Gorgeous abstract game from Gigamic. We reviewed this one too. Anitra: likes it a lot, but not as much as she thought she would.

Steam Up – Haven’t played it in 2023, but we’re excited to see it on store shelves.

Sauscharf – In the US, it was renamed Pick-a-Pepper. We got a chance to play this in February and really liked it. We will look for it again!

Miller Zoo – A very nice cooperative game. Not a hit with our kids, because it had less depth than we expected. But it’s a great entry-level cooperative game, without much tension and nothing scary.

Stampfarm – Exactly what it wants to be. A roll-and-write for very young children that uses stamps instead of writing. See more in our review.

Marvel Unmatched sets – We played (and reviewed) Unmatched: Teen Spirit, and loved it. We did not get to try Unmatched: For King and Country.

Bonsai – This game was in high demand, and we totally understand why. Anitra was surprised by this one, and how it kept a strategic tension (there are more things you want to do) while staying pretty calm. See more in our review.

What surprised us in 2023?

Junk Drawer! “Blindsided me in the best possible way.” Anitra was not interested in this game and found out she loves it! See our review.

Seikatsu: A Pet’s Life – exciting to FIND this re-theme of Seikatsu that has been out of print for a few years. (We are also excited for the re-print / new version that will be coming from Grand Gamers Guild.)

Giveaway

Anitra created a how-to-play video for Underdog Games’ National Geographic Secret Clue: Animals and we have an extra copy to share with one of you.

Enter the giveaway!

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