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Hues and Cues Game Reviewby Andy Matthews on November 20, 2025It’s not too often that people who have excellent color vision, like myself, get to play a game that allows us to fully extend that sense. “Excellent color vision” you say? Yes; the X-Rite PANTONE color test shows that I get a nearly perfect score—which is pretty great given that I’m old, and have really bad eyesight in general. But I’m not here to brag about color vision, I’m here to tell you why you should buy, and / or play, Hues and Cues, from The Op Games. The Colour and the Shape Originally released in 2020, Hues and Cues quickly became a social media darling thanks to its high player count, simple rules, and casual gameplay. In Hues and Cues, the goal is to earn the most points over the course of two rounds. Players are dealt a hand of color cards from the deck, each card featuring a color swatch and coordinates, which show its position on the player board. On their turn the clue giver offers a one word clue meant to guide the other players into placing two markers as close as they can to the correct color swatch on the board. Andy says, “The… The post Hues and Cues Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Naishi Game Reviewby Kevin Brantley on November 20, 2025Honor in Victory, Shame in Defeat In a tumultuous year of tariff uncertainty, the focus has shifted to small card games thanks to their lower printing costs and quicker turnaround. As always, I’m on the hunt for small, quick two-player games I can enjoy with my wife that aren’t dueling titles or TCGs. Cue up Naishi, a quaint little box featuring gorgeous feudal-style art from Marine Losekoot and designed by French creators Mathieu Bieri and Alex Fortineau. Walking by, the game looks unassuming: just rows of cards, a deck, and a small sideboard. The minimalist design doesn’t scream for attention, but the subtle pops of color in the artwork certainly do. Thematically, players are working to optimize their feudal state through a delightful dance of card cycling and positioning akin to Boreal, Elawa, and Odin. After my first play with fellow Mountaineer Justin Bell, I was surprised to learn the game is also available on Board Game Arena—further fueling the question of whether we should even bother buying physical games anymore. The Way of the Cards Players aim to build the highest-scoring ten-card tableau, all while managing hidden information. Each player has a visible “line” of five cards and a hidden line in hand. Between… The post Naishi Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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The Great Library Game Reviewby Justin Bell on November 19, 2025My Vital Lacerda game nights have been on the upswing. After uneven experiences with games like Weather Machine and Escape Plan—the latter of which I liked a bit more than most people in my network—I thought Inventions: Evolution of Ideas was strong. Now, mind you, it is a hell of a game to teach, particularly the tile-laying mini-game positioned at the center of each player’s personal board. But the central puzzle and the creativity required to find all the ways to take the actions needed to get everything done…man, I thought Inventions was a blast. Speakeasy, Lacerda’s most recent deluxe edition title from Eagle-Gryphon Games, was even better, in part because it felt like a Lacerda throwback. Elegant in some ways, and highly inventive in others, the main conceit with Speakeasy (besides its ridiculously gorgeous production) was the integration of its theme into the gameplay. For the first time since Kanban EV, it felt like Lacerda was back to delivering bangers that successfully married theme to interesting gameplay. The Great Library (which launched its crowdfunding campaign on November 20th) is the next big box game from Lacerda and it’s quite a lot. When I showed this to groups in the weeks leading up to the campaign, the first question was always the same:… The post The Great Library Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Luthier Game Reviewby Kevin Brantley on November 19, 2025Opening Overture I recently took a holiday in Salzburg, Austria, where my wife and I roamed the historic streets nestled in the Alps. Everywhere we looked was the pride of Salzburg, Wolfgang Mozart. We saw his birthplace, his residence and, to the delight of my ears, even attended a string quintet concert at the Fortress Hohensalzburg. It was quite warm sitting in a nearly millennium-old building with no air conditioning, but I digress. Weeks later, Luthier hits the table, and I smile as memories of concertos, operettas, and sonatas come rushing back. [caption id="attachment_325266" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Hohensalzburg Fortress, Salzburg, Austria[/caption] I’ve always kept classical music as the zen-encompassing soundscape for my apartment, especially during working hours. My Google automation has me saying “Good morning,” to which the crescendos of chamber music from Chicago’s 90.9 WFMT fill the air (who could also use your support as a public broadcast station). My favorite classical track of all time is The Planets – II. Venus, The Bringer of Peace by Gustav Holst, and I’m listening to the opening adagio as I write this. Luthier is the second, highly thematic game from Dave Beck. His freshman title, Distilled, while charming on the macro level, didn’t stick with me on the micro level. I… The post Luthier Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Cretaceous Rails Game Reviewby Kevin Brantley on November 19, 2025Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex If we’ve learned anything from the Jurassic Park movies, it’s that humans can’t control dinosaurs, let alone nature. Luckily, we’ve found a way to complete John Hammond’s vision of a dinosaur theme park with no visitor deaths. I feel like dinosaurs will always speak to the inner child in us. When I was a kid, I remember KeyBank having a youth savings program that offered detailed dinosaur figures as rewards. I can’t say that the saved money still exists today, but I remember enjoying my ever-growing collection of dinosaurs with each milestone deposit. [caption id="attachment_325284" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Facebook Marketplace Listing[/caption] So it’s no surprise that when walking by a table at Origins Game Fair this year, the slew of brightly colored dinosaurs caught my eye. Cretaceous Rails is a showstopper that will make you turn your head without even realizing it. Dinosaurs! Trains! Adventure! That was the pitch given to me, and it worked effortlessly. Cretaceous Rails comes from designer Ann Journey and a small (but mighty) publisher, Spielcraft Games. Combining some of my favorite game mechanics—route/tableau building, worker placement, and huge, chunky plastic dinosaurs- it feels like a game that was crafted specifically for me. The aesthetic… The post Cretaceous Rails Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Starfinder Murder in Metal City Deluxe Adventure Game Reviewby Abram Towle on November 18, 2025In lieu of a traditional starter set for Starfinder Second Edition, Paizo released a Deluxe Adventure called Murder in Metal City. Unlike the Pathfinder Beginner Box, this adventure box isn't designed to be a complete introduction to the game without external resources; it lacks a standard set of dice and a lite version of the rules. However, it is assembled to serve as a starter adventure for level 1 player characters (PCs) as a way to get people comfortable with the system. Starfinder Murder in Metal City Deluxe Adventure Overview The Murder in Metal City Deluxe Adventure box ships with a load of content that makes it relatively easy to pick up and play if you already have a base knowledge of the Starfinder Second Edition system. A 64-page adventure details a story on the machine planet of Aballon in which the players are quickly roped into solving a murder mystery of a local community figure. The adventure makes up around two-thirds of those pages, clocking it shorter than Paizo's standard adventure path book length. The backmatter contains an NPC gallery, information on Tech-based faiths, details on relevant locations in the story, and additional bestiary-style entries of the included creatures. Players don't need to worry about rolling up their own characters if they don't want to—six pre-generated character sheets… The post Starfinder Murder in Metal City Deluxe Adventure Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Pathfinder Battlecry! Game Reviewby Abram Towle on November 18, 2025
Pathfinder Second Edition is generally focused on small-scale combats—your party against a small group of enemies or maybe even a single boss. But sometimes you want to tell a story on a grander stage. Maybe the party has been coordinating a huge defensive effort in an upcoming siege, or maybe they're launching an offensive against a demonic threat resulting from an emerging Worldwound. In those cases, Paizo's Battlecry! book has you covered. Battlecry! Overview Battlecry! packs a megaton of punch into a condensed package, and might be one of the more unique Pathfinder Second Edition supplements to date. It's all about the idea of war—presented through a heroic lens—but with the acknowledgement about the horrors and tragedy that surrounds actual war. It's not meant to glorify the history of conflict, but rather the book emphasizes the superhuman actions of the party that can supplement the fun of a fantasy roleplaying game. The book contains two new classes: the Commander and the Guardian. Commanders revel in their mastery of the battlefield, leveraging tactics to inspire and direct their allies as they guide them to victory. Guardians thrive on their ability to soak up damage and taunt opponents into seeing them as the largest threat, and they're often the hardest ones to bring down. There's also one new Ancestry in Battlecry!:… The post Pathfinder Battlecry! Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Tricky Kids Game Reviewby Justin Bell on November 17, 2025Players in my network like to ask me how many times I play a game before I write a review. It does depend on the game, but it often depends on how the first play goes. If the game is bad, I usually try to play it twice, in part to see whether I have a similar experience the second time around. (It’s very hard to table a bad game multiple times, because the players in my review group don’t want to play it again.) A good game is easy to get to the table, but I like to play those three or four times to ensure that others validate my initial feelings. (And, sometimes, I play a game 14 times. Again, it just depends.) Here’s what I will say about Tricky Kids, the new trick-taker from designers Danielle Reynolds (Caution Signs) and Steven Ungaro: my first two plays produced such wildly different experiences that it marks one of the very few times this year where I played a game where some players absolutely loved a game and a different group completely hated it. This is why it’s important to get a game to the table for a few plays! The Highs Were High Tricky Kids is… The post Tricky Kids Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Gems of Iridescia Game Reviewby Justin Bell on November 17, 2025Across three plays, there were a number of moments when I felt joy while playing designer Roberto Panetta’s luxurious 2025 release Gems of Iridescia. Published by Canada’s Rock, Stone & Dice, Gems of Iridescia comes in a deluxe edition that has all the fixins, from a linen-finished handbook to a fancy storage solution to gem tokens that shine just the right way in all kinds of light. The artwork on the cards is cute. The back of the manual has a helpful “Pro Tips” section for new players. I think your best bet is to play Gems of Iridescia with its full complement of four players, but if you have less, a bot is included for use not only in solo mode, but also in a two- or three-player game to help round out your player count. In terms of look and feel, I don’t think there’s a question that Panetta (a long-time gamer who has hit the scene with his first published design in Gems of Iridescia) got it right. While I wish the design hit more interesting high notes, Gems of Iridescia is on the right track for gamers looking for a very light exploration experience. Go Sideways Gems of Iridescia is an “order fulfillment” set collection… The post Gems of Iridescia Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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The Creeps: The Monster-Trapping Game Reviewby Justin Bell on November 17, 2025Well-illustrated, quick-playing, easy-to-teach filler games? I will take a look at every single one, especially if it is from a team whose games I have enjoyed in the past. The Creeps: The Monster-Trapping Game is the latest release from the team at Off the Page Games. Designer Jay Cormier, the man behind hits such as Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.” and Harrow County: The Game of Gothic Conflict, was kind enough to send a copy of The Creeps, which I think is the first small box/filler game Off the Page has released. The Creeps is a family-weight card game with easy-to-parse area majority scoring tied to its hand management mechanics. It is such a family-weight game that it actually includes two sets of rules: a family version, and a full game. Now that I’ve played it using both sets of rules, I’m surprised to share that I prefer the family-weight version over the full game because of the sheer chaos unleashed by the full game version. All About the Rikrop The Creeps: The Monster-Trapping Game is a hand management game for 2-5 players. One of the game’s only noticeable issues is the playtime; the Family Game rules play out in 20-30 minutes, but the Full Game… The post The Creeps: The Monster-Trapping Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Gaming Memories: Volume 01by K. David Ladage on November 16, 2025What is gaming without games? What is life without memories? In Gaming Memories Volume 01, our team shares happy, sorrowful, or deeply impactful memories of their lives, seen through the lens of tabletop gaming. Please join us for Gaming Memories, and if you have one you'd like to share, drop us a line. Show Me The Winner - K. David Ladage I moved a lot as a kid. It is a tough thing, finding friends, when you are always the new kid in school. Add to this a tumultuous relationship with my (divorced) parents and what you have is a kid who, when he found friends, would latch onto them. I was, and remain, fiercely loyal to those who showed me kindness. My biological father is one who rarely, if ever, showed his emotions. He was distant and aloof. He was gone to work by the time I woke up. He was not home yet when I returned from school. He would show up after dinner, and would be working in the kitchen when I went to bed. I mean, I love the guy, but he was not a major influence in most of my life. My mother has been married three times: my biological father (Kenneth L.), my step-father (Greg G.), and a man I have hardly… The post Gaming Memories: Volume 01 appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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Aeon’s End: Legacy Game Reviewby Andrew Lynch on November 16, 2025Aeon’s End is a wonderful game. A cooperative deck-builder in which you do not shuffle, it’s built around the fact that you have perfect control of your cards. Every game centers on a battle between your Mages and the Nameless, monsters who terrorize your home city of Gravehold, and they can be punishing. There are many deck-builders premised around beating the Baddie. None of them can ratchet up the difficulty like Aeon’s End. On its (relatively) easy settings, Aeon’s End provides a reliably tense experience. At its higher difficulties, it is brutal. Games often end with only the slightest margin of victory, or in a crushing defeat. The lifetime win percentage for all users on the Steam implementation, an environment that typically attracts a lot of high-skill players, doesn’t sit far above 50%. Aeon’s End isn’t just difficult, though. Difficulty alone does not a fun game make. It’s also creative, with an inventive bevy of characters and Nameless across its many expansions. But between the difficulty, the variety, and the cognitive load—constantly checking your deck order and making choices that consider what your hand will look like two or three turns from now ain’t nothing—Aeon’s End can be intimidating to onboard. To my surprise, Aeon’s End: Legacy is the perfect place to start. The post Aeon’s End: Legacy Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.
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