Tokaido Review

   Tokaido is a game for two to eight players that lasts about an hour.

   Inside, there is a nice little insert with plenty of room for everything.

   The board is pretty long and has a basic art design.

    There are many travelers to choose from. Each one has a hole on the top left to place your colored disc. The upper right shows you how much gold you start with. Each traveler also has a special ability.

   There are too many travelers to go through and explain, but the rule book is excellent at explaining what everything does. There are a lot of symbols, but they are pretty easy to remember once you read them over.

   To set up, you are going to choose your traveler and a color. Take the corresponding disc, score marker and traveler piece. Place your disc into the hole on your traveler card. 

   Place the score markers on zero. Randomly place the traveler markers in the first Inn. Shuffle the different decks of cards and place them face down on their designated areas on the board.

   This game is done in line order. The person that starts the game will not always be the first one each round. You can move your piece to any open space you choose. Some places have a double space so two travelers can be there at the same time. This is only used for four and five player games. The traveler that is on the second space, moves before the player on the front space.

   The person that ends up in the back always goes first. This makes it so some people may get to go more than once during their turn.

   If you jump too far ahead, you may be waiting a bit before you get to move again. Sometimes, this is necessary if you need a certain space.

   As you stop along the trail, you will be collecting cards. Each space has a corresponding action. 

   When you stop on the Village, you get to draw three souvenir cards.You can choose any of the cards that you draw. Their cost is on the bottom left of the card and is between one and three gold per card. They also have a suit on the bottom right. You can only have one of each suit in each set. The first card in the set is worth one point. The second is worth three, the third is worth five and the fourth is worth seven. Therefore, each set is worth sixteen points. You can buy as many of the three cards as you have gold for and may have more than one set of cards at a time.

   If you land on the hot springs, simply take the top card. It will be worth either two or three points.

   If you land on the encounter space, draw the top card. These are friends that will help you along your journey. They will give you gold, points, money to donate to the temple or cards.

   As you go along, you will come along to an Inn. You must stop at these. The first person that stops, takes the first spot in the line up. They then draw cards equal to the number of players plus one. Food costs either one, two or three gold. If you purchase a food, it must be one that you do not already have in your pile. You must wait for each player to arrive at the Inn before continuing. Pass the cards to the players as they arrive. Once everyone has had a chance to purchase food, the last player that arrived then moves out and continues down the path. This makes it so that the first to arrive has the largest selection of food, but will be the last to leave.You do not have to purchase food cards. Discard the cards that were not purchased.

   If you stop on the temple space, you must donate one to three gold. Place them on your corresponding space on the board. You get one point for each gold you donate. At the end of the game you receive bonus points for donating.

   Along the way, you will also be painting panoramas. Once you finish a panorama, you can no longer stop on the corresponding space. The first piece is worth one point. The second is worth two and so on.

   There are three different types of panoramas. Paddy

   Mountain

   and Sea.

   There are some achievement cards you can earn. The top three are for the first person to complete each type of panorama. These are handed out as soon as they are earned.

   The bottom four are handed out at the end of the game. The first one is for the traveler that has the most hot springs cards. The second is for the traveler that has the most encounter cards. The third is for the traveler that has the most souvenir cards. The last is for the player that has the highest sum of coins on their food cards.

   Add up all of the ending points, whoever has the most points is the winner!

   I will be completely honest. The first time I played this game, I didn't like it, at all. I got a bit behind and wasn't able to catch up. I got blocked out by others and quickly ran out of gold due to not being careful. I had no idea what I was doing.

   I am also a firm believer that you should give a game a few tries before deciding if you like it or not.

   I gave the game a few more plays and liked it a little more each time. Now I love this game! It looks difficult. There's a lot to remember, but once you play, it all makes more sense and is easy to play. I've gotten many comments about how the turn order works. I think it makes it more engaging when you have to watch to see when it's your turn. Our ten year old really enjoys this game and asks to play it often. It is becoming one of our go to family games! The art is amazing and fun to look at. It's very detailed. The board doesn't have much art on it, but it still looks beautiful.

   If you like games that are a bit different, use a little more strategy (including blocking others out) give this game a try. You won't be sorry! 

Voodoo Mania Review

   Voodoo Mania is a game for two to six players by Passport Games.

   Inside, you will find six legend cards. The legend cards have five items and five colors on it. This is to help you if you get stuck during the game.

   There is a deck of double sided ingredient cards.

   Each ingredient card has four items in four different colors.

   To set up, give each player a legend card and deal out as many ingredient cards as per number of players stated in the directions. Place one ingredient card in the center of the table where everyone can see and reach it. Draw the top three ingredient cards of your pile. You are now ready to play.

   To play, look at the ingredient card in the middle of the table. Since there are only four items and four colors, you must find the missing item/color combo. Each ingredient card is two sided so you can look on both sides. If you don't have any ingredient cards that show the right combination, you may place one of the ingredient cards in your hand on the bottom of your deck and draw the top ingredient card. You must place the ingredient card on the bottom and have no more than three ingredient cards in your hand at a time.

   This ingredient card is missing a yellow mask so you must play an ingredient card with a yellow mask on top of it. When playing an ingredient card, say the item/color that was missing. This allows the other players to see what is being played and to help make sure it's a correct card. Draw the top ingredient card of your deck.

   If you happen to have an ingredient card that is missing the same item/color combo, play the card and yell "Voodoo". If this happens, each other player takes an ingredient card from the bottom of the voodoo pile and adds it to the bottom of their cards. Once everyone has drawn a card, the voodoo caller says "voodoo mania" and the game continues.

   Continue playing in this manor until someone runs out of ingredient cards. Once a player runs out of cards, count the number of ingredient cards left in everyone's hands. This is your score for this round. The game ends after three rounds. The player with the lowest score is the winner!

   If you like quick thinking speed games, this game is great! The cards are thick and fun to look at. There is always a lot of laughter and good times when we play this game. However, if you are playing with kids it can be rather one sided since kids have a harder time figuring out what is missing. We played this game during a game night and one of the kids joined in. She had a hard time figuring things out and ended up not getting rid of any of her cards. She still had a good time, it was just a little harder for her. I think if you had a group of just kids or adults, fun would be had by all.

   I really enjoy this game. It's nice having a game that makes you think quick. It may seem easy, since the concept is easy, but when you are trying to figure out what to play and the pressure is on to beat your opponents, this game is actually pretty tough. This game is definitely worth giving a try.

Nox Review

   Nox is a card game for two to six players ages eight and up. 

   Inside, you have a deck of cards numbered one through fifteen. There are six cards of each number.

   The cards are high quality, nice thick cards with amazing artwork on them.

   Set up is simple. Shuffle the cards and deal three cards to each player. 

   The cards are thick and slippery, so you may have to do the bucket and shovel shuffle with the kids. This is also a good time to remind them to be careful so they don't bend the cards.

   On your turn, you play a card and then draw a card. 

   Place a card either in front of you, or on an opponent. You must play cards of the same color in a stack. 

   You can have more than one stack with the same color. 

   If two stacks end up with the same number,

   Those stacks are combined.

   When the round ends, you must have at least one stack of each color to score. If you are missing one, you get zero points for that round. 

   The round ends when all of the cards are played, or a player gets six stacks of cards in front of them. Add up the top card of each stack. That is your score. Example, this player would get sixty four points for this round. The first person to get to one hundred and fifty points first is the winner!

   This game is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. I have played it with both adults and children and enjoyed it every time. It is simple to learn and play. It's a great "take that" kind of game. Our children didn't have any trouble playing. There was much laughter and giggling, and that makes any game a great game in my book! It will definitely get plenty of play at our family game nights.