This is Day 2 of my Game-and-Blog-Every-Day-in-November Challenge. Search my blog for “Daily Game Challenge” for previous entries.
I hung out with my niece today. She’s in elementary school and we have two things in common: we love to eat out and we love to play games.
Megaland
I picked this up as one of Target’s Buy-Two-Get-One-Free sale and I couldn’t be more satisfied. Renowned game designer/illustrator Ryan Lauket has created an ultra-light, push-your-luck family game that’s a lot of fun and wraps up in about 20 minutes. You and your opponents play as characters trying to build up their hometowns by adventuring to the treasure-filled Megaland. Each turn you gain treasures, but you can go further to get more, which enables you to buy bigger and better buildings or increase your health. The production is top-notch: there’s an included Game Trayz insert, a set of Above and Below promo cards, and the wonderful Lauket artwork.
Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger
Since the Choose Your Own Adventure series was before my niece’s time, I explained to her how her daddy and uncles used to read the books all the time when we were her age. The board game version captures the spirit of the books and this one had a spooky theme to it (no spoilers in the post above, obviously). It’s really a solo game, but we had fun taking turns reading the text and trying to finish the challenges. We finished chapter one of House of Danger after dying a few times, which made us laugh out loud every time. It was great hearing her ask if we could finish all five chapters and I promised her we would next time.
Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War
I knew my niece like the Avengers movies and she REALLY got into this game. Thanos crushed us in about 20 minutes and she immediately called for a rematch … but not before she jumped online and found a 10-hour loop of the Avengers theme song. Oh, these kids and their technology. LOL
With that song blaring into our ears, we managed to defeat Thanos in about an hour. This was another game I wasn’t expecting much from, but I’ve enjoyed it and it’s nice to see USAopoly produce a quality game for Marvel; something that’s not just a slapped-together money grab, but a game that even hobby gamers will appreciate.
When we defeated the last bad guy, my niece and I gave each other a coupla high-fives. She loved being Doctor Strange and focused on getting her color-coordinated heroes on her team. I’m glad that she’s able to enjoy more “adult” games now, especially one that she was so fired up to play. I gave her the game so hopefully we’ll be able to take down Thanos on my next visit. Even if we have to listen to that theme song for another hour straight.