Escape Room Games

With this, I’m mainly talking about Unlock and Exit, because I’ve played both of those series, and I really highly recommend Unlock. In fact, Unlock has a new Star Wars box that is out, so a theme that will even standout. These games are basically little escape rooms in a box. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are easier than an escape room since they are smaller, they can be really tricky with hidden clues and figuring out how to use the information that you’ve found together. But this is a great family activity sort of a game. You can only play each of them once, but they work really well for casual groups and are really engaging throughout. Unlock is nice because you could play it in your group and then pass it to another group because you don’t destroy anything. Exit you do often destroy part of the game to figure out a puzzle or two or three. I also like Unlock because while both of them are time based for how well you do, Unlock has an app with a count down timer that just makes it smoother, versus Exit where the time is counting up.

Draftosaurus

I’ve talked about a lot of roll and writes, and this actually isn’t one, but it has a bit of that feel to it. In this game, you are drafting a dinosaur meeple from a handful of them that you have, and then based on how a die is rolled placing it on the board into a pen. Some pens want all different dinosaurs, some want all of one type or pairs of dinosaurs. It’s a fast little game that works really well for drafting and is pretty easy to keep track of because everyone will end up with the same number of dinosaurs on their board. There are other drafting games out there that are solid as well. I always recommend Sushi Go Party! as well, but that one can, at times get muddled because if people don’t draft at the same speed someone can end up ahead or behind and it’s harder to count it out. Draftosaurus doesn’t offer the variety, but it is a very simple game that can be played with a wide variety of ages.

Splendor

I was torn on this one between Splendor and Homebrewers, I actually prefer Homebrewers by a fair amount, but it’s just a bit more complex and the theme won’t be for everyone. In Splendor, you are renaissance jewelers who are going out and getting the best jewels. You start out by taking one time use jewels, and then you can buy a jewel card for a cost of your one time use jewels. Those jewel cards then give you a permanent jewel of that color that you can use to buy more jewels. And your goal is to get the jewel cards that score points and be the first to fifteen. The game is simple and it works well. Generally, there isn’t anything that stands out as making this game amazing, but there is also nothing to knock about it. Something on par with it would be the city building game of Machi Koro that would work as well. If the people you know already have those games (or one of them) and might be looking for a step up, Homebrewers is great, or Century: Golem Edition, of the brewing theme doesn’t work.

King of Tokyo

Sometimes you just want some dice chucking fun, and King of Tokyo is that. In this game you take on being a Kaiju who is battle other Kaiju. Think Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Here, you are trying to be the king of Tokyo by either knocking out the rest of the monsters or by winning via victory points. While I have seen people win via victory points, most of the time, it’s smashing. If you are outside of Tokyo you can only hit the monster in Tokyo, if you’re in Tokyo you can hit everyone else. But the downside to being in Tokyo is that you can’t heal, so as you are getting hit by everyone, you need to know when to drop out and let someone else go into Tokyo so you don’t die. It’s a fun push your luck dice chucking game. You can also buy upgrades that allow you to do more damage, or a one time boost to victory points or something like that, so you have a lot of different strategies depending on what cards show up. They also have some expansions that add more monsters and more things to do in the game.

Silver

This could be Silver Amulet, Bullet, Coin, or Dagger, you can take your pick. If you have a bigger group of people you can play with, Dagger would be very good, if you’d mainly just be playing with with two, I like Amulet and Bullet better for that. This game is a push your luck type and take that type of game, so it might not be for everyone. Everyone starts with a village of five cards face down in front of them. They can look at two of them, and the goal is to go down in the number of cards and have the fewest cards when a vote is called for. To do that, you will either draw a card or take a card from the discard pile on the turn. If you draw it and it has a flip ability, cards 5 through 12 have them in every game, you can either add it to your village or use that ability. Cards 0 through 4 have a flipped up ability, so if they are in your village facing up, you can use their ability. But how do you get down in cards, you can trade in two of the same number for another number. So you do try and rush that, if you can figure out you have decent cards so you can call for the vote before other people can change up their village too much. It’s a fun game, plays fast and all of them can be mixed and matched together, so get two and you have a ton of different combinations that you can play.

Now, there are a lot more games. I realized that I could have easily mentioned games like Marvel United, which I mentioned before by a list, Dominion or Ascension for a deck building game, Small World, Deception Murder in Hong Kong, a whole slew of roll and write games and more. There are plenty of really good options that can help encourage and engage new gamers to maybe look beyond the standard games that were a part of a lot of our youths, and that aren’t too intimidating.

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Black Widow – It’s a Marvel movie, I want to see it. Now, I feel like Black Widow is probably coming out too late and the first trailer looked cool but didn’t tell me any story. But it’s the first movie in Phase 4, and I’m itching for more Marvel. I was wondering after Endgame if I wanted a ton more Marvel movies (the answer was always yes) but now with the time between Black Widow and Spider-Man: Far From Home, I’m so ready.

Eternals – What, the other Marvel movie made my list, who would have thought. I’m looking forward to Eternals even more than I am Black Widow and I have even less of an idea of what sort of story they are going to tell. The cast looks cool and the Neil Gaiman trade that I’ve read was really interesting. I’m wondering if this is going to set-up something more cosmic or earth focused, and will we get a trilogy of Eternals movies? There’s so little that I know, but I know I’m really excited for this movie.

Sonic The Hedgehog – I don’t know why, but I really am interested in this movie. Some of it was because the first trailer the Sonic looked like a trainwreck with teeth, and the new Sonic looks fun. I think this is going to be a dumb silly movie, and knowing that, I think it’s one that I might enjoy. Now, I won’t go see this in theaters, I just don’t have time, but when it comes out, I’m renting it. Jim Carrey looks over the top, and in a movie about a Sonic Hedgehog, that’s perfect. There’s something just really interesting about this movie for me.

Artemis Fowl – This movie was pushed back, it’s a bad sign. But the first book, which I read for the first time this year, was a lot of fun. I like the evil genius kid character. I like the magical world that is set-up as well. It’s not too serious, but it does a good job of also not dumbing down the plot so that it’s just a dumb kids book. With the movie, I don’t have a ton of faith that they won’t have dumbed it down, but if they keep it simply to what’s done in the book, it could be a really cool movie. Maybe if it gets glowing reviews I’d go see it in the theaters, but probably one that I’ll watch when I can rent it.

Bill & Ted Face The Music – Keanu Reeves.

Okay, I’ll give more of a reason than that, I guess. But really it’s because of him and his resurgence in the movie world. I think that the rest of the stories in the Bill & Ted world have been a lot of fun, and this looks like a silly dumb movie, like the originals, and I’m all for that. I’m hoping that they don’t change up the formula that has worked well for them, and beyond that, don’t know or care to know much more about the film. I’ll just enjoy in the fun that it has.

Godzilla vs Kong – Now, this one might have been pushed back into 2021, but the list I’m looking at still has it in 2020. But Godzilla fighting King Kong, may the best monster win, and I’m assuming they are going to team up to take down some other monster. I haven’t seen Godzilla: King of the Monsters yet, but that’s high on my list of movies to watch, and I don’t care if it’s great, and same with this movie, I don’t care if it’s great, I just want to see it. Give me monsters fighting, and I’ll be happy enough.

Dune – I feel like this is either going to be good or a train wreck, I don’t know with the story that happens in the book if it’s going to be possible to make an amazing movie from it. But I’m so curious about it. This is a movie that I might make it to the theaters to see, just because, even with my projector set-up at home, Dune feels like a big enough story that I might want to hear it with the best sound possible.

So, what films are you looking forward to. I skipped over James Bond, just am not as interested in that, and Wonder Woman 1984 is definitely interesting and I love Max Lord as a character, but DC has to prove they can turn out several good movies, and with Birds of Prey looking bad, I doubt I’ll care that much about Wonder Woman 1984.

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1. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon -This board game I kickstarted in December but should have the first wave being shipped in August, happy birthday to me. The game takes Arthurian legend and puts a dark twist on it as you are the B-team that is trying to stop the fall of Avalon. The game has some really cool mechanics, and the Rolling Solo Youtube channel did an amazing preview for it that explains it and shows some great game play for it.
2. Avengers: Endgame – The list isn’t in any order, but this is one of the things I’m looking forward to most this year. The trailer looked great, and I want to know how they are going to undo what Thanos has done. Or maybe they just filmed a whole Spider-Man movie that they are never going to release to keep us off the track that Spider-Man is going to stay dead. No spoiler tag, the movie has been out for a while now, so if you haven’t seen Infinity War, that’s your own fault.
3. Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles – Another board game, but this time an expansion for my favorite game of all time. I don’t know that it really needs an expansion because the game is huge, but I’m not going to complain about more content for a game that I love. I am curious to see what locations and what story it will add to the game as well as finishing off the content that we have before we get into that game.
4. Captain Marvel & Spider-Man: Far From Home – Marvel Superhero movies, of course I’m excited for them. I really am excited to see how they’ll set-up Captain Marvel for Avengers: End Game, and while I joked about Spider-Man staying dead, I’m still waiting impatiently on the trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home. I’ll always been looking forward to Marvel movies, and seeing new heroes on the big screen is cool.
5. Godzilla: King of the Monsters – The trailers look amazing. And I really like the most recent Godzilla movie as well. There’s just something about watching a ton of giant monsters on the big screen battle it out that is so amazing. The cast seems interesting for the film, and there appears to be a bit of a plot there, but really I’m in it for Godzilla fighting all the other monsters, and that’s all the plot I really need.
6. Stranger Things Season 3 – The 4th of July, so if you can’t get out and watch the fireworks in the real world, I’m sure there will be plenty of fireworks as our favorite people from Hawkins, Indiana take on whatever new monsters seeks to come through from the Upside Down. I’ll always been waiting for this show to come out, and even though I know it’s going to stay on Netflix, I am still tempted to get the physical copy of the show, because the show boxes look cool.
7. Dark Season 2 – This time travel show is just amazing and I can’t wait to see what happens in season 2. I feel like the show is going to change a lot, so I’m not sure how well it will work because of that, but the first season was a masterpiece. I also want to say Rain Season 2, but I need to finish off season 1 first, but thus far season 1 of that has been great as well. Dark is just more moody and captivating in a lot of ways.
8. Jump Force – Fighter game with all the Jump Magazine characters duking it out. It’s going to be a silly game, but it just looks like a lot of fun. Face off with Goku vs Naruto or Ichigo vs Vegeta. A silly game like that is always good and fighting games are fun because you can sit down and play them for a few minutes without feeling like you get sucked into the story and must play for hours on end.
9. My Hero Academia 4 – This show just keeps on meeting my expectations, though there is a ton of crying in it, and it’s one of a few animes that I’m watching that is still coming out. The characters are good, the story is good, I just want more of it.

I’m sure there a number of things I’ve missed. I’m certainly hoping for something from Brandon Sanderson or Jim Butcher book wise, but nothing is announced. And I know there are some board games that I’ll be likely to pick up as well, but these are they heavy hitters of what I’m looking forward to.

What are some nerdy things, shows, books, movies, etc. that you’re looking forward to in 2019? Is there anything huge that I missed? I’m sure that there is something that I’m going to be kicking myself about, but I can’t come up with it right now.

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