Hot Game Magnet: Board game reviews

Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is a competitive game in which 1 to 4 players take on the role of ruthless gangs vying for control of the underground in the glittering hellhole that is Night City. Clash with other Gangs in the meat or on the Net, as your enterprising band of toughs seeks to gain dominance over the criminal underworld that rules the streets. Only the boldest will be remembered, and your Street Cred will pave your way to the top.

This week in our special outdoor tropical edition of HotGameMagnet we talk about one of my top favorite games of 2024. Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is a gritty futuristic slugfest of underworld crime and street level dominance. Control is fleeting and life is cheep. We loved the theme, art and color of this game. We were also very impressed by the amount of replayability that comes from the many modular elements as well as a very clever mission system.

This is one of those games that so far my main gripe is that we don't have the time to play it more.

It's been a long hiatus since our last episode but we are back and excited to bring you our latest boardgame reviews! 

This week we talk about a game that is already a strong contender for my game of the year, Tokyo Highway Rainbow City! This game is based on Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway known for its distinctive metropolitan structure.

Tokyo Highway has a unique design with no board and no game board spaces. Players compete to build roads across each other’s highway and to place their cars. A unique architectural 3-dimensional space will be created on the table following the simple building guidelines.

This fun and clever design is something we've come to expect from Japanese Game maker Itten games. Some of there previous titles include Crash Octopus and the fun brick series. These are all games that are worth checking out, and if you get the chance to grab one you should take it. They are not always easy to get, outside of Japan.

We also have a good talk about two other games we played this week. Blokus and hand to hand wombat. Listen until the end if you would like to know how we felt about these games as well.

Century: Golem Edition is a re-themed version of Century: Spice Road set in the world of Caravania. In Century: Golem Edition, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed golem road to deliver crystals to the far reaches of the world.

We recently had the opertunity to play this popular reimplementation of Century: Spice Road from Plan B games. 

We had the chance to play more than a few games at the time but we chose to play Century: Golem more because it's a very fun game. The Mechanics, which are exactly the same as Century: Spice Road, are well designed and elegent. The theme and components are what took the game a step above for us. It's beautifully illustrated and well crafted with colorful "gems" and great inserts for easy set up.

Having played it we love it, but is it worthy of a spot in our collection? Listen to our Century: Golem Edition Review to find out.

When visiting the North of Britannia in 122 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian Augustus witnessed the aftermath of war between his armies and the savage Picts. In a show of Roman might, he ordered a wall to be built that would separate the Pict tribes from the rest of England. Grand in its design, the wall stretched 80 Roman miles, from coast to coast.

In the game, Hadrian's Wall from garphill games and Bobby Hill with art by Sam Phillips, it's your job to spend 6 years building and improving a 1-mile section of the impressive megastructure. each year you receive resources which you must spend wisely to make your mile castle prosper and repel the pictish attacks.

Although it is an intimidating game out of the box it is quick to learn and forgiving despite its complexity. If you enjoy games such as Dinosaur Island Roar and Write, or Raiders of Scythia this game might just be the perfect addition to your collection. 

This week we talk about and do our Marvel Dice Throne Review. We've been playing this one for a few weeks after I found it on sale in EB Games. I've kind of wanted this one for a while because I've heard good things about Dice Throne, and I like Marvel stuff. Alison was not so keen on the Marvel stuff, but it is fun to compare the mechanics between this and similarly themed Games.

 In Marvel Dice Throne, you become one of eight of Marvel's most famous heroes, including Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Loki, Thor, Doctor Strange, and Miles Morales Spider-man!

We actually only played with Scarlet Witch, Loki, Thor, and Miles Morales Spider-man since the other four characters are sold seperately. That bieng said, we have had plenty of fun with just them.

Is Marvel Dice Throne fun? Absolutely. Is it better than the other Marvel themed games that we have played? Listen to our Marvel Dice Throne Review to find out what we thought.

Wow! 2023 is already almost over. The Holidays are on, and the new year is just around the corner. It has been a great year for us at HotGameMagnet. We got to play so many fantastic games. In fact, if i had any complaint it's just that we didn't have enough time to play every game all of the time. I guess that's somewhat unrealistic. Actually, I have another complaint. It was really hard to go through all the games that we played this year and pic only a few favorites. Let alone our top game of 2023!

It took us a while but we managed to narrow down the list to a few absolute dynamite selections. These games were jsut amazing, but we can only pic one game of the year each. I wonder if you can guess which was my favorite. 

Listen now to find out!

We have a certain style of game that is what we consider to be perfect. It's not perfect for everyone but it's perfect for us. We like an upper medium weight game with great art, and an interesting theme that takes about 90 minutes to play for two players.

There are a ton of games that fit these criteria but not all of them have the magic that makes a game great. Luckily this week's game, Septima from Mindclash games, is all about magic.

Septima is a competitive, high-interaction strategy game of witchcraft. As the leader of a coven, you strive to overcome your rivals to become the worthy successor of Septima, the High Witch. 

Don't be misled. Septima is not a competitive blood bath of dark magic. You are not the villain, but instead you win the game by overcoming the suspicion of the towns folk and improving their quality of life. I wouldn't expect a thank you though. The towns folk have a lot of suspicion to overcome, so you can look forward to evading witch hunters and saving your coven from the dreaded witch trials.

Septima ticks a lot of boxes for us but is it a contender for our game of the year? Listen now to find out.

It's time for Kickstarter Round-up November 2023!

Hello fellow board game addicts. It's time to find out what games are hot and why we think so! After all, we are called Hot game Magnet for a reason. It's not because we like magnets. We do like magnets, but not for podcasting purposes. 

OMG! There are so many great games on kickstarter right now. In this episode we talked for 40 minutes and only got to about half of the ones we think are worthy. That being said the four games we do discuss are dynamite, and you should definitely buy all of them. LOL! Listen in as we discuss the pros and cons of each entry because that's what our Kickstarter Round-up November 2023 is all about. We do the hard work so you can get down to the fun of buying all the games we ourselves might not be able to afford. Seriously. They should make a support group for people addicted to boardgames.

We are always on the lookout for boardgames that the kids can enjoy. It's so important to find ways to engage with them and draw them away from wanting to spend all their time watching Youtube or playing video games. 

Fuzzlets looks like a fun and easy to learn game that on it's own merits will porbably be a winner with the family. However, where it realy shines is it's unique use of generative AI to allow backers of the project to make high quality custom artwork using there own drawings. I know my kids will love this and I'm exceted to see how well the technology works.

This week I speak with one of the creators of Fuzzlets, Fabrice Nadjari of Mini Studio. He has some really interesting ideas about the future of AI and custom print to order games. He also speaks about the origin of Fuzzlets and Mini Studio, as well has his plans for the future of the company. 

Social deduction games are really fun. However, it's hard to find social deduction games that work with low player counts. Many of the most popular require minimum player counts of five or even more. There are some that work well at three players and very few at all that can be played with two. Additionally, it is common to run into troubles with players being knocked out of the game too early and not having fun. All this is to say that we get really excited when we find one that addresses all these issues and is still fun.

Dawn is a social deduction card game of choices. In Dawn, players come together to try to build a village in the hills of ancient northern Europe.  Some players will want to cooperate to build a flourishing community, but the temptation will always be present for people to underhandedly seek glory at the expense of everyone around them by building up their own personal treasure. 

Dawn works really well at three players because of its unique semi-coop mechanism that allows players to choose during the game to be a betrayer or to work as a team. Sometimes betrayal might seem like the only path to victory, but victory is not guaranteed. In fact, despite temptation, becoming the scoundrel can win the game for everyone but the betrayer. 

We had fun with this crunchy game of trust with fantastic artwork and simple rules that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike.