Disease {Name} is Spreading! (Pandemic)

We attempt to treat spreading viruses all the time, but a new plague has entered the scene, leaving the public baffled at what to expect.  At first, it seemed harmless enough, merely taking away a couple hours out of a few groups lives, but it was infectious.  It grew quickly, spreading and affecting thousands of people.  Medical professionals are uncertain of how it will grow next, but as it has spread over land, sea, air, and Steam, there is one name everybody recognizes it by: Pandemic.

BACKGROUND:  Pandemic is a co-operative board game for 2-4 players.  It was created in 2008 by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games, Inc., among others.  Known as one the most successful board co-operative games, players take the roles of various research heads to fight against brand new diseases while they spread quickly across the world.

GAMEPLAY:  Each player has 4 actions during their turn. Players take their turns by moving across the world via train, or discarding a card to move by plane.  They can trade if either player has the city they're in by trading said city, treat the disease by removing cubes located on their city, or discover a cure by discarding 5 city cards of matching color.  Some Role cards, which are dealt at the beginning, also have or change certain actions.  Player end their turn by drawing 2 new cards, and discarding down to 7.



INFECT:  Each players turn ends with drawing cards from the Infect deck according to the Infection Level.  When an Epidemic card is drawn, raise the Infection Level, draw from the bottom of the Infect deck, and shuffle the Infect discard and place it on the top of the deck.  Whenever 3 or more disease cubes are placed on any city, an Outbreak occurs, spreading that disease to each connecting city.

LOSING:  If the players manage to cure all diseases, they win.  However, as is far more likely, the players lose if:

• DEATH: More Disease cubes need to be added, but are all out.
• OVERWHELM: The 8th Outbreak occurs.
• SHORTAGE: The player deck runs out when a player needs to draw.

CONCLUSION:  As with a lot of co-operative games, Pandemic is hard, plain and simple.  Games will generally cause you to lose, but that's part of the fun.  It's a little tricky to watch every timer this game has, and can be annoying if you know you couldn't do anything because of the luck of the draw.  That being said, there's a reason that almost everybody, casual or hard-core board gamer knows this game; because it's just that good.  Don't be afraid to catch this disease.

Been There (Scene It)

Movies, Tv, sports and more, how many points can you score
when your choices for theme are Friends, Twilight, or Disney?
When random trivia is what you get,
The question remains: Have you Scene It?



BACKGROUND:  Scene It is a digital trivia game designed by Screenlife for 2 to 4 players or teams.  Initially created in 2002 for popular movies, it gained popularity and has various "editions" and themes, such as Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Disney to even FIFA.

GAMEPLAY:  Scene It has a short and long mode, depending on the size of the board upon set up, and a DVD for certain game modes.  During their turn, the player rolls both the 6 and 8 sided dice, and moves along the space according to the numbered die.

CATEGORIES:  The 8 sided die determines what trivia or event occurs.  If the player guesses correctly, they can roll again:

• My Play:  The player will usually watch a clip of a movie or show and need to answer a question at the end, before it shows on the screen.
• All Play:  Everyone watches the screen and has a chance to answer the question.  If another player besides the turn player guesses, they may give a Buzz card to any player or move forward 1 space.
• Trivia Card:  There are generally 3 types of trivia cards, which another player will read to the turn player with the timer on in the back.
• Buzz:  Special cards which have an event and flavor text.  Drawing or giving out one of these ends the turn immediately.

WINNING:  Once any player gets to the end, choose All Play to Win.  Same rules apply as in All Play, but the stakes are higher.  If the player guesses it first, they win.  If another player does, their turn ends, and they move to Final Cut 3.  These are basically My Play, but the player needs to guess them all correctly to win.  If they fail, they move to Final Cut 2.  Failing that moves to Final Cut 1, where they stay and attempt on their turn each time until either they or another player wins.

CONCLUSION:  Scene it is, at its core, a simple trivia game.  And like most trivia games, the strength lies not in the gameplay, but in the categories and questions.  The nice thing about Scene It is the fact that there are different themes, with different strengths.  I have a friend who dominates in Disney edition, but I'm still king in Star Trek and Simpsons.  My biggest problem is, like most popular culture trivia, we HAVE to include Behind the Scenes trivia.  But I'm sure others would revel in that.  Take it for what it is, a good trivia game with a gimmick that works out for itself.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:  The Scene It franchise is no longer available to purchase in stores, but there is a version for iPhone and Android.

So Kawaii! (100% Orange Juice)

You have faced the darkest depths of Hell, faced demons and gods, and faced horrors men have no words for.  In spite of facing down zombies, haunted houses, and even the Great C'thulhu, you won't be prepared for this.  This, my friends, is what true Chaos looks like.  Her name, QP.  She's small, adorable, and ready to rob you blind.  In a battle for the stars (literally), you must take chances, make mistakes, and get ready for 100% Orange Juice.



GAME DESCRIPTION: 100% Orange Juice is a 4 player Digital board game created by the developer Fruitbat Factory.  There are 2 modes, Story Mode and Free Play.  In the story, you take the role of 1 of 4 anime-esque characters that are chasing down the mischievous QP in order to take back something that was stolen from them, such as a wallet or some pudding.

SET UP:  At the beginning of each game, you select 1 character you have currently unlocked, and create a deck of 10 cards.  All these cards are mixed into 1 central deck.  Each card has a cost that requires stars located on the right.  The kinds of cards that the deck can contain are:

• Traps: Set these, and any player that lands on it triggers the card.  Mostly negative.
• Battle: You can only use these when a battle starts.  Generally aids your stats.
• Event: These will either apply to all players, or over a series of turns.
• Boost: One time cards that affect 1 player once.
• Hyper: In the deck, these cards are blank.  When drawn, they turn into a special card exclusive to the character that drew it.  These have any number of abilities and costs.  If, however, you lose this card to another player, it does not change to that player, but stays as the card it changed into.

BOARD:  There are several different types of spaces, which include:

• Stars (Yellow): These are primarily spent to play cards, or fufill a Norma (see below). Roll a die, and you get that many stars times your level.
• Battle (Red): On these spaces, you'll fight an AI enemy.  If defeated, they'll get you 1 win and some stars.  At least once per game, these will be replaced with a Boss, which has incredibly high stats.
• Warp (Purple): Land here, you teleport to a new square, and your turn immediately ends. 
• Draw (Green): This allows you to draw 1 card from the main deck.
• Drop (Blue): Roll, and you lose that many stars times your Level.
• Home (Rainbow circle): This is your starting point, and the point you return when you finish a goal.

There may also be board events which occur every few turns, which can cause damage, healing, influx of stars, and more.

NORMA:  In order to win, you must fufill a specific "Norma", or goal, and return home back to your starting space.  To start with, everyone must first fufill the Norma of 10 gathered stars.  Once you fulfilled your Norma, you level up, and choose to either obtain stars (easy to get, easy to lose), or victories (cannot be lost, harder to obtain).  The first player to reach level 6 wins.

BATTLE:  When you land on a red, boss, or another players square to challenge them, A battle occurs.  Each player may choose to play 1 Battle card.  The attacker starts by rolling a die, and adding or subtracting their characters Attack stat. The opposing player can then choose Defend or Dodge.
*If they defend, than the number the attacker rolled (with applicable modifiers) is subtracted by the number the defender rolled (again, with all modifiers), to a minimum of 1.  That damage is then applied.
*If they dodge, than if the defender rolls higher than the attacker (with all modifiers), no damage is dealt.  If the number rolled is lower or equal to the attackers, all damage is dealt to the defender. Then, if the defender is not knocked out, the defender then becomes the attacker, and battle occurs again.  Once either player is knocked out, or both characters have attacked, the turn continues as normal.

KNOCKED OUT:  When your character's hp goes to 0, you are knocked out.  During this state, you cannot move, play cards, or have any effect directly applied to you, but some Events and Hypers may occur.  Each turn, you are allowed to roll.  A number will appear on the screen.  If you roll higher than the number, you are revived for next turn.  If not, you lose that turn, and gain another chance to roll again next turn, minus 1 from the last roll.  If you do not revive on a turn with a 2, you revive automatically next turn.



STORE:  At the end of each game, you get points which can be spent at the Store.  The store contains things like cards, pallet swaps, and special characters to play as (such as mobs or Bosses).  Important to note is that each pack has 1 card, and you cannot buy specific cards that go into the deck.

CONCLUSION:  This is a game that is going to appeal to a specific kind of people, anime and manga fans.  As one myself, the game definitely struck a cord with me visually.  The idea of mixing decks makes the games a lot more hectic and crazy.  The biggest problem I, as well as others, have found with this game is just how much RNG (Random Number Generating) is going on.  This is a game that can cause major upheavals and create some incredibly unexpected come from behind wins.  I do love this game, but the fact remains it's easy to get mad when you play a game that's 90% luck.  It may be called 100% Orange Juice, but it could just as easily be called 100% Salt.  If you can get past that, maybe I'll end up playing against you sometime.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:  The big question is, could this have worked as a physical board game?  Perhaps, if you are willing to give a small stack of Hyper cards per character that can replace the blank Hyper cards. Also, with over 50 cards, and 4 players per game, that totals out to 200 cards.  With all players needing 2 of each kind of card, that comes out to 400 cards minimum.  You could do it, but I feel the game works better here, and allows new players to slowly get an idea of what to play, rather than throwing every card at them right at the beginning.  It might work, but I doubt it would be as fun or flow as well.