Spooky Tower Board Game Review

 

Spooky Tower

Players: 2-5

Play Time: 15-30 minutes

Ages: 6+ (8+ officially)

Adorable ghosts, a fantastic 3D clock that serves as a dice tower, amazing looking dice and quick and easy gameplay? Yes please!

👻Overview👻
The amulet that keeps ghosts stuck in the clock tower has broken, letting all the ghosts escape! Players are trying to trap the ghosts by either collecting 5 or collecting 3 amulet fragments. Upon rolling the die you can choose one or the sum of your dice for your action. You can either choose a new card from the town and put it next to your house or you can flip all of your existing cards of the matching number. When you flip cards, you’re hoping to reveal ghosts, but you may reveal nothing, a pawprint which gives you a (stealable) pet ghost, some clues or other special actions. The fronts of the cards show you the probability of getting various items on the back, so that can help you decide which cards to take.

👻Thoughts👻
The ghosts have so much personality and most look really friendly, so why are we trying to lock them up?! That aside, I think it is an adorable game with great product quality. The clock tower is fantastic and the art is a fun spooky-rather than scary-spooky, which fits the family friendly vibe. Even the inside of the box is nicely decorated and everything fits perfectly.

I like that the higher numbers, which are harder to roll, give much better rewards. Taking those cards is a risk, though, because you have to roll that number again. On the other hand, collecting multiple smaller numbers and then flipping them all at once can be a good strategy. Between the park, the Grimoire, the pets and the clock tower actions, there are multiple ways to collect ghosts, lending a feel of variety to the game. However, it is overall a very light, luck dependent game.

I am always looking for fun, quick games my whole family can play, and Spooky Tower absolutely delivers. My toddler can be on my teen’s team and help him put the dice in the tower. My 7 year old can  play independently, but the game is still plenty enjoyable for the adults. It would also make a great starter or filler game on a bigger game night!

Game gifted by the publisher but all thoughts are always my own.

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First Giants Board Game Review

First Giants

Players: 2-5

Play Time: 30 minutes (less with lower player counts)

Ages: 8+ (10+ officially)

I usually don’t consider dino themed things “beautiful” but that is exactly how I would describe the dinosaurs in First Giants

Overview
You are paleontologists trying to collect and display the most beautiful fossils in your museum. Players take turns placing their markers at one of the four dig sites to draft cards for their studies, but can only have one marker per site. Cards in the study offer immediate or recurring benefits. When you spend a turn reclaiming the markers, you can either collect amber or pay amber to put a card on display in the museum. Once a card is on display, its benefit is lost, but it is how you score. Fossils on display score for being in sets of different sizes but the same family or the same size but different families. Complete sets score more than partial ones. In addition, the first person to start each type of set gets a bonus “news” token, which can change players as other people make that type of display with even more cards.

Thoughts
First Giants is such a solid little game!  I played it a few times on BGA and enjoyed it, but love it even more in person. I’ve never really been huge on dinosaur themes but some of these games are quickly changing my mind! The watercolor style cards and art are absolutely lovely, the tokens are chunky and the amber is fantastic. The dig sites and personal boards were thoughtfully made to make gameplay as easy as possible, plus the box came with tuck boxes for organization!

Even though we played in about 15-20 minutes, the decisions feel purposeful. Since the benefits of the fossils are lost once you display them, you have to decide how long to wait. You don’t want your opponents to end the game before you complete your sets! For a game that plays so quickly, you still come away feeling satisfied. I found it entertaining to play with a grown up, but can see my almost 8 year old learning it too.

Game gifted by the publisher but all thoughts are always my own.

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