World’s Fair 1893 board game review

One of my favorite memories as a teenager was when our family went to Canada for Expo 86. It was a World’s Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, and I thought it was so cool.

The theme of Expo 86 was “Transportation and Communication: World in Motion – World in Touch” and it was a spectacle.

Perhaps it was because of my experience going to a World’s Fair that I was drawn to the board game World’s Fair 1893 when it was published a few years ago.

I first played the game at SaltCon a while back and enjoyed playing it. Then earlier this year, Renegade Game Studios announced a new version of the game. They sent us a copy and we’re excited to tell you all about it.

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Bananagrams Duel Word Game Review

I’m not a big fan of word games in general.

However, there are a few that buck the trend and end up being word games I enjoy playing.

For example, though millions of people love playing Scrabble, I steer clear of it. Yet I quite enjoy playing Boggle. And the team word game, Word on the Street, is one of my favorite party games.

So when we got a copy of Bananagrams Duel from Bananagrams, the big question was, will this 2-player, dice-rolling, word-building, race-game buck that trend as well?

Let’s find out!

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Meeple Land Board Game Review

In Meeple Land players will be creating their very own amusement park by purchasing a variety of attractions and services while luring in lots of paying customers.

Attention will need to be given to how things are laid out, making sure services are within reach of visitors, and paths don’t lead to dead ends.

The game ends after 4 rounds, at which point the player with the most reputation points wins. Reputation is earned from a diverse collection of attractions and services, number of visitors in the park, and lack of dead ends and stranded visitors at the entrance.

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Cloud City Board Game Review

Cloud City, a board game from Blue Orange Games, should not be confused for a Tibanna gas mining colony floating in the clouds of the planet Bespin run by a smuggler named Lando.

Although that might make a really cool game…

In the game, 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up, take on the roll of architects vying to win city council votes to become the best city planner. They will zone land, build skyscrapers that reach the clouds, and connect them with spectacular walkways high above the ground. The player to do this the best wins.

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Minecraft Builders and Biomes – More Than Punching Trees

Back in early 2019, my four boys started asking me if we could get the hit game–Minecraft. I said “No” for a long time. Until after much research and finding out that you can play solo and in private servers, I finally relented and Minecraft entered our home.

Flash forward a year and a half and Minecraft has become a huge hit in our house, not only by my kids, but also by me!

Many hours have been spent creating worlds, adventuring to find treasure, and fighting the steady stream of monsters placed in our way.

When Ravensburger released the board game Minecraft Builders and Biomes, in late 2019 we were all very interested in how it would compare to its digital counterpart. I watch some play-throughs and sure enough, it looked like something we would enjoy very much. Once I got connected with The Board Game Family, I asked Trent to hook me up, and boy did he come through.

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We’re on The Learning Life Podcast!

The board game hobby continues to smash through boundaries. And we’re excited to be a part of it!

Today we made another such breakthrough on a podcast targeted to business leaders — The Learning Life Podcast with Jon Tota.

As you might guess from the title, The Learning Life focuses on the learning industry. They have weekly guests sharing new insight, new stories, and best practices to help organizations take their learning to the next level.

But when Jon saw our 2020 Board Game Gift Guide, he thought it would be awesome to take a break from the weekly corporate learning talk and talk about something fun — board games!

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Board Game Gift Guide 2020!

It’s that awesome time of year again when we look for great fun ideas for gifts for family and friends.

With this crazy year, we know many families have already been grabbing a lot more board games to pass the time together throughout the year.

But it’s always nice to get some ideas for fresh games to play too.

This marks our 10th annual Board Game Gift Guide and we love sharing great gift ideas!

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Sketchy Tales: Disney Edition Game Review

One of our family’s favorite party games is Telestrations. It’s a hoot every time we play it because things never turn out the way they start.

So when we heard about Sketchy Tales: Disney Edition by Big Potato Games, and that it sounded a lot like Telestrations, we were happy to give it a go.

I mean, why not take a crack at seeing how mixed up our Disney drawings could get?

And we’re happy to report we’ve had plenty of laughs with Sketchy Tales!

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Some Exciting News – and Free Games!

With the COVID-19 pandemic still rolling along, interest in family board games continues strong.

More people are looking for games to play with their families while they’re mostly spending time at home. With so many activities canceled (like sports, travel, concerts, etc.), families have more evening time for hanging out together. And once the binge-watching runs its course, there’s more time for games!

And we think that’s great news!

We get a number of family board game-related news items on a daily basis. Yet we usually don’t share them through our site so we can keep focused on reviewing great family games instead. However, there have been a couple of game-related news items over the last month we think you’ll be interested in. 

Check these out!

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Help the Toy Story gang!

I’m a big Toy Story fan.

I was blown away with the animation in the first Toy Story movie in 1995 and have loved every one since. So when Disney and Pixar released Toy Story 4 last summer, it didn’t matter if my kids weren’t young anymore. I was going to see it!

And as soon as it hit Disney+ this year, I was ready to see it again.

But Toy Story 4 wasn’t the only cool Toy Story release last year. The OP also released a new Toy Story cooperative board game — Toy Story Obstacles and Adventures!

With as much as I like Toy Story. And as much as we enjoy cooperative board games. I had high hopes diving into the game.

And I won’t make you wait until later for the surprise — it delivers the fun!

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