Y2Jant Reviews: Takenoko

At this point in time, board games come in all shapes and sizes. One of these games actually holds a story behind it. Just a gift from one nation to another, which caused one person to completely lose their minds as an animal decided to have lunch with everything related to different colors of bamboo. I'm here to talk about Takenoko.

Takenoko is a 2-4 player game which places you in the middle of a pond, trying to complete objectives based upon how you make the board. You can control the Gardener, a man who can grow bamboo on the space and every space surrounding him of the same color. But you can also control the Panda, who can eat bamboo and add it to your collection. The three main colors are red, yellow, and green of bamboo you can grow and the land you choose as well. This can go hand in hand because you can be able to complete different tasks to get you the most points in the end.

As you can see, this is how the game board would look like after a couple of turns of selecting tiles. Improvements help the tiles in their own way. You can have a tile protected from the bamboo, making it impossible for the panda to eat it. You can also fertilize it to grow two bamboo stacks instead of just one. And you can have a water tile on it, making it possible to grow bamboo. The water blocks are a way to get water to the outer most tiles on the board that are far away from the center tile. Finally, you can roll the weather dice after the first round to give you an extra action, double down on a single action plus 4 other weather conditions to make the game that much interesting.

Everything about the game is just beautiful, from the bamboo wood pieces to the dice itself, the game is just beautiful in every way. You have the ability to place the tiles to meet some of your objectives. You can have the Panda cards, which allow you to eat the different colors depending on what the card needs you to have. The Gardener cards allow you to score points on how high and how many a certain color of bamboo you need to grow. And finally the Tile cards, making them set up in a shape and a color to get you the points needed to win.

There is also a Deluxe Edition of the game as well and it's giant. It has giant pieces and everything but it will cost you $300 dollars but it's a collector's piece for sure for those who like collecting those games.

Takenoko is a fun game that surprised me and my gaming buddies with such a unique set of rules and what you have to do to win the game. The pieces are beautiful and the game is simple, yet challenging at the same time. Pandas need the love and this game really delivers and everyone should at least give this game a go with family and friends alike!  

My Top 10 Video Games of 2013

This year was a great year for video games. Many great titles we released and many were delayed into 2014. But with that in mind, 10 games captured my attention this year and felt that I should at least speak my mind on the subject. So, thanks to Lex, here are my top ten video games for the year of 2013. But first, let's name the honorable mentions!

Honorable Mentions

1. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - Sly returned this year with a big bang after many years of being away from Sony and a good game deserves to be mentioned. Sly and his band of thieves travel back in time to help restore his family book by helping his ancestors in the past.

2. Payday 2 - Probably one of the only games me and my friends play online on Steam, it's the sequel to the popular heist game where you work together to rob a bank and try to make out with the loot.

3. Ducktales: Remastered - Being that I never grew up playing the game, it was a nice feeling to play such a classic and makes me wish I grew up in the time of great games of the past.

4. Fire Emblem Awakening - Probably one of the finest RPG games to be currently released on the 3DS, I'm not a fan of the series but the game is that good.

5. Tomb Raider - The return of a different Lora Croft has sparked many gamers minds and this is a fine return for our fem hero.

And now, on to the list!!!!

10. SimCity - Ah yes, the game that caused a lot of problems at launch and even with posts about always being online, the game in itself is very fun and I still enjoy it many months later. While I have a few things I want from it, it's still deserving on my list for trying.

9. Game Dev Tycoon: Probably one of the more surprising games I played this year, I supported the team with my own copy of the game and getting a few Steam game when it was released a months ago. A fun game about becoming the man behind making games, this is still one of my favorite games to pass the time.

8. Injustice: Gods Among Us - A fighting game that takes our favorite DC Superheroes against each other, it has a great story and the fighting is great. Nothing really over the top but just enough that you want to know more about the story, Joker can be quite the asshole after all huh?

7. Project X Zone - The most interesting game on the 3DS I have played, PXZ is a game where you have your Capcom characters teaming up with some Japanese characters to fight pure evil and the game itself is all in Japanese (with English subtitles). It's great to see so many faces in a single game like this and maybe we can have more in the future.

6. Animal Crossing: New Leaf - This is the first game in the series that I have ever played and man, this was a welcome for me. Not only to create a character but to run a town and see how beautiful it will become with the change of seasons, it's a must have for 3DS owners.

5. WWE 2K14 - Now, I understand why people don't like the game because it's the same as last year. But, I played the game to have a better understanding of some of the great Wrestlemania matches from the past and to really focus what we could see in the future.

4. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - Having enjoyed the original back on the Gamecube, Luigi is back in the spotlight once again but now on the 3DS and this is one of the best games to have on the 3DS. Support the green people!!!!

3. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team - I'm a sucker for Mario RPG games (I still want a true Paper Mario sequel to Thousand Year Door damnit) and Dream Team shines in comedy and epic fights both in the real world and dream world. Mario and Luigi always have great adventures together and this is one of them I love so much.

2. Grand Theft Auto V: Besides Sand Andreas, V is the only other game in the series that I have played the entire story from beginning to end. While Vice City, III and IV were great, I never got really into it like I did with San Andreas. But V captured three characters so perfectly that you didn't even know what to expect in the next part of the game. V will forever be currently as my favorite GTA game of the series and it proves that a great story can be divided between three of the best characters in the game.

And now, my number one game that was released in 2013 is:

Bioshock: Infinite - The series has always been a favorite of mine and after what happened in the second game, I was wondering what they could do now that they are leaving the seas and towards the sky. But when you step out in Colombia, the beautiful world captured my heart and won me over before I even learned how to use my vigors. With a rich story, great characters and probably one of the best looking games of the year, Infinite proves to be a hell of a game and my game of the year for 2013.

Y2Jant Reviews: DC Comics Deck Building Game

The other week I decided to make my return to review the other side of gaming. That would be board games. With Legendary, A Marvel Deck Building Game, it showed that with friends, you can be able to team up with your favorite Marvel superheroes to take down the evil Masterminds. On the DC side of things, we have a much more simple deck building game but proves to be a good game overall as I look at DC Comics Deck-Building Game.

Much like Marvel, DC decided that a deck-building game was in order and we have this wonderful game. Retail, this game costs about $20 less then what you will get for Marvel so there's a lot to look forward to when it comes to the inside of the game. First, you get 7 oversize Hero cards. These cards have your main DC Hero that you will have in play for the game. You get to choose from Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, The Flash and Aquaman and they have their own special power to make your session that much more interesting.

Every player will have 7 Punch cards and 3 Invulnerability cards. Each Punch card is worth one Power, which is the currency of the game. From a huge deck of cards, you flip five over and with your punch cards, you get to purchase other heroes, villains, equipment, superpowers and locations cards that will help give you more power to spend. The real goal of the game is not only get the most power but you have to take down a seperate small deck of Super-Villain cards, worth more victory points but will cost a lot of power to do so. Ra's Al Ghul always starts of the Super-Villain deck, then with however many Super-Villains you want to face in the game, are randomly shuffled and placed under Ghul and the game will begin.

 
Ah yes, The Joker. You can't have a DC game without the Clown Prince of Crime. The bottom right hand corner is how much Power you need to defeat Joker (and every other Super-Villain) to add them into your deck. The gold star tells you how many Victory Points the card is worth at the end of the game.

Remember when I said that whatever your starting hero is, they will have a special power to use for the game. Well, some of them will be unique to your hero. For example, if you are Batman, focus on the equipment cards because you will gain +1 Power. Same goes with Superman but with Superpower cards. The Flash, well, he is the fastest man alive so you get to go first to start the game. Each hero will give you a chance to gain more cards or more Power. But be warned, there are some cards that will give you a Weakness card, which is -1 Victory Point at the end of the game.

The one drawback I do have with the game is that, well, it's a simple deck-building game and maybe not a lot of people will like it. But it is a good way to introduce your friends to the world of board gaming. The artwork is that of the comics of the DC Universe and it's filled with many heroes and villains that you know and love, from The Riddler to Supergirl, to Robin to Doomsday, it is all beautiful to look at.

Compared to Marvel Legendary, the DC Comics Deck-Building Game is just that but will make your wallet a little less painful and you can find it at a good price. The game is great if you either want to introduce someone to deck-building games in general or if your a DC fan, it's a great game to play and what won me over is the artwork.

Y2Jant Reviews: Marvel Legendary

Let me start off by saying this: I'm not a huge fan of comics in general. Granted, my favorite superhero would be Batman and after that, you have your DC Heroes and your Marvel Heroes. There's a game that released last year that takes board gaming to a new level and that is Marvel Legendary.

Marvel Legendary is a deckbuilding game where you have your superheroes from the Marvel World battling against some of the most well known villains. Before I continue, a deckbuilding game is a game that uses cards. You first start off with your standard deck of cards and you use them to buy better, more stronger cards. With Legendary, you have to buy the superheroes you want to use to battle against the henchmen, villains and finally, the mastermind to beat the game. If you take a look at the card themselves, you will see what you have to deal with.

Deadpool is one of the many heroes you can choose from in the game to build the Hero deck, where you draw five heroes and place them on the board to see if you have enough to buy him to add him to your deck. You look at the number at the bottom right hand corner and see if you have enough recruit points to buy him. You continue to do this while taking out the villains. Take a look at the board for example:

As you can see, there's a lot going on. You have the city, where the villains will appear and move to the left to try to escape the city. Schemes are a way to add a bit of a story for what you have to prevent. The big one has to be the Mastermind and that depends on who you will go for. Red Skull, Magneto, Dr. Doom and Loki will try to defeat you and the superheroes by causing damage and you guessed it, taking over the world. Your job is to have enough attack to defeat the Mastermind five times and that's how you win the game.

For $60.00, there's a lot in the box. You get at least 500 cards and boy, there's just a lot of cards. You get to pick from 15 different heroes and from there, you get your pick from different villains, henchmen and everything else in the box. Granted, when you have a 5 person game, you pick how many of the heroes will be in this game. Each hero comes with 14 cards, so that's about 210 cards for just the heroes alone!

Marvel Legendary is a deckbuilding game that offers a lot right out of the box and it already has two expansions that adds even more cards: Dark City and the Fantastic Four Expansions, nearing the total amount of cards to over 950 cards! Now that's a lot of cards! That only means that you have a wider selection of heroes to choose from and a bigger range of villains to face. At first it might be a learning experience, Legendary is just that: a superhero game filled with epic proportions.