Extenuating circumstances have made playing board games with others difficult. Steff and I still gather around our coffee table to play here-and-there, but we haven’t shared a table with others to play board games with since before the pandemic hit.
During this time of social distance, I’ve turned to Board Game Arena for my tabletop gaming fix.
Simple to learn, difficult to master, and providing a unique challenge every time, Carcassonne is a tabletop gaming classic. It’s no stranger to the world of video games either, as it’s made some fantastic appearances on mobile and the Xbox 360.
It goes without question then that the much newer Nintendo Switch version should provide a better experience then, or at least one comparable to those older iterations. Right?
…right?
Lost in the midst of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hype, Asmodee released the first of their digital board games to the Nintendo eShop. While I have not played Carcassonne on the Nintendo Switch, the physical board game is one of my faves, and the iOS port is stellar. I’m confident that the core gameplay is intact.
However, there’s one feature that is missing from this game that makes its purchase unjustifiable for me: online play. It also looks like the rest of the games in this series so far are also lacking online play. Without it, I’m probably not going to buy any of them, even if these are great renditions of great board games. Especially at the price they’re currently being sold for.
This is especially head-scratching, as you could play Carcassonne online on the Xbox 360 a decade ago. Its exclusion here is simply baffling. Until we get online play in here, I don’t see any reason to buy these versions over the physical board games or the much-cheaper-and-probably-just-as-good mobile ports.
Buy Carcassonne: New Edition Now From Amazon.com
When it comes to gaming in a public venue, nothing beats a board game cafe.
One of my favourite things to do as it pertains to board games is to introduce newcomers to the hobby. With the way the scene has grown in terms of gameplay innovation and variety, I feel like everyone can enjoy what board games are today on some level. From coworkers, to kids, to those who read this website, to even my mom, it’s been cool to be a part of someone discovering how fun modern games can be.
Based on my experiences as a “board game guru” and as a former non-gamer, I’ve picked up a thing or two on how to introduce board games in the best light. I’m not promising that this will help you turn a non-gamer into a super fan, but it can help bridge the gap.
For most of my life, there was no tile placement sub-genre of board games. There was just Scrabble. This all-time great won me over at a young age and continues to be a favourite. Once I discovered the world of enthusiast board gaming, I discovered that there were many other games that use the concept of tile placement in very different ways. In this installment of the Board Game Night Playlist, we’re doing nothing but quality tile placement games. Let’s go!
In Third Person 