yomi

Board Game Night Playlist: Board Games Inspired By Video Games

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Video games owe a lot of its success to board games. Dungeons & Dragons alone has had elements of its gameplay cribbed by countless video games, such as the concepts of quests, health points, item usage, combat and more. If you dig far enough into the history of video games, you can probably find a theme or gameplay concept rooted in a board game. Video games have also innovated within its own space. From Super Mario to Call of Duty, there are a ton of unique experiences that have their roots in this digital medium.

Nowadays, you’ll see those video game specific concepts appear in board games. Whether they’re board games based on video game properties or digital gameplay mechanics that have gone analog, they feed off one one-another to push each other forward.

In this edition of the Board Game Night Playlist, we embark on an adventure that marries the best of both worlds. This list should be particularly interesting for video game fans looking for a smooth transition into the analog side of things. Time to press start on this playlist!

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The Yomi Business Model

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Yomi Full SetGiven the chance, I will sing the praises of the Yomi series every chance I get. Compared to anything else on the marketplace that is trying to replicate the Street Fighter experience in tabletop form, Yomi crushes them all. I love the core concept of Rock Paper Scissors combat, which is an accurate analogy for how fighting game combat works. I love being able to manage all of the different maneuvers that each character has and the nuances that make them different. For the hardest of hardcore fighting game fans, there are so many nods to how a real fighting game plays that it scratches the exact same itch for me.

Despite that, this marquee title from Sirlin Games suffers from a steep pricing challenge. The complete first edition, packed with 10 characters and two playmats, will set you back about $100 if you’re lucky enough to find it nowadays. I’m certainly glad to have it, but it’s a very difficult proposition for even the most enthusiastic customers. Instead of anchoring the series down with a complete big box – and potentially an even bigger box with the additional 10 expansion characters on the way – Sirlin Games is moving in a different direction.

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Yomi Kickstarter Unboxing

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FullSizeRender(5)After months of anticipation, my Yomi Kickstarter package arrived in the mail just before Christmas! With the goodies enclosed being an expansion to a game I already love that won’t be available to the general public for months, and this being the first Kickstarter I’ve ever backed, my excitement levels are running pretty high right now. Let’s take a look at what’s in the box!

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The Board Game Night Playlist: Dueling Gamers

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This edition of the Board Game Night Playlist is designed around two-player competition. Drawing from my own life for inspiration, my brother and I used to play video games together all the time. Growing up, the games we’ve played together were competitive in nature, from Goldeneye, to Mario Kart to Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Now that we’re adults and don’t live together anymore, this happens less often, but we still make time for it where possible. Once or twice we’ve also put the controllers aside to play some analog games. Next time we get together for a one-on-one board game night, here’s the games we would play. If you’re looking to host or partake in a two-player board game battle, try these out!

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So I Backed My First Kickstarter

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Off the strength of a countless number of success stories, the crowdfunding process have become a staple of the modern entreprenurialship. Thanks to services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, entrepreneurs have an easier way of raising money for their projects while backers can receive exclusive stuff for their support. Crowdfunding successes can be found in virtually every field, from video games, movies, books, and even potato salad.

While I’m all for the crowdfunding model, and I’ve certainly purchased Kickstarter products after the fact, I’ve been reluctant to back a project. Understanding the fact that Kickstarter is not a store and that the completion of any given project isn’t guaranteed, I haven’t been comfortable with the thought of giving my money to a scam or a project that won’t make it through. However, with the release of one particularly appealing project and weeks of internal debate, I decided to put my money behind one. Continue reading →

Yomi on iPad Review

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Yomi was originally conceived as a means of translating Street Fighter-style combat into a card game. Not long after the game’s successful run as a tabletop battleground, the game came full circle when the online version was made available for players at Fantasy Strike. Now there’s a new way to play the video game version of the card game, as Yomi is available for purchase on the iPad.

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Yomi for iPad Coming out on April 17th

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First announced over a year ago, Yomi, is finally headed to the iPad on April 17th. This card game that aims to simulate the one-on-one fighting game experience is one of my favourites, though finding the opportunity to play my physical copy has proven difficult to say the least. While the game is set to come out at the cost of $9.99, which may be high for some, this is a steal compared to spending $100 for the physical set. Also, for an additional $9.99, you’ll get access to the 10 new characters that have yet to receive a boxed release.

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The Importance of Theme in a Board Game

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We’ve been taught since the dawn of time (or at least since the dawn of books) to not judge a book by its cover. Well, when it comes to board games, cover-judging has been a huge part of my decision-making process. Before making inroads with the scene a few years ago, I’d be immediately off-put just by looking at any visual material for games like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer or Magic: The Gathering. I dislike pretty much everything medieval fantasy across all forms of media, which acts as a deal-breaker for these and many other designer board games long before I could judge it on its merits.

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Universal Fighting Game Guide: Collecting Data On Your Opponent

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As fighting game players, we spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves. We worry about memorizing our own combos and spend much of our time thinking about what we’ll do to control the flow of the match. However, it takes (at least) two to tango, and what they do is equally important to determining the outcome.

By paying attention to their behaviours and tendencies, you can put yourself in a much stronger position to win by using that knowledge against them. In this edition of the Universal Fighting Game Guide, we cover the concept of data collection, how to collect it and how to make it work for you.

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How many board games is too many?

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Board Game ShelfHow many is too many? It depends on your definition of too many. With video games, I’m very particular about what that exactly means. At this point, I’ll make shelf space for any great ones I’m currently playing or have played before, but my tolerance for keeping mediocre titles or ones that I’ll realistically never play has dropped dramatically. Since October, I’ve traded in about 40 games that I felt were worth more as trade bait than as artifacts in my collection. As I continue to invest into my new board game hobby, this question is beginning to become a factor in my buying process.

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