Reviews - Party Games

When was the last time you read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure? House of Danger is a cooperative, narrative card game based on a 1982 Choose-Your-Own-Adventure by R.A. Montgomery. In House of Danger, players control a psychic detective, with the goal of navigating through the five chapters that comprise the entire story. But House of Danger isn't just a collection of CYOA passages; it's a system that's designed to make exploration fun, rewarding, and dangerous.

Sushi Go is a game about attempting to eat food that is far too adorable to eat. A simple party game that plays a large number of people, Sushi Go is often whipped out at birthday parties and other casual gatherings. It's a good example of how unobjectionable-yet-memorable art can make a game. Sushi Go is a pick-and-pass set collection game, in which players try to make up specific sets of sushi in order to score points. The only decision players usually need to make is which card to keep.

A cooperative, asymmetrical murder mystery game released in 2015, Mysterium quickly became an award-winning staple on many shelves. In Mysterium, one player is a ghost, giving out clues to detectives and attempting to coax them to guess a person, place, and thing. Once every detective has figured out their person, place, and thing, the ghost helps them zero in on the correct one. Everyone is working together in Mysterium, with one complication: clues can only be delivered in the form of extremely obscure cards, serving as ghostly visions.

Shogunate is a fast-paced, friendly, but competitive card game that can't be taken too seriously. In Shogunate, six powers are competing for the title of Shogun. You are not these powers. Instead, you have two hidden allegiance cards -- these cards declare your loyalty.