As you may have seen on our social media channels, we now have a demo area in the shop! The idea is that customers can try out a selection of our small box games before they decide whether they want to purchase it themselves. Each month we will rotate the games in the demo area to give you a range of games to try that we also sell in-store.
Our first selection of games are:
Kingdomino. A firm favourite of my wife and I, this is a tile placement game where you are building up your kingdom with various features with the end game objective of scoring the highest points across your kingdom. This is a fun and quick game which is easy to learn and makes a great experience for the whole family. This is also featured in our first events day on the 8th August for which you can sign up here!
Bandido. A team based game. You are working together to stop Bandido from escaping his cell. Using tunnel cards, you are trying to keep him closed off from any viable exit. But there is a catch! You can't tell your teammates exactly what you have and if you don't close off every exit before the deck of cards runs out you have failed! This is a big game in a small box and provides a lot of replayability.
Imagidice. Less a game and more a storytelling device, Imagidice had children rolling the 12 dice and creating stories out of the images shown. Each dice is themed (places, fantasy, people, objects, etc.) with 6 images per dice giving 72 possible images in total and a limitless amount of potential stories to be created.
Dungeon Mayhem. Think Magic: the Gathering crossed with Munchkin. Dungeon Mayhem is a fast paced card game set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Pick your deck out of 4 choices, rogue, paladin, barbarian and sorcerer, and duke it out with up to 3 other players. This works well as 1v1, multiplayer or teams. The rules are simple and there is little set up to the game. Put out your player reference and HP cards, shuffle your deck and you are good to go. The average game takes around 5-10 minutes so works well as a filler game or you can alternate between the different decks for a longer session.
Splash! This is a dexterity game that has really taken hold of me. There are 6 colours each with 5 shapes and these are divided equally between all the players. The objective of the game is to not be the one who topples the tower but it is not as straight forward as you just placing a wooden block onto the tower. The piece you place is actually chosen by the player before you! This means that you can't plan your moves and have to really test your dexterity and balance! The rules do dictate that the other player must give you a piece that you can legally place onto the tower so it must either match the colour or the shape of the previous piece. A lot of fun and very tense!
Difference. This is a new game to the shop and is effectively a competitive spot the difference game. Think Dobble but a lot more subtle. In this game, the cards are dealt out equally between the players with one card being placed in the middle as the starting card. Each player turns over the top card of their cards and tries to spot the two differences between their card and the one in the middle. The first player to do so calls out 'DIFFERENCE' with that card now becoming the new middle card. This continues until someone has discarded all their cards.
In keeping with our desire to be a family friendly games shop, you will have noticed that the games chosen work well for the whole family. We thought about having some of the larger more complex games but ideally the demo area would be something that is quick and easy for the customer that they can get to grips with inside a few minutes rather than pulling them into a long drawn out game. This demo area will be routinely updated with games as we grow our range of stock so keep an eye out for future additions. For now, I hope you enjoy this new feature of the shop!