An ever-so-slightly-used copy of What’s That Smell? The Party Game That Stinks was handed to me by my dear friends Amanda Harris and Drew Nelson in an oversized Ziploc bag. It was in the bag because they were smart. They gave it to me because it’s clear that they harbor some hidden ill will towards me. It was only slightly used because it was not that fun.
We managed a couple of rounds and found a few laughs before we stuffed everything back into the bag… and had more fun and more laughs making a gif.
When I was finished, my nose felt angry, like my smell receptors had just been subjected to an olfactory DDoS attack.
Who is this for?
Masochists
Sadomasochists
Drunk people
Children
Why play?
A shared and harmless yet mediocre experience among friends can be pretty funny.
Bad smells, like poop jokes, are funny.
Gameplay
WowWee’s What’s That Smell? was a scent mystery game where players competed to guess smells.
Core gameplay revolved around scratching, sniffing, guessing, writing funny memories, and questioning your life decisions that led to playing What’s That Smell?.
Setup
The box contained 48 scratch & sniff scent cards. Everyone drew a card, scratched, and sniffed.
Then everyone proceeded to fill out three questions on a form:
At the end of the round, points were scored based on getting the answers right/ wrong… and whoever had the funniest memory associated with the scent.
We repeated this until it grew old.
At the end of the game, the person with the lowest score had to pull from 1 of 4 extra terrible punishment smells (old toe cheese, diaper blowout, hot chunky vomit, or smothered in B.O).
Living the dream.
Analysis
➕ For better or for worse, What’s That Smell? was easy to set up, learn, and play.
➕ What’s That Smell? included little cardboard pieces for you to scratch the smells. This prevented the scents from getting on and under your fingernails.
➕ The inclusion of a free-form, “What’s the funniest memory you associate with this smell?” added an element of creativity.
➖ A lot of these scents were unpleasant. Most weren’t vile… but as my nose was bombarded with more and more scents, the entire experience soured.
➖ It was really difficult to tell most of these scents apart. There wasn’t a lot of definition.
➖ After playing for about 10 minutes, my nose became utterly confused.
➖ I cannot see myself opening the box in my home. It reeks.
If you made it this far, here’s a nifty TED Ed video explaining how your sense of smell works (or at least a basic overview of what humans currently understand on the subject).
Tips For Players
Space Requirements: a small table
Play in a room that you can easily air out and will not be eating in
Buy your copy of WowWee’s What’s That Smell? The Party Game That Stinks, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
The Escape Room is a novel that uses the escape room setting as a hook for a corporate thriller about corruption in the financial industry.
The escape room gimmick seems like a good opportunity to integrate puzzles into a mystery storyline, but readers intrigued by the titlewill likelybe disappointed that The Escape Room is no more of a brainteaser than the average thriller novel.
The bleak setting, clichéd characters, and unrefined puzzles made the reading experience feel almost like being stuck in an elevator right along with these four unpleasant people.
If you’re an avid reader of thrillers with some time on your hands, you may decide it’s worth indulging your curiosity. But don’t be deceived by the title—at its core, The Escape Room isn’t really about an escape room at all. If you’re looking for engaging puzzles or an elegant mystery, don’t think twice about skipping this one.
Who is this for?
Voracious readers who can’t get enough thrillers
People who like seeing investment bankers suffer
Why Read?
To find out who made it out alive
Story
Four shady investment bankers from Stanhope and Sons were summoned to play an escape room as a team-building exercise. They got more than they bargained for when they were locked in an elevator together and forced to solve the mystery of why they were really there and what happened to their former colleague Sara Hall.
Gameplay
The puzzles are not a particular selling point for The Escape Room. It’s marketed as a thriller, with no particular emphasis on a game component except as part of the plot.
The story includes a handful of simple riddles and word puzzles, some of which must be solved with knowledge only the characters have. There is no interactivity or game structure to the puzzles—you can’t really solve along as you read.
Analysis
➕ The concept of describing two timelines at once in alternating chapters made thereading experiencemore interesting. Guessing where the storylines converged was one of the more enjoyable things about the book.
➖ The writing style felt repetitive and clichéd. There were extravagant details about suits, ties, makeup, jewelry, gourmet food, and other accoutrements of wealth. All this description seemed like overkill, especially for a book that also emphasized the dangers of greed.
➖ The escape room itself wasn’t much like an actual escape room at all. The handful of puzzles had no structure or progression, so there was no game to play along with. Also, the escape room took place entirely in an elevator. This limitation put the immersion factor much lower than the recentEscape Room movie, for example. But the game aspect of The Escape Room also fell short of some of the incredible real-life escape rooms we’ve seen set in small spaces, such as The Basement’s Elevator Shaft, which made an elevator setting far more interesting and dramatic. Since a novel can have unlimited special effects, it would have been exciting to see a more innovative use of the escape room setting.
➖ Spending hundreds of pages stuck in an elevator with such despicable main characters made The Escape Room less fun than it could have been. The four investment bankers embodied variations on the standard greedy villain,with backstories that didn’t do much to give them emotional depth. If their characterization had provided more insight into how they felt rather than just what they wanted, the plot would have felt more like a robust narrative than a chess game.
➕/➖ Near the beginning, the characters’ interactions in the elevator scenes were amusingly reminiscent of bumbling escape room first-timers. But in later chapters, they easily made logic leaps that would be challenging for real-life players.
➖ The mystery structure felt haphazard and lacked the element of surprise. The pacing dragged, and the plot played out quite predictably. (The cover text even hints at the endgame.) The story could have benefited from some crafty red herrings, an aha moment where everything falls into place, or some form of redemption for any of the greedy, selfish characters.
❓The Escape Room is a book about how money and status corrupts, but it simultaneously implies that money can buy happiness. There is no middle ground, and both ends of the spectrum are portrayed as unenviable, with no way out. It was a bleak point of view.
➖ One character in The Escape Room was an autistic math genius who was repeatedly described as having “poor social skills” and dehumanized with descriptors like “robotic” and “otherworldly.” Beyond these harmful stereotypes, she was also treated badly by other characters, and her story was told largely through other people’s speculation about her motives. It was disappointing to see her treated like a plot device rather than a fleshed-out character with her own agency.
➕ The opening of The Escape Room teased a thrilling story of an escape game gone wrong. The excitement of that prologue made it clear that the escape room scenario could provide an intriguing hook for plenty more thriller novels in the future.
Tips For Reading
The Escape Room is a quick, easy read that won’t provide too much of a challenge on a long flight or a lazy weekend.
Be aware that the plot includes detailed descriptions of sexual assault and violent death.
If you can’t figure out a puzzle, don’t beat yourself up. It’s probably just because you’re not a high-powered investment banker at Stanhope.
Buy your copy of The Escape Room, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: St. Martin’s Press provided advance readers’ copies for review. Some details may change before publication.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
Zen Puzzles’ Great Horned Owl was a beast of a ~300 piece puzzle. With an almost monochromatic aesthetic, a clever but cruel puzzle within the puzzle, and many similar looking pieces that fit together, but didn’t go together… this was far more challenging than I was prepared for when I opened the box on a whim.
I’m glad that I gave it a shot. It offered something unique. Once I realized what the puzzle was and adjusted my mindset, I came to enjoy the experience.
This is a pricey puzzle that would make for a great gift for the serious jigsaw puzzler in your life. It was small, but it put up a fight.
Who is this for?
Jigsaw puzzlers who want to see something strange
Why play?
Challenging
Cruel but clever twist
Story
This laser cut wooden puzzle featured a great horned owl. It included whimsy pieces in the shape of owls and critters that owls eat.
Gameplay
At first glance, Zen Puzzles’ Great Horned Owl seemed like a fairly typical jigsaw puzzle. It quickly revealed a couple of layers of complexity.
Analysis
➕ Zen Puzzles added a crazy dynamic to the Great Horned Owl puzzle that I’ve never seen before. I was a bit bewildered for a few minutes while solving this puzzle. That’s a feeling that I cannot recall a jigsaw puzzle inspiring in me before.
Spoiler - The Surprise Twist
This thing has multiple internal edge and corner pieces.
[collapse]
➖ There wasn’t enough shape variation among the pieces. Entirely too many bits with similar patterns fit snugly together.
➕ The whimsy pieces were funny and helpful. If they hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have enjoyed solving this puzzle.
➖ Great Horned Owl wasn’t a visually exciting puzzle, even though the image itself was quite nice when complete.
Tips For Player
Space requirements: a small table
Be careful when assembling pieces; many incorrect pieces kind of fit together
This puzzle was deceptively challenging and will likely take longer than most ~300 piece puzzles.
Buy your copy of Zen Art & Design’s Great Horned Owl, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Nervous System’s Radial Puzzle was a fairly quick solve at 80 pieces. The unusual piece shape, however, made for an interesting puzzle.
Each Nervous System puzzle is programmatically generated and laser cut, meaning that each is unique.
It’s a lovely gift for a jigsaw puzzler, but at $65 for less than an hour of puzzling, it’s probably not an everyday purchase.
Who is this for?
Jigsaw puzzlers looking for something a little different
Laser cutter fans
Why play?
It’s beautiful
It’s strange
It’s a quick yet satisfying solve
Story
The Radial Puzzle was a generatively created jigsaw puzzle “based the simulation of dendritic solidification, a crystal growth process similar to the formation of snowflakes that occurs in supercooled solutions of certain metallic alloys.”
Additionally, this colorful puzzle featured whimsy pieces that were inspired by microscopic lifeforms.
Gameplay
Nervous System’s Radial Puzzle was a small but unusual jigsaw puzzle with a higher degree of difficulty when compared to other similarly sized puzzles.
Analysis
➕ Radial Puzzle, like everything we’ve seen from Nervous System, was a work of art.
➕ The strange, organic-looking pieces required a mindset shift when it came to puzzling approach. I enjoyed working with pieces that had so many little variables.
➖ The many tendrils of each individual piece were fragile and required more care than most puzzles.
❓ I enjoyed a quick an interesting solve… and part of me even preferred a quick challenge. If you’re looking at value specifically as a function of time / money, however, then you’ll likely find the Radial Puzzle wanting.
Tips For Player
Space Requirements: A small table
Be gentle with the pieces; the tendrils can be fragile
It’s not a difficult puzzle, but it will require far more effort than your average 80-piece puzzle
Buy your copy of Nervous System’s Radial Puzzle, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Duration: about 5 hours, 7 hours for secrets and commentary
Price: $24.99 on PSVR and Steam
Publisher: Schell Games
REA Reaction
I Expect You to Die was a series of five lovingly designed VR escape rooms in a 007-esque world. It embraced the storytelling advantages of having me in a VR environment while mitigating the challenges of having me escape these rooms while swiveling in a chair.
The attention to detail and love for both the spy genre and escape rooms continued through to the last mission. This was the way to do VR escape rooms at home.
Who is this for?
Escape room players of every stripe
Quick thinkers who are cool under pressure
James Bond fans with a sense of humor
Why play?
Solid, well-clued puzzles
Excellent graphics, VR physics, and immersion
Surprises galore
Story
I began I Expect You to Die in my spy office. My unnamed boss, speaking through the intercom, walked me through the basics of being a modern spy.
My mission changed from level to level, but they all involved foiling the nefarious plans of the evil Dr. Zor of the Zoraxis Corporation. In my first mission I started off captured by Dr. Zor. To escape, I simply had to drive a malfunctioning car out of an airplane that was filled with poison gas at altitude.
My boss was with me the whole way, providing a bit of guidance in my ear when I tried to do something I wasn’t supposed to do and scolding me when I “wasted time” doing something silly like shoot a doughnut with a gun.
I Expect You to Die followed the escape room industry trend of giving me a mission rather than asking me to actually escape a room. One level had me neutralizing a bio-weapon while posing as a window washer. Another had me in a one-man submarine at the bottom of the ocean. Each was creative and became thrilling as the events unfolded.
Setting
The environments were realistically constructed with a dash of cartoonishness. It was real enough for me that at one point I attempted to put my real-life controller down on a solidly virtual desk.
The five levels were also unique to one another. Perhaps most importantly, the various situations would be at home in any James Bond movie but didn’t feel ripped off from any existing installment of that franchise.
Gameplay
The game was built to be played while seated in one spot (although some swiveling was necessary). I wasn’t limited to items within my reach, however, because the spy agency had fit me with telekinetic implants. I could point at something I wanted in the distance and bring it right to my hands. I could also freeze items in midair for easy access in the heat of the action.
Puzzles were a mix of linear and non-linear. Most solutions relied on my ability to observe, make connections, and improvise when a bad situation got worse. There were few traditional puzzles. At times, the solution was straightforward: use this item with that item. Other times it was necessary to understand the presented concepts on a deeper level for me to be successful. It was an extra challenge when I had to do something urgently or with good accuracy in an attempt to quickly save my skin from Dr. Zor’s devious traps.
However, like the best Sierra & Lucasarts adventure games, part of the fun was dying in hilarious ways. Because this was a video game, each mistake taught me what not to do and I got faster as I tried it again. In fact, each level had a “speed run” time. I often dove back in to see if I could do a level in 45 seconds, one which had originally taken 45 minutes to beat the first time through.
Analysis
➕ One worry I often have with VR simulations is whether the items will behave as I expect them to. In I Expect You to Die, physics were not a problem. Flammable things burned when lit, plastic cups bounced while ceramic ones did not, and lasers shined in a straight line.
➕ Attention to detail was fantastic and took full advantage of the VR environment. When I was posing as a window washer, I was able to look over my shoulder at the city below me, even though there were no puzzle elements there. In the train level, I looked out off the bridge and saw flocks of birds flying by.
➕ I knew I was in good hands from the opening credits. I was drifting through a two-tone 3D animation that riffed on every famous Bond opening title sequence. Bullets flew by my head and missiles launched from below as an excellent Shirley Bassey-style ballad soared through the theme song to “I Expect You to Die”.
➕ I was rewarded for messing around. Eat a moldy sandwich! Put a hat on a bear! Light your cigar with a burning log! When I finished a level, the game presented me with extra goals called “souvenirs” that hinted at other fun things I could have done. This added greatly to the replayability.
➕ The telekinetic ability to summon objects from afar was a clever narrative and mechanic workaround. Most VR goes the route of allowing the player to teleport around the environment; telekinesis felt considerably more grounded in this scenario (even if it was fantastical).
➖ My telekinetic implants allowed me to freeze items in mid-air. While this was useful for hovering code-breaking sheets where I could see them, it was just plain weird and oddly reality-breaking. It bothered me more than opening a cabinet from 20 feet away. I expect this mechanic was invented for players using traditional controllers, but it would be nice to disable it for VR controller users.
➕ What I Expect You to Die did best was surprises. Moments of victory were followed by unexpected moments of peril. Then having survived it, an even greater feeling of accomplishment.
➖ Some levels contained items like bundles of money that had no purpose. While not strictly red herrings, they occasionally got in the way of items I actually did need.
❓ In some worlds, it was possible to lose items I actually needed. While throwing stuff over my shoulder was immensely satisfying, I learned to think twice about whether I may need the thing in the future.
➕ After I had completed the main story, I had the option of turning on commentary! This was something I had never expected. There was lots of it and it was full of interesting insight into the design decisions of making the game.
Tips For PLAYING
While this game can be played with a traditional controller, it’s more immersive to play with two VR controllers.
Try everything. Sometimes there are multiple ways to solve a level, and lots of fun things to discover!
The Sinister Mansion was an imaginative installment in the Exit: The Game series.
As a fan of the series, I liked this game and absolutely recommend it to other fans of the series.
At the same time, I feel that it is emblematic of two problems with Exit: The Game at large:
The structure is too predictable.
It isn’t refined and playtested enough.
Although the creators of Exit: The Game have done a lot within their structure in The Sinister Mansion, it still feels a little too much like past games. All too often, we found ourselves wishing that the game flowed a little better.
I like this series a lot and I enjoyed The Sinister Mansion. Nevertheless, I wish that they’d slow down a little, put out fewer games, and make sure that each one is refined and unique.
Who is this for?
Fans of the Exit: The Game system
Puzzle lovers
Any experience level
Why play?
Some good interactions and puzzles
This installment of Exit: The Game added some interesting twists within the format
The price
Story
We were invited as guests to a mansion, but upon our arrival, we realized that our host had locked us in and we had to puzzle our way out.
Setup
Exit: The Game is a cardstock and paper-based tabletop escape room series that is only playable once. The act of finishing the game destroys some of the components.
All current editions of Exit: The Game operate in the same structure that we explained in detail back in our first review of the series. Instead of rehashing it, you can click through if you’re unfamiliar with the series:
Exit: The Game’s The Sinister Mansion was a standard, destructible play-at-home escape game with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, puzzling, and making connections.
Analysis
➕ There were quite a few interesting, creative, and tangible interactions in The Sinister Mansion. In general, this was a good puzzle game.
➕/➖ The Sinister Mansion contained one of my favorite puzzles of the Exit: The Game series. Unfortunately, I also felt like this puzzle needed a bit more clue structure folded into it.
➖ In general, I found myself wanting a little more clue structure in The Sinister Mansion. There were a few times where our team was confused as to which components went together.
➕ The hint cards were well defined and productive.
➖ Aesthetically, The Sinister Mansion was disjointed. While most of the components and art seemed to strive for a regal, old-money aesthetic, some of the components looked like they came from a game set in a preschool.
➖ The Sinister Mansion looked and felt like too many of the series’ previous games. Shortly after playing it, I was mixing it up with other installments in the series.
➕ At $12 for an hour’s entertainment for 2 or 3 people, there’s good value here.
➕ The creators of Exit: The Game continue to find ways to put new twists on their game, without substantially changing the structure or components. While I think that the series is due for a little bit of a shakeup, I truly respect how much they squeeze out of the components that they have.
Tips For Player
Space Requirements: a small table
Required Gear: pencil, paper, scissors
Buy your copy of EXIT: The Game’s The Sinister Mansion, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Thames & Kosmos provided a sample for review.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
Price: $12 on Kickstarter (plus $3 for international shipping) / $15 when it becomes available in their store
Publisher: Enigma Emporium
REA Reaction
Enigma Emporium is back with another postcard puzzle game. Our hidden hero from Wish You Were Here has mailed us 5 more postcards, each jam-packed with puzzle content.
Blowback played well, with clean and entertaining solves. If you enjoyed Wish You Were Here, this is more of the same… and should be an easy impulse buy.
If you didn’t play Wish You Were Here, you should start there. It’s available at a reduced price as part of the current Kickstarter (and if that has expired, it’s available on the Enigma Emporium website).
If you weren’t fond of Wish You Were Here, or you’d like to play a game that does something dramatically different, then you’ll want to take a pass on Blowback.
We had a lovely time puzzling our way through Blowback. The game took our minds off of an otherwise abysmal day… and that’s saying something.
Who is this for?
Puzzle lovers
Any experience level (experienced puzzlers will have a significant advantage)
Why play?
Puzzle quality
Puzzle density
Low price
Story
Enigma Emporium’s second chapter Blowback picked up where Wish You Were Here had left off. We had previously helped save the family of our main character and now he needed more help from us.
He had sent us 5 additional postcards, each with hidden and enciphered messages explaining the details that he had uncovered about a nefarious organization.
Setup
Structurally, Blowback functioned similarly to Wish You Were Here.
We received 5 post cards, each packed with puzzle content. We had to use our wits and a computer to crack the codes and help the unseen hero.
Gameplay
Enigma Emporium’s Blowback felt like a light puzzle hunt. It was challenging relative to escape rooms, but fairly easy relative to puzzle hunts.
Core gameplay revolved around observation, deciphering, puzzling, and a bit of internet research.
Analysis
➕ As with Wish You Were Here, we were impressed with the puzzle density of each postcard. Enigma Emporium did a whole lot with a compact format.
➕ For the amount of content, the price is quite fair.
➕ There are quite a few brilliant puzzles in Blowback. Most of them involved multiple layers of meaning.
➕ This go-around, Enigma Emporium did a really interesting thing to internationalize their game.
➕ The structure of Enigma Emporium’s hint system is great. It’s easy to use and intuitive. We used it only minimally. The puzzles came together cleanly and we rarely found ourselves reaching for a hint.
➖ The hints would benefit from a greater degree of granularity. Although we didn’t use it much, we encountered moments where the hints jumped from “vague” to “there’s nothing left to figure out” in a single step.
➖ Although Enigma Emporium has proven that they can deliver a ton of content in a few postcards, this second chapter felt like it was missing something new and special. I’d happily solve my way through one more of these games in this structure because the puzzles and game were well crafted, but without something to shake up the format, this concept will feel predictable and turn stale.
❓ There’s a lot of deciphering. I believe it’s less then in Wish You Were Here… but if translation grates on you, some of the puzzles will overstay their welcome.
➕/ ➖ We played a media copy of Blowback in advance of its Kickstarter launch. We encountered a few puzzles that lacked adequate cluing and felt less than intuitive, or became overly tedious. Enigma Emporium was interested in feedback and continues to iterate. We commend them for this. We anticipate that you will have a smoother experience than we did at a few junctures.
Tips For Player
You will need an internet-connected device. We recommend a computer. We don’t think a mobile device would be adequate.
Keep yourself organized while solving this game. Details matter. You will have a lot of puzzle paths open at once and as you solve them, you’ll need to hang on to the solutions.
While not necessary, you ought to play the first chapter before beginning the second chapter.
Back Enigma Emporium’s Blowback on Kickstarter, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Hackathon, YULU’s kid-friendly take on the classic communication game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, was tangible and easy to learn.
Physical interactions that are both unusual and satisfying have been a hallmark of YULU’s game design. They delivered that again with Hackathon, although to a lesser extent than in some of their previous games. This served Hackathon well. It didn’t feel like it hinged on a gimmick.
The emphasis of Hackathon was on puzzles and communication. The devices and other components were there to facilitate.
Hackathon would be a great game for younger puzzlers and gamers. It was enjoyable as an adult, but more in an “I’m content playing this with a kid” kind of way… which in my experience is far more entertaining than most kid-focused games.
Who is this for?
Younger puzzlers
Younger tabletop gamers
Families
Why play?
Great interactions
Solid children’s puzzles
Amusing team collaborations
Story
Your spy team’s identities have been stolen by a group of villains. You have gained access to the super-advanced Console that holds your information. Time to steal it back.
The catch was that only one of you could access the Console, while the rest of the team was elsewhere deciphering the Console’s operating instructions.
Setup
The team split into two. One person went with the Console; the rest stayed with the instruction cards.
Once the player with the Console had activated the device, they needed to communicate what they saw to the people with the instruction cards. Those with the instruction cards deciphered the instructions, solved a puzzle, and told the Console operator what steps to take.
This loop repeated a total of 8 times, each with a different challenge, or until the Console operator ran out of time or made a critical error and failed.
Gameplay
Spy Code’s Hackathon was a child-friendly play-at-home puzzle and communication game with a low level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around communicating and puzzling.
Analysis
➕ This was a lovely, kid-friendly take on Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
➕ Hackathon was easy to setup and quick to learn.
➕/➖ Most of the challenges in Hackathon were entertaining for all parties involved. That said, a few of the interactions feel like throwaways.
➕ There was a switch on the Console that would kick it into different modes, 1 through 4. These modes didn’t really change the difficulty, but they opened up different solution paths to keep the game interesting.
➖ It would be nice if there were more room for puzzle variation or even a purchasable expansion pack that could add more variety to the solutions. If you play Hackathon a lot and have a good memory, it would be entirely possible to memorize the solutions.
➕ The wrenches necessary for some of the puzzles were fun to use and connected elegantly to the Console.
It just doesn’t stay clipped into this slot. Good thing it’s just for storage.
➖ There was a clip on the underside of the Console meant to store the “Flash Drive.” It didn’t grip properly and the drive always fell out. It was just a storage mechanism and didn’t impact gameplay, but it wasn’t on par with what we’ve come to expect of YULU’s design and build quality.
➕ Yanking the drive out to complete the game was a great, physical way to stop the clock. I never would have thought to design it that way, but it felt so much more satisfying than pushing a button.
Tips For Player
Space Requirements: a small table or the floor. Players will need to be split so that they can hear one another, but cannot see each other’s materials.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
Team size: 2-4 (6 with an expansion); we recommend 3-4
Duration: 30-60 minutes
Price: $29
Publisher: Calliope Games
REA Reaction
We’ve been on a kick to find tabletop games that are easy to learn, quick to play, and feel puzzley. Double Double Dominoes is the first one that we’re writing about.
Double Double Dominoes was a Dominoes/ Scrabble hybrid that we found more interesting than traditional Dominoes and a whole lot more approachable than Scrabble.
We were playing Dominoes against one another, but scoring points based on the placement of our tiles on the board. It started off straightforward, but as we placed more pieces, the variables and opportunities to score grew into an elaborate conundrum. When coupled with a mechanic that meant that any player could score on anyone’s turn, Double Double Dominoes turned out to be a thoroughly engaging game.
If you’re looking for a classic style board game that’s easy to pick up, friendly for players of all ages, and comfortably plays 3 or 4 people, Double Double Dominoes would be a great choice. It’s staying in our game collection.
Who is this for?
Tabletop gamers who don’t require fancy components or elaborate rules
Competitive puzzlers
Any experience level
Why play?
You can learn the rules in under 5 minutes
Straightforward gameplay with a reasonable amount of strategic depth
Piece placement feels like a puzzle, especially in the mid and late game
Setup
We played Double Double Dominoes by chaining dominoes together like we were playing a more classic game of dominoes… but we were doing it on a scrabble-like board with score tiles.
There were a few other rules. This video does a good job of explaining everything… even if it’s a bit cheesy.
Gameplay
Calliope Games’ Double Double Dominoes was a classic-style board game with a gentle learning curve.
Core gameplay revolved around pattern recognition, strategic thinking, and bit of luck.
Analysis
➕ The first few rounds of Double Double Dominoes were gentle, with few options. This created a lovely on-ramp for the game and allowed everyone to get comfortable with the rules and mechanics.
➕ Double Double Dominoes was simple to learn and teach. We pretty much just opened the box and started playing. There were a few nuances, but nothing crazy.
➕ Every player could score on every play. This kept everyone engaged. It meant that the nature of gameplay shifted constantly. It drove the pace of play.
➖ The score markers were fairly transparent, but we regularly found it difficult to tell which number our pieces were resting on.
It’s easier to see the difference in values in this photo than it was in real life.
➕/➖ Double Double Dominoes was much more interesting with 3 or 4 players than it was with 2 players.
➖ This was a small nitpick, but it would have been nice if the tips of the starbursts for point tiles were colored to match the tiles’ value.
If those diamonds maintained the color of the center, it would help newer or forgetful players with scoring.
➕ After playing quite a few games, most of the time, the person who played the best won. There were a couple of games where it felt like luck was the prevailing factor. This happens in any game that involves chance. The balance seemed fine.
❓ The rules called for players to draw a new tile at the start of their turns. We opted to introduce a house rule where players drew at the end of their turns. This allowed everyone to familiarize themselves with their tiles and evaluate all of their options on other players’ turns. We found that this sped up the pace of the game.
Tips For Player
Space Requirements: a small table or the floor
Buy your copy of Calliope Games’ Double Double Dominoes, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Calliope Games provided a sample for review.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
Cut the Wire was a bomb defusal game, rooted in turn-based deduction and chance. Our goal was to use clues and a bit of luck to cut the right wire.
As far as straightforward, kid-friendly games go, this was about as enjoyable a game as I’ve seen. The interactions felt great. There was a solid mix of luck and skill, and a round of play never lasted more than a few minutes. This is one of YULU’s strongest offerings (although their essentially unreleased Fire Quest is still our favorite #Justice4FireQuest).
Additionally, I think it’s the kind of toy that could break out of board game play and be used for imaginative play (provided that you don’t have a problem with the subject matter).
If that sounds like it will fit into your family’s game night… then give it a clip.
Who is this for?
Deductive puzzlers
Kids
Families
Why play?
Cutting the wires was bafflingly satisfying
Fast-paced
Objective
Cut the right wire and disarm the bomb.
Setup
We plugged in all of the wires and turned the game on. We then rolled the die and did as the die commanded.
Everyone took a turn, rolling the die and doing as it said. We repeated until someone cut the defuse wire and won… or cut the detonate wire and lost.
Wires
There were nine wires: 3 green, 3 blue, and 3 red.
Each wire was also labeled with a shape: circle, square, or triangle.
Dice
A turn consisted of rolling the die, then doing what the die commanded.
The die could tell you to:
Get a Clue(1/6 chance) – Push a button and receive a random hint as to which wire was either the defuse or the detonate wire.
Cut a Wire(2/6 chance) – Cut a wire blindly, without getting any clues that round.
Clue + Cut (2/6 chance) – Take a clue, then cut a wire in a single turn.
Clue + Force Cut (1/6 chance)– Take a clue, then force another player to cut a wire of your own choosing.
Game End
The game concluded when someone cut the defuse wire and won or cut the detonate wire and lost.
“Timed Mode” added 1 additional hurdle of a 15-second clock to complete an action. Failure to take an action within the allotted time would detonate the device.
Gameplay
Spy Code’s Cut the Wire was a play-at-home game of deduction and chance with a low level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around deduction, memorization, and chance.
Analysis
➕ The device was designed as a caricature of a bomb. It looked fun and non-threatening.
➕ The physical act of cutting wires in Cut the Wire was especially pleasing. The wire cutters had a good feel to them. The sound, sight, and feel of clipping was delightful.
➖ I found a little too much variation in cut tension. Most of the wires felt great. One was too hard to cut. One felt just a touch too loose.
➕ I cut the loosest wire about 40 times to see if it would break. It did not. Similarly, the stiffest wire didn’t loosen. This speaks well to Cut the Wire’s durability.
➕ The clue system was great. The display was recessed deep into the device such that it was easy for the active player to see it and difficult for other players to sneak a glance.
➕ There was a clip on the back of the device that perfectly held the wire cutters and die (all of the things you need to play). This made me inordinately happy.
➖ We found it a bit difficult to visually distinguish the shapes printed on the wires. If I were planning to play regularly, I’d modify the game by taking a Sharpie marker to the shapes to make them easier to see.
➕ Cut the Wire was easy to set up, quick to learn, and approachable for most ages. It was simple, but there was an actual game to play.
(If you purchase via our Amazon links, you will help support Room Escape Artist as we will receive a very small percentage of the sale. We appreciate the support.)
