Page 15 – Toy Street

Isle Of Cats Explore And Draw Review

Do you want something that has a feel of Tetris whilst at the same time being more involved and about cats stowed away on boats? The last bit may be a bit specific, but trust me when I say that this game is a blast to play. Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw is a game where you use different coloured pens to draw tetris style shapes onto your dry erase board trying to score the most points.

How Do You Play?

This is a game that plays from 1 to 6 players. Explore and Draw is a drawing version of the big box game Isle of Cats which is a polyominal tile placement game. During this game you are trying to fill up your boats with cats arranged in such a way that you have families of cats clustered together to score points. Cats will only score if they are in a family group of 3 or more of the same colour. The tricky part is that you can only draw the cats adjacent to where they are already placed which means that you do need to think long and hard about not boxing yourself in.

There is no board in this game, but instead a 4×3 grid of cat, treasure and scoring cards which changes each round is used. During this game you play 7 rounds where you will select a column of three cards and these will either be lessons you can mark off at the end for end game scoring or they will be tetris style shaped cats or treasures that you will draw on your boat. These lessons will really add to your scoring, but each lesson you take is a cat or treasure you aren’t drawing so it is a pesky balance to find. You will be trying to get families of cats together whilst also covering the rats printed on the board. You also want to try and fill up each of the rooms in your boat too. Uncovered rats and unfilled rooms will be negative scoring at the end so you need to keep an eye on this.

The solo version of the game plays very similarly, but you also use the included solo cards to determine how the scoring of the solo sister happens which will vary game to game. I have found that this game is really rewarding although I have yet to win.

Who Is It For?

If you want a game that comes in a compact box and offers you a fun experience full of tantalizing decisions where no one can mess with your board then this is for you. This is particularly good for those who enjoyed tetris or have spacial-puzzle loving brains. I do not enjoy other players messing up my hard work and so this is a great one for me as what others are doing does not affect what I can do on my turn.

Which brings me to the other huge pull for me. It is ideal for those who are impatient. There are no turns, you do everything together at the same time! This means there is no downtime waiting for others to complete their turn before you can do yours, also keeping the game snappy too.

Round Up

Perhaps you fancy the idea of a drawing version of a big box game, or maybe it is actually the theme of cats stowing away on boats that tempts you. Whatever it is that sparked your interest, this game gets a big double thumbs up from me and is well worth taking a punt on. For us we have replaced the original game with this smaller version and I for one could not be more impressed with the Isle of Cats Explore And Draw.

Alien Fate Of The Nostromo Review

In Space No-One WILL Hear You Scream!

Because in this family-friendly version of the Sci-Fi Horror classic by Ravensburger, no one gets hurt! But you do get a whole heap of nail-biting tension as you and your fellow crew members strive to complete hazardous tasks whilst being chased by the 8ft xenomorph before time runs out for you and your crew morale tanks to zero.

“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies” Ash

In Alien: Fate of the Nostromo you play as one of the five main characters of the film, the crew of the ill-fated Nostromo; Captain Dallas, Engineering duo Brett and Parker, Navigator Lambert and final girl Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. Ash can play a part against them and Kane is already deceased.

Each character is represented on the board by a finely sculpted 40mm miniature and has a player card with their picture from the movie Alien and the details of their abilities and special features.

The game is played co-operatively with all the players working together to try to defeat the Alien represented by a fine, all black 50mm figure. You work together to complete the tasks given to you before your time runs out.

What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?

The board is a reconstruction of the Main and Sub Deck of the USCSS Nostromo with all the key locations: Hypersleep, MU-TH-UR, Bridge, Med-Bay, Garage, Workshop, Airlock etc. You all start in the Galley on Main Deck (where Kane met his demise) whilst the Alien is in its’ nest at the other end of the Sub Deck. Each player is given a Starting Objective to complete. You set out to collect key items that are spread about the ship and bring them back to specific locations. As you enter each area you trigger Concealed tokens that could bring the Alien to attack you and bring your morale level down. You never die but when your morale reaches zero that’s game over.

Some of the items you collect can help you in your struggles : Flame Thrower, Motion Detector etc. others like Coolant cannisters are needed for your final escape. There’s even a Cat Carrier for the ship’s cat Jones.

This Is Ripley Last Survivor Of The Nostromo, Signing Off

Once all the Starting Objectives are completed you reveal one of the five final objectives. These draw on key moments from the movie like Blowing the Alien out of the Air Lock or Blowing up the Ship. Unlike the movie they depend on all the crew working together.

The timing can be quite tight and good co-operative work is essential. For this reason it works very well solo with one player controlling up to 4 of the characters. On the other hand if you are finding the game too easy you can add in the aforementioned Ash, starting in the Med Bay, to wander around making a nuisance of himself and stealing your all important scrap metal tokens.

Alien: Fate of the Nostromo has an authentic amount of flavour and attention to detail from the film without so much of the horror making it a fantastic family friendly space adventure.

This blog was written by Pete Bartlam

Big In Japan Smash Up Review

The far east has come to play in Smash Up and there something very familiar to these factions. Big in Japan sees the Kaiju, Magical Girls, Mega Troopers and finally Itty Critters. The set is bold and colourful, very akin to Japanese character artwork from some of the classic brands from Japan which I think any fan of the style could appreciate. We also see Titans introduced to Smash Up within this set which has lead to many other factions gaining Titans within other sets down the line and they are a welcome addition to the game.

There is not a game rules overview this time, please check out my Smash Up review blog for a quick overview. Something to keep in mind here is that you can only play a 2-player game with this set alone. Of course, the series is completely interchangeable with everything else Smash Up so you can always “Smash” it up with another set and bring in a 3rd and 4th player.

So, what does Big in Japan bring to the series?

Kaiju

An incredibly large set of rampaging beasts wreaking havoc on the area. The Kaiju are unlike many other factions in that they have just 3 minions and therefore 17 actions. This you would think could create some serious unbalance, however many actions contain power with them that play directly on to bases, so not all is lost there as the deck has been cleverly tailored to get additional actions out. Not to forget the Titan who comes into play by use of actions over minions. They are a tricky faction to both use and play against.

Magical Girls

Magical Girls are a very team focused faction. There are many more types of minion here allowing for more abilities that combine well with the other magical girls. Getting multiple minions in play on the same base is critical to their success. Then there is the Titan that in this instance is a great protector of those minions you already have in play looking out for all those on a single base. I really like this faction as they gel well with most others.

Mega Troopers

Another faction that look all too familiar to me as a child of the early 90’s. GO GO Mega Troopers! The Mega Troopers are the ultimate fighting faction with the ability to snatch victory from what appears certain defeat, never count them out. Another team-based faction with an assortment of different coloured troopers, a little supporting robot and some sort of giant robot Titan… hmm… This side bring so much power to play and can quickly take out opposing minions when required. They are awesome fun to use.

Itty Critters

These guys look suspiciously familiar, I’m sure I caught them all once before a long time ago. Don’t be fooled by how cute they look as they pack a punch when you are not looking with an appetite for a bit of destruction. However, the artwork on this deck is particularly pleasing and I always enjoying playing this faction. The Titan is also a handful by coming into play just through breaking a base and being placed on the replacement, it will also introduce a lot of additional power. This faction is also a lot of fun.

Titans

The Titans are a welcome addition to the game of Smash Up. They bring a little bit extra to all these factions which can swing the game in their favour quite significantly at key moments. Given the type of set we have here based around Japan you can take a guess at what these titans may look like. What was pleasing as well, AEG didn’t give up with Titans as they have with some rules in other expansion additions. Many more factions have had some Titans introduced to their play which I think is very cool. Check out the 10th anniversary edition there.

What I truly love about Smash Up is you never quite know how the game will play out. On appearance some factions may appear far stronger than others, but pending on the factions that are paired up and the opposition, one combo could be devastating in one game, making you believe you have an unstoppable force. Then in the next game against different opponents be absolutely torn apart. The way the cards randomly come out also plays it part but there is no real ability to call a winner out right. Strategy and timing are everything.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt one of my favourite expansions to the Smash Up series and that is purely down to the theme and focus around Japan. Some huge factions included in this set to which I really enjoy using all of them. Big in Japan is an expansion I would highly recommend you pick up for Smash Up.

This blog was written by David Ireland

Star Wars X-Wing 2nd Edition Core Set Review

The Force Is Strong With This One!

If you have ever wanted to be Luke Skywalker piloting his X-Wing and fighting off flights of TIE fighters then this is the game for you! This Star Wars: X-Wing – 2nd Edition Core Set gives you everything you need to climb into the cockpit (metaphorically) and blast Lord Vader’s forces to infinity. In detail, that’s one beautifully crafted, and fully pre-painted, model of an X-Wing class starfighter and two Twin Ion Engined (TIE) fighters, the full combat rules, manoeuvre dials, measuring sticks, manoeuvre templates, Red and Green special dice plus a whole host of cards and markers. Gameplay has a quick turnaround and with a lot of upgrade options and variables for the ships and pilots, X-Wing is hugely replayable.

The stars of this universe are the ships themselves. They are beautifully crafted models and they come fully painted so you can immediately “fly” them straight out of the box. The T-65 X-Wing even has posable S-foils that can be quickly opened to the attack position! They stand, perched upon a peg tower that fits into a base that also holds the ship’s token that displays its’ “arcs”, specifically the all-important firing arc and the name and initiative level of the pilot that you have chosen to fly that craft.

This leads us to how forces can be balanced. Whilst the pilot cards will all show the same stats for a particular ship : Attack Dice, Defence Dice, Hull Strength and Shield (if any) and Actions that can be performed, the pilots will have different Initiative levels, from 1 – 5, and have individual abilities and, in some cases like Luke Skywalker for instance, may be able to use The Force!

Movement, each turn, is plotted using the neat Manoeuvre dials, rotated to show how far you will go and the path you will take. Each ship class will have its’ own set of manoeuvres including different speeds and tightness of turns. All the dials are set simultaneously. They are then revealed and each craft moved in pilot Initiative order with the weaker pilots going first. Then it’s combat with the top pilots firing first and possibly downing a weaker opponent before they can reply!

The movement phase is always a cause for equal measures of satisfaction and frustration as you can easily misjudge where your carefully, calculated master stroke might leave you, particularly if your wily opponent does something unexpected!

Combat is by means of rolling a number of Red Attack dice which are then defended by Green Defence dice which you may modify by using Focus or by Evading. Successful hits will deplete a ships’ shields, if it has any, and then giving a damage card until the number of damage cards taken is the same as the hull strength and it is lost!

If you get this: Star Wars: X-Wing – 2nd Edition Core Set, which I strongly recommend (I have two!), do beware that this can lead you on to a whole galaxy of other ships and fighting factions, each more enticing and rewarding than the last.

Lord Of The Rings Journeys In Middle Earth Review

Lord of the Rings – Journeys in Middle Earth is the less than punchy title for a really punchy game of solo or co-operative adventures through the sprawling lands of Tolkien’s masterpiece. Up to 5 players take a character each to form a fellowship that works together to combat the various pitfalls and evils put before them. In point of fact I think this game is most enjoyable played solo controlling all the members you choose in the party yourself and combining their different skills to triumph.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

And to help in that control we have the free to download Journeys in Middle Earth app. This app, available on a full range of devices, acts as Dungeon Master and bookkeeper. From the start of the first adventure of your campaign it sets the narrative, lets you select your party with their weapons and items and then, when you are ready to embark, tells which of the 22 double-sided journey tiles to lay out to set the scene of your adventure. All this to a haunting, evocative soundtrack.

As your journey progresses it will reveal locations to search, characters to interact with and, of course, foes to fight. Whilst you record by means of cards any wounds and fear to your own characters the app will tell you when you can remove vanquished foes and will plot their attacks until that point.

You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to

The App weaves an intricate story for you to follow. The initial campaign is split into 15 “adventures” over a background of Tolkien’s famous map. The terrain for your journey is created by laying a number of the lavishly illustrated, double-side, chunky tiles either of the green, open countryside or dark underground caverns. Each tile has from 2 to 4 areas within it and an exploration token that provides Inspiration to the first adventurer to go there.

Alternatively there are large Battle Map Tiles for interior locations that can have individual terrain tokens: walls, fire pits, barrels, statues, bushes etc placed upon them.

All We Have To Decide Is What To Do With The Time That Is Given To Us

The app will also inform you of what sort of test you must make to uncover secrets or overcome obstacles. these will be against your varied attributes: Might, Wisdom, Agility, Spirit and Wit. The party has different attributes so you might choose Legolas’ Agility to climb a tree or Gimli’s Might to batter open a chest.

The characters’ actions are controlled by their individual deck of Skill cards. This deck is also used to determine the result of your attacks or whether you pass varying “tests”. Importantly, through the Scout command you get the chance to manipulate the deck and potentially stack it with successes.

It’s A Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door

Along the way you will be confronted by a range of enemies. There are 25 beautifully sculpted miniatures of your foes : from Goblin Scouts and Hunters, Ruffians through to Ogres, Wargs and the mighty Cave Troll. These are great as they come, in fawn plastic for the Heroes and grey for the Villains but look even better if you paint them.

When you attack them, it is best, through a combination of your weapons and skills, to try to eliminate a group completely so that it doesn’t get a chance to strike back. Note that not all weapons use the same Attribute for their result. It is Might for Swords and the like and Agility for Bows and Daggers

The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth is a great role playing game with the App providing all the evocatively themed locations and story narration whilst doing all the heavy lifting in terms of keeping all the stats and inventories.

This blog was written by Pete Bartlam

Go Nuts For Donuts Review

Donuts! Sweet, delicious……….and mean! Haha not a term you would usually link back to such delicious delights. But in GO NUTS FOR DONUTS, there are some sharp sprinkles ready to stick in your throat (in the best possible way of course!)

Sweeeeeet!

Go nuts for Donuts is a colourful, bidding and bluffing, set collecting card game that is great family fun! Each round, a number of cards are placed in the offer row and players simultaneously and secretly decide which of the donuts they want for themselves. Using numbered cards, players reveal their pick, and the players who have made unique choices get to add the matching treat to their personal collection (in ascending order). If two or more players have opted for the same numbered treat, it goes into the discard pile. Then the row is refreshed, and a new round begins. The game ends when the deck runs out and the offer row cannot be refreshed.

Final Thoughts

We love Go nuts for Donuts! Secretly deciding which delicious donut you want to claim and then finding out it’s not going to be yours when all players reveal their selection is teeth gnashing! But then also realising that you have blocked someone from getting the one they really want too is deliciously devilish! And doubling up on donuts happens a lot in our house! I don’t know how as I try to think differently and work out what others are going to bid on based on what they have and what they think I might go for. But somehow, I seem to shoot myself in the donut hole each round – even when there are multiples of the same donut on display and I choose a different number each time!

Some dounts are straight up points whereas others accumulate the more of that type you can collect. And that causes brilliant decision dilemmas – do I go for another Jelly Filled to increase my score, or do I go for a Donut Hole that will stop another player adding more points? Others like Penny Plain (okay so she’s not called Penny in the game but that’s what we know her as) score depending on how many of the same your opponents have.

Not only that but at higher player counts there are also some seriously unsavoury selections that let you steal other players’ cards or inflict negative points at end game (or even suffer them yourself if you aren’t careful!). The official 2P mode removes these, however, and the deck is further reduced in size too to keep the game moving along at a pace. It’s quite rare that we find auction games that work well at 2P, but this one does the job well! It’s often pretty clear what the other player is going to go for, but that head to head feeling just adds fun pressure! It can sometimes result in a chain of discards, but someone will be able to dive into it at some point! I’s a great, versatile game and our son (who likes to focus on the sweet and not the sour in games) really enjoys it!. Personally, I really like the take-that in the treats so when we play with my husband or more players, there’s guaranteed to be jam (or jelly!) all over the floor by the end of a game of Go Nuts For Donuts! haha

This blog was written by Favouritefoe

Hey That’s My Fish Review

Penguins running around collecting fish while the ice melts around them sounds like the sort of family fun game my kids would enjoy, so we were all excited to dive into Hey That’s My Fish!

Frozen

The set up of Hey That’s My Fish takes a little while. You need to mix up the tiles and then lay them down one by one in rows to create your frozen playing area. Once that’s done each player takes their set of coloured penguins and taking it in turns, places each one on an ice floe containing 1 fish. Then you are ready to go!

Fish & Flippers

Each turn you choose one of your penguins to move in any direction as many spaces as you wish. You cannot go through other players or through missing ice floes. As you move your penguin, you get to collect and add to your stash the ice floe that the penguin was standing on. It essentially melts as you leave and you get the fish. You want to try to leave your penguin on a tile that has the most fish possible (there are tiles with 1, 2 or 3 fish). This way when you next move that penguin you will collect more fish for your stash. What do fish make? A winner essentially. The person with the most fish at the end of the game wins.

I’m Melting!

An important strategy of Hey That’s My Fish is to make sure you don’t cut yourself off though because if there are no ice floes to move to on your turn, that penguin is out of the game. You will still receive the tile they are standing on to add the fish to your stash though.

On the flip side I played an interesting 3 player game with my two kids who teamed up to isolate me on an ice floe. They succeeded in cutting me off from the rest of the game board, but left me with a nice juicy section of fish that I could take my time collecting. Apparently, they won’t be trying that strategy again after my fantastic win!

Also to note, It is easy to knock all the tiles when you are removing them so you just need to go carefully and as long as you’re mindful of that, it’s not really an issue.

Black And White And Full Of Fish

The kids love the penguin theme and the game is great fun for all of us. My 6 year old still needs a few pointers, but he’s fully involved in the game and enjoying it, so it makes for a really good game for us all to play together. My 8 year old enjoys the strategy part and they both love nothing more than some poor penguin being stranded on an ice floe with no where to run to!

Hey That’s My Fish is a nice small box game that is providing us with hours of fun, so this comes highly recommended from my family.

This blog was written by Alana Wren

My Island Review

MY ISLAND by KOSMOS is the sequel to the fantastic MY CITY polyomino, tile laying, legacy game from designer, Reina Knizia.

Because it is a legacy, campaign style game, I can’t review it in the normal way. Legacy games are special as they develop over time, unlocking new content as you progress. And, as you need to play with the same group until the end of the campaign, it’s definitely a special game for the regular gamer(s) around your table.

I can give some details though – there are 24 games which are separated into 8 themed Chapters. The rules from one episode flow into the next which build up this immense and wonderful combination of placement restrictions and point potential.

MY ISLAND uses tiles made of hexomino shaped pieces. And unlike MY CITY where each piece is a single building type (colour), the tiles in MY ISLAND are a combination of any of the four terrain types in play (houses, fields, walls, and paths).

Like My CITY, other features get introduced and areas of the board become available as the game pays on via the Chapters mentioned above. You will be permanently marking and changing your personal player boards and so no two islands ever look the same!

Scoring happens both during and at the end of episodes. And depending on your final scores, you’ll be gaining VPs and adding features to your board with stickers that create that unique, evolving, ever-altered playing space.

Wonderfully, at the end of the campaign, once all 24 episodes have been completed, you can flip the legacy side of the board and there’s an eternal game to play and replay at your leisure.

With your own set of tiles and board to use, this becomes an efficiency puzzle – how best to score as many points as possible bearing in mind the goals and restrictions in effect during each episode. It’s also a game where there is no hate-drafting. You may get a little unsure as you work out where to place a piece so you may be tempted to look at what others are doing, but it won’t really matter. With the addition of stickers and your own aspirations, where you place a tile is going to have a different impact on where another plays slots theirs!

Another great thing about MY ISLAND is that there is a neat quasi-catch up mechanisms whereby those players who didn’t score the most in a game get something to help them in the next one. And the winner often gets something to make their next game more challenging. And that’s great for keeping the tension throughout the game.

MY ISLAND is also good in terms of replayability and sustainability which is unusual for a legacy game. Having something that we can go back to and enjoy as much as we did the journey to get us there is definitely unique and inspiring. And, although we aren’t there yet, we cannot wait to play the forever game!

We are really enjoying MY ISLAND and it is a huge hit around our table.

This blog was written by Favouritefoe

Plotalot Review

Plotalot is a brilliant card drafting, collection game all about planting, growing, and harvesting delicious veggies. But there are also pesky pests who want to disrupt your digging plans!

How To Play

Each turn you may take up to two (different or the same) actions per turn:

You can:

Lay down a plot (brown card). Everyone has certain sized plots which you can plant the 8 varieties of vegetables into and these brown beds are always highly prized!
Plant a vegetable in a plot. Veggies have potential point values which can be enhanced depending on companion placement (shown as coins on the cards).
Add an enhancement (blue) like trowels and other kit to help boost the veggie points and powers!
Play an attack card (red) on an opponent to meddle with their planting plans! Pests come in all shapes and sizes and effects!; and/or
Discard a card onto the compost heap.

Plus, before taking your two actions, you can Harvest (using a purple card) a plot to free up space for more veggies. Then, once harvesting and the actions are done, draw your hand back up to five cards from the veg pile or the random mix of enhancements, plots, attacks, and harvest action cards.

The game ends when one of the two draw decks is depleted. Then players take one final turn and add up the points they have been gaining over their turns. The winner is crowned the most fabulous farmer!

We really enjoy Plotalot! There’s alot more fun, take that tactical style gameplay than we were expecting! The pests and actions all link well to the agricultural theme. I love the Helpful Hedgehog who valiantly fends off attacks! Plus, having cards that can help and benefit you as well as those which straight up fiddle with your farming foes brings a nice balance – the cards that temporarily protect your plots from attacks are particularly useful! Each turn you’ve got to weigh up your actions – plant veg, harvest now, go pick on someone else’s plot, or focus on your own farm. And sometimes, discarding a card into the compost is a key way to refresh your choices for the next turn.

The artwork is super and the components in PLOTALOT including the deck boards are lovely. They are printed on responsibly sourced materials and the game doesn’t include any single use plastic either which is great to know. I also really like the companion planting and giant vegetable scoring potential which bring added decision dilemmas and strategy to each turn. It also means that no two games ever play out the same which is great for replayability, and the actions help mitigate the luck of the draw!

I’m sad there’s no solo mode but that’s only because I would like the opportunity to play it more! PLOTALOT is a colourful, clever, card drafting collection game that let’s us flex our mean farmer muscles in a really fun way!

This blog was written by Favouritefoe

Anonymous

Easy to order, arrived very quickly, excellent packaging and phone looks good as new.

1 day ago

I’m very happy with everything, there is a mild delay on shipping but I communicated with customer service who contacted me straight back and resolved that. Everything was great, the delivery came on time after that the item was perfect, great price and I’m very happy with everything, thank you.

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Shopping experience was excellent from price, posting and packaging

4 days ago

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Good packaging fast delivery Mint condition. Toy Street has a great selection of board games.

Great prices and speedy delivery.

6 days ago

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Quick delivery parcel intact and item as described on the website

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Quick and efficient, well packaged so no dented boxes.

1 week ago

Katie

Such a lovely website & good range of items. There was a specific brand of toy I was after and found the best selection on the toy street website, will definitely be a returning customer. Item was dispatched and delivered fast.