It’s that time of year when we start to look ahead to what to occupy the holidays, to keep the kids big and small amused, entertained and otherwise distracted from the tedious business of being off school for so very long. So we’re taking a slightly off-beat look at a couple of games, not just from within IPs, but to get everyone playing together.

Towards the end, you’ll find links to some recommendations from previous Geeking Outs. And of course we have the results of last month’s Marvel giveaway of Wakanda Forever for MCP and Gamegenic Cards sleeves, plus a wee giveaway for this month, naturally.

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THE NUMBER

(RRP: £14.99)

This is a rather nifty new bluffing and guessing game which, luckily for me, requires almost no mathematical ability – just a good gut reaction and knowledge of how like your loved ones are to push their luck!

In this is elegant game for 3-5 players, each turn (of 5), you all pick a 3 digit number between 000 and 999 – highest number wins, but only if there’s none repeated below you. Only the first digit scores, so it becomes a fiendish guessing game – particularly as the turns progress, you can’t reuse digits within a round. It’s brilliantly simple, and utterly ruthless – a total new family favourite!

The rules, as you can see, are astonishingly simple – perhaps no surprise as it comes from the mind of Hisashi Hayashi (Trains, Rolling Japan, Samurai Gardener and many more). It’s an instant Japanese classic, lightweight game with great accessibility as well as being very portable (always important!)

The physical product is also very high-quality with chunky, glossy boards and good dry-wipe markers (yes, I know that’s a weird thing to obsess over but honestly a rubbish marker can ruin a game!) It’s loads of fun and highly accessible. All sorts of win – so why not win one yourselves? Check out the contest below.

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ESCAPE THE DARK CASTLE

(RRP: £34.99)

We’ve spoken at length HERE about our love of Escape the Dark Sector, Themeborne’s sinister slice of 70s Sci-fi horror that plays like the pages of a pulp novel or classic issue of 2000AD, but if you fancy a romp through a dungeon instead, then Escape the Dark Castle may be the one for you. It’s a bit simpler than its space-based counterpart, and a bit less grizzly too, feeling more like a dose of Livingstone/Jackson CYOA with art that wouldn’t look out of place in a 70s TSR module.

I absolutely love the retro vibe, and the gameplay is fun and cooperative. Unusually, rather than taking on the roles of “regular” heroes, you are villagers stuck in the dungeon who manage to escape (who knows, perhaps the guards are distracted dealing with more Heroic types). Using your character-specific dice, you attempt to navigate the traps and denizens of the dungeons, before encountering the master of the lair itself at the end.

I really love the idea of a group of plucky villagers gradually gaining in skill to take back what’s theirs. It’s still pretty lethal, but it’s just a great twist to be the oft-forgotten smallfolk in the background. Each character is typically better in one area than others – the Smith rolls high in might, the Abbot in Wisdom – so you have to play to your strengths.

The evocative, page-turning art plays to the idea of the reader of the card being the one who first encounters its contents, so this also becomes a key part of the experience. The text is also accessible to younger gamers and less confident readers: although the game recommends 14+, we’ve had our 7 year old along for the ride with the two teenagers (just needs a bit of help here and there).

With a masses of variety, quick setup and playtime (couple of minutes tops to get started, around half an hour to play) and wealth of expansions JUST in case you go through everything, this is a really sound investment for any family with a hankering for a dash of dungeon fun.

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SHATTERPOINT CORE SET

(RRP: £164.99 – expansions sold separately)

If you haven’t heard of Shatterpoint yet, where have you been? The massive new Star Wars skirmish game from the folk behind Marvel Crisis Protocol, Atomic Mass Games, looks set to take over tabletops globally this summer (mind the ketchup) and whilst you may baulk at the price you get an awful lot of stuff for your money. Now you can check out our previews HERE, but here’s the bottom line: it’s really good, and I kinda wish it wasn’t.

Shatterpoint is (for now) a Clone Wars-era skirmish game at around 1/35 scale (cowardly 54mm, I’ve heard it described as). It’s a very exciting, characterful game that takes a lot of the best elements of MCP and adds in the Force, a lot more ranged combat – and meaningful terrain rules!

Now you get a LOT in the box: 16 models and scenery, plus the necessary gameplay gubbins. I for one love the aesthetic – it’s very cartoony, which I grant you may not appeal to everyone but I like as it’s very distinctive (in what is, to be fair, quite a crowded feel). I’ll be back at a later point with a full review, but for now, bear this in mind: if you want something that’ll be a great, accessible hobby project to occupy you (oh, alright, and your kids) over the summer, then Shatterpoint is the answer.

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LOVE LETTER: JABBA’S PALACE

(RRP: £16.99)

If you’re after a more portable, pocket-sized treat, then I’m going to continue to bang on about this, my favourite in the Love Letter line, reviewed HERE. Simple, straightforward and ruthless, as you battle it out to secure Jabba’s favour: my kind of scum.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

So as ever, we have the results of our Guardians of the Galaxy Giveaway (thanks again to the fine folk of Asmodee UK) but of course you want to how to win this month’s prize – namely, a copy of Repos Production’s The Number? Just tell us in the comments section below what your go-to game for the whole family is, or if you like the look of any of our suggestions above.

And remember to Like, Comment and Share across your socials (FB, Insta, Twitter and/or Mastodon) tagging us @bigcomicpage & @games_with_graven to bag yourself a bonus entry! UK only unless you’re willing to fork out the postage, alas.

And finally, the winner of our May 2023 Guardians Giveaway is… Ross McLatchie!

Congratulations! Remember to get in touch with admin@bigcomicpage.com within 30 days to claim your prize!

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter and Instagram

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