An Original Jewish Themed Card Game

About the game: In case you do not know this, I have been working on a card game with a couple friends. We have been working on it for about a year now and we are in the process currently of getting it produced. Its a simple blind bidding card game. Oh.....its called "Cholent, The Game!" and its the most original Jewish card game to hit the market in years..

Components: The game is a card game pure and simple. The game will come with 160 cards when it hits stores later this year.

The cards are seperated into 5 categories:

Recipe Cards
Shuk Cards
Ingredient Cards
Gelt Cards
Chevra Cards

There is also a cholent pot card to signify whose turn it is.

Artwork: I will link the game at the end of this post to show off how awesome the artwork really is.  I think seeing the artwork will speak for itself.

Gameplay: The game is very easy to understand but takes some strategy to master.

To start shuffle each of the decks and place them face down in front of everyone. Each player is then dealt a recipe card which is kept secret until the end of the game. Lastly, each player takes 4 gelt cards and 1 chevra card into their hand.

The youngest player then takes the cholent pot and turns over the top card of the shuk deck. Each shuk card will have an immediate effect and will initiate a bidding phase which works as follows.

1) The player who turned over the shuk card takes the number of ingredients indicated on the card and places them face up next to the ingredient deck.
2) Each player takes gelt cards equal to the number of ingredients being bid on.
3) Each ingredient is bid on separately in the order they were turned face up.

Bidding works as follows:

Each player decides how many gelt cards to use, and everyone simultaneously turns them over at the same time. The player with the highest total wins the ingredient.

After each ingredient is bid on, the cholent pot passes to the left and the next player starts the process over.

Now your probably telling yourself that it sounds interesting, but where is the awesome? This is where the chevra cards come in. These are special one time use cards that will help you get the ingredients you need.

You have to pay 3 gelt to get one, and there is no limit to how many you can have, but a smart player will know better than to spend all his gelt on chevra cards. A hand with no gelt is like a Cholent with no ingredients. Just like you need ingredients to make a cholent, so to here you need gelt to get the ingredients for your recipe.

If your interested in the official rules, head on over to the website and check them out.

My Thoughts: Of course I am a bit biased when it comes to this game, because I designed it, but I know a good game when I see it and I think we have a winner here. I feel so strongly about it, my friends and I created a company and are trying to get it produced. We currently have a website, facebook page, board game geek page, and are trying to raise funds through kickstarter.

If you have not heard of kickstarter, it is a website that allows people to donate money to your cause. Of course, you give some sort of reward in exchange for the money. In our case we are offering pre orders of the game, t shirts, a cool sketchbook and more!

If you have any questions, comments or anything at all do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Verdict: Playworthy!!!


Website
Kickstarter
Board Game Geek

"3D" Puzzles should only be this much fun

About the game: This game is just like the first Picross, but with 3D puzzles. You get some sort of square, rectangular shape and you have to carve out the item.

Controls: Touch screen makes the game pretty awesome. Being able to slide and turn the item in circles plus being able to mark or destroy cubes makes the game pretty easy to control.

Graphics: Nothing special, your standard DS graphics.

Sound: The tunes are catchy and add a little bit to the game.

Gameplay: The game starts out by explaining the basics. You first get some rectangular shape. The shape is made up of smaller cubes with numbers on them. This is a 3D shape so you can maneuver the camera all over to see all around the shape in question.

You then learn how to destroy and mark cubes. You destroy the cubes by pressing up on the d-pad and touching the cube in question. You mark a cube by pressing right on the d-pad and touching the cube in question. This makes sure you do not destroy a cube by accident.

The numbers on the cubes represent how many good cubes there should be in that row/column. Supposedly the game never requires you to guess, but I have found otherwise. The tutorial does a very good job of giving you some hints and tips to figuring out the numbers.

The more cubes you destroy the more you see of the item your carving out. If you destroy a cube that is part of the puzzle you get a strike. 5 strikes and your out. When you destroy your last cube, the puzzle will auto go into a little animation and you will get a number of stars depending on how well you did. If you do not get any strikes you get a star, if you beat the puzzle within the recommended time you get another and as long as you beat the puzzle you get another. So, you can get a total of 3 stars per puzzle.

As long as you complete the puzzles, you will unlock more puzzles. There are quite a few puzzles to unlock and they get harder as you go along.

This is one of the best puzzle games I have played in a long time. The game just keeps you coming back for more and more. I have powered through all the easy and normal puzzles and I am now onto the hard ones.

 

Verdict: Playworthy!!!

A sequel worth "punishing" yourself over

About the game: You play as either the female or male protagonist and are trying to escape earth. You have to fight your way out of course and this is no easy task.

Controls: There are a ton of options for this game, but I chose the wii remote and nuchuck and I do not see how any of the others could top it.

Graphics: The graphics are not bad, but they are not Super Mario Galaxy quality. I think it becomes very impressive when there are a crap ton of enemies on screen and there is no fps issues.

Sound: Some catchy tunes. There are voice overs for the characters, but the story really is not the games strong point. It is really all about the game play.

Gameplay: "Sin and Punishment: Star Successor" is the sequel to the awesome Sin and Punishment. If you have not played the original, I recommend head on over to the VC and download it right now. Its a fantastic game that was out for the N64 but never made it to the states, until now. After you have downloaded it then you can sit down with "Star Successor". I say beauty because this game is just so much fun.

The game is a 3d rail shooter, like the great "House of the Dead" series. You can move from side to side on the screen (even flying up in the air), but the game will automatically move you forward to the next area. 

There are thousands of enemies to destroy and you have the choice of characters to destroy them with. I played as the female character because her ability is to lock onto targets, which you would think would make for an easier game. But, I can tell you right now this game is not easy, even on easy!

The whole point of the game is to escape the world you are on and along the way you will destroy tons of enemies. Every time you destroy an enemy your score multiplier will go up. If you get hit it will go down. Sounds easy, but its not so easy to avoid the barrage of fire that appears on screen. 

Also, there are tons of bosses that are some of the best I have ever seen in games. These bosses are no easy feat to beat and will take many continues to finally destroy.

The game is not very long, but the online rankings will keep you going back to stages that you did not do well on, to try and achieve a high score.

I think this is one of my favorite games so far this year and I would recommend it to anyone looking to have a good time.

 

Verdict: Playworthy!!!