Garrett's Games 280 - Belfort and Puzzle Strike!
Shelley and I are finally back to 'regular' episodes with this week's discussion of two games I received as review copies from www.gamesalute.com. Thanks to Game Salute for sending us
Belfort from Tasty Minstrel Games, designed by Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim
and
Puzzle Strike from Sirlin Games, designed by David Sirlin
Enjoy, and visit the website at www.garrettsgames.com
Belfort from Tasty Minstrel Games, designed by Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim
and
Puzzle Strike from Sirlin Games, designed by David Sirlin
Enjoy, and visit the website at www.garrettsgames.com
Played: 1067 | Download | Duration: 00:32:04
For Puzzle Strike, I think you start with a SPECIFIC 3 chips based on the character you choose, not a random 3 or a chosen 3... probably balanced that way. The video game has characters (like Street Fighter characters: Ken, Ryu, etc.) which have strengths and weaknesses. I believe Puzzle Strike's unique tokens are supposed to (and I think they kinda do) give you that feel of "this character is more defensive" or "this character is aggressive, but reckless" or something.
In the video game it's kinda like Tetris, but rather than different shapes falling, just squares fall... but then they group themselves into larger squares (if you get a 2x2 square of red gems, they become a bigger red gem)... when you 'crash' these gems, they go away (a la Tetris lines) - and it sends a bunch of junk to your opponent. Like Tetris, when your board is full, you lose. The object of course is to survive, and fill up your opponent's board so they fail.
Regarding your comment about the losing condition being 10 tiles vs 10 value worth... the reason you want to group up is no to survive longer, it's so that you can crash more gems at a time to send to your opponent. I believe you can only crash 1 gem at a time, so if you don't group up the gems, then you're just getting rid of 1 at a time (and they can send it back to you with one of those defensive tiles). If you group up the gems into a big gem, then you can send a BUNCH of crap at the opponent, and I think if they 'block' it only sends 1 little gem back (not the entire big gem, since you crashed it into lots of little gems). Not sure if that all made sense or not...
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Thanks for the comments, Seth. You are correct about the 3 chips, and that's what we meant. The 3 chips associated with a particular character can be chosen at random BY CHARACTER.
As for the gems, sure you want to group them to crash them to your opponent, but grouping them DOES mean that you have fewer in front of you, so you can last longer.
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... It does mean fewer in front of you... DOES that make you live longer? I learned from a friend, and I think he said you lose if you have 10 total value of gems, not 10 gem tiles (then again, it was a while ago, and only once, so I could have it wrong).
In other news, I had posted that only 1/2 way through your podcast. Of course now I've heard the Belfort part, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for such a kind review
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