Review and a Recipe: Arboretum and Pasta with Trees

Review and a Recipe: Arboretum and Pasta with Trees

The Opener returns! Everyone’s favourite series featuring a straightforward game paired with a sexy recipe. Except we’re not calling it The Opener any more, it’s just “review and a recipe”. Nice and simple! Just like the game. And the recipe. And Matt.

Don’t be deceived by that svelte little box, though. Not unlike the trees it depicts,Arboretum is beautiful, tough, and all about hidden depths.

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Review: Food Chain Magnate

Review: Food Chain Magnate

Do you want the good news, or the bad news?

The good news is that Food Chain Magnate is an absolute barn stormer of a game. A delicious puzzle patty rolled in thematic batter, deep fried across years of playtesting(?).

The bad news is that it became almost entirely sold out between us receiving this game and publishing the review. Your best bet is to pre-order straight from Splotter, or reserve a copy at your friendly local game shop (where it should be cheaper).

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How to Play Fury of Dracula!

How to Play Fury of Dracula!

You ask, and we provide! Our second ever How to Play video walks you through your first game of the sublime 3rd edition of Fury of Dracula.

Once again, this isn’t a COMPLETE rules explanation (we forgot to mention that Dracula can’t be found in sea spaces and doesn’t place encounter cards, for a start), but it should certainly give everyone a ruddy good grasp of the game before you get stuck into the dirty business of questions and manuals.

Enjoy, everybody!

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SU&SD Play… Concept

SU&SD Play... Concept

What would it be like to live in a world without words? How difficult might it be to communicate the idea of a person, an object or a work of art through nothing but a collection of slightly ambiguous icons? How would that even go?

If you think the answers to those questions, in turn, are “Pretty awkward!” “Very difficult!” and “It would be a disaster!” then you’re already primed for our first playthrough video of 2016. Paul sat down with some of his friends, a copy of Concept and some very simple rules:

  1. Divide into two teams of two.
  2. Play to a two minute turn limit.
  3. Choose the card (though not the exact concept) the other team must play.
  4. Play the game on the middle of its three difficulty levels. That should be fine, right?

This is what happened.

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Review: Concordia

Review: Concordia

Could this be the end for Shut Up & Sit Down? The year has barely started and yet it already seems that Quinns is… is leaving us? For a board game?

Face it, this was inevitable. We all knew the day would come. But why, of all games, was it Concordia? What’s so special about it? And how will Matt and Paul cope with the news?

That’s a lot of questions, but fear not. All these and more are answered in this video. Probably. Maybe.

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How to Play Pandemic Legacy!

How to Play Pandemic Legacy!

Whether you’d rather someone else teach your friends to play, you want people to know the rules before they come over, or simply want a closer look at this incredible game, our How to Play videos are there for you.

Not heard of Pandemic Legacy, our game of 2015? You should correct that immediately!

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Review: Flick ’em up

Review: Flick 'em up

Matt and Quinns are ready to flick one another up! Won’t somebody stop them? Seriously we’re not insured

This week we’re looking at Flick ’em Up!, a beautiful new French game of flicking bullets at one another. But could anything replace SU&SD’s favourite dexterity game, Catacombs? Only one thing’s for sure. This town ain’t big enough for both of ’em.

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Review: Porta Nigra

Porta Nigra! It’s a new eurogame, all about the famous Nigras that live within the mossy depths of the Porta dimension.

…Ok, so maybe we’re not entirely clear on what a “Porta Nigra” is. But by god, that won’t stop us from reviewing this hype-filled new release.

And let’s have a big round of applause for our Gold Club members for letting Paul and Quinns work together again! Unlike Romans, those plane tickets don’t grow on trees.

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Review: Mafia de Cuba

Mafia de Cuba

“The Resistance” are sacred words around these parts, as in “Werewolf”. These games of lying and double-dealing have defined Shut Up & Sit Down. The thought of a brand new new hidden role game entering the genre is almost unthinkable!

Until today. Mafia de Cuba doesn’t just look good. It feels good. It sounds good. It smells tolerable. Of course we had to check it out.

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Spoiler-Free Review: T.I.M.E Stories

T.I.M.E. Stories is a whole new kind of co-op board game

It’s time for another of 2015’s most breathtaking releases, and that’s not a euphemism for a fart. Rather, T.I.M.E. Stories is a whole new kind of co-op board game. Your team will complete each time travel scenario in a blistering five hours and then it’s time to buy a whole new deck, making this the most expensive game we’ve ever covered. Great Scott!

On the other hand, the only thing Quinns loves more than the movie Primer are board game expansions. What happens when an immovable force meets an unstoppable object? Tune in and find out.

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