King of Tokyo (BGG)
King of Tokyo is an awesome game. It’s easy to learn, quick to play, loads of fun, and has enough depth to make you want to play repeatedly. Up to 6 players can battle their super-monsters for control of Tokyo. It’s a quick game with lots of tense moments as your monster flirts with death and collects power-ups. I highly recommend this one for everyone’s game collection.

Urbanization (BGG)
I was an early-bird backer of Urbanization on Kickstarter. I loved the game idea – an urban planning board game – but it’s been a real disappointment. Some of the game play works well – the increasing price of land as it becomes scarce, the food system, and the population growth factors. But there are two aspects that feel awkward – giving the losing player a free point every round (which I would just remove) and the work order/factory system (which is fundamentally broken). I’ve played twice now, and neither time was very fun.

Race for the Galaxy (BGG)
There’s a lot to like about Race for the Galaxy. The theme works well, it has deep strategy, and the mechanics are clever but simple. You spend your turns settling planets, developing buildings, producing resources, and collecting points. My one complaint is how isolated the players are. There’s a lot to keep track with your own cards, so you often ignore what’s going on around you, which makes the game seem less of a race and more of a bunch of disconnected journeys. If you want to try this game out, you can play against a computer AI – after 5 tries I’ve yet to win a game.

You can find all of my board game ratings on Board Game Geek.