5+ Player games

4 player games are the norm. But what about games that play more than 4?! Here's my top 10!

10) Aladdin's Dragons

I just found this game at BGG Spring Con back in May and I love it. The more players the more competitive it gets! So many tokens placed on the board leads to some wild games!

9) Eketorp

How happy am I to say that this Queen Games board game is fantastic with 6 clans fighting each other for resources. The "recover pool" is MASSIVE in this game! I love every minute of it!

8) Formula D

This race car game gets better and harder when you add more players. Less track, more cars = more wrecks and more excitement! For our summer vacation next month I plan on bringing this game with all the expansions and have a massive all day race with each track and a point system to keep score like in NASCAR. Can't wait!

7) Sons of Anarchy

5 players in this game will make less land to claim and more throw downs to ensue. Under-rated game by Gale Force Nine and it shines at the max player amount!

6) Las Vegas

Dice chucking game that is massively better the more players you add to it. 8 players would have a ball with this game!

5) Long Shot

A great game but with more players placing bets and cards, it gets even better! No one in my game group will turn down this one. AND I believe with the max 8 player count, it's amazing!

4) Empires Age of Discovery

Though it would be aggravating having so much competition on the board, this game would get viscous with the top player count. I hate how the board clogs up with so many players but it definitely makes for tougher decisions on the board and I love that!

3) Firefly

My dream is to play this with the max 9 players one day on the full expanded board. It WILL happen! I can only imagine the sheer delight when it does!!

2) Spartacus

With 5 players....you'll never want to play anything else ever again. The conspiracies, temporary alliances and betrayals that happen during the game is outstanding!

1) Twilight Imperium

But there ain't NOTHING like an 8 player game of this beast!! One of my absolute favorite memories in board gaming ever was when we played this! Greatest game with 8 players!

Best 2 Player Board games

I don't play that many 2 player games, yet when I do, these are my favorites!

10) Dead Stop

A game of simple deduction where you're trying to guess the color hidden under your opponents pawns. Stop them early to avoid them scoring big. Great vintage game!

9) Sub-Search

Battleship on steroids. Three levels to hide and you've got to destroy your opponents subs before they destroy yours. This game is impressive once set up. Another good vintage game!

8) Bas-ket

I don't play this game as much as I used to but it's still a great basketball game as you try to out score your opponent. Simple yet incredibly fun!

7) Pro-Action Football

I don't even like soccer but this game from the UK is Uh-mazing to play! Using a metal ball and pawns on rollers with a magnetic ring, the person who designed this should've been given an award for his stroke of genius! When am I up for a game? ANY TIME!

6) Mr President

Vintage game where you try to beat the other candidate to the presidency. Every time I bring it out my friends under estimate it and end of having a great time. The saddest thing about the game is that is doesn't get played enough!

5) 300

Not the prettiest game on this list but definitely one of the better ones! One person plays as the Spartans and the other as the Persians. Fight over 7 rounds and if the Spartans achieve 100 Glory points they win, if not....it's a Persian party! This game is fun WHOEVER you play as. Under-rated game!

4) Battle Ball

The only football game in my collection and it's a beaut! I love playing this game every time I bring it to the table. And the games are usually close. Easy to teach and a ton of fun!

3) Queen's Gambit

My board game group would rank this #1 I think. This game about Episode 1 of Star Wars is mind-blowingly fun! I both love and hate my friend Brian for showing it to me in the first place. I had to spend a several shiny pennies on it but it was worth every cent!

2) Space Hulk

Aliens the board game really. You can stretch the rules to allow 3 to play but it's really the space marines vs the aliens and I've never had a game go by that I didn't enjoy!

1) Strat-o-matic Baseball

This should come as no surprise. My favorite board game of all time just happens to be a 2-player game as well. Though I haven't played it with 2 players in over 2 decades! LOVE LOVE LOVE this game! Even though my season ended a few months ago, I already want to play it again!

Top 5 Board Game bling I want!

There's very few games I pimp out with "board game bling" but if I were to have a little extra money to burn, I'd surely spend it on these:

5)  Deluxe tokens for Francis Drake would look nice in the game though cubes do well, the quality of the barrels really outshines everything else. One day this may be worth getting because those canons look sweet!

4) Chest tokens for the game Descent would really make this game pop! The beautiful artwork and minis would benefit from having such bling!

3) Catan deluxe bits would be nice too. I've looked at these a few times but never pulled the trigger on them but there's always been something better to spend my money on. I do love me some Catan, and these token would only increase that love!

2) The (out of print) Spartacus Game Mat. I have no idea why I didn't get this back when it came out. now it's near impossible to find and for it to be one of my favorite games of all time, it hurts I didn't pick this up the moment it came out.

1) These BEAUTIFUL tokens for Grand Austria Hotel are always on my wish list every year. I ALMOST got them last year but held off. If I can avoiding buying games for a while, I'll reward myself and get them around X-mas. SO nice looking!

Anamaniacs Review

Finally finished watching one of the best cartoons of the 90's! I couldn't believe how funny and adult the jokes were in this series. It holds up well over time, I'm happy to say! So real quick, let me go through the worst and best cartoons in the series to watch:

The Worst:

 Mindy and Buttons

Repetitive to the end. Mindy escapes, Buttons chases her, she ends back at her home safe and sound and Buttons gets blamed for something he didn't do by her parents. That's EVERY EPISODE! They even recycle the same jokes over and over, which makes you want to beat your head against the wall! Skip these cartoons.

 Rita and Runt

There is NO humor here either. Just songs and music as these two travel the world and get into trouble. Great to fall asleep to, hard to find something to laugh at. Skip it.

Katie Kaboom

I had no idea she had her own cartoons. I thought they were just shorts. But turns out she got a few episodes here and there. Terribly boring as it plays out the same joke over and over again. Teenage girls throw tantrums. That's what we're supposed to laugh at every time. I think maybe some of the writers at the WB had teenagers they wanted to pick on so they made this cartoon as an inside joke. A joke which flops out of the gate.

Hit and Miss Cartoons

 Chicken Boo

He wear a disguise to look like human guys but he's not a man he's a chicken boo. A hilarious cartoon that has the same plot just a different situation. It cracked me up every time due to the ridiculous nature of the toon. May not be everyone's cup of tea but the cartoons are short and give you a little smile each time they come on.

 Cartoon Shorts

Good Idea/Bad Idea isn't that funny. Worthless Facts is funny as is Dot's Poetry Corner but the kid who tells stories about Randy Beaman's family is HILARIOUS!!! These shorts are hit or miss but not bad overall.

Best Cartoons

 Yakko, Wakko and Dot

The title characters of the cartoon aren't 100% on delivering the "funnies" but when they're on, they have some brilliant episodes. Yakko's songs, Wakko's Burps are amoung the most entertaining toons in the whole series. In the span of 99 episodes, these characters chase after woman, travel through time, meet 90's celebs, Satan and recognize Jesus as the meaning of Christmas. (not joking, they actually had an episode on it) These characters are extremely lovable and I wish the WB would consider bringing them back out of the water tower. In today's society that's filled with people easily offended, the Warners would thrive in such an enviroment!

 Goodfeathers

A simple rift on the movie "Good Fellas" but I LOVE it! SO GOOD! Especially if you enjoyed the movie which they rift off of. My favorite part of the cartoons is that every time it starts off with the phrase from the movie "Ever since I can remember..." I didn't realize this as a kid and now that I have, it made me love the toon even more!

 Pinky and the Brain

I don't think it's any surprise to know this was one of the best cartoons in the entire series. The studio knew it too because they made a spin off cartoon from them. (which I'm currently watching now) They shine above the rest in the series.

Overall, Anamaniacs is well worth your time if you were considering watching it again. It's well worth your time!

Avengers Comic Review

Well it's been a long trip but I finally finished all the Avengers comics in my collection. Dating back as far as 1981 there were some memorable moments:

 Get a load of Spiderman's comment about his fellow team mate "Starfox" and his "Love touches" Not surprising to see Starfox and his love touches have been quietly buried in Avengers history.

 Well said Beast!

 Look at these lovely Kree guards playing Gin while waiting to take over the Earth...cause you know, that's what alien races love doing to kill their spare time.

I LOVE how the Avengers membership card not only comes with a live video feed but a handy dandy calculator as well! (I'm guessing to calculate tips?!)

Darn skippy Captain Marvel! If Trump had been in charge of this party, he would have made this comic great again!

 What's great about this is that they never reveal what was going on in the next panel. Gotta love it!

 Hey Hawkeye! What's that you're reading? That "H" on his head must stand for "Horndog"

Overall, this comic series was extremely boring. ZERO character development. The heroes kept changing every 6 issues due to things going on in their own series which were never revealed but mentioned at the bottom of the page "Check out Iron Man #222 to see what Tony means!)

They just brought these characters together to sell comics. Nothing was that heartfelt or impactful. They constantly rotated A-listers with D-Listers because they thought the comic would sell regardless. Though it was evident when sales lagged because one (or more) of the Big Heroes would step back in to sell more comics!

Even when Bendis took over the series later on it wasn't that much better. Shockingly I place this series among the worst ones I've read so far. Don't bother wasting your time reading them.

On the board!

Well I guess it's official now so I can talk about it, I'm now on the Board at the Strauss theatre.

It's a real honor to be nominated. I've been helping out at the Strauss for some time and though I haven't been involved as much as I used to I look forward to making a positive impact in the future with the Theatre.

Never been on a Board before. Should be interesting to see what happens!

Have a good weekend folks!

So long Sears!

As the company continues to hemorrhage they announced a few months back that the store in Monroe will be closing and to be honest, I'm not going to miss them.

Horrible service EVERY time I've gone to look for something. This was a place I could see myself being loyal too but because I was treated like garbage every time I went in, it's no wonder the company as a whole is sinking to the ground.

Here's to hoping the entire company goes bankrupt within a year!

The Foreigner (Review)

I love me some Jackie Chan. I missed this one in theaters last year and regretted it because I heard it was good. So I finally got a chance to watch it last month and....it's bad....REALLY bad.

SO boring. Chan is in barely half the film and the pace DRAGS bad. I don't know what the critics were thinking. After this, I think I'm laying off Jackie's movies for a while. He's getting old and I can understand that there won't be the magnificent stunts we saw in his younger days, but movies like these just hurt his brand.

What ever happened to cell phone batteries?

Remember back in the day when you could go 3 days before having to charge your phone? Today I have to charge it at least once a day sometimes twice!! I know streaming video and online access drain a battery faster but why haven't they compensated by inventing a long lasting battery?!

Heck, I'd even go back to having a thicker phone if it made a difference! I just want more battery life and not have to charge it at every turn!

Ok, I'm done with my short "rant" for the day. Have a good one folks!

Tiny Toons (Review)

So with my Hulu subscription came this classic cartoon from my childhood. I remember watching it with my brothers, with some quotes we STILL use today!  So I thought it would still hold up.

I was wrong.

It's really bad. Sure there's some chuckles here and there but overall it's embarrassing to watch. Just like Darkwing Duck, time is not kind to this cartoon. I drudged through the first season before waving the white flag and moving on to something else.

So if you were wondering how this cartoon is today....don't. Keep your happy memories of it and never look back.

The Dana Carvey Show (Review)

I was interested in seeing this show when I heard Steve Colbert, Steve Carrel, the voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Louis CK were in. So many stars, the show can't be that bad can it?!

Well....it's humor is dated. This came out in '96, so if you're not familiar with the goings on, of the day then you might not get a majority of the jokes. However, there were moments of pure hilarity in it and with only 8 episodes made, it's not that big a deal to binge watch on Hulu.

My favorite skits were Dan Rather practicing on reporting the potential death of Gerald Ford and the picture above, of two guys who "prank" others but they're the ones getting the short end of the deal every time yet they never realize it, while laughing together in the car.

Fun stuff!

Have a good weekend folks!

The Disaster Artist (Review)

I've been interested in seeing this movie though I've never seen (and never intend to see) "The Room" which it is based off of.

This odd "true" story was actually pretty fun to watch and I'd have liked to have been there during the actual filming of "The Room" (rather than watch the finished product)

Either way, it was worth my time seeing.

The Lucy Show (review)

Last month I decided to start watching The Lucy Show. A show she did after "I Love Lucy" went off the air.

Though not as good as "I Love Lucy" this show had it's moments that made me laugh. What was disappointing to hear was how Lucy Ball acted off camera. Turns out she was a diva.

She demanded the studio take her oldest daughter out of the show because she was gaining a lot of buzz in magazines for her looks and Lucy was jealous. When the studio fought against the decision, Lucy threatened to retire and the studio caved in and had her written out of the show.

Another instance was her "feud" with Vivian Vance, her long time co-star from I Love Lucy days. Vivian wanted equal pay as Lucy and a chance to direct a few episodes. Lucy said "No" and the couple broke up before the 4th season. The bad blood didn't last forever though. Lucy ended up apologizing and having Viv guest star in 2 episodes towards the end of the season, but still... she showed her true colors there.

She also fought and fired her writers later on because she didn't think they were doing the shows justice. Again she would apologize and take them back for future shows.

In the show there's a lot of references to Lucy being "young" though she's in her 50's by the time the show was going on. It seemed very self-serving to have an ongoing joke throughout the series that she appeared to people as "young". All the stars on the show fell in love with her (according to the story line) and one episode she gets mistaken as a teenager. It comes off petty and vain, not to mention unbelievable but hearing how she acted off camera it's no surprise.

She even forgot the name of one of her cast members from the first 4 seasons. When in season 6 she called the character by the real actors name after refusing to believe her writers that she had things mixed up.

I'll eventually check out "Here's Lucy" but at the moment, I'm a little turned off from her selfish behavior.

Should you watch it? Sure. If you love Lucy Ball, go for it. Though not as good as "I Love Lucy" its still decent.To sum it all up, I'd watch "I Love Lucy" again, but this was my last time watching the "Lucy Show"

Speed Movie (Review)

Megan and I decided to watch this movie again and see how it held up.

It does....well.

Such an enjoyable classic 90's action movie that it the true definition of a "popcorn" movie. And a lot of the movie didn't happen on a bus, which surprised me!

We also saw Speed 2 again......man that first movie was really good!

Star Trek: The New Movies (Review)

Now that I'm done with the "prime" universe it's time to roll over to the new era in Star Trek, even though they do tie the two universes together with Lenard Nimoy reprising his role Spock.

I loved that they did that. It pays perfect tribute to what came before....and then there's "Into Darkness" which slaps the series in the face. Awful film. Worst of all the Trek movies by far.

However, "Beyond" is one of the finest films they've made. It is absolutely enjoyable from start to finish. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the 4th movie.

Now it's on to....Discovery....

Star Trek Enterprise (Review)

Finished the final Star Trek series based in the Prime universe and man was it good! I remember liking it the first time around but this time I think I like it even more.

I love each and every character, the look and feel of the show. Even though it was made decades after the original it feels like the prequel show it was meant to be! Lots of great ideas, I'm just sorry the fans didn't like it as much as I did.

If you like Trek, add this one to your list to watch! Even the finale was pretty good (for the long time Trekkie) in that it takes place in-between a TNG episode (oddly enough)

Wonderful show!

Star Trek TNG Moives (Review)

Hooray! After searching for weeks for a way to stream Star Trek Nemesis I can finally give my much delayed review on these movies.

To be honest, they were all better than I remember. I love each one of them and surprisingly rank Nemesis lower than Insurrection. (which wasn't the case when I first watch them back in the day)

I especially loved how much they connected to the TV shows. Both in past series and in ongoing ones at the time. For example, Insurrection speaks about the Dominion War, which was effecting the universe at the time in Deep Space Nine. 

You just don't see that anymore in films these days!

All come highly recommended and I'm said to finally say goodbye to the TNG cast.

Star Trek Enterprise review coming shortly...

I want to do something fun this year but will probably spend the day doing absolutely nothing.

Hope your celebration is a lot more exciting than mine!

Rings (Review)

I enjoyed the first movie, thought the 2nd one was a mistake but decided to watch the newest installment just to see if they could right the ship on this franchise.

They could not.

This is the type of Horror movie you could bring the entire family to see (including grandma) and not be scared at all. Sadly, you won't laugh either....you may cry... you WILL be bored. NOTHING happens for 98% of the film. It's weird to have such a big name franchise create a dud and give it a theatrical release rather than straight-to-video, which is where this was supposed to go to.

SKIP at all cost!

Star Trek Voyager (Review)

I remember the first time I watched this series I didn't like it much.....now I remember why. The characters are lame (with the exception of the Doctor) the story arc for the entire series sucked and it was one wasted opportunity after the next.

The episodes had a few gems in them here and there but overall were pathetic re-hashes of past Star Trek episodes and THOSE were much better!

As for the series finale? THE WORST! I didn't even remember how bad it was until I watched it again. I'm glad to be done with this series and on to Enterprise. (which I'm almost done with as well)

I don't think I'll be watching this one again.

The BIG 4-0

Today I want to give a HUGE shout out to a brother I've known for 40 years to the day! I can't believe it's been that long! He's my oldest and one of my closet friends and I'm immensely proud of everything he's accomplished not only in his professional life but personal and spiritual life as well.

I love him and look forward to spending 40 more years, laughing as the best of friends.

Happy birthday Jeremy!