I went to visit one of the tekeli.li forumites and we played games in
someone else's outdoor space for a change.
A couple of games of
VOLT to open, and
while there's still a place for Robo Rally in my games collection,
this really is the arena robot programming game I reach for first – in
part because it's so fast-moving when you start to take damage. Sure,
you shot me to pieces or pushed me down a pit, but I respawn next
round and dive straight back into the fight, with no messing about
with locked cards or restart positions to reduce my enjoyment.
Then Rush n'
Crush, a
racing game from 2009. Oddly, it doesn't restrict your speed in
corners; rather, the track is scattered with obstacles, and the faster
you go the fewer lane-change manoeuvres you can take to avoid them.
It's irksome that the actual number of lane changes is random (you
could be going at nearly top speed and get the full six, or slowly
and safely and get just one), and while the basic dice-pool mechanic
is quick to pick up there's still some need to look up specific cases,
but it's still a fast-moving and very enjoyable game. I'd be
interested in trying this again.
I'd agreed to teach Leaving
Earth, so
we set that up, effectively in full cooperative mode. Annoyingly,
Venus turned out to be possible to land on; otherwise we could have
scrubbed that mission off the board and won with local excursions. But
I think it was fun for the other players as well as usefully
instructional.
Lastly,
Hanamikoji,
which I've been wanting to try for a while. I still don't love the
theme, but at least it's not cheesecake; and the game itself is small
and ferocious.
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