by MacKenzie Bates -

MacKenzie – Best Games Fest

Turtle Wushu

“JSJoust but without the music and with plastic turtles instead of Move Controllers.”

The game was fun and fast. Does rely a bit too much on players honestly following rules such on only hitting hand, but when I played everyone stuck to them. I like the name and theming, but I don’t feel like gameplay reflects turtles. Turtles are typically quite slow and may make quick movements (snapping) occasionally. Would have liked to see gameplay feel like this if game is themed so heavily on turtles.

Unwanted Entities

“Gentrification: Moving colored popsicle sticks between sidewalk spaces.”

This game definitely has potential. The main things limiting the game on my play through were:

  •  The game master kept changing and adding rules as we were playing, which made it exceptionally difficult to strategize or understand if what I was doing was following the rules.
  • Cheating was pretty easy given how spaced out the game was (around a huge parking lot) and that there were shrubs obstructing seeing entire game space.
  • For the same reasons as it was easy to cheat it was also very difficult to know how other teams were doing.
  • At least in US, doesn’t really make sense for the “unwanted entitles” to be pale popsicle sticks and that the colored sticks push them out.

Mont Trottoir

 “If only hiking Everest were this easy.”

For sure my favorite game of the night. Loved the competition between the two teams and the cooperation necessary inside teams. Need to stay connected between turns kept all players engaged even if its not their turn.

Felt like some of the cards were a bit imbalanced or unnecessary. My team never used “Ice Pick” card even though teams start with 4. (Instead we just used “Base Camp” cards since they pretty much served same purpose but were better.) Use of “Avalanche” early in game seems to be what caused my team to win.

by swethak -

Swetha – Best Game Fest

Mont Trottoir:
Mont Trottoir was a game that was essentially trying to make us climb a horizontal mountain. It was a race between two teams of two; the intention was to get to the peak and along the way there were a variety of cards, robes, and techniques we could use along the way. One of the things that I felt was disadvantageous about the game were all the small components that make up the game; mostly it was the organizer who was talking us through each turn; it was also required to have a bystander monitoring the game since many of the cards required assistance of some sort (i.e some having to count two seconds, play a monster, etc). The game play itself was fun when we became acquainted with the rules; at the beginning we were very unsure and cautious in our turns however as we came closer to the peak, limbs were stretched, bodies were grounded, and it began resembling a game of twister with how convoluted our positions became.
The card aspect of the game was equally as interesting and although the cards definitely helped be out of a few situations, I am not sure if I actually liked holding them and having to take care of them as I attempted to stretch my body(certain others like dave remedied this by keeping the cards in pockets. Sadly girls’ pockets aren’t that large). The cards, once again, required the presence of a bystander player in order to collect the cards and put them into affect.

Step Ball:
Step ball was a game much like soccer or football. We could only take one step when the referee yelled ‘step’ and could then only throw the ball to each other (no running, jumping, etc). Although these rules also called for a ‘bystander’ player, I felt that he was acting more as a referee rather than just some awkward character looking in on a game of ‘twister’. The game mechanics were also easy to understand and also familiar enough that we did not constantly need to be directed. I especially loved how only being able to take one step made the playing field significantly smaller. I am bad at running and endurance so this gave me the chance the contribute to many goals.
An obvious advantage was the height of players; players who were tall good both receive and block easily and those with long legs could also make more use of their ‘steps’. In this aspect it is very much like basketball.