Card Game Reviews

At its heart, Steve Jackson’s Munchkin is a simple game. Players assume the role of adventurers hacking, slashing, and looting their way through a dungeon, fighting monsters (and often each other) on a quest to reach level 10.

These power-hungry munchkins can play all manner of cards to help them, including weapons, armor and other magic items, as well as special species and class cards. It’s simple … but often devilishly hard to track. The Munchkin Level Counter app ($4.99, Steve Jackson Games) adds to the complexity, but also brings some new tools for managing it.

The Martians have landed. Their goals remain uncertain; indeed, they seem to change continuously: one moment they're attempting to capture Washington, D.C., the next they're trying to abduct humans, only to turn their attention to the great cow menace. Of one thing, there is no doubt: once the Martians figure out what they're doing, we're doomed.

This is the premise of Martian Fluxx, a card game by Loony Labs that's expands upon the rules of its popular Fluxx card game.

"Six men came to kill me one time. And the best of 'em carried this. It's a Callahan full-bore auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun." -- Janye, Firefly

That quote is the reason why Borderlands rocks. Sure, it's a competent shooter with some basic role-playing aspects thrown in, and yeah, it's got kick ass multiplayer campaign, but in the end, it comes down to the guns.

More specifically, it's about finding your very favorite gun.

Munchkin Cthulhu is the umpteenth expansion in Steve Jackson Games' venerable card game line dedicated to killing monsters, stealing treasure, and stabbing your buddy in the back.

This time around though, the game is infused with horrors from beyond time and space drawn from the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft ... and a new game-ending mechanic that eliminates one of Munchkin's biggest flaws.

My long, dark tea time of the gaming soul came in 1995. I was one year out of college and having no luck finding a regular Dungeons & Dragons game. I was working at a daily newspaper in Stroudsburg, within walking distance of a comic book store on Main Street.

• Blink
• Out of the Box Games
• MSRP: $9.99
• Web Site: www.otb-games.com
• Buy it from Amazon.com

Blink is a rapid-fire card game in which two players attempt to match shape-filled game cards as quickly as possible based on design, number or color. It’s also become our stocking stuffer/birthday present of choice in the Newquist household.