Popular Mechanics - USA (2021-11 & 2021-12)

November/December 2021 75

GAME AND TOY AWARDS

BEST DICE GAME

Cubitos $60

As the giant cheese-person on the box suggests, Cubitos will not be the

most serious board game in your library. In it, players are racing to the

finish line as quickly as possible by using custom dice to roll, re-roll, and

roll again so that they can move, collect credits, and use special powers.

The exciting thing is, every time you play, the dice have different abili-

ties, and if you roll too many blank dice faces, you’ll bust and miss out on

moving and buying new dice. Do you try to buy a few Reckless Cheese

dice that let you move a lot but risk

busting? Or hope that a Rollasaurus

die will land face-up and let you move

four spaces right away? Such are the

high-stakes choices you’ll face.

We like Cubitos because it’s silly,

fun, and surprisingly easy to learn.

Plus, in our experience, players really

like rolling a lot of dice at the same

time, and it’s built for that. With

multiple abilities per die color and

many different race tracks, Cubitos is

highly variable and appeals to players

looking for a fun racing game that’s

quirky and colorful.

BEST STORY AND ART

Sleeping Gods $100

For players looking for a longer experience, Sleeping Gods is a hefty

title that promises up to 20 hours of gameplay per campaign. You play

as the captain of the Manticore, lost in a strange sea under a stranger

sky. As you explore, you will need your wits and the skills of your crew to

find totems and wake the gods that have the power to send you home.

Not just a visually striking experience, Sleeping Gods also has a deep

and interesting narrative fueled by player choices as they cross the

seas. Help, ignore, forsake, fight, or even steal; all of these options are

available to you in various narrative quests you can try. Even with a map

and all the answers, the campaign may not be the same twice because

new cards and new questions emerge after every play.

BEST PUZZLE GAME

Exit: The Sacred

Temple $25

Exit: The Sacred Temple is a new

spin on the popular single-use

escape-room game series. Here,

players have to assemble four

puzzles over the course of a few

hours in order to get the tools and

clues needed to solve mysteries.

We’re fans of the Exit series

at large, and we love what the

publisher has done with these

puzzles. Originally, they were just

on cards, but adding the jigsaw

component makes the game feel

more tactile and interesting.

MOST INNOVATIVE

Sonora $30

In the past couple of years, roll-and-write games went from a relatively

obscure genre to a fairly popular one. It stands to reason that we would

start seeing variations on that emerge, and Sonora purports to be the

first “flick-and-write.” It’s essentially four different mini-games, with

your flicked disc determining which you play. This may mean exploring

the ruins, the canyon, the mud cracks, or the creek bed, if you want to

win. Each area plays differently, as well.

Dexterity games are some of our favorite in the genre, and Sonora

does a great job giving players a colorful backdrop to flick these discs

into. We were impressed with how puzzly Sonora is, and each of the

four different mini-games within it is a cool experience.

B E S T M E C H A N I C

Sorcerer City $50

Sorcerer City has players take on

the role of local magicians tasked

with rebuilding after monsters

attack. Unfortunately, those

monsters keep attacking, so you

keep rebuilding—quickly.

The game’s a blast if you enjoy

playing in real time; a winning

strategy requires quickly decid-

ing which tiles to buy, where to

place those tiles, and dealing

with monsters. And you have to

do all of that on a tight timer.

LAKOTA GAMBILL (EXIT, SONORA); COURTESY RED RAVEN GAMES/CATHY BOCK (SLEEPING GODS); COURTESY DRUID CITY GAMES (SORCERER); COURTESY AEG/BOARD GAME PERSPECTIVE (CUBITOS)