Epic Gumdrop Ep 6: IOS Boardgames

This week on Epic Gumdrop we look at IOS versions of boardgames, because sometimes playing Ticket to Ride by yourself in bed can be a bit depressing (and is the fourth leading cause of divorce in Canada).

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Ones we really like:

• Neuroshima Hex
  • While we love this game, we aren’t always awake enough to keep the order of events straight in our heads. The app simplifies/quickens gameplay and takes care of the accounting for you.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
  • The app reduces set-up time, does the accounting and looks great. It captures the look and feel of the game.
• Ticket to Ride
  • An essential app
• Suburbia
  • Nothing can induce us to pull the physical copy of Suburbia out for a solo game, a beauty though it may be. Plus the app adds great solo campaigns!
• Kingdom Builder
  • Kingdom Builder is a fun, light game that plays exactly how you’d hope it would as an app.
• Carcassonne
  • When don’t you want to bust out Carcassonne for a quick game? Now you can play by yourself long after the queue at the government office has moved past you, finished renewing their passports and gone home for dinner.
• Alhambra
  • Another light game that is hard to resist in any form. Jeff is happy to report the app now works much better now.
• San Juan
  • James bought this on a whim during holidays and played many, many games. And now he needs to buy the physical game to play with others.

Ones we like but would rather play the physical versions of:

• Forbidden Island
  • The cooperative game magic is somehow lost here. Looks great, leaves us wanting to play the physical game more.
• Tikal
  • A fun classic, but a bit dry without the physical expeditions racing for conquest over the board.
• Pandemic
  • Same as Forbidden Island. Beautiful app, but not my first choice. The physical game brings all the tension and fear which is missing in app form.
• Galaxy Trucker
  • Although it looks phenomenal, the silliness and laughter which makes the game better just isn’t there. Unless that’s people on the bus laughing at you for an entirely different reason. Did you leave the house without pants again?

Games we’d really like to see turned into apps:

• Machi Koro
  • Do we need to justify this? This app is probably under development as I type.
• Friday
  • We love this game. And would love it even more if we could play it at the dentist without having to push pokey things off a metal tray to arrange our decks.
• Space Hulk: Death Angel
  • So bleak. So Fun. So why not play by yourself in a dark closet in the middle of the night? This is another instance where good app AI with great sound could elevate an already phenomenal game.
• Race for the Galaxy
  • San Juan (above) made me appreciate Race for the Galaxy. Except I also want it as an app now too.
• Dominion
  • Dominion on desktop is fine and lovely, but where is that brilliant Dominion app we’ve all been waiting for? While there seems to have been some Dominion burnout I would think almost all of us would pick up the app to rekindle our spirits during long winter trips through the snow to gather water for the lord of the manor. Or whatever your particular situation is.
• Battle Sheep
  • Brutal fun for all ages! This great game in app form would be amazing.
• Flash Point
  • Sounds! Animations! Fire! Another tight game that would be so much fun to play in app form. Watch out for that hazmat!