Lost Cities: A good quick game

Here is a short review for a short game.

This is a fun little 2 player only game that my wife and I have enjoyed. When we play we usually play for a certain amount of time instead of a certain set of hands. There is definitely some strategy involved, mostly consisting of not discarding cards your opponent could use. I think this game would be a great tool for learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and could be a good step up for children who don't want to play a "little kid" looking game. I do recommend using something as a player turn token, especially if you are doing something else while playing.

 I am having a hard time thinking of anything else to say about it so, if there is anything you would like to add please do in the comments.

Unspeakable Words = unspeakable fun?

I'm a sucker for Cthulhu or anything involving H.P. Lovecraft and it's great when you buy something for its theme and also find a great game in there.  The goal of the game is quite simple and applicable to life: Be the first to reach at least 100 points worth of words without going insane. 

The components are very good, from the 5 cute little green Cthulhu pawns (great for stacking!) representing the sanity of each player to the wonderful art on the cards which include such favorites as: A Leng Spider licking a lollipop and a Vulthoom holding a valentine.

Scary word

The gameplay boils down to spelling a word out of the 7 cards in your hand.  The amount of points you earn for the word are determined by the amount of angles in each letter, for example: "E" is worth 4 points but "U" is worth none.  Now that you know how many points your word is worth you roll a sanity check with the 20 sided die trying to roll equal to or higher than the word's worth or lose one of your cutie Cthulhus.

How not to win: If you lose all your pawns, you lose.  If someone else gets to 100 points, you lose. If you lose all your pawns and someone gets to 100 you doubly lose.


Final thoughts: A fun word rummy type game with a good theme and high quality components.  My only complaint is that the game is too simple, but you could easily use another word game but keep the insanity and of course be sure to try out the optional rules, especially "The Unspellable Oath", where once you have only one pawn left you can turn in any combination of letters and score it because unhinged folks will believe anything is a word.  So, go out and get this game and watch you and your friends go insane with wordy-Lovecraftian-goodness!

Ahh, they want a hug