Lurker > Grand Kirby

Sorry, it's been a while since I said I would try to write up the thoughts about the games I mentioned, but work has been crazy for the past couple of weeks. I really want to try and get some done while I can though.

- Push -
2-6 Players
10-20 min play time

Rules: You start with a 120 card deck, the majority of which is made of cards numbered 1-6 in five different colors. On your turn you draw from the deck as often as you want, while placing the cards you draw into piles (up to a maximum of three), with the limitation that each pile cannot have more than one of the same number or color in it. With the number value of a card being how many points it's worth, your goal is to build a pile that is worth a large amount of points without "busting" i.e., drawing a card that you are unable to place into any pile. You can choose to quit drawing and end your turn whenever you feel like and can choose any pile you've made to keep for yourself, with the other players in turn order being able to pick up leftover piles. The game ends when the deck is empty, and players count how many points they've obtained with the most points winning.

If you do bust however, not only are you unable to keep a pile for yourself, but you also have to roll a die featuring every color (plus a neutral result). If you roll a color, you must discard every card you've obtained during the game of that color. To prevent this, on your turn you can choose to skip drawing cards to bank a color and keep the cards you have of that color safe for the rest of the game. There are also dice roll cards that can be arranged in a pile like any other that force a roll if you choose that pile.

Review: While ultimately a very simple game, Push has ended up being one of my absolute favorites simply because it contains so many great elements that make it an enjoyable game in many different ways:

1) It's Easy to Get Into. There have been plenty of times where my group start up a game and try to invite a friend to join who just doesn't feel up to learning and trying out a new game. But Push always has no trouble breaking them down. The rules and strategy are extremely easy to comprehend, and the game is very fun to watch other people play. It doesn't take long for anybody sitting in the sidelines to want to join the next game, and people from all sorts of different gaming experiences have an easy time having fun and doing well playing the game.

2) It's Fun to Watch. Continuing on that point, this is a fun game to watch people play, even if you're playing it and are just watching someone else take their turn. At it's core, a large part of the gameplay is deciding whether you want to push your luck and draw juuuuust one more card or not, and it's great fun seeing people struggle with the decision and egging them on hoping they'll blow it and bust. It's a game that generates great reactions as people despair if they bust or roll poorly, or even when they scrape by and do well when everyone expected them to fail. It's also often not easy to tell at a glance who is leading, and has a habit of generating unexpected victories which can be really funny.

3) It Combines Luck With Strategy. I know a lot of people might be wary of a game featuring a lot of luck, and I personally HATE a lot of dice-rolling games, but Push manages to find a nice balance where the strategy you bring to it still has value while still keeping things unpredictable. Even if your luck didn't go your way it always feels like you had an option to avoid it (Ended up busting? Well, you could have always just called it quits and taken what you already had. Lost cards to a dice roll? You always had the option to bank). While it ultimately is a party game in the end, it never feels like you're at the complete mercy of chance as there are definitely specific strategies and choices that will help you get ahead, but there's enough randomness that you can't rely on a singular playstyle to carry you through the game (which I feel ends up making a lot of games feel boring after a while). You do have to make adjustments and take risks sometimes which is fun.

4) It Has Great Replay Value. For one thing, because you never know what to expect from a draw or dice roll, each game will always be filled with surprises, but still on the subject of strategy I've noticed the game changes significantly depending on the number of players you have. If you have more than three players then you're not guaranteed to get a pile of cards every turn, which greatly affects the usefullness of banking. The more players in a game, the less turns and less chances you have to get cards, which encourages a more risky playstyle. Additionally, there's an optional rule where you can choose to make the neutral facing on the die change from "you lose no cards" to "you lose EVERY card". While a bit silly and unbalanced, it certainly keeps things interesting and swings things back around to making banking cards more important.

5) It's Fast. A game of Push shouldn't take more than 10-20 minutes (it's mostly dependent on how indecisive people act when the risks are high), and it's very much the type of game that people immediately want to play another round of after it's over. It makes a perfect game to act as a prelude to a longer game or while waiting for other people to arrive, and I've brought it to pass time at hangouts like getting ready to see a movie or other events. And in that vein...

6) It's Very Portable. It really is nothing more than a deck of cards and a die. It fits easily into any bag, and without the casing you can probably fit it into your pockets if you wanted. A great game to bring traveling that doesn't take up too much space.

7) It's Cheap. It's like $13, so even if you're on the fence about trying it out it's not a major commitment.

Overall, while it may not satisfy people who enjoy more serious and hardcore tabletop games, I think it's a game that's ridiculously fun and easy to jump into. The element of risk-taking and the excitement that comes from daring to push your luck as far as it can go is always an incredible feeling in gaming and this game distills it into a very fast and fun experience. As I said, it has such a low commitment that I highly recommended giving it a chance even if you're unsure. I think it'll pay off.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I really like these writeups, so thank you for doing them. Normally it makes want to get interested in trying out new games but for obvious reasons it's going to be a while before that happens...

One thing I've noticed is there are a fair amount of games I really enjoy that aren't on here, so I wonder if you've never played them or if you just don't like them that much. I haven't played a large amount of board games so I could understand if if we just have different libraries and tastes, but if you have the time I wondered if you could tell me what you thought of these games:

Push
Lords of Waterdeep
Impact
Villainous
Spyfall

If you want to hear my opinions on them I'd be happy to expound on them further when I have time.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

It's kind of annoying that all the balloons are colored red in the item menu...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Anyone want Anabelle the pangolin? She's in boxes right now

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

No, I hope they instead add more stories about her missing socks in a future update.

Call it the "Sock Update" and put a preview of it on their youtube channel.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

SantaRPidgey posted...

My mom got kicked off selling turnips because server maintenance started

if only there was like, a daily announcement system that could notify you when this was going to happen

Uh... it does tell you in game when server maintenance is going to happen. It tells you when you log on, and it tells you about 10 minutes in advance before it actually happens. So...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I think the fall update is definitely going to add the crop growing system and have it tie into the Harvest Festival.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Don't know if you've seen this yet, but this is incredible:

https://youtu.be/Xv5N5TlfDTs

I had to rewatch it to spot all the joke forgeries in the background.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

King of the Hill is amazing. When it first came on tv I really disliked it, but as I got older I began to appreciate the subtle mature humor a lot.

Let me know when you get to the firefighter episode

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Invisiballs

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I'd put speedrunners in the same category as people like this though. I saw a clip of a guy who failed after a six and a half hour speedrun because an attack missed in an RPG. And then there are the people who speedrun super luck based stuff like Mario Party or try to speedrun collecting every card in a YuGiOh game. Is it wrong to consider those people as wasting just as much time?

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I only ever review games I've never played.

On that note, while I've heard everyone talking about it, I have no idea what Ghosts of Tsushima is. I don't know what genre it is, who made it, why it's so popular, I haven't even seen a screenshot... I should really review it.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Is it any worse than FFIX perfect saves? Which, aside all the hidden bullcrap you have to put up with, having to get enough items to synthesize into other items, having to deal with the fact that how much your stats increase on level up depends on what equipment you have on them at the time, having to collect all the cards AND level them up... in addition to all of that, you had to speedrun it in order to get Excalibur II...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

There are more Paper Mario games that aren't RPGs than ones that are

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/grant-imahara-dead-mythbusters-host-was-49-1303101

This hurts.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I laughed for like a solid minute

https://mobile.twitter.com/cthulhu_chan_/status/1281652803560062976

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

When I was a kid I had this idea of making a video game where one out of 10,000 copies would have some completely random unexplainable thing included in the game that the regular copies wouldn't. Something incredibly stupid and unbelievable, like a rap number featuring a singing and dancing microwave in the middle of an otherwise realistic game, so that if someone talked about it online or something everyone would just assumed they were trolling.

In retrospect, it wouldn't work in these days, since sharing gameplay footage and datamining are normal now, but a man can dream...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

https://www.reddit.com/r/KindnessAC/comments/hmsys3/psa_regarding_mermaid_furniture_glitch_update/

Something to be aware about. A glitch involving collecting mermaid furniture.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

DKC3 would be the most overrated if anyone dared to rate it positively by any metric

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Okay, the best thing about this is the return of Classified Information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnf_XIZiNlQ

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Wasn't The Immortal the game AVGN did an episode about?

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Is anyone interested in collecting Snorkels? My Able Sisters is selling every(?) color today. They have Gray, Red, Pink, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Mr. Green. And then he went home to sleep with his wife.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I've been trapped in Eryth Sea for two weeks now.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I mean this is basically like every week for the past four months

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

There's nothing that compares to the Banjo-Kazooie one

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I'm already playing Jackbox...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

skullbone posted...

I'm a theater fan and I've never seen Hamilton but I also don't have a strong desire to see it either. Something about rapping musicals comes off as really cringe to me.

I'm going to say presenting the cabinet debates as rap battles is an absolutely wonderful decision.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I just saw it.

...It was cool.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Yes. Joycons

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Probably Kid Icarus Uprising. I don't 100% games that often, and that one was a piece of work.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

The showrunner tweeted a hint about this the other day and I thought it was a joke at the time

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Open for a little bit for Agent S' birthday if you want to give her a gift

Edit: Closed, since I'll be busy for the rest of the day, but if people want I can open later tonight.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

It definitely feels like if you run away from a battle you don't have the advantage of the "buffer" that prevents a new encounter from popping up immediately.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I had two "birthday parties" with two groups of friends. In the morning in Animal Crossing and in the evening an all night Jackbox session on Twitch.

It was nice

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

If it wasn't an option I was going to submit the Feel Good Inc. version. It has supplanted the original song for me.


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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Half of this video was a review of the toys

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I actually really wanted to know this too.

From what I can gather AWR isn't the original graphics, but it's tries to make a more coherent graphical style that resembles the original in some ways, but improves other effects, like monsters graphics.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Is there anything in the patch notes I should pay attention to? Because I hate the way they're written and I can't make any sense on what actually is changing.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Should have just ordered none pizza with left beef

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I just have a cereal container. Much easier and better than any other way.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

*I know the answer that will probably come to mind will be something like a game you bought that was terrible and you'd consider a "waste of money", but I mean literally. Like, you spent or gave away money, and received NOTHING in return for it. Not even something undesirable, you just completely threw it away.

For example, a dental office opened near my job and for the grand opening they sent a representative over to try and get people to purchase a teeth cleaning session for $40. I didn't really want to do it, but the person kept on badgering me about it and I gave in. I assumed it was a good deal, and I wouldn't miss the money if I was disappointed in it. Later, when they called to set up the appointment I realized it sounded fairly unpleasant, and I was sure they were going to try and upcharge me and get me to schedule future work, and that I'd probably agree to whatever they tried to sell me again. So I just never went. I basically just threw $40 away. I kind of feel bad about that.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

https://youtu.be/_XkKufyIiAY

Heck yeah

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

It's... interesting when you have Reyn and Sharla in your party and Sharla's "I could really use a shower" victory quote is followed by Reyn's "Good thing I'm here"...

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I literally got a news notification about this on my phone. Wtf

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Min Min is also waaaaaaay more popular than Spring Man overall though

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

I think it's clear that a character is more likely to get in if an interesting moveset can be made for them. A lot of the Fighter's Pass characters so far have been a showcase of new ways for fighters to have abilites and unique moves.

The Driver/Blade combo that Rex brings opens a whole world of fun gameplay ideas that I'm sure Sakurai would like to try and bring to the table. I think that's why he (or at least some other Driver) has a very high chance of making it to the fighter's pass, over any other reason.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

https://twitter.com/Cake_Mage/status/1276622555537801216

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

Anyone want the Golden Dishes DIY? Olivia is crafting them. I'll open if people ask.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan

...and it's NOT Just Dance

https://nintendoeverything.com/shakedown-hawaii-coming-to-wii-and-wii-u/

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan