Games

I consider myself an avid board gamer. I’ve always loved them. Family night at my house meant hours and hours of monopoly. Even road trips required some travel version of Hasbro’s greatest hits. As I got older, I discovered some of the more complex board games and began what can now only be considered an unhealthy fascination with the genre.

I think of it as unhealthy because I will regularly fork over between $50 and $80 for a game that will inevitably end up on a shelf, having been opened once. You see. My friends don’t play board game. They either prefer role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, or just don’t waste time with games at all.

That’s why I love board game apps so much. Most of them let you play a full game against one or more computer-generated opponents. Some of them even allow you to compete against others through Game Center. Stone Age: The Board Game by Campfire Creations is one of those board game apps that let’s you play alone, with friends, or against perfect strangers online.

The goal of this empire-building game is to earn more victory points than your opponent. To do so, collect buildings, workers, tools, and specialists through collecting resources and trading with other tribes. The more bountiful your land, the more points you earn. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins...

Scotland Yard is a cops-and-robbers style evasion game that is a digital replica of the 1980s board game of the same name. Players take turns trying to figure out where the elusive “Mister X” is hiding out by tracking his possible whereabouts based on his movement abilities. If you can’t find him after 22 moves, then he has successfully outwitted his opponents. If you choose to play as Mister X, your only goal is to stay hidden until the cops give up.

The Scotland Yard app has been a popular board game app for iOS since its launch in May of 2012. The original European distributor of Scotland Yard, Ravensburger, has recreated the complex board game for iPad and iPhone and we wanted to know how it compares on both devices.

As a die-hard fan of the board game genre, I’ve spent some time with Scotland Yard on the iPhone, as well as the iPad and have an in-depth look at how the game plays on both devices...

Tiny Troopers made its mark on the App Store in June of 2012. The battle-heavy app mixed team-up gameplay with shoot-em-up action. The minuscule military men are back for more and Tiny Troopers 2: Special Ops is an excellent follow-up to its predecessor.

When I first started playing Tiny Troopers, the one thing that stood out to me the most was the use of military-related catch phrases. Every time a little soldier takes down an enemy, you’ll hear him squeak out a line like, “Hurrah!” or, “Open fire!” It was the thing that drew me in. Those little tough guys are so dang cute.

Tiny Troopers 2 incorporates all of the cuteness of the original while maintaining the manliness you’ve come to expect of war games. You’re not going to be sniping fools a la “Call of Duty,” but you can still get your shooter game action fix...