Robot Quest Arena Review: A Pillow fight in a Phone Booth
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 07. 2024
- Tom, Roy & Joey take a look at Robot Quest Arena!
0:00 Intro
0:59 Overview
5:20 Final Thoughts
Check out Great Tables, Games, & Bags at: www.boardgametables.com
Join the Dice Tower Discord here! / discord
Support The Dice Tower at www.dicetowerkickstarter.com
Support the channel by becoming a member!
/ @thedicetower
Subscribe to our newsletter, "The Dice Tower Digest": dicetowerdigest.com
Check out the friendliest conventions on Earth!
Dice Tower Cruise - www.dicetowercruise.com (January 15-21, 2023)
Dice Tower West - www.dicetowerwest.com (March 8 - 12, 2023)
Dice Tower East - www.dicetowereast.com (July 5-9, 2023)
Find more reviews and videos at www.dicetower.com
BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3... - Hry
Thanks for this awesome review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the game. :D
I backed this and didn't realize shipping is happening soon. What a great surprise!
Awesome! Glad I kickstarter it way back. Now my kids are approaching that intended age. Sounds like the wait is worth it.
One thing they forgot to mention with the 2-player variant of this game...each player controls TWO robots, but only uses ONE deck for both robots. This game is a great Dual game and can get quite competitive.
I played this yesterday. So much fun! My friend and I previewed this in 2022 at DTW, and we both immediately late backed it.
I loved the look and vibe of this game ever since the KS. I'm excited for it to hit store shelves so I can pick one up!
Played it 3 times now, 3 player game and a pair of 2 player games. All of the 7 robots were used at least once. So early review from me, but not just a single game review:
Overall: 9.0
Components - 9 : Cards feel good, boards are thick, tiles are thick, minis are well painted, and extremely durable and weighty. Only real complaint is the box to store everything in leaves the robots loose and packs the victory point in a little overly tight.
Accessibility - 9 : My family (me, 5 year old daughter, and wife) were playing within minutes of opening the box and everyone seemed to grasp it. Only real complaint was constantly needing to look up tiles effects, and if you get the expansion or KS tiles (which I did) those extra tiles aren't explained in the manual so your constantly cycling through different places trying to find the place the tile is explained. That said, for the most part it was pretty obvious which were good tiles and which were bad just from the apperance alone, so you only needed to look them up if some one ended up on one.
Fun Factor - 10 : I'm not sure my daughter has ever enjoyed a game as much as this one. I and my wife enjoyed it too, but legit, my daughter lost her mind with joy in that first game. I don't think she's had as positive a first experience in a game since Quest Kids.
Depth - 10: I actually think this game b rings more depth then a Star Realms (which I also love) because of needing to choose between using your currency to buy cards, move your robot, and or push other robots. Knowing when to shove some one off a key tile, move onto one of your own, move in so you can start smashing face, or buy stuff is not always obvious, and because there's a limited number of robot KOs before the game ends, its really easy to build the perfect deck just to realize it was all a waste because the girl with a handful of 1-2 cards and her starting cards has too large of a VP lead for you to make up.
Cons - Aside from the the aforementioned issues with the box and needing to look up tile effects, the biggest one is the end of game condition. This is an issue because this is a "highest points win" game where everyone's current points are on display like ascension (except there at least some of your points are hidden in your deck if they weren't writing everything down), so its been really easy to reach a point in the game before the game is actually over where its clear there's no realistic way for you to catch up with out KOing too many robots and thus ending the game before you bridge the gap. I really wish there was something a person in the lead had to do to actively end the game so I wouldn't feel so disincentivized to attack when I'm behind and the blue cube count is low. Since there isn't, your options at that point are basically to concede, or try to stall while collecting non-damage Victory Point generating cards, which is both annoying for everyone and generally unlikely to work out. That said, there are lots of games which end in conceding more often then they do in actual conclusions, so its not inherently bad, just not my preference. I will also note I feel like the go first advantage in this game is a bit much. Unlike their realms games, there is not only no penalty to your opening hand size for going first, you ALSO get first dibs on your initial spawn point which depending on how the boards tiles have been laid out, can be extremely valuable. Not that big a deal if your just using it as a family/party game, but could limit the games competitive potential.
Minor Disappointment - Unlike Hero Realms, robots don't have unique decks. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but it does make the robots feel a little less distinct from each other.
Final Thoughts : If you can get the game at KS prices, this is a no brainer pick up, but cost of material has gone up quite a bit since the KS (the base game is now 80 USD) so if you like deck builders but your on a tight budget, I'd stick to Star Realms / Hero Realms, or at least get them first as they are much more budget friendly and still hold up to this day. That said, RQA does offer a surprisingly unique experience from those, while clearly leveraging the years of experience making deck builders the developer now has, so if your not put off by the price, RQA is a great entry point as well. It's also easily the best if you want to play with 3-7 players as the Realms games are really at their best in 2 player. That said, even in 1v1 RQA still shines, and is easily the most kid friendly imagery of anything Wise Wizards Games has made, short of maybe Kapow, while not feeling too childish either. Just be aware your having robots hit each other with hammers and saws and acid and what not, so if you don't like any pretend violence, even robot on robot violence, you might still stay away.
Do you play with all the expansion and Kickstarter cards in one big deck?
@@lukedavis3953 We didn't in the first game, just the base game, but we've been adding the extra cards with each additional play, and will probably just play with everything going forward unless introducing new players, and even then maybe if only because it'd probably be tedious to remove the expansion/KS stuff from the stack. Doesn't seem like any of the expansion stuff is too hard to grasp, but still generally want to keep things simpler for newer players, so we'll see.
Dan thank you so much for the detailed review! Happy to hear you are enjoying Robot Quest Arena. If you happen to be at Gen Con this week, definitely stop by and say hello!
To handle stalling, we house ruled the game where if there are no KOs after X turns, we automatically remove blue cubes from the pool. X = more turns if we want to play a while, and less turns if we want to 'encourage' a more aggressive game. It makes it so nearing the end, players will do a *lot* to try and score some non combat VPs and get the final blow before the 'buzzer' rings!
Minor Update: Just wanted to note that at the time of that review, we weren't handling turn order correctly. There is a note in the rules we some how missed that you get starting victory points based on your position in the turn order. This effectively negates my complaint about going first advantage.
During the Kickstarter the company talked about approving the robots. The stepped on them, slammed them on the table and tried to break them. The redesigned them to not break that easy next time. And the robots are amazingly sturdy for this type of game. And they are still cute figures
That's really neat! A lot of games that are kid-friendly have substandard quality pieces.
Preordered this one right after getting home from Dice Tower East. My favorite game there this year
This looks amazing! Can't wait to get it for the family! Please review Animo the card game!!! 😊
My copy is coming tomorrow..can't wait!
I love this game. I love deckbuilding and the board and tactical gameplay adds a great addition to the deckbuilding formula. I would highly recommend giving each player some sprt of screen or opaque bag to keep victory points hidden, adds a great layer to the game.
It also would have been great if they provided rules cards for each tile. Then you could have had the rules cards on the side of the board for everyone to see. I may end up making some cards for that. I'll update here if I get some files uploaded to BoardGameGeek.
got my copy last week. It is exactly what I expected it to be a quick and light deck building robot fighting game
I just love art, kinda reminds me of Megaman
Note about 2-player games, each player is supposed to control two robots when doing that so each player still has two targets just like in a 3-player game.
I agree. This game is great. Just played for the first time yesterday with my wife we’re teaching our kids today
this game looks sooo fun!!! im definitely going to pick it up!
9:56 “I’m really in the mood these days sometimes just to blow people up” - Tom Vasel, 2023. 😂
I am very happy with this game. It's nice and direct, and it does play very quickly.
Hoping it does well and gets some fun, and innovative expansions!
I played it with my group the other day and I can't wait to bust it out again... for me this deck builder is sitting right beside Cubitos.
I read the title of this video and thought, oof, that doesn't sound like a good thing. 😂 Glad to hear that it's a fun game. I get my copy in 2 days, can't wait!
I thought the same thing. Lol
I have been dying for this review. Happy to hear y’all liked it. I can now feel good about opening my Kickstarter copy. 😂
On the list for GEN CON 2023! I had a little bit of hesitation given the price, but very likely it is coming home (if possible).
We will have special pricing at Gen Con for Robot Quest Arena and we are also offering a special price on our webstore pre-orders - $60 for the base game during the week of Gen Con, which comes with 4 robots and you can also buy two expansions (Kickstarter Exclusives will not be available). We will also have special pricing on our KAPOW! Dice Game. We have a large area in Hall B that is open in the daytime and evening, and we have a booth in the expo hall as well. Hope to see you this week!
@@WiseWizardGames And I bought it! Looking forward to getting it to the table!
This reminds me of a more streamlined version of Adrenaline
Ascension Tactics for all ages
This game looks like it plays weirdly like Ascension Tactics, just without the optional co-op and solo modes.
I like Tom’s comment…”Lately, I’ve just wanted to blow people up!”
Hope this gets to flgs soon.... Can't find it anywhere lol
Crap!
I was sooo interested in this back when it was on KS, but didn’t back it, afraid it was gonna be a dud.
Ah well… hope it comes out again on KS. And I promised I would backing less projects… dang it. 😬
Knowing Wise Wizads Games there will be plenty of Kickstarter opportunities to get everything in this game. They like to make lots of stuff from several of there games available in their pledge managers.
Was really interested in this but passed on the Kickstarter. Looks fun but still doesn't top Arena for the Gods. Not for me but seems like it will be a winner for a lot of folks.
Cuddly Road Vendetta? haha
This sounds like NOT Tiny Epic Mech but without the programming
Does it have market clogginess problems like Star Realms?
Did you guys play this with more than 4 players?
I have played this game. It is ok. If you can get a game called Adrenaline, it is MUCH better. Play Adrenaline instead.
Appreciate the advice, but someone like me with 2 kids at 10 and below, a game like this will still go off real well.
I like this one better.