Game: Mechs vs Minions
Publisher: Riot Games
Designer: Chris Cantrell, Rick Ernst, Stone Librande, Prashant
Saraswat, Nathan Tiras
Year: 2016
Mechs Vs. Minions
is a 2-4 player cooperative programming game in which you take the role of one
of 4 mech pilots fighting their way through a campaign filled with countless
hordes of minions, comically large explosives where nothing goes as planned and
everything is all the better for it! Each of the missions is about an hour long
and they always unlock something new to the game which keeps things fresh. In
fact Mechs Vs. Minions is very good
and pulling out surprises (at the least up to mission 6 which is the last one
we’ve played so far) however I’ll say no more as I want to keep things spoiler
free.
The game is pretty simple to play everyone has a programming
board with 6 slots, at the start of each turn you take turns claiming four out of 5 cards which you can
either add to your board to get a new action, or discard to repair/change your
board order. These cards come in 4 colours, if you stack cards of one colour
then you can create more powerful actions, each colour has one card that
fulfils 3 basic actions, a movement card, a turning card and an attack card.
Once you’ve assigned your cards you then enact them, in order from 1 to 6. You
can’t skip out cards even if they don’t help you, which adds a lot of chaos to
the game. You may have programmed perfectly for last turn, but now you are
being forced to turn the wrong way and run away from your next objective! To
add to this your mech can get damaged which can take over your slots and send
you spinning around in the wrong direction (though if you are clever and lucky
you can use this to your advantage!).
 |
| The game's Tutorial set up for 2 players, each map tile is a 6x6 grid, on the right is the runic compass which helps you randomise directions as you play. |
In fact let’s take a moment to talk about quality, because
in this respect Mechs Vs. Minions is the best board game I’ve ever seen.
From the moment I opened the box I was taken aback, not only are there 4
charmingly painted player figures, there are one hundred minions (and yes
you’ll use at least most of them), a large bomb, several large plastic
“crystals”, special D12s, a mystery box that temps you sorely to open it before
it’s time, a huge sand timer, full metal coins and markers for the game
progress board, and all of it is in a wonderful specially moulded set of
inserts. The 100 minions are in 4 moulds, which would cause lots of packing
problems, if not for the ingeniously moulded slots which will hold any of the 4
sculpts securely. This is the best storage solution I have ever seen for a
game, sure the box is huge, but there is no wasted space. Everything in this
game is of the finest quality and that honestly brings a smile to my face every
time I open the box.
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| The 4 player characters and 4 different minion scuplts. The minions have had a dip in black ink, which isn't much, but it's enough to make the figures pop a little and it's greatly appreciated. The Mechs are all large figures which, while not the most detailed I've seen, have a charming art style and come fully painted to a decent standard. |
Mechs Vs. Minions
seems to be impeccably balanced for 2 players, while we haven’t lost a game
yet, we’ve had plenty of times when we were moments away from failure when we
won. It’s great fun and once we complete the campaign 2 player we are looking
forward to resetting the game (there are a few components that you unlock as
you play, but I’ll say no more) and starting up a 4 player campaign. Mechs Vs. Minions is quickly becoming
one of my favourite games, it’s already definitely made it’s way into my top 10
and due to the sheer quality it excudes I have to give it the highest score
I’ve ever given a game.
9/10
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