The Binding of Isaac is a hugely successful videogame, and thanks to two extremely lucrative crowdfunding efforts that netted around $8 million, you could argue that its a highly successful card game as well. The videogame fits almost too perfectly into begin turned into cardboard, with its roguelike genetics being suited to the randomness of dungeon crawler, variable bonuses and and player powers sitting well within the tabletop realm. There's around eighty thousand people who have some kind of variation of the tabletop game. So surely its extremely good because well funded games are always amazing, aren't they. I'm approaching this as someone who is away from the hype canoe sailing down the river rapids of marketing and excitement and so this is probably going to be dull in comparison. I'm also someone who is a fan of the game, and has spent many an hour running around randomly generated dungeons of blood and filth. For those unfamiliar with the videogame, you play
2 players
Age 14+
Designed by Nikita Sullivan
Published by Atikin Games
This is the pre/review for Mini Memory Mischief which
should be launching on Kickstarter in the very near future. I haven’t been paid
for my preview but did receive a free prototype copy of the game. Atikin Games
is a UK based independent games designer/publisher, who successfully
Kickstarted Tri To Win in January 2020.
Mini Memory Mischief is a mint tin game where you
attempt to put letters in alphabetical order on a computer chip board. You have
one action which is determined by the roll of a die which you can either bank
in the “Buffer” section or play, and one action of your own choosing. However,
you can’t place the same action twice in a row, or elect the action that’s on
the dice as your chosen action, or pass on your chosen action. The actions are
to Push, putting a letter on your board, Pop, remove the top letter on your
board from the game, Peek, look at your opponent’s letters which are hidden
behind a screen, and Mischief allowing you to Push or Pop your opponent’s
letters. The game ends when either there are no letters remaining in the bag or
someone has filled all 7 spaces on their board. There are plus points for
letters in the correct alphabetical order and minus for incorrect ordering.
So, the game is tiny even for a mint tin game, and it has a certain nostalgic feel particularly for someone who grew up in the 80s/90s; the characters are computer hand drawn by Nikita and the components are charm bracelet letters which really took me back to 1992 art program drawing and holidays in Europe. The game play is surprisingly “thinky” with the decision of whether to work offensively and try to put as much rubbish on your opponent’s board as possible or defensively by taking the rubbish off of your own; however, it keeps to the suggested 10 minutes playing time so doesn’t drag with decision making. The rules are fairly good and concise though one or two little points weren’t entirely clear, such as when you use the dice and if you can pass on the chosen action. These are very minor points and we were able to play perfectly well with the rules as written.
Atikin Games, despite launching during the height of
Corona Virus, were able to print and fulfil Tri To Win so I have no doubt that
they’ll be able to have the same success with Mini Memory Mischief now that
things are a little less crazy. If you’re in the market for a mint tin game and
don’t have many 2 player games this nice little time filler is well worth
looking into.
You can find out more about Jenny's own projects by going to https://www.manokentgames.com/
Or follow them on twitter by https://twitter.com/ManOKentGames1
You can check out the other games Atikin Games makes by going to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atikingames/mini-memory-mischief
If you would like to support more written pieces on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon. www.patreon.com/werenotwizards
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