HEROSCAPE (Hasbro, 2004)

You may have heard of HEROSCAPE either via the TV commercials for the game or you may have even noticed it on the shelf of any given mainstream department store. It’s been marketed mostly to older kids but the fact of the matter is that HEROSCAPE is a great game for gamers of all ages and experience levels that features very easy rules (including a basic, stripped down version for younger kids and a slightly more detailed set for experienced players) that incorporate a lot of gameplay elements that were previously only seen in more complex miniatures games like WARHAMMER.

Yet, HEROSCAPE is gloriously stripped down and action packed—it’s the kind of game where you’re rolling handfuls of dice into a box lid and everyone cheers when the old bones turn up a nasty surprise. However, it’s not all dice rolling. Positioning your forces and taking advantage of the terrain are just as important as getting good attack rolls, and if the gameplay isn’t enough to rope you in, the game box comes literally packed to the bursting point with fully painted miniatures and an amazing interlocking plastic terrain set that you can use to build any sort of battlefield you care to imagine—in glorious 3-D.

A set or two of HEROSCAPE can turn your kitchen table (or living room floor for that matter) into an amazing landscape where squads of various robots, samurai, Ninja, orcs, dragons, and other warriors from across time and any number of dimensions duke it out with a variety of weapons, special powers, and abilities. I think the game has a feel very similar to that of turn-based strategy games like FINAL FANTASY TACTICS, ADVANCE WARS, or OGRE BATTLE and if you’re into that sort of strategic planning coupled with some head-cracking action, then HEROSCAPE will deliver the goods in spades.

It’s ultimately a pretty simple game, but it’s also immediately enjoyable out of the box and before you know it, everyone will be bringing their own sets over to build even larger landscapes. There are plenty of expansions available offering new miniatures, rules, and terrain and it’s easy to add your own variations and “house rules” so the possibilities the game offers are pretty much limitless.

ZOMBIES (Twilight Creations, 1998)

OK, let me be up front about something regarding ZOMBIES. Mechanically speaking, it’s not very good. In fact, it’s fairly crude, simplistic, and almost infuriatingly repetitive if the game goes beyond two hours. However, the same criticisms could be stated about Lucio Fulci movies (ZOMBI 2, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BEYOND, et. al.) and I still love those as unpretentious, low-brow entertainment that appeals more to the gut than the mind or the heart.

Therefore it’s best to approach ZOMBIES as a sort of B-movie game that you play for the visceral kick that stems naturally from blowing the ever-living crap out of hordes of zombies with guns, grenades, and various other weapons of intimate destruction.

Players are represented by miniatures (affectionately called “Shotgun Guys”) that are moved around a city overrun by zombies while trying to find a helicopter landing pad that will fly the winner to safety. The town has to be explored first and the layout is different every game. While wandering the town and fighting zombies, it also falls on the players to loot stores, shops, and other public buildings to find new equipment and weapons.