Roux Dat: The Phantom of the Opera, Red Carpet, and King of Tokyo Godzilla

We’re back from our recent trip to Orlando for Dice Tower East, so naturally, Mitchell and I decided to play board games. While waiting for Jeremy to arrive at the game night, we played two new-to-me games.

First up, the copy that I backed on Kickstarter of The Phantom of the Opera had arrived while I was out. Thanks to 25th Century Games, we have not had to hunt down copies of Geonil’s latest two-player trick-taking games all over the world. Instead, they come to us! The Phantom of the Opera allows players to play two characters, either the Phantom or the object of his desire, Christine. Like other Geonil games, the players are playing cards from their hands to determine the winner of the trick.

Notice that I didn’t say “trying to win tricks” — because in this game, players are trying to match the requirements of the musical notes on the cloth music sheet for that game. Some notes require the Phantom to win the trick, so Christine is trying to play a stronger card to prevent that from happening, but some notes require the Phantom to lose the trick, so Christine is dumping bad cards if she can.

If that weren’t tricky enough, each round, the players play a card to determine which value from the deck triggers an exchange of cards, and timing that switch at just the right time to win, or lose, a trick feels like such a clever moment. In terms of theme, I like The Yellow House better, but in terms of mechanics, even after only two plays, I’m beginning to think that this is Geonil’s best game yet.

Next up, Mitchell brought his newly purchased copy of Red Carpet published by Devir. This feels like an iteration on the “look at me” mechanic in Picture Perfect. Players are paparazzi trying to snap photos (by using their personal cell phone cameras) of celebs walking down the red carpet at a movie premiere. If that were the only thing in the game, I might lose interest pretty quickly, but there are some interesting additions.

Players are playing cards that maneuver the celebrities down the carpet, as well as their handlers, who can block the view pretty well, plus sponsorship logos which can score points. Throw in a vote as to the top celebrity in each category, and you have a surprising amount of game in a pretty short package. Yes, it can be a little mean, as players can really spoil the perfect photo opportunity that the other player carefully planned. But the game is short, so interactivity such as this doesn’t bother me as much. I enjoyed my play of this one, not enough to own it, but enough to want to try it at higher player counts to see how much chaos ensues.

After Jeremy arrived, we played my review copy of King of Tokyo Godzilla from IELLO and designer Richard Garfield. Jeremy is a huge fan of the IP, so I was happy to get him into the Gumbo Pot to play it live on stream (and to take the game home with him.)

This was my second play of this version of King of Tokyo, and although we did not have any events, I was able to utilize my evolution deck to hang in there and almost pull out the win. Of course, Jeremy has lots of knowledge of Godzilla and his history through all the different mediums, and clearly that helped him roll better to win the game. The production is absolutely gorgeous, with wooden components and beautiful artwork. This is the version of King of Tokyo that I want to play — fast, smooth and thematic.

Look for our playthroughs on all three games on YouTube soon. Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo

** Complimentary copies of some of the games were provided by the publishers. **