Oh, Five Minute Dungeon. How I love you. Kickstarter games are fun, but sometimes they end up lacking in one element or another, most often the game mechanics. Not so with Five Minute Dungeon. This game is cute, complex, co-op (hurray!), and full of future gameplay potential. Also, just enough nerdiness to be playable by gamers of all nerd levels. Who could ask for more?
The premise is that you are on a dungeon crawl, working together to defeat monsters, obstacles and mini-bosses. You do this by matching symbols that represent items and skills. It is very quick moving (five minutes unless you want to keep progressing to new dungeons) and the count-down timer app (awesome idea) has fun and famous voices.
TGN scale:
Story - 4-6
I know I gave a range instead of a solid number here, but this game is uniquely hard to nail down for me. On one hand, the story is pretty standard nerd-stuff: fight monsters, use magic items, become a hero. Each person takes on a character, and each campaign is slightly different, but at the same time, the story, characters and backstories are sort of assumed. There isn't any depth to the story, but mostly because there doesn't need to be; the game makers assume that the nerds only need the suggestion of background and you can fill in the gaps. They're right. We already know what a Valkyrie is, we already know how to fight monsters, so there is no need to explain. On the other hand, if you don't know much about dungeon games or about fighting monsters, it really doesn't matter, as none of those things affect gameplay at all. Brilliant.
Immersive - 3-5
This one is a lot like the story rating. It does feel like a dungeon crawl, but only if you want it to. The game could just as easily be completely devoid of all dungeon elements, and it wouldn't change the gameplay at all. It might take the fun out of it, though. At least for me. So basically, it isn't as immersive as some nerdy games, but it does have lots of possible immersive elements.
Learning Curve - 0-3
This game takes almost no explanation to learn to play. You could literally be thrown into the game half-way through with no explanation, and still play comfortably. There is a bit of strategy, though, and the longer you play, the further you get into the game, and the more strategy required to beat those bosses.
Time - 0-5
5 minutes is as short as any game I've ever played. But if you prefer your dungeon games to last a bit longer (and who doesn't) then you could keep playing this game for several hours without starting over. Or longer. It took us several days to defeat the final boss.
Total - 1.75-4.75
If I was to average out this game to a single number, that would put it at 3.25. But I put a range on each of these because you imbue your own nerdiness level into this game. For some people, it would play nerdier than others. This game has the potential to be almost like a basic party game, with just enough nerdy elements to draw serious gamers. I played this with my boardgamer friends and then later with my sister-in-law who likes to tell me she doesn't get any of my references because she isn't a nerd. It was just as fun both times.
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