Tenpenny Parks
If you’re looking for a big bright themed game, this one would be pretty hard to beat. Colorful, carnival, die-cut cardboard, tiny wooden trees. Really nice looking. And it plays good too. Set collection, worker placement, tile placement, money management. Reminds me a little of Small World in that it’s a lot of pieces to get out and organize and move around, but you’re rewarded with a lot of fun.
Roar and Write
An unfortunate naming coincidence here: This is not Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n’ Write, but it is a bit confusing. They’re both roll-and-writes that involve animals, but that’s about as far as it goes. Nicely themed with custom dice and good artwork. There are individual player goals, but otherwise it’s solitaire. A short, light one. Nothing wrong with that.
Mountains Out Of Molehills
This is a fun one. Two different kinds of spatial thinking on a 3D board, with a little programmed movement thrown in. The components are ok, though the plastic molehills are a little weird to handle and the moles would be nicer as minis than cardboard standees.
Dodos Riding Dinos
This one was a brightly-colored zany race. I thought my kids might like it. There were some dexterity things to it. That’s about all I remember about it.
Santorini
I was skeptical of this. I’d heard about it before, but the cartoon-y box art put me off. It’s a surprisingly complex puzzle game and I enjoyed it a lot. I’d probably like to have a copy of this.
Ark Nova
This was the last game we played, mostly because of the hype. We didn’t figure we’d even be able to get through it before the convention closed, and indeed we did not. There are a lot of moving pieces here, but it does all fit together ok. Just a lot to take in. I think I’d like to play a complete game of it at some point.