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Tag: Fairy Tale

** Fairy Tale (2004) – Satoshi Nakamura

Fairy Tale is a clumsy little card drafting game which predates 7 Wonders by 6 years and it shows.  Aside from being first, Fairy Tale offers nothing of interest that newer, better drafting games haven’t improved upon several times over.  I know many board game critics put a lot of stake in which-game-featured-what-mechanic-first chronologies, but I’m not one of them.  Of course I enjoy tracing the origins and influences of game systems and ideas across the years — a process I derive extreme personal edification from — but these reviews are about whether or not a game is good.  There are plenty of bad games with good ideas in them (in fact, I’d say most of them have at least one), but distinguishing the good idea from the good game is no simple task.  Be that as it may, let’s aim to do just that.  I respect Fairy Tale and the creativity of its design — especially for its time — but it is a dated, unpolished game that there’s just not much of a reason to return to 15 years after its initial publication. Playing Fairy Tale will feel very familiar to anyone who’s played more recent drafting games like 7 Wonders or Sushi Go!.  The game takes place over a series of rounds, players are dealt hands of cards, they select a card to keep then pass the rest to another player, and this goes on until everyone’s selected a full set of cards.  However, unlike those other games, Fairy Tale follows this drafting phase with an additional card-playing phase.  Players…