Super Fantasy Boxed Board Game

For several years  Descent: Journeys in The Dark Second Edition  has fulfilled my "dungeon crawl" itch. However, even though I now own everything in that game, the habit of browsing online and in game stores for fun new quests to bring home hasn't gone away. I learned about this one in a Miniature Market sale and bought it from Amazon (still cheaper due to no shipping cost) after reading/watching some reviews and playthroughs.Compared to Descent, it's definitely lighter, simpler, and lower in production value. A few standout examples after my family completed one game:BOX/STORAGE: I like the size/shape of the box, although it's lighter weight than I'm used to and feels like it might tear easily. You can sort of flex it with your thumbs while holding it. The art is what drew my attention in the first place and is a good representation for how sillier it is than Descent. Everything fits inside just fine with a few extra plastic baggies, although it will definitely be messier once we have every standee inserted in its base, which wasn't necessary for our first game.STANDEES vs. MINIS: I didn't think the cardboard standees would bother me (my sons and I use standees in Pathfinder RPG), but there were a few times when my wife and kids confused fellow hero standees for monsters. I may try swapping them out with Descent minis, but I do prefer it when the art on the board is consistent with the player components (hero sheets). I've heard some complaints about having to insert all the standees in their plastic bases, but I didn't see the problem. Par for the course. I also appreciate the lower cost enabled by the absence of minis. As an odd added bonus, furniture is provided in the form of little wooden columns, chests, and barrels, which could stand to be painted but are still pretty cool. I can see myself reusing them in Pathfinder.DUNGEON TILES: Between Descent and Imperial Assault, Fantasy Flight Games has spoiled me in this regard. The Super Fantasy tiles are very basic, with very few that are smaller/bigger than 4x4 grid squares, and fewer still that aren't just grey stone color with one or two small flourishes (skulls, stains, etc.). That said, the art and style is consistent with the game's cartoony theme. They're not quite as thick as Descent's tiles but plenty strong. They don't interlock like puzzle pieces, though, enabling them to shift here and there during play. I found myself compulsively realigning them several times, though it wasn't a big deal. I just wish there was more variety in shape and setting. They are double-sided like Descent's, but instead of the indoor/outdoor variation, the other side is just more of the same. (There is one outdoor tile.) I have to wonder why they didn't just use a HeroQuest-style board instead of tiles when they're mostly square rooms that are always set up at the beginning.ACTION SYSTEM: Despite the fun art and lower price ($27 at the time), I wouldn't have tried this if I thought it was too similar to Descent or too watered down. Other reviews convinced me I should try it for the action allocation system alone. There are six painted wooden dice every player/hero uses on his/her turn, and any action they want to attempt will "spend" those dice. How many is up to them. For example, bashing an adjacent barrel takes a roll of 6 or better. Every die has two 1s, two 2s, and two stars. The stars count for whatever hero attribute corresponds to the attempted action--in this case, Strength. If the bashing hero's Strength is 4, the attempt could succeed by rolling a star and a 2--just two dice, leaving four dice available for additional actions this turn. However, it might also fail, so the player could decide to be safe and roll three or four or even all six dice, depending on how badly he/she needs that action to succeed. I agree with other reviewers that it's a clever and fun system, though I have to admit that it didn't take my family long to realize you still basically just have two actions per turn ala Descent if you want to succeed at them--and even then sometimes you don't succeed. I was drawn in by the lure of completing many actions on my turn, only to realize that doing so is usually a bad idea. Also, testing to do absolutely everything, including move a desired distance, meant playtime was slightly longer than we expected--though to be fair, we kept getting interrupted and had to play over several sessions.HERO PROGRESSION: This is one category where Super Fantasy might actually have a leg up over Descent. The hero sheets are large because they act as playmats in a way, providing areas for you to stack weapon, armor, item, and special ability cards--all of which simply cluster around the hero's sheet in Descent (unless you have an unofficial playmat of some kind). If bashing barrels wasn't enough of a video game feel for you, there's the fact that you have to "charge" your special abilities before you can use them, either as an action or any time you roll a star on any test. It takes three stars to charge each of three special abilities, which then reset after use. Leveling those abilities up is done by picking locks and damaging monsters, to the effect that your hero can reach full potential in a single quest. Sure, they start over again in the next one, but that means you don't have to play out an entire campaign just to see what your chosen hero is capable of. Campaign play is more of an afterthought in this game anyway, making it a logical progression system. A small caveat is that the difference between leveling up the hero and charging up a specific ability can be confusing, especially to young players. The game is labeled for 8 and up, but this is one mechanic that my kids constantly forgot. It probably wouldn't be the case after multiple plays, but in our first game I felt the need to keep a close eye on everyone's turns and remind them what to do when they rolled a star, picked a lock, or damaged a monster. It doesn't help that both leveling up and charging up use the same little black wooden markers, which can also shift during play. Something a little wider, flatter, and more colorful would probably work better.There are more categories I could cover (monsters, English translation of the rulebook, etc.), but I think I've gone on long enough. This game will never replace Descent as my go-to dungeon crawl; across all its expansions, Descent has more heroes, monsters, tiles, and quests; actual miniatures; and through the app, a great co-op variant to build on the existing heroes vs. Overlord system. However, Super Fantasy has its unique action and progression mechanics, a theme more accessible to younger players, and two competitive scenarios that pit heroes against each other. We enjoyed those differences enough to want to play again, and when the sequel  Super Fantasy: Night of the Badly Dead  goes on sale, we may pick that up, too.Photos:1) Super Fantasy box components.2) Comparison between Descent 2nd Edition Base Game tiles (left) and Super Fantasy: Ugly Snouts Assault tiles (right).3) Our game-in-progress during a break.UPDATE: We recently broke this out again after several years of rarely playing. I have to revise my stars from 4 to 2. Despite all that's interesting or different about this, it's just not as fun as it should be. It's always slow because we don't play often enough to keep the rules fresh in mind. Having to roll for movement doesn't help. The enemies are hard to tell apart and the looting items doesn't happen as often as you'd think. House rules would help, but there are too many better games out there to keep trying to make this one work.

Really fun game, but the production quality is VERY poor. The die-cutting "nubs" are so thick that most of the tiles were very difficult to punch. Yet some tiles had already fallen out and were laying loose in the box when it arrived showing extreme die-cutting inconsistency. Also because the "nubs" are so BIG, they remain sticking out on all sides of the punched pieces which look and feel horrible during game play. Lastly, the large tiles are all so badly WARPED that they are completely unusable on a standard kitchen or dining room table. We had to play on top of a towel to keep all of the room tiles from spinning! This is easily the lowest production quality game I own out of roughly 300 games. Very disappointed.

Challenging dungeon crawl game. The dice system for actions is unusual and a lot of fun for the first game or two, but eventually it becomes a chore working out all of the probabilities. I'll play it if someone asks, but I won't suggest it.

Great family RPG style board game. My 8 year old loves it and played with no troubles.

Very fun and high quality dungeon crawler game once I replaced monsters & heroes for miniatures.

Awesome 3-D dungeon crawler! One of my favorites!

Really cool game. Reminds me a lot of Zombicide. You have multiple premade characters to choose from and multiple quests to run. The game is a turn based dungeon crawler where the heroes take their turns and then the dungeon gets to go. Each quest we did took roughly an hour once we got going. I would imagine we cleared them a bit faster than the average group would. You can play alone or with multiple people. I personally really enjoy playing as the dungeon and going after the heroes. I took this game to my local game shop and played with several people at once. The long time dungeon crawlers felt right at home and the more casual player picked it up quickly enough to be enjoying herself by the middle of the dungeon. The game comes with a pretty decent amount of tiles, items, markers, tokens, and a variety of other stuff to use in the game. The art style is consistent and done well. The only con to this game is one that is pretty much standard in the board game industry: It is not a game you can just pick up for the first time and play. If no one is able to teach you the rules, you will need to invest some time into reading the rules and understanding how things work. Some games are better about this than others. This game is pretty average in that regard.All in all, my only complaint can't really be held against the game and all the things it does seems to be done fairly well. Great game at a pretty fair price point under 30$. Reminds me of several games I have played at much higher prices.

Stay away from this game and this company!! I don't write reviews often, but the quality of this game is trash. This company boasts about what it does, but never delivers. Check them out on Kickstarter to see what I mean. Terrible gameplay as well. Boring!!!