PLAYED FOR YOU

Elemon

Quest for the Philosopher's Stone

Festival International des Jeux in Cannes - during my walk through the halls I find booth, Olympie, obviously a distributor, because they also show a game from Quantuum Magic from the Netherlands and games from Red Glove from Italy. Part of the booth is taken by a publisher called Elemon Games, with a game of the same name, Elemon, in which alchemists are on a quest for the Philosopher's Stone with the help of fantasy creatures. Players embody those alchemists and hold four Elemon cards in hand at the start. You roll a die and move one of the two general markers, then you can use the power of the Elemon that you ended your turn on. Then you take two action markers and can use each one to 1) draw an Elemon card or 2) play an Elemon card from your hand or 3) acquire a Gigamon by discarding three identical Elemons and taking the corresponding Gigamon or 4) activate a Gigamon or 5) brew a potion or 6) produce the Philosopher's Stone. For actions 5) and 6) you discard the necessary Elemon cards. When you have managed to manufacture the Philosopher's Stone or if you have collected nine Alchemy Points from brewing potions and Gigamon actions, the game ends and you win.

Elemon is a game using standard mechanisms - collecting cards and exchange them for other items or using Elemon powers to hinder your opponents or to protect your own Gigamons. The game attracts attention due to the nice design and the cute Elemons, who can be found somewhere between Pokémons and the monsters from King of Tokyo - all in all a nice family game with good, concise rules, a touch above run-of-the-mill roll & move games.

Players: 2-6

Age: 7+

Time: 45+

Designer: Karim Aouidad, Emmanuel Gillet, Johann Rousell

Artist: Marie-Anne Bonneterre

Price: on demand

Publisher: Elemon Games 2014

Web: www.elemongames.com

Genre: Fantasy, roll, move, collect

Users: For families

Version: fr

Rules: fr

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Pretty components

Cute design

Short, good rules

Nice family game

Compares to:

All games where you collect A to then swap A for B

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0