Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze Review

Have you ever loved something SOOOO much and thought that it could never be improved? Like when you were going hard on Mountain Dew until you tried the infinitely superior Mountain Dew Code Red. Just think back to the time its cherry-flavored goodness touched your tongue and sent shivers of excitement down your spine, because you knew you could never be satisfied with any other pop (I’m from the Midwest. It’s pop.). This is my exact feeling upon playing Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze. Before playing this absolute gem my favorite game of all time was Unmatched: Cobble & Fog. It is simply amazing, and is so far my favorite of the Unmatched box sets. But there’s something about this new one. Read on to discover why we think this is the best box yet.

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze takes the basics of the Unmatched system and turns it upside down by having the players no longer fight each other, but a common baddie in the forms of Mothman and the Martian Invaders. The town has come under attack by said baddies and it is up to a group of stout heroes to save it! In this version of the Unmatched system, the players play cooperatively with new Villains, Minions, Heroes, and Sidekicks on a special double-sided map board.

DISCLAIMER: I will NOT be detailing all the core rules for how to play Unmatched. For those, please CLICK HERE to read my review of Unmatched: Cobble & Fog. Take most of those rules and instead of attacks against another player, redirect them to the bad guys. Nuff said? -T

To setup, please refer to the rulebook. Setup is mostly similar to that of the competitive game, but with some added rules for the cooperative mode. These include changes to Minions and their respective decks/tokens, a new Doom token mechanic, and any other scenario-based setup differences.

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze utilizes a great randomized Initiative track by way of shuffled Initiative cards that are revealed after each character’s turn has completed. As before, a player character will have two actions to spend on three different choices: Maneuver, Attack, or Scheme. The same action may be chosen for both allowances. The scenarios played offer different objectives the players will need to complete in order to win the game, and are explained in depth in the rulebook. For this review we chose to play against the Mothman. Its Minions, as shown in the photos, were Ant Queen and the Tarantula. The players chose two characters from the Tales to Amaze box: Annie Christmas and Golden Bat.

Once all player have taken turns according to the drawn Initiative, all End of Round actions are performed for the baddies in Initiative order. These could range from having players discard cards from their decks (which is really bad when these decks run out), adding Doom tokens to the board, or other annoying tokens to the board. In these ways the game forces pressure on the players to strive toward victory at an ever-increasing pace.

Players win the game when they prevent the main Villains from completing their objectives. This is done by defeating the Villains. Easy right? Well, yes. But also VERY no. The Villains each bring two Minions with them that cause all kinds of havoc for the players, and though the Minions are not needed to be defeated in order to win the game, having them… dealt with is a major boon for the players. When either the players defeat the Villain or the Villain achieves their goal the game ends and all players immediately run through each of their turns internally, but with different choices being made along the way. Every time I have played this game I have wanted to replay the scenario, but with different character combinations to see what might be a more cohesive team.

Components. This, along with most all of Restoration Games’ productions, is a stellar box of high-quality bits and components. The boards are all great quality. The cards are great too, even the smaller Initiative and Event cards. The minis are well-done, and the art style is typical of the Unmatched system, which is EXACTLY my style. I have zero qualms about component quality or aesthetic choices. A+ all around.

What really gets me is the ability for this game to be nearly infinitely customizable. Now, I say nearly because at the time of this review, only the Mothman and Martian Invaders Villains are available to be played. Will this change in the future? I sure hope so! Adding smaller box Villains/Minions expansion boxes would certainly be doable and an easy insertion into the game. The drawback here would be that the game board is specific to the included Villains. If more imaginative folk could conjure up new scenarios using the same map boards, that would be money in the bank. The positive of this game being customizable is the fact that you can add/use ANY playable character from ANY released Unmatched box. Laura and I played a game where she used Houdini and I used Dr. Jill Trent from this box and we handed Mothman a loss pretty easily. However, the playthrough featured in this review was a horrible horrible loss for the heroes.

It has been such a joy to be able to play in my favorite gamespace within the Unmatched multi-verse again. I have always enjoyed the ability to mix and match characters from different boxes into my games, be it Dice Masters, the Funkoverse Strategy games or even Marvel United. The Unmatched system just happens to feel PERFECT for me and the types of games I love. I am very much looking forward to pitting Sherlock Holmes and Sinbad against the Martian Invaders, because why the heck not? Imagine THAT weird movie!

All in all this is just a wonderful implementation of the Unmatched system, and the decision to utilize characters from all sets in a cooperative manner was just a stroke of genius. We at Purple Phoenix Games give this an absolutely energized Golden Feather Award! This is the game I didn’t know I needed, but have been blessed with its Ambrosiac mechanical qualities and bliss-inducing art style. This is the Unmatched game for us, and we sincerely hope that there is more in the pipeline for the Unmatched Adventures line of games. #teamsherlockforever