So Very Wrong About Games

4.2 (292)
Hobbies
Weekly

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.

1d ago

Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo

Invented proper names are fine and all, but come on, give me a context. Is Gunsen a person, place or thing? Is it an event, a state of mind, a code, a vibe? I am meant to believe that Toshi Ranbo is the big fortress in the middle, definitely unlike a factory or Mecatol Rex, but is a Toshi Ranbo truly the best of all Ranbos? I don't know. I asked Louie, and he seemed about to get to the answer, but I kind of lost the plot when he started showing me one of his framed Legend of the Five Rings card sets. I say one of, for there were several. Games Played Last Week: 01:26 -Ceres (Gustaf Sundström, Artipia Games, 2023) 06:49 -Sidereal Confluence (TauCeti Deichmann, Wizkids, 2017) 14:07 -Deckers (Richard Wilkins, Deep Print Games, 2025) 19:03 -Eternal Decks (Hiroken, tricktakers Games, 2025) 26:03 -Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014) 28:03 -Guards of Atlantis II (Artyom Nichipurov, Wolff Designa, 2022) 34:33 -Mountain Goats: Legacy (Alex Cutler, Michael Mihaelsick, & Stefan Risthaus, Allplay, 2026) 38:45 -Cthulhu: Dark Providence (Travis R. Chance & Martin Wallace, CMON, 2025) 49:00 -Rheinländer (Reiner Knizia, 25th Century Games, 2026) News (and why it doesn't matter): 56:11 Battlestar Galactica reprint by Ghost Galaxy 57:21 Tag Team: SNK Legends Iori Yagami bonus characer pre-order bonus from Scorpion Masqué 58:34 A Billion Suns 2nd Edition from Mike Hutchinson 59:59 Feature Game: Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo (Matthew O'Malley & Ben Rosset, Office Dog, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 27

Arkhipov Day

Nothing captures the fundamental duality for which SVWAG strives than our two patron saints, Vasily Arkhipov and Honky Chonk Beardonkadonk. We aspire to be both enlightening and diverting, embracing both the ridiculous and the sublime, while trying to be simultaneously erudite and stupid. It's a daunting endeavour, but then again, both Arkhipov and The Beardonkadonk put in the work. 02:12 AYURIS: Thunder Road: Vendetta--Maximum Chrome (Dave Chalker, Noah Cohen, Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, Brett Myers, and Brian Neff, Restoration Games, 2023) Games Played Last Week: 04:41 -Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014) 07:48 -Blood Rage: Valhalla (Eric M. Lang, Tycoon Games, 2026) 15:15 -Falling (Kentaro Yazawa, SUNNY BIRD, 2026) 18:19 -Regicide Inferno (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2026) 24:06 -Alibis (Yusuke Sato, Allplay, 2025) 28:02 -Starts With Ends With (Uncredited, Relatable) 30:27 -Bookshelf (Caezar Al-Jassar, Alley Cat Games, 2026) 33:08 -Opera Magna (Tommaso Battista & Stefano Castelli, Ludus Magnus Studio, 2026) 39:29 -Feya's Swamp (Helge Ostertag & Anselm Ostertag, Fractal Juegos, 2025) 44:19 -Got Five! (Yoann Levet, Blue Orange, 2026) News (and why it doesn't matter): 47:06 Creature Caravans expansion--more creatures, longer caravan 47:42 Feya's Swamp does mushrooms, and the ducks would like a word Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 20

The LOOP

Walker claims that his grandfather invented Crokinole, just because no one else is given credit. Next he'll be saying someone in his family invented poutine, or calculus even before Leibniz and Newton got to it. Heck, let's say an ancient Walker formalized Linear B and call it a day. 01:44 -Crokinole (Uncredited, Mayday, 2025) 04:40 -Spaggetin (Franco Spardo, Alley Cat Games, 2026) 07:34 -Galileo Galilei (Tomáš Holek, Pink Troubadour, 2024) 10:36 -Gunsen: The Battle for Toshi Ranbo (Matthew O'Malley & Ben Rosset, Office Dog, 2026) 19:16 -Regicide: Crown Duels (Paul Abrahams & Sketchgoblin, Badgers from Mars, 2026) 25:31 -Into the Machine (Kasper Lapp, AEG, 2026) 28:37 -Grabble (Naoki Fukuda, CMYK, 2026) 31:45 -Railroad Tiles (Hjalmar Hach & Lorenzo Silva, Horrible Guild, 2025) News (and why it doesn't matter): 35:30 Arkhipov Day! In recognition of Vasily Arkhipov saving the entire world on October 27, 1962, we celebrate Arkhipov Day on October 27th. 35:58 TurnSignal 38:37 Feature Game: The LOOP (Maxime Rambourg and Théo Rivière, Pandasaurus Games, 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 13

Regionalisms

In addition to using The Seven Years War quasi-exclusively to refer to that conflict, Canadians have a bevy of unique regionalisms to delight and confound our American neighbours. Our standards and measures are famously opaque, switching between imperial (a person's height and weight, distances less than ~100 meters) and metric (temperature always [except when baking], non-human weights usually, volume always [OUNCES DON'T MAKE SENSE, Y'ALL], most long distances [except when driving, then we use time]). There are more, trust me. 02:51 AYURIS: Fromage (Matthew O'Malley and Ben Rosset, Road to Infamy Games, 2024) Games Played Last Week: 06:33 -Deckers (Richard Wilkins, Deep Print Games, 2025) 10:45 -Salton Sea (David Bernal, Devir, 2024) 16:30 -Regicide Inferno (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2026) 20:41 -Regicide Legacy (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2025) 23:45 -Dune: Imperium--Uprising (Paul Dennen, Dire Wolf, 2023) 27:49 -Azure (Trevor Benjamin & Brett J. Gilbert, Bitewing Games, 2026) 29:34 -Sky Garden (Totsuca Chuo, uchibacoya, 2026) 35:15 -Ostia (Totsuca Chuo, uchibacoya, 2022) 40:43 -Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014) 45:02 -Romi Rami (Antoine Lefebvre, Randolph, 2023) News (and why it doesn't matter): 49:14 Witches of Willowspur by Devious Weasel in distribution, more to follow 50:30 The LOOP correction: expansions will not come bundled, to be purchased separately 51:05 Rebirth 2, featuring Greece and Italy 52:47 Magical Athlete expandalone, Second Wind 53:23 A Feast for Odin pseudo-sequel The Danes hitting crowdfunding soon 54:18 Arkhipov Day! In recognition of Vasily Arkhipov saving the entire world on October 27, 1962, we celebrate Arkhipov Day on October 27th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 6

Toy Battle

"Oh, boardgaming's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore it. They think it’s a righteous hobby." -Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day off, correctly observing that the hobby is for everyone Games Played Last Week: 01:13 -Revenant (Allan Kirkeby, Mindclash Games, 2026) 06:33 -Torres (Michael Kiesling & Richard Kramer, Rio Grande Games, 1999) (TIK JAV MEX Kramer & Kiesling 12:13 -Mein Lieber Scholli (Stefan Kloß & Anna Oppolzer, Zoch Verlag, 2024) 15:06 -Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars (Paolo Mori & Alessandro Zucchini, Ingenioso Hidalgo, 2025) 21:02 -Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014) 25:12 -All In: Predictions (Phil Walker-Harding, Next Move Games, 2026) 29:25 -The Court of Miracles (Vincent Brugeas & Guilhem Gautrand, Lumberjacks Studio, 2019) 34:08 -Pagan: Fate of Roanoke (Kasper Kjær Christiansen & Kåre Storgaard, Wyrmgold GmbH, 2022) 39:59 -Patchistory (Yeon-Min Jung & Jun-Hyup Kim, Deinko Games, 2013) 42:01 -Endeavor: Deep Sea (Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray, Burnt Island Games, 2024) 44:11 -Reef Gardens (Jeffrey D. Allers, dlp games, 2025) 46:48 -Got Five! (Yoann Levet, Blue Orange, 2026) News (and why it doesn't matter): 47:41 More Keep the Heroes Out: Keep the Villars Out! 48:37 Flintlock!: Global Warfare in 20 Minutes. Blitzkrieg! successor by Paolo Mori, Roger Tankersly, and David Thompson 50:44 The LOOP reprint 51:11 Arkhipov Day! In recognition of Vasily Arkhipov saving the entire world on October 27, 1962, we celebrate Arkhipov Day on October 27th. 51:26 Feature Game: Toy Battle (Paolo Mori & Alessandro Zucchini, Repos Production, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 29

Moving Day

We cover the gamut of historical figures this week, from shy spiders, Thor, the Italian Masters, Iggy Pop, Terry Bogard, and one underexamined and grossly underappreciated figure in the form of Vasily Arkhipov. He made your life possible, so you owe him at least a day. 01:07 AYURIS: D.E.I.: Divide et Impera (Tommaso Battista, Ludus Magnus Studio, 2022) Games Played Last Week: 04:01 -Patchistory (Yeon-Min Jung & Jun-Hyup Kim, Deinko Games, 2013) 07:04 -Grabble (Naoki Fukuda, CMYK, 2026) 10:47 -Creature Caravan: Wanderers (Ryan Laukat, Red Raven Games, 2024) 15:59 -Blood Rage: Valhalla (Eric M. Lang, Tycoon Games, 2026) 23:39 -Star Wars: Super Teams (Max Gerchambeau, Zygomatic, 2025) 27:09 -Claustrophobia 1643 (Croc & Laurent Pouchain, Monolith, 2019) 32:04 -Igloo Pop (Heinz Meister & Klaus Zoch, Zoch Verlag. 2003) 34:57 -Entropy (Tommaso Battista, Simone Luciani, & Nestore Mangone, Board&Dice, 2026) 41:36 -Rumble Nation (Yogi Shinichi, Hobby Japan, 2017) 44:25 -Tag Team (Gricha German & Corentin Lebrat, Scorpion Masqué, 2025) News (and why it doesn't matter): 47:53 Arkhipov Day! In recognition of Vasily Arkhipov saving the entire world on October 27, 1962, we celebrate Arkhipov Day on October 27th. 48:53 Tag Team expansions: Arthur's Legacy and SNK Arcade Legends (!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 22

How to Save a World

To paraphrase Sir Mix-a-Lot (O.B.E.), I like big bears and I cannot lie! Fat Bear Week is upon us. Let these corpulent kings of ursine excellence strut their stuff, and let us admire in awe at their tangible gains. These bears do not skip leg day. Some people have mukbang--we have out fat bears. Games Played Last Week: 01:05 -Panda Spin (Carl Chudyk, Moon Gate Design 2024) 05:04 -Brightcast (Nicholas Forker & Hugh Kramer, self-published, 2025) 09:10 -Landfall: A Cozy Volcano Island-Building Game (Evan Katz, Zachary Lee, and Josh Roberts, Evan and Josh's Very Special Game Company, 2026) 14:08 -Leaps and Ledges (Uncredited, MindWare, 2014) 16:44 -Spaggetin (Franco Spardo, Alley Cat Games, 2026) 20:24 -Othello (John W. Mollett, Lewis Waterman, and Goro Hasegawa, Tsukuda Original, 1973) 27:26 -Cyberpunk Trading Card Game (Chris Solis, WeirdCo, 2026) 33:50 -Floral (James Newman, Edition Spielwiese, 2024) 36:00 -Drillers (Roman Bednář & Adam Španěl, CGE, 2026) 41:31 -Jibber Jabble (Cassie Sikes, Allplay, 2026) News (and why it doesn't matter): 48:33 Got Five: Ghost! 49:26 Opera Magna: Throwback theme, novel distribution? 50:43 It's Fat Bear Week! https://explore.org/fat-bear-week 51:11 Feature Game: How to Save a World (Yuval Grinspun, Burnt Island Games, 2025) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 15

Games Catch-Up

With Walker imminently about to move (to Kingston from Kingston) and Mark still storing his games from the previous move, the overwhelming preponderance of the SVWAG collection(s) is currently shackled by packing tape. So much good design and fun toys yearning to get out! Alas, physical instantiation is a curse, the material world is a prison, and entropy always wins. Find me one realtor sympathetic to the specific needs of a boardgame collector, and that'd be something, at least. 01:12 AYURIS: The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game (Bryan Bormueller, Office Dog, 2025) Games Played Last Week: 04:04 -The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth (Thomas Sing, KOSMOS, 2026) 06:32 -Avalon: The Riven Veil (Jamie Jolly, Shadowborne Games, 2026) 18:14 -Got Five! (Yoann Levet, Blue Orange, 2026) 22:06 -Tiefe Taschen (Fabian Zimmermann, Fobs Games, 2016) 28:14 -Keltis: Dad Orakel (Reiner Knizia, KOSMOS, 2010) 32:16 -Regicide (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, & Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2020) 34:04 -Starts With Ends With (Uncredited, Relatable) 36:58 -Pacts (Ben Brin, DVC Games, 2025) 39:39 -Cyclades: Legendary Edition (Bruno Cathala & Ludovic Maublanc, Open Sesame Games, 2024) 47:24 -Race for the Galaxy: Xeno Counterstrike (Thomas Lehmann, Rio Grande Games, 2026) 53:53 -Railway Boom (Hisashi Hayashi & Simone Luciani, Arclight Games, 2025) 57:08 -Reef Gardens (Jeffrey D. Allers, dlp games, 2025) News (and why it doesn't matter): 1:00:44 Too Many Bones -> Too Little Time from Chip Theory 1:01:27 Cola Wars pulled from crowdfunding over AI generated art, will retool and relaunch 1:03:19 Antlanteum from Bad Comet 1:03:52 New expansion for Dwellings of Eldervale 1:04:39 New Deception in Hong Kong! No Murder, Heist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See All (434)

4.2

out of 5

292 Ratings

Compelling and relevant content

Aug 20

agrainofsand

My favorite board game podcast, always filled with relevant and insightful content (even if the news truly “doesn’t matter”). I enjoy the lighthearted banter (usually played off as semi-serious), the unhelpful summaries, the awareness of context and sensitivity to the lived experiences of others, and the great taste in games. Truly worth a try and you may as well just subscribe now!
Dice

May 8

Nick Bethesda

The singular form of dice is die
One of the Best!!

05/21/2025

MeisterDuct

Absolutely one of the best board game podcasts around!! I have been listening for probably over five years now and I greatly appreciate their insight into gaming and efforts to make the hobby more inclusive!! Keep it up y’all!! You make my week better!!
The Most Pretentious Board Game Podcast

03/30/2025

iamjacobrussell

Every word that comes out of Mark’s mouth fills the room with pompous arrogance. He makes you feel that having a differing option makes you less than. He definitely gets off by feeling like the smartest man in the room. He makes you feel like all the games you like are bad. 5/5 stars.

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.