We’re kicking off the year with a much-requested video! Today Matt will be talking you through his relatively trimmed-down collection of board games, taking you by the hand and walking you through a mental corridor of joy, shame, and occasional warmth. We actually recorded this after PAX Unplugged this year, which explains a handful of references that don’t quite make sense, and why Matt looks a bit like a semi-retired yeti. If you missed Quinns’ collection video from last year, go and take a peek!

Do you like GUNS? Do you like CARDS? Do you like GRIEF? If the answer to any of those questions is “Kind of?”, you’ve got to check out Undaunted: Normandy. Not only is it the greatest World War 2 game to come out in forever, it’s deliciously cheap. What else is there to say? Except, of course, that we could not be more excited for Undaunted: North Africa later this year.

Greetings, Warfans! If you love military sabotage and/or ASMR, then we’ve got some fairly mixed news for you. A War of Whispers features almost nobody speaking very, very quietly – but might be the Game of Thrones Game that Matt has always dreamed of. This is a simple, small box that does a great deal with very little – and is one of the most immediately exciting designs we’ve seen in years. Enjoy!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s yet another collectable card game from Fantasy Flight, launched from the giant collectable game cannon that sits on top of their headquarters. After being blown away by Arkham Horror: The Card Game and stunned by Keyforge, what will our team make of Marvel Champions: The Card Game? Will this game make it a hat trick? Or will it bring with it the sequel fatigue of Marvel movies?

Somebody help us, they’ve only gone and made more. Azul: Summer Pavilion is the latest (and perhaps greatest) in the Azul expanded universe, and reviewing its wonderfully smooth and bevelled edges has driven Matt insane. Watch, in abject horror, as he talks at length with our latest Bintern, Big Bin Barry.

Hot off the back of Mr Matthew “Stab u in the back” Lees declaring A War of Whispers as being the Game of Thrones game he’d always wanted? Mr Quintin Smith bounds onto the stage, saying almost exactly the same thing about The King’s Dilemma – but for very different reasons! What a fantastic year for people who want to pretend they own a cloak whilst being a detestable self-serving dingus.

In this week’s review, Matt goes on a voyage of discovery into the wonderful world of Bunny Kingdom, and takes a quick detour through its expansion – Bunny Kingdom: In The Sky. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it somewhere in-between? Boy, does this review have at least one of these opinions to share with you. To say that Matt got lost in the world of Bunny Kingdom would be an understatement – he was last seen eating fistfuls of carrot near an industrial estate in Milton Keynes. “It’s for my art” he reportedly yelled at a shocked elderly couple investigating the commotion, who were slightly disturbed by how much he really did look just like a real rabbit. If anyone has information as to Matt’s current whereabouts, please do let us know. Our HR department almost entirely has his best interests at heart.

This week Matt begged Quinns to revisit a topic he’s talked about a little before: what tips could he impart for mastering “The Teach”? It’s the hurdle that stops so many from getting into the hobby – the stumbling block that has seen a many an evening of potential jolly cardboard fun veer off-course into a scene of pure disaster. Whether you’re a seasoned somelier of analog fun or someone who needs the confidence boost to go for it and host, we don’t think there’s any better source of knowledge for teaching people how to teach a board game.

This week’s review puts the EXTRA into extraterrestrial, as Matt and Tom dive into the murky cupboard of Awaken Realm’s Nemesis. Please do note that this video contains scenes that younger viewers may find either awesome or mildly distressing, and finally – should you spot any of the hidden wires used during the special animated sequence, we’d ask that you don’t spoil the wonder of cinema by pointing them out to other viewers. Have a lovely week… IN SPACE.

Unmatched is a bewitchingly sexy game to collect, it’s a fab little fighting game, and it takes just 20 minutes to finish a whole game. Unless you include the rules explanation, then it takes just 22 minutes.

How much do you love your mum, Harry? This week we’ve got the timely review of a party game that involves everyone taking it in turns to touch the same hard plastic surfaces over and over again. Wavelength is an absolute joy, and potentially the perfect fit for Party Game Playable Over a Webcam? Just make sure your uncle promises to close his eyes when it isn’t his turn to look.

In this video Quinns tackles no less than five of the greatest card games to come out in years. In order of appearance, we’ve got Mandala, Bruxelles 1897, Air, Land & Sea, Tournament at Camelot and The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine.

After years of ragging on 1 player board games, it’s time for SU&SD to eat crow. It turns out that solitaire games can be fun, if they’re consumed in a rational and safe fashion. We’d wholeheartedly recommend Aerion, Kosmos’ new Adventure Game series, and then also in this video there is The Hunted: Twilight of the U-Boats.

Tom’s been dealing with isolation in the only way that anyone reasonably can: inventing ludicrous stories of wizards and tentacles, and then drawing them onto a fictional map and pretending that everything is totally fine. Find out why 2020 might be the perfect time to revisit The Quiet Year. Oh! And this is Tom’s first solo video – hasn’t he done well? What a nice young man, here’s 50 pence – don’t spend it all in once place.

It’s time for us to apologise the only way we know how. By smearing raw egg on Quinns. If you caught the first instalment of our Solo Special, you’ll remember we didn’t always find 1 player games easy to recommend. But since then, Quinns has disappeared into the wild thicket that is absolutely free print’n’play solitaire games, and we’re not sure he’s coming out.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who saw the child-like glint in Quinns’ eye during last month’s 1 player print’n’play roundup, but this week, we’d like to present even more nearly-free games for anyone to enjoy during self-isolation. Included in this roundup are are spritely Agent Decker, the cleanly The Cleaner, the sprawling Sprawlopolis and the startlingly compact Under Falling Skies.

What’s that sound? Oh, it’s just Richard Nixon hurtling towards you at breakneck pace, making sure that you never say another word about his precious Watergates. Don’t trust the press, kids; those things are providing high-quality clean energy to all of America and the stories of ‘walls made of cardboard’ and ‘the electricity just powering a big slush puppy machine’ are completely false. And the boardgame of the same name? Don’t make me laugh. Look, what I’m trying to get at is that I’ve gone and done a review of Watergate. My brain is unbelievably smooth right now and this is all I’ve got, folks. This video failed to render 22 times today, and now I’m going to eat a yogurt and fall asleep.

Gird your tabletops! Western Empires is the biggest game we’ve ever reviewed in both length and girth. A 9 player, 12 hour game? What could be bigger than that? We’ll tell you what else. The combined game of Mega Empires, which you’ll be able to play when Eastern Empires releases in the near future. A game that the United Kingdom Department of Bigness and Sizeitude has gone on record as calling “Too Big”. Also in the video is our new table from Geeknson! In fact, this exact table is on Kickstarter right now. You’ll find Quinns’ thoughts on that (and gaming tables in general) at the 18:04 mark of this video.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a bird. In fact, it’s all of the birds. At long last, after a preposterous 7 print runs in 14 months, Shut Up & Sit Down has published a review of Wingspan. It’s the biggest success story that the tabletop scene has seen in a long time. But is it a success story on our tables? Or in our hearts?

After talking about it on the podcast a bunch, Tom decided to make himself a nice little video review of Thousand Year Old Vampire, as a treat. Along the way, he learned the challenges of Adobe After Effects (never again) and filming a compelling outro in a room with no discernible features. Sit back, relax, and be dazzled once again by the tale of Kenneth – a vampire who gives the sound of boiling mud horrifying connotations.

Don’t call it a comeback! Hot on the heels of our 5 Favourite New Card Games video, today we’re covering 5 (nearly new) roll’n’write games that could (loosely) be described as our favourites (kind of). In order of appearance, this video stars the excellent Copenhagen: Roll’n’Write, Super Skill Pinball 4Cade, Rome & Roll, Cartographers, Kingdomino Duel and Metro X, as well as a cheeky little cameo from Qwinto (not to be confused with Quintin). The video is also MASSIVE. A real five course meal of probability management. Loosen your belts, everybody!

It’s the 8th of July baby, you know what THAT means! It’s time for Shut Up & Sit Down’s inaugural Chess Month – a season dedicated to the joy of fantastic two-player games, literally none of which are going to be chess. To kick us off with an introduction and a little look at a game called Ice Team, here’s Matt with a video for your ears and your eyes.

It takes two to tango! But it also takes two to Targi. Our second review of chess month is a snug little box, and a welcome reminder that eurogames don’t have to be big to be clever.

Our celebration of head-to-head games continues! This week Matt stacks up his opinions about the fabulous Cairn. Blue druids in hats versus brown druids with sticks – it’s a tale as old as time, but what new magic have they cooked up with this natty new formula?

Oh dear. SU&SD is trying to review a 4,000 year old cultural institution? There are days where we struggle to review dexterity games aimed at drunks. This can’t end well. In all seriousness, Go is easily among the most magnificent works of design that we’ve ever review. The only question that remains is… is it fun?

Let me tell you a bit of a story behind this stream. When team SU&SD was out on our annual fishing trip last year, bobbing around on the Great British Lakes just outside Upton Snodsbury, Matt caught himself half a dozen beautiful fish. As he packed his catch into the cooler to take home and microwave, one particular fish caught his eye – a fish with a pencil tucked behind its gills and game design in its heart. That fish was Dominic Crapuchettes. Fast forward a year, and Dominic has fully matured into a real human male, capable of making rather comprehensive board game designs. We sat down on Twitch to play his latest, Oceans, a game about being your truest, fishiest self in an ocean full of haters.

Ah, Paris. A beautiful city to be portrayed by a beautiful garage. Sorry about the general scuzziness of this one, it was a hot day and very scented candles didn’t help. My copy of Paris: La Cite De La Lumiere now smells like vanilla and oranges – which might sound pleasant, but it is absolutely not. This week on Shut Up and Sit Down, the real Tom Brewster reviews Paris: La Cite De La Lumiere – an exclusive to Chess Month; a month of games that are rapidly approaching ‘absolutely not chess at all officer’

We played some Wingspan! So that we could impress designer Elizabeth Hargrave with all of our cool bird knowledge, Tom and Matt spent WEEKS in a bird blind; method-acting as birds. Things got ‘not-very-social-distancey’ awful quickly, what with all the regurgitative feeding. Sorry, that was disgusting. Matt shouldn’t have trusted me to write actual copy for the website – especially when it’s relatively low-stakes content and I’ve had several strong coffees – each one propelling my tiny bird self through the day’s workload like a bird that has had several strong coffees. Enjoy!

Matt and Tom literally did this whole stream in a zero oxygen, zero gravity environment and NOBODY is talking about it. We didn’t want to mention it on stream for fear of looking a bit glib, but felt like you all should probably know about what is likely a world record. Where’s our big pint of Mr Guiness’ Brown Drink. Galaxy Trucker! A powerful game of slowly eroding spaceships. Grab yourself a space beverage, a space seat, and prepare your space eyes for SPAENTERTAINMENTCE. This one was an awful lot of fun.

My oh my oh my. We made it episode 2 of Mothership, and it’s only just over one month late! Apologies for the delay on getting this one to YouTube, Tom got a little too into character as ol’ juiceboy – chugging endless amounts of “medicine” instead of doing his job. In this episode, the gang explore the ship they’ve found themselves on, teeth themselves on green orbs and faff around a lot before reaching a dramatic conclusion.

Oh my goodness! It’s time for our review of what Quinns is calling “The best game in perhaps the most entertaining series in board games.” It’s Pandemic Legacy: Season 0.

They say the past is a foreign country, but this week we’ve popped on the ferry regardless, going back to revisit a game we’ve already reviewed and recommended – on the sole basis that Matt didn’t feel like we’d recommended it strongly enough? Find out why we’ve come to feel that Decrypto is a modern classic – with a special report on the Laser Drive expansion from Tom, who isn’t actually here.

Following last week’s review of Decrypto, this week we’re revisiting another brilliant game that had previously been wasting away in the dungeons of Shut Up & Sit Down in a written review. Anomia might not be the funniest game we’ve ever covered if you were to judge it in terms of decibels, but it is the game we’ve reviewed that gets the most people laughing the hardest the fastest. Does that sentence make sense? We’re not sure. We just know that this game is ace.

War! HUH!? What is it good for!? According to David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, it’s good for business. They literally said that. I promise. Live from a bedroom, Tom tackles this square brown box of War Chest in just under 10 square brown minutes, with each one more salient than the last. Marvel at the hastily-strung-together introduction! Guffaw at the complete lack of pacing! Be thrilled by the knowledge that yes, he did have to clean up that dirt/those poker chips/this whole edit with only a handful of hours to spare! He even makes time to (not) review the Nobility expansion!

Like backaches and questionable political opinions, Chess sets seem to be one of those things that people just acquire as they get older. But is it possible to have fun with them? We put our top board game scientists on the case, and they said “Yes. Yes. We think so.” In this video we’d like to present the games of Peasants’ Revolt, Horde Chess, Monster Chess, Atomic Chess, Alice Chess, Demi Chess, Bughouse Chess, Synchronistic Chess and much, much more.

SPACE. Where did it come from? What’s it doing? And why is it so MUCH? We have no idea, but board game publisher Renegade Game Studios is here to help, offering two great games that will teach us all about outer space- The Search for Planet X and a cute card game called Stellar. On the one hand, we’re not sure what space did to deserve such generous treatment. On the other hand, space seems awfully dangerous, so perhaps it’s wise for people to stay on it’s good side.

Crikey! It’s a review! At this hour? On a WEDNESDAY? For this scintillating mixture of performance art and review, Tom got lost in the woods for an entire week reviewing Renature – only bringing a camera and some boardgame pieces into the ordeal. On the 7th day, he emerges from amidst the leaves, and bestows upon us his completed work. Oh no. Witness the fear in his eyes as he spies someone walking a dog straight towards him mid-take! Wince at the reverb-addled alternative vocal takes added in post because wind: it sucks! Fear the lines that were cut for a mixture of brevity and inability to watch oneself on camera. Why are you still here?! Press on, and you may find answers…

OH BABY! It seems like only yesterday that Twilight Imperium 4th Edition was Quinns’ favourite wargame. Not anymore! Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy is a 2nd edition of 2011 smash hit Eclipse. It’s also too big, too expensive, and arguably too dry. And apparently, according to Quinns, it’s still absolutely worth it.

And now we’re back! In outer space! This game with aliens might put a smile upon your face. Delving into the dusty mines of Serious Alone-Time, Matt reviews Under Falling Skies – the Print’n’Play Star turned fully-boxed product. Is it worth selling your Deskjet 3720 for the purposes of picking it up? Tune in right now, and why not FIND OUT.

As we approach the festive season, what better says ‘the festive season approaches’ more than a game about accusing those near and dear to you of being cold heartless androids. Inhuman Conditions! It’s a unique oblong box that we’ve unleashed our keenest reporter on – to dissect its mechanical innards and make a big ‘ol video about it. What does he find in the entrails? Mostly oil and cogs, but also a rather good game!

Welcome one, welcome all! It is officially the most December-est time of the year, and that might mean you’re on the lookout for the perfect gift for the board gamer in your life? The board gamer in OUR life wants “an egg timer”, so there’s really no knowing if you’re barking up the right tree – but the whole SU&SD team is on-hand this week to give you great suggestions for great games that are currently in stock! Enjoy!

With 2020 finally, improbably, coming to an end, we’re onto our final two video reviews of the year. And the first is a BIG ONE. Following a terrifically successful Kickstarter campaign, Etherfields has been delivered to backers the world over. This massive box offers 1-4 players a surreal quest in a world of dreams, letting people go and beat up Mr. Sandman once and for all. But does this box succeed? Or is it a bit of a nightmare? Click play, and find out.

As the year draws to a close, we’ve saved something small but rather special until last: Curious Cargo, a dedicated head-to-head game by the designer of Pipeline. How fiendish and deep can you possibly go when faced with a box this cute and tiny? Tune in to find out.