Board Game Review Guidelines

We at GameHungry are happy to announce that we will begin doing in-depth Featured Reviews. Games that receive Featured Reviews will be more in-depth than reviews we have done in the past and will utilize a customized grading system to provide you with an honest and detailed look at the game. We want to make sure you feel confident investing your hard earned money into a new game.

Check out our Featured Reviews:
Tang Garden Review

We’ll be looking at some well-known games to give our take, and some lesser-known games that may not have made it onto your radar otherwise. Generally speaking, for a game to get the Featured Review treatment, it has to be compelling to us in one way or another, to warrant multiple playthroughs and the time investment that goes into these reviews.

We invite publishers to send us copies of their game for us to review, and we’ll also purchase games for review. Beyond sending us the game, we do not accept any compensation for featured reviews. Not all games that we receive will get the Featured Review treatment. If you make board games and you’d like to discuss this, please reach out to us.

If a publisher has ever purchased advertising space on GameHungry, we will disclose this. If a sponsored game is ever featured on the site, it will be made abundantly clear, but sponsored games will not qualify for the Featured Review treatment, we want to keep money out of our scoring system entirely.

The reviews will be broken down into 4 sections:

  1. Overview: What’s the game about? How’s it played?
  2. Experience: How many times did we play it? What did we enjoy?
  3. Grades: See below.
  4. Final Thoughts: Would we recommend? If so, for who?

Grades

This section is broken down into 10 categories, each graded on a scale of 0-10. The sum of all categories will provide an overall score between 0-100. In addition, positive and negative aspects will be provided for each category.

Artwork & Graphic Design

Are the illustrations suitable to the game’s theme and style? How well does the graphic design support the gameplay? Is iconography clear and easy to understand?

Complexity & Teachability

How complex is the game? Are there any parts that are particularly fiddly or difficult to understand? Can it be taught to players of varying skill levels?

Gameplay

How well are the mechanics implemented into a cohesive and streamlined experience?

Game Length

How long does the game take? Does it feel suitable for the complexity, game arc, and style of game?

Production

Are the components, box, and insert of high quality? Are there any oversights in the design of the finished product?

Replayability & Scalability

How flexible is the game’s design? How well does it work with the suggested player counts? Is the game able to handle repeated plays?

Rulebook

Is the rulebook layout clear and understandable? Can the game be learned directly from the text, images, and examples provided?

Setup & Teardown

How long does it take and how difficult is it to setup and teardown the game? Is the setup & teardown time worth it?

Theme

How original is the theme and how well is it implemented into the game’s design?

Vision & Execution

Did the creative direction offer something unique to the world of tabletop gaming? Did the publisher see the project to fruition?

Overall Score Template