The Gateway Gamers Podcast

10/11/2025

Welp, I added a new hobby to my already full plate of hobbies…miniature assembling and painting.

09/08/2025

Boss Monster has always been one of those games I wanted to love. The idea of building your own dungeon to lure in foolish heroes is amazing, but in practice the original could feel a little too random—like your dungeon was running you instead of the other way around.

That’s why Super Boss Monster feels like the sequel we deserved. It keeps all the 8-bit dungeon-building charm but smooths out the rough spots. The randomness is toned down, spells feel more strategic, and you actually have some control over how your dungeon plays out. Oh, and there’s a solo mode now—perfect for when your friends mysteriously stop answering texts after the third “game night invite” of the week.

Here’s how it plays: each round you build a new room in your dungeon, flaunt your treasures to lure in heroes, and then watch them charge through your deathtrap. If they die, you gain their soul. If they live, your Boss gets smacked around. First to stack up enough souls wins, unless you get KO’d in the process. It’s quick, silly, and clocks in around 30 minutes—just enough time to gloat before someone demands a rematch.

Super Boss Monster doesn’t try to be a heavy strategy game. Instead, it leans into being a fast, funny closer for game night. Think of it as the popcorn flick of your board game shelf—it might not win awards, but it sure knows how to entertain.

08/31/2025

Dice Realms Review (Solo Play)

Dice Realms is one of those games that instantly grabs your attention with its concept: your dice are your kingdom. Roll grain to feed your people, coins to upgrade your economy, and shields to block the dreaded Fate die. As the game progresses, you physically swap out faces to make your dice stronger, turning those humble wooden shacks into castles and those meager farms into full-blown point machines.

As a solo player, I appreciated how streamlined the variant is. You toss in an “Invasion” die as your opponent, and it keeps the tension up without adding extra rules overhead. It plays fast, has some fun decision-making moments, and genuinely feels like you’re trying to outsmart fate.

But here’s where the shine wears off: actually swapping out those dice faces. It sounds fun, but in practice it’s fiddly and slows everything down. Just when you’re in the flow of building your engine, you’re stuck hunched over the table performing what feels like cube surgery. It kills the momentum.

So where do I land? I admire the innovation and I’m glad I tried it. The idea of evolving dice as your kingdom is brilliant and unique. But as a solo experience, it felt more like a DIY project than a dice-chucking good time.

Final Thought:
Dice Realms: the only game where I spent more time upgrading cubes than actually rolling them. Medieval dentistry was not on my solo game night agenda.

08/22/2025

Came home from work to find an unexpected surprise waiting on my doorstep—shoutout to the awesome crew at Rio Grande Games for trusting us with another box of cardboard goodness!

Nothing says Friday night like the soothing sound of punching out fresh chits and cracking open a new adventure. Can’t wait to dive in and see what treasures are inside!

08/21/2025

Not looking great for but not filing bankruptcy yet, feel like they are making the correct moves to stay afloat.

CMON was already reeling from a more than $3m loss last year, with falling sales for its crowdfunding campaigns leading the company to its lowest annual revenue since pandemic-hit 2020.

08/21/2025

Six hours is nothing, has she tried Twilight Imperium?

Japan's oldest professional player of the board game go retired at age 98 after saying she can no longer handle "six hours without a break."

08/19/2025

Gotta catch em all

A man was sentenced to jail for spending $140,000 in company funds on Pokemon cards and other gaming items. DETAILS--> https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/08/19/man-sentenced-spending-140000-company-funds-pokemon-cards-gaming-items/

08/19/2025

Always excited to see more from one of our favorite games

08/18/2025

Love DND and love Horrified, so this has to be amazing

Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons review

08/15/2025

Remember when kids hobbies used to be fun?

McDonald's Japan's Pokémon Happy Meal launch had it all — scalpers, grown men brawling, and pigeons feasting on fries.

08/13/2025

Damn, 4/5 of my hobbies. No wonder my wife hates me.

08/12/2025

Can’t imagine this being much better than the street fighter boardgame, who was asking for this?

Get ready for the next battle.