Mars attacks! Invaders have been sighted in cornfields across the countryside while Mothman terrorizes a small town by destroying bridges and isolating the citizens. Will our heroes succeed in defeating these cryptid threats or will evil prevail? Stay tuned!

1-4 players 20-60 Minutes Age: 9+

Designers: Jason Hager, Darren Reckner

Artists: JJ Ariosa, Anne Benjamin, Marie Bergeron, Ashley Floréal, Satoshi Kamanaka, Nastya Lehn, Kwanchai Moriya, Ian Reed, Jason Taylor

Publishers: Restoration Games, IELLO, Mondo Games

It Came From Beyond!

Unmatched is a popular competitive deck duelling system from Restoration Games in which characters of literature and legend come together to face off in epic battles. Reimplementing and improving upon the mechanisms of Star Wars: Epic Duels, Unmatched broadened its horizons by utilising a range of both unlicensed legacy characters, such as Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood, and licensed IPs like Jurassic Park and Marvel. This change of direction proved to be a stroke of genius that has resulted in a massive hit for Restoration Games.

Unmatched Adventures changes up the traditional game by providing a cooperative and/or solo experience in which players team up against famous cryptid villains, Mothman and Martian Invaders, and a range of minions, such as The Blob, and Skunk Ape. The game is themed around 1950’s monster movies bringing these classic creatures from the silver screen onto the table top and pitting them against pulp heroes. Players can choose from four unique characters, Annie Christmas, a figure from Louisianan folklore, Nikola Tesla, the famed physicist given a heroic spin, Dr. Jill Trent, a pulp comic heroine and Golden Bat, a 1930’s Japanese superhero.

Player’s assemble their team and head out to stop one of the two major villains before the threat grows out of control, resulting in defeat for the heroes. The game leans into its theme with glee and the result is a finely tuned action-adventure game that can be set up and taught in minutes placing the focus on gameplay rather than the systems. Players who are already familiar with the Unmatched system will immediately feel at home, needing only familiarise themselves with a handful of new cooperative rules, mainly around the villain decks and the initiative system. New players will need to learn the base game first, but both sets of rules are included and the original game could already be learned in about 5 minutes, so the barrier for entry is low.

Terror! Adventure! Danger!

Considering players are pitting characters from such a wide range of backgrounds, abilities and settings against one another, each match up is effortless to set up and takes minutes to learn. Simply choose your character, take their mini, action deck, health dial and tokens, place the characters on the starting positions on the board, and you’re ready to go! I won’t go into a detailed overview of the rules or how the game plays here as there are many breakdowns and how-to-plays out there, including my own video review of Unmatched you can view here in which I go into the system itself in more detail.

Villains’ actions are determined by their individual decks of actions cards and a simple but very effective initiative system which determines when heroes and villains can act in a turn. Additionally, not only can each of the four included heroes be played in competitive Unmatched, but Adventures is fully compatible with every other Unmatched set out there, meaning players can bring any other character they like to face off against the villains here. As an added bonus, Unmatched Adventures can be played solo without any adjustment to the rules, this makes it a great way to learn new characters without having to find an opponent. The ease with which I could get a game going meant we were able to get it to the table much more often than other games and it became our regular weekday evening game to play after dinner or before our son went to bed. At 12 years old, he frequently gives me a run for my money and currently, we’re at about a 50/50 win ratio between us; so if you’re looking for fun, fast family game, then Unmatched Adventures is an ideal choice.

The aspect I most liked about Unmatched Adventures was the pulp adventure vibe. the 1950’s serial science fiction theme is a perfect fit for the Unmatched system, which has explored genres ranging from classical mythology to modern pop culture, so seeing characters like Dr. Jill Trent and Golden Bat represented alongside so many recognisable classic monsters and sci-fi villains was a lot of fun! What’s more, every hero is a thrill to play and an excellent addition to the game in their own right. Each hero brought something new to the game and felt fresh and exciting to explore. Some felt more challenging than others, but figuring out how to best play each character is part of what I enjoy most about Unmatched. New players might find a couple of the characters to be a bit difficult at first, but once they get the basics down, the rest will flow naturally.

Being able to finally play Unmatched as a cooperative game elevated it to group-board-game-night status. Until now, it was largely a duel between two players, and while it would be played at three and four, those player counts always felt a bit clunky and tended to drag on. That’s no longer the case here and Unmatched Adventures plays fast enough that you could easily play 2-3 games with different hero and villain combinations in the space of a single evening, adding a great level of variety to game night. The ability to play solo was also a welcome addition since I’m often looking for something fast and light to play and I don’t always have a willing opponent on hand. again, Unmatched Adventures ticks that box nicely.

The game scares very well at all player counts and the rules overhead is light to the point of being almost intuitive once you become familiar with the set up. We’ve played dozens of games since we received our copy and it has yet to feel like we’ve really seen and done everything. We’ve mixed in heroes from other Unmatched sets and so far we haven’t encountered any issues with powers not functioning correctly or particular characters feeling under or over powered. Perhaps we will eventually, but to date, it’s been smooth sailing.

Given the positive reaction Unmatched Adventures seems to be receiving, it’s my sincere hope we get further expansions down the road. In terms of possibilities, Restoration Games has barely scratched the surface as there are hundreds of potential heroes, villains and minions that would be the perfect fit for the Unmatched Adventures series. Personally I’d love to see an 80’s Adventure set based on movies like The Goonies and E.T. or fantasy movies of that era such as Krull, Willow, Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. One can hope I suppose.

Will the Villains Prove Too Much For Our Plucky Heroes?

There are very few downsides to Unmatched Adventures, but it doesn’t get to escape criticism completely. For instance, the game can be quite challenging at times, there’s a degree of luck involved both with the minions supporting the main villains and in the individual card draws. While there are many opportunities to mitigate this luck sometimes, fate just conspires against you and no matter what you spend some games on the back foot. This didn’t happen often and looking back, we’ve won more than we’ve lost, but be aware that the selection of minions and the abilities they being to thee fight can make a hug difference. If your first game didn’t go well, then try again with a different selection and you’ll find its a completely different experience.

While the base game contains plenty of content and provides excellent value for money, I am glad we had other sets to draw from after a few games. Bringing other heroes into the mix is really where the game begins to since and starts to truly feel like Unmatched. I won’t go so far as to say that you need extra sets, in fact you’d need them less so with Unmatched Adventures than with standard Unmatched. But they do give players more options and serve to greatly enhance replayability.

Another issue we found was that, while this is a cooperative game, the way the initiative system functions often made it difficult to work cooperatively with other players. Each round you have no idea which order heroes and villains will be taking their turns, so forward planning is not always doable. A positive spin on this is that it thematically emulates the chaos of battle and having to adapt your tactics in the moment by fighting reactively…. yeah, that sounds good, we’ll go with that.

Riches Beyond Your Imagining!

As with most previous Unmatched titles, there’s great artwork on all the hero cards with each deck representing its hero by providing a style that makes them feel unique and speaks to aspects of their character. The double-sided game board provides two visually distinct areas which combine well with their respective villains, Mothman’s town is dark and spooky with its bridges and roadways depicted in blacks and reds while the green, open cornfields of the Martian Invader’s board reflects the otherworldly technology of the martian saucer’s tractor beam.

The miniatures and minion tokens are well produced with the hero minis being well detailed and matching their character art with dynamic poses. While the villain minis are outstanding and visually striking on the table. The real stars of the show, they provide something not seen before in Unmatched with a larger scale mini that encapsulates the larger threat they each use of the players.

To Be Continued….?

An excellent next step in the franchise, Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze immediately gives current collectors vast replayability and gameplay options while simultaneously providing newcomers with an ideal introduction to the Unmatched system by providing both sets of rules. Whichever flavour you prefer, there’s a style to suit everyone in Unmatched Adventures and the amount of included content makes this the best value-for-money Unmatched set currently available. I look forward to seeing what’s next and hope to see more villains and adventure sets in the future, but in the meantime, I have my work cut out for me here. Unmatched Adventures is an excellent addition to any game collection and I daresay an almost mandatory one to any Unmatched collectors out there.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the review. Do you have a favourite Unmatched set? What characters would you like to see come to the game in the future? Share your thoughts below or head over to our Above Board Facebook group and become part of our awesome community. In the meantime, take care and have plenty of adventures!

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze Review