The parade of celebrated German board games continues to march from the tabletops of the most elite nerds to Xbox Live Arcade. This shift has been a bit of a renaissance for traditional gaming, as these games, which were either too rare or too overpriced for the average buyer, have now been made available to everyone at sensible prices with streamlined game mechanics and rules. Tabletop purists may cry out against the loss of the social aspect of the games, but a headset and webcam provide a decent enough simulacrum and the ability to play with friends thousands of miles away more than makes up for it.
Lost Cities is a great all around board game brought to the Xbox Live that will consume every waking minute you have if you are not careful. This highly addictive game is not only fun to play but challenging enough that you simply can not stop - i.e. Tetris for those of us old school gamers. Lost Cities is basically a cross between Rummy and Solitaire, which in itself is a great combination. You basically build the decks that will represent different Lost Cities that you can find. You play the cards in ascending order, such as a three on top of a two, and go from there. Once a deck is built, it moves over to your stack.
Here's the twist, you have multiplier cards that help to raise your score and you have to plan carefully as you go because each time you start a new deck, you also lose money like you would if you are funding an expedition. So, this game is not only about card play strategy, it's also about money and expedition strategy.
Basically, if you are looking for a great puzzle/card/strategy game that will hold your attention for hours on end and not cost you a ton of cash, Lost cities is it. This is one game that I would recommend no matter what types of console games you normally play.
Lost Cities (Xbox360/XBLA)
ESRB: E
Publisher: Sierra Online
Official page: http://www.sierra.com/en/home/games/game_info.tab-infotab.prod-L2NvbnRlbnQvc2llcnJhL2VuL3Byb2R1Y3RzL2xvc3RfY2l0aWVz.platform-global.html
Rating: 60/Try the demo