“I always look out for a good solo game and having played both Gloomhaven and enjoyed Jaws of the lion, this was an obvious one to pick up. First impressions is the box is tiny which was a little bit of a concern but, made it very easy to pack for our summer holiday. When you open it up there is a lot of stuff in that box including 6 tiny miniatures straight out of the gloomhaven world! They have captured the feel of the original game really well, using the same system of selecting actions from a hand of cards. The game has a campaign of around 22 scenarios, cleverly using the back of the scenario cards as the board. Each scenario advances you through the story and includes a number of enemies that you need to defeat or negotiate in order to complete an objective.
I thought this was to be a bit of a novelty but there is a lot of game in that tiny box. A decent campaign with 6 characters you can choose from each with a unique deck of cards and style of play. As you progress through the campaign your character levels up and your actions get stronger, you gain new items that you can equip and help you in your objective. This is a proper Gloomhaven mini! I am currently half way through the campaign and really looking forward to playing it through again with a different character. You can even amend the difficulty level by increasing the level of the monsters you face, not that I have felt that neccasary at all!
If you enjoy dungeon crawler, RPG style games and are looking for a solo game that you can play in 20 mins, I would utterly recommend Buttons and Bugs. For less then £20 you can not go wrong!”
“I have never played Gloomhaven nor Frosthaven but did try playing Jaws of the Lion solo and found it a bit time consuming having to use two characters. I have just started playing Buttons And Bugs but am enjoying it very much. As a solo only game it is very much stripped down compared to Jaws of the Lion but it still contains the essence of Gloomhaven. It is ideal for someone with little space and time to set up and play the game. I did feel it helped having played Jaws of the Lion with regard to the game mechanics etc”
