Recent reviews by Fill banks like Phil Banks

The quality of the mod has been addressed already in the other reviews here (in short, it's functional) so I'll skip that. Instead let's talk about Indonesia.

Splotter Spellen is a Dutch board game company that makes some of the best board games in the industry, but be warned: they are dense. The games they design have a pretty small rules overhead, generally speaking, but the depth and nuance that these rules create are impressive. Many games create rules with specific outcomes in mind, but Splotter seems to make rules in their games that can have far reaching implications with very little convolution. Nothing here is one dimensional, and the consequence of any given action may not show itself until three or four turns farther into the game. You can't make arbitrary moves if your opponents aren't, and if you do it's hard to get out from behind that 8-ball.

All of this applies to Indonesia. The game is a logistics game where you are operating shipping and manufacturing companies in a non-specific era of Indonesia. You will start various goods companies, selling things like rice or oil, as well as founding shipping companies used to transport those goods around the islands. However, you yourself won't have enough to manage all of this on your own, so you'll be forced to use your opponents companies to make any real money. And that of course is a huge part of the game: making money yourself while limiting how much you have to give your opponents each round.

Another huge piece of the game is the mergers phase. Two competing shipping companies may exist side by side for a while, but only so much time will pass until one of the two (or perhaps even a wealthy third party looking to buy up some companies from other players) will want to buy the other out, and this is where the crux of Indonesia is: company mergers. Companies can and will change hands as the game goes on, and in doing so they will grow to massive proportions, and perhaps even create monopolies. Knowing when to merge, and how much value to place on the merger is a huge part of what makes this game so fascinating. It's a tense, calculated phase of the game and every time it comes up you will be nervous and excited about what the state of the board will be after it's over.

There's a whole lot more to Indonesia, and it's certainly worth the $7 to pick it up here assuming you have a few people to play it with that will be invested in learning its intricacies. It's not a friendly game, but it's a rewarding game and one of Splotter's best.

Good platformer with a great aesthetic. Short, and not terribly challenging either. At least, less challenging than I anticipated based on its reputation. The abundance of checkpoints neuters the challenge considerably, and so most of the time you only have to beat small segments before getting a break. Still, highly recommended if you enjoy platformers and a non-Nintendo or Sega retro look to a game.