I am fascinated lately with micro-games, such as Love Letter and Master Merchant, and with good reasons: they are small games that don’t have lots of components thus are easy to always have on you, they can be explained quickly and yet still pack some hard decision to take during the game. Of course, there’s always been simple games that don’t have a lot of components, but for the most part, the decision making aspects have been lacking and thus less interesting to me.
The funny thing about these micro-games is that until very recently, they all came out of Japan, where board games are starting to make some inroad. I guess it makes sense: there is a distinct lack of space in the big cities so if you can make something that packs a lot in as little a package as possible, it will be a hit.
The Japan trend is changing however, with games like Agent Hunter and Council of Verona having come out recently/are coming out soon. Recently, I had the chance to play another small game that seems to have a lot of potential: Suspense (more specifically, this is Prototype F). Please note that this game isn’t out yet, but it is a prototype and as such I have no idea when it is actually being published.