The guys and gals behind Flying Frog's Last Night on Earth have had a bonafied hit on their hands ever since the game hit the shelves. The game was one of the fastest sell-outs in recent memory and was one of the most impressive first efforts from any young gaming company in the history of the game renaissance. Many people may be wondering what the fuss is all about and maybe even some of them with good reason. The game might seem a whole lot like other Zombie Apocalypse games on the market but it is most assuredly different and in a whole lot of fun ways. The game accommodates up to 6 players and is played in a team situation. In the 6 player game 4 players play as survivors trying to accomplish a series of goals in a limited number of turns and the other 2 players play as the zombie hordes (in smaller games there is only one player representing the zombie hordes). The game is a combination of character abilities that differentiate the survivors, equipment that can be acquired from searching buildings, and action or event cards that the characters also acquire by searching the buildings. The zombie players have a never ending supply of zombies and a smaller hand of "Zombie Event" cards that are refilled every turn on their side. 

The real charm of the game is the kind of open competition going on between the survivor players and the zombie player(s), the special camaraderie that develops between the survivor players, and the overall uniqueness of the scenarios that the game provides. In the basic box there are 5 different scenarios (Defend the Manor House, Die Zombies, Die, Save the Townsfolk, Burn 'Em Out, and Escape in the Truck) and each one provides a different kind of experience for both the heroes and the zombies. As well the whole board is modular creating a different feel for each game as the buildings that surround the center of town (or the manor house) change with each variation. The benefit of this game as well is the overall production quality. For your $49.95 you're getting some really incredible components, great cardstock for the cards great cardboard for the board pieces as well as really good looking miniatures round out an incredible product from a small company that has everyone noticing. 

In addition to the dynamic base game there is also the Growing Hunger expansion that adds more cards to the variety as well as additional scenarios. On the horizon for Flying Frog is also the Hero Pack 1 which will add more characters into the mix for the survivor team as well as a few new cards oriented toward these characters and an additional scenario. Another expansion growing ever nearer is Survival of the Fittest expansion which will add more scenarios as well as three new decks of cards to the game: Unique Items (which will add new items for the survivors to utilize), Survival Tactics (tactical decisions that are made by the characters to better aid their survival through the night), and Grave Weapons (weapons for the zombies as they rise from the dead). Also there are additional scenarios available through the Flying Frog Games website. All in all I think this is the kind of game that can bring seasoned gamers a great deal of tactical entertainment and bring new gamers to the table with great looking pieces and really fun mechanics. 

A whole lot of hyperbole falls out of my mouth every single time it opens. It's not as though I don't really love the comics that I claim to or that I don't think they're every bit as awesome as I proclaim them to be ... it's just that when I think of comics I think in hyperbolic terms. I think that most of us do really. I think that when we love a character, we LOVE a character. And when we hate a series we LOATHE it. But every now and again we have the chance to think about things in a more serious mindset and we actually figure out intellectually what makes us enjoy a series aside from the gut feel of love. Over the last year X-Factor has released either 14 or 15 issues and for the first full year in a very long time it has been completely unhindered by the "Event Machine" going on at Marvel. There is something about when Peter David is allowed to tell his story unfettered that makes it a certain sort of magical and having a full year of that kind of magic that has made it more memorable and amazing than a lot of other comics on the market in recent years. This was also a year of a few big issues for X-Factor as it reached #50 of the current series and #200 of the legacy numbering for the series. But it isn't about the milestones, at least not for X-Factor. And it's most certainly not about the impact that it's having on the rest of the Marvel Universe. It's about the moments between characters throughout the last year that have been amazing, heart breaking, heart warming, terrifying, and simple. It's been about the maturation of the relationships between the characters and watching Monet and Theresa become best friends. It's been about watching the addition of Longshot and Darwin to the cast and how that has changed the dynamic. It's been about watching the two closest characters, Madrox and Guido, grow apart the way truly close friends do from time to time. It's been about the return of incredible characters and the creation of even more incredible scenes. As I look back on 2009 I begin to realize that perhaps the best book of the year wasn't any of the top sellers and wasn't even the moments from the big events ... but the quiet book that did everything that it should be impossible to do with comics. That maybe, just maybe ... X-Factor was the best comic of 2009.

Ultimately it comes down to the amazing roller coaster ride that the last year has been for the characters, from the heights of Jamie and Theresa's child being born to the depths of what happened when Jamie held his son. It's about the issues that take place in the future as Jamie tries to save Mutantkind once again from the clutches of extinction at the hands of angry men. It's about the way that Longshot has become more than a mullet-ed three fingered alien and has become part of the X-Factor Family. It's about the kiss that twisted Rob Liefeld's guts. It's about the moments. This book is full of them. They make you laugh, they make you cringe, they make you rejoice, they make you cry, they make your pulse pound and your mind race. And behind it all is a writer that I had convinced myself for years that I didn't particularly care for: Peter David. 

In a year where it has been about the event and the building toward the next event and zombies and political overthrow and multi-colored corps ... Peter David did all of this by explaining the beginnings of the story. By bringing to light the things that had been in the shadows of his ensemble superheroic noir piece in the midst of the mutantverse. He did it all by bringing it back to the basics. And he also did it by introducing a doddering old Doctor Doom who has delusions of grandeur in the future that made me laugh and laugh and laugh. 

Peter David, I know you probably won't ever read this and even that being the case I wish to say thank you. To you and the artists that have worked on your book over the last year and who have brought more smiles to my face, more tears to my eyes, and more laughs from my lips than any other ongoing series of the year and doing all of it under the major radar and while never breaking the Diamond Top 10. Congratulations sir, you've wrapped up a 50 issue long arc (which might have been about 6 issues shorter if it hadn't been for Secret Invasion and Messiah Complex) and managed to leave enough untied threads to go on another 50 issues if not more. So here is to X-Factor, may 2010 be even better for you.