Re-Roll: This Week’s Tabletop Game News for Week 9 of 2019

The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending March 1, 2019.

Gaming News

Brain Games ran a cool contest recently where they asked for videos of people’s neatest trick shots in Ice Cool, with the winner getting a cruise to Antarctica. The winner was Thomas M from the Netherlands, who played “Jingle Bells” by flicking the penguins at, well, bells.
Fantasy Flight is taking preorders for Keyforge: Age of Ascension, the second set in the Keyforge world.
Disney’s Villainous won the prestigious Game of the Year award at Toy Fair NY.
Speaking of Villainous, Funko has acquired Forrest-Pruzan Creative, the designers behind that game and a lot of other really great games, for an undisclosed amount. This is Funko’s first foray into the board game market.
Also in business news, WizKids announced this week that they have entered into a licensing deal with Hasbro, giving them access to G.I.Joe, My Little Pony, and Transformers. No word yet on what games exactly might be released under the deal.
Unstable Unicorns, which won the People’s Choice Award at Toy Fair, is having its universe expanded with the release of Llamas Unleashed, a stand-alone game that uses the game mechanics.
Just a few weeks ago, we reported here that ~~USAopoly~~ The Op would soon be releasing licensed versions of Talisman. This week, we got the first one: Talisman: Kingdom Hearts.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Game is getting its first expansion: Friends and Frenemies. The expansion adds Dawn, Riley, Tara, Anya, Faith, and Oz as playable characters and Spike & Drusilla and Dark Willow as new Big Bads.
Ravensburger announced at Toy Fair the release of a bunch of titles this year, but the one that I find most intriguing is Jaws, described as “a game of strategy and defense.” In the game, which hits store shelves in June, one player will take on the role of the shark (whose name, in case you didn’t know, is Bruce), while the other players cooperate in the roles on Quint, Hooper, and Brody.

GeekDad Reviews

Rob Huddleston reviewed Shikoku, which is also our featured image this week.
Jonathan Liu reviewed Scorpius Freighter.
Robin Brooks revealed the cover of the upcoming Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.

What We’re Playing

Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:

Jonathan Liu played Pandoria, Scorpius Freighter, Catalyst, Gen7, Herbaceous Sprouts, Planet, Trellis, Villainous: Wicked to the Core, and Wingspan.
Chris Wickersham played Wingspan, Codenames Pictures, Tiny Epic Defenders, and Koi.
Michael J. played Mag-Blast, Boss Monster, and Splendor.
Robin Brooks played Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault, Keyforge, Dragon’s Breath, Apples to Apples, and Go Nuts for Donuts.
Rob Huddleston played Shikoku, Codenames, and Love Letter Premium Edition.