The board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending August 23, 2019.
Gaming News
- A quick correction: last week’s Re-Roll incorrectly stated it was week 32, when, in fact, it was already week 33.
- Jonathan Liu has posted Part 3 and Part 4 in his series of Gen Con wrap-ups.
- The Gen Con folks have posted a ton of streaming content on their YouTube channel.
- Munchkin is coming to Nintendo Switch. Specifically, Munchkin: Quacked Quest. The release date is TBA.
- Hasbro has announced it is going to start phasing out plastic packaging on all of its products, including toys and games. The announcement, which says they want to have plastics out of packaging by 2022, stresses it is the “wasteful” part—the packing—that is being changed. Action figures, dolls, and game components will continue to be made from plastic, but things like shrink wraps, blister packs, and plastic bags are going away.
- A team of “digital archaeoludologists” is working hard to uncover rules to ancient board games. The Ludii project has already uncovered a lot of probable rule sets, and continues to work on more, which allow us to play the same games civilizations enjoyed hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
- Ravensburger and partner MyMiniFactory are launching a design contest for people to create 3D components for their classic Labyrinth game. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges, and will receive a 30% royalty on sales.
- One of the more striking booths at Gen Con was AEG, which actually reworked their main booth every day to showcase a different one of their big titles. TableTopWire has a great write-up on how they did it.
- I’ve never been more than a very casual video game person, but in high school, my girlfriend and I used to spend many an hour playing Contra on her brother’s NES. We (I eventually married her) are both thus quite excited to see the news that Blacklist Games has acquired the rights from Konami to make a competitive board game of the classic title, which is described as a “card-driven miniatures game” and is due out next year. IDW also acquired the rights from Konami for Bomberman.
- As stated above, I’m not a big video game person, but while I’ve never played it, I’m certainly aware of a thing called Final Fantasy. Thus, I can assume that there are readers who will be just as happy about the announcement of a second chocobo game—Chocobo Party Up!—as I am about Contra. But the good news for you Final Fantasy folks is that you don’t have to wait until next year, as the game can be pre-ordered today and will be on shelves next month.
- Our featured image this week is Tricks and the Phantom from Oink Games.
- It’s always nice when our hobby is recognized in other media as more than a prop. The characters in Big Bang Theory were shown regularly playing Ticket to Ride, and this month’s Good Boys (which I very much enjoyed, by the way) prominently features Ascension: A Deck Building Game. In fact, several key plot points in the movie directly involve the game.
- Clank! In! Space! was our inaugural GeekDad Game of the Year, so, of course, we are all excited about Renegade’s newest expansion: Clank! In! Space! Cyber Station 11, available for preorder now.
GeekDad Reviews
Here are the games we’ve reviewed this week:
- Jonathan Liu reviewed Animalchemists.
- Elizabeth MacAndrew reviewed Sprint.
- I reviewed GeekDad Approved Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
- Angela Leach played Robotech: Ace Pilot, Kaiju Incorporated, Munchkin Warhammer 40K, and Dungeon!
- Michael Pistiolas played Feed the Woozle, Battleship, King of Tokyo, Vindication, Batman: Gotham City Under Siege, and Horrified.
- Jonathan Liu played Mountains, Time Chase, Village Pillage, Astro Trash, Detective Club, Point Salad, Animalchemists, Burgle Bros 2, Deep Sea Adventure, Deranged, Funkoverse, Harry Potter: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Moon Base, My Story, Panic Island!, PACG: Mummy’s Mask, Reigns: The Council, ShipShape, Valley of the Kings, and Welcome To…
- I played Nine Tiles Panic. Magic Maze, Tricks and the Phantom (our featured image this week), Cartographers, Point Salad, Mapmaker, and Escape from Iron Point.
