Here is the board game (and board game-related!) news that caught our attention for the week ending November 12, 2021.
Gaming News
- Z-Man is taking pre-orders for Ultimate Railroads, a “big box” edition of the classic Russian Railroads worker placement game that also includes the American Railroads and German Railroads expansions, along with an all-new Asian Railroads expansion, a solo variant, and updated rail colors exclusive to the set. The game is due out in March.
- Right on the heels of the success of their Resident Evil Kickstarter, Steamforged Games has released Resident Evil 3: The Board Game to retail.
- Renegade Game Studios is accepting pre-orders to Crimes & Capers And the Winner Is…, a cooperative game where players “take on the roles of famous recording artists and work together to solve the mystery” of who killed a pop star at an awards show.
- Plaid Hat has announced Familiar Tales, a story-crafting game where players have to try to save the infant heir to a royal line in a fantasy world. The game relies on a storybook, which appears to be similar in structure to the one from Forgotten Waters, and uses an app with “a professionally narrated, fully scored, decade-spanning fantasy epic.”
- Big G Creative has entered into a partnership with Walgreens to bring exclusive games to the drug store chain. No Filter, available now, is an ice-breaker conversation-starter party game and is in stores now. Hangry, due out by mid-November, is a card-based matching party game.
- Osprey Games has announced the upcoming release of Cryptid: Urban Legends, a follow-up to the 2018 GeekDad Game of the Year, Cryptid. Few details about the game are available yet.
- Wingspan is now on Android. The digital version of the popular game, which is already available on other platforms, launched earlier this week.
- Also coming out to a new digital platform is Root, which will be available on the Nintendo Switch next week. Developed by Dire Wolf Digital, the game, which is currently already available on Steam, iOS, and Android, will now be playable on the popular game console.
- Space Cowboys is releasing Unlock! Game Adventures, a trilogy of escape room games based on board games from other publishers. In the Ticket to Ride scenario, players ride across the US hoping to thwart a scheme by rail barons. The Mysterium scenario puts players in a manor to resolve a murder, and the Pandemic scenario sounds like it may have players just relive 2020. The game is due out in the UK in the first quarter of next year. No US release date has been announced.
- Exploding Kittens (the company, not the game) acquired party game, Happy Salmon, from North Star Games earlier this year, and is now set to release their own edition of the game. The game’s visuals have been completely redone, and are now drawn by cartoonist Matthew Inman. There have also been a few minor tweaks to some of the card names. It also comes ready for 8 players, up from the original 6, and now includes a 3-player mode. The one unfortunate change is that the game is now packaged in a traditional cardboard box and not the very cute cloth fish-shaped container of the original.
- Classic card game Dixit is once again expanding. With Stella: Dixit Universe, designed in part by original creator Jean-Louis Roubira, all players look at a grid of 15 art cards and have a word drawn from a deck. All players then check a box on their own dry-erase board of the card most closely matching the word. The game also adds a press-your-luck element to the mix. Stella: Dixit Universe is a completely stand-alone game and is due out at the beginning of December.
GeekDad & GeekMom Reviews
Here’s what we reviewed this week:
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Jonathan Liu reviewed Brew.
- I reviewed The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, our featured image this week.
What We’re Playing
Finally, here’s what the GeekDads played this week:
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Michael Pistiolas played Marvel Champions, Wingspan, and Mancala.
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Michael Knight played Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition, Hibachi, and D&D Dungeon Scrawlers.
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Robin Brooks played Marvel: Crisis Protocol and Quiddler.
