Be Ingenious More Affordably...

Fantasy Flight Games has announced a "mass market edition" of Reiner Knizia's award-winning abstract Ingenious. The game remains the same, but rather than the tiles being made of plastic, this edition will be made of punchboard. Also, rather than stands to hold the tiles, there are slots in the board that hold the tiles. Finally, the game comes in a smaller box that before. All of this means a cheaper MSRP, and an easier entry point for nongamers. I (Firestone) am not a huge fan of abstracts, but this is one of the few that hits a sweet spot for me. It has simple rules, but deep play. It's fun and a challenge for both gamers and nongamers alike. Plus, it has the classic Knizia scoring where your final score is whatever your lowest color is at the end of the game—it's fiendish and wonderful. This should be hitting shelves sometime in the next month or so. Check it out! And thanks for reading!

Iello Announces a New Richard Garfield Game!

Iello Games announced on their Facebook page that we'll see a new Richard Garfield game next month! It's called Ghooost! (yes...three o's). According to the BGG page, it's a card game where the goal is to get rid of all of your cards. It's got cartoonishly gruesome artwork. Iello and Richard Garfield is the same team that brought us the fun game King Of Tokyo, so our hopes are up!

Take a Trip to the Forbidden Desert!

Gamewright has announced a new game on their blog: Forbidden Desert—a sequel to their hit game Forbidden Island from designer Matt Leacock. Gamewright's Jason Schneider says, "One of the key challenges we posed to inventor Matt Leacock was to create a game that would contain familiar elements while offering up a completely different in-game experience. In addition, we wanted it to be simultaneously approachable to new players while upping the ante for those who felt they had mastered Forbidden Island.” The game will include:

• 49 cards
• 48 sand markers
• 24 tiles
• 6 pawns
• 5 water level markers
• 4 flying machine parts
• 1 flying machine model
• 1 sand storm meter
• 1 stand storm meter stand
• 1 sand storm level marker
• Rules of play

Players: 2-5 Ages: 10+ Playing time: 45 minutes

Forbidden Island is a big hit in the Isley and Firestone households, and we can't wait to see what Leacock has in store for us in this sequel. The game is scheduled to drop in the Spring, and have an MSRP of $24.99. Thanks for reading!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FYuF2gLKy3c]

Heroclix TabApp!

If you haven't seen this yet, you should really check it out. I love it when worlds collide! Chocolate and peanut butter. Oreos and milk. Water and polo... Well, you get what I mean.

Wizkids has combined mobile gaming and one of their most successful titles: Heroclix. Check out the video for Heroclix TabApp, an app that interacts with a set of special clix figures. It looks pretty slick. Anyone out there play this yet? If we can get our hands on them we'll review them in depth!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyH9tlThLQ4&w=560&h=315]

The Millennium Falcon is Coming!

Last week Fantasy Flight Games gave the world a pretty good look at the latest expansion for their Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures game. The long-awaited Millennium Falcon ship is on its way. And I just have to say: Wow, it looks cool! The Falcon will have a few extra modifications (true to the ship's history in the films), as well as 3 different pilot options: Han, Chewie, and the often under-appreciated Nien Nunb.

You can check out the full preview on Fantasy Flights Web site right here.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you tomorrow!

Rio Grande Releases a Ton of Games At Once!

We're back in the saddle after a few days off for Christmas. On a Facebook post, Jay Tummelson—head honcho behind Rio Grande Games—announced that a slew of games should be in your local game store and online store now. This includes Monster Factory, Spin Monkeys, The Doge Ship, CopyCat, Unexpected Treasures, Power Grid: UK&N Europe, Antike Duellum, Myrmes, Tzolk'in, A Fool's Fortune, Cavemen, and Galaxy Trucker: Another Big Expansion. I haven't heard how Tzolk'in plays, but it looks absolutely AMAZING. Check out the pic—those are actual, working gears! We'll play and review as many of these as we can. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! And check back tomorrow for a review of one of the most anticipated games of the year! (Guess which one, you will not...)

Merry Christmas

We'd like to take a moment to thank you for reading, and to wish you a Merry Christmas. We love our families, and board games, and Star Wars, and all that other goofy stuff, but at the end of the day, nothing is more important than our identity in Christ. And so we pray that as you (and as we) open gifts of X-Wing or Loopin' Louie, that we'd be mindful of who we are in Him, and what this day is really about. Happy Holy-days. The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God. ~C.S.Lewis

Elephant Racing in India

Game Salute and Clever Mojo Games have announced a new racing game that should be out by next year's GenCon. Formula E finds 3 to 6 players racing elephants through villages, mountains, and deserts. According to the game description: The primary game mechanism in Formula E is hand management as players use their hand of cards to advance their elephants through the course. Elephants move in a unique manner – they push elephants in front of them until those elephants hit an obstacle, then the active elephant pushes sideways until a path is clear for it to move forward again. Certain move-adjusting cards and tactical-screwage cards can be played to trigger events like diagonal movement, obstacle movement, and nasty little screw-your-opponents effects. Elephant racing is not, necessarily, a sport of honor!

Bruno Faiduttio is one of the designers, so expect some chaos—but I can accept that in a racing game. And the name is a play on the classic race game Formula D—with permission, they used Formula E as a clever homage. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing Christmas!

Party Like a Wok Star!

by Firestone Back in 2010 I got to play a neat little co-op game called Wok Star. It was a self-published, 500-copy indie game where you and your teammates own a restaurant and you're trying to get ingredients and make meals before the timer goes off—otherwise, the people eat for free and you lose money. There was enough interest that Z-Man Games signed on to publish a bona fide copy.

Well, it's now 2012, and with no sign of the game in sight, designer Tim Fowers announced he's no longer under the Z-Man contract and he'll be starting a Kickstarter for this soon. He also mentioned that he's "spent time improving Wok Star - the game plays faster (4 rounds) but still has the strategy and teamwork."

We'll let you know when the project goes live. Thanks for reading!

Fluxx is now available for your iOS device!

Well the wait is over! Looney Labs has announced that starting today you can play Fluxx on your iOS device! It's up on the app store and will cost you $2.99 for the app. I just downloaded the app and will post my thoughts on it soon! In the meantime you can read our review of the original card game - Right here.

You can sign up for more info direct from Looney Labs - Right here.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!