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There’s a new Uwe Rosenberg title this week, titled Spring Meadow, along with a renamed Capital, a Clank expansion and a very special anniversary.
Cosmic Encounter’s Douglas Adam reference is better than everyone else’s
The number 42 is pretty important in Douglas Adasm’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Cosmic Encounter just beat all other game references to it because it’s 42-years-old and is releasing a 42nd Anniversary edition. It will come with better pieces, a revised rule book, a comic, an alien race which was previously hard to get hold of and much more. We’re promised it will be compatible with all the expansions, so that’s good. Release is Autumn 2018… bring towels.
Spring Meadow takes us back to Uwe’s Cottage Garden
Uwe Rosenberg’s Cottage Garden was both a development of his two-player classic Patchwork and the start of a trilogy of tile laying puzzle games. The third and final piece has now been announced and it’s ‘Spring Meadow’, which has you clearing animal burrows and placing pieces of outdoor land to form hiking routes. Up to four people can play and time is sub-one hour, but the piece of news critics will want to see is: it’s billed as having the most interaction between players of all four linked games.
Jetpack Joyride has been adapted for tables
The original Jetpack Joyride was a quick moving runner for phones and consoles, with the action on a side scrolling screen. Lucky Duck Games’ adaption of JJ sees the action move across tiles by having players draw and play shaped pieces which both move you forward and allow you to move around blocks and traps. Up to four players will play three rounds to produce high scores, and the Kickstarter will begin in July.
Capital to get US release and better title
Granna’s Capital is a good game with a title that tells you nothing, but now it’s going to be released in the US by North Star as Warsaw: City of Ruins. That at least lets you know the game is set in Warsaw. You’re building the city through six epochs of growth and destruction to produce the layered amalgam of buildings you would find today and the monument tiles are actual monuments. Release date is looking like August.
Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse!
Given that Clank! relies on a map, it’s only to be expected they’ve released several expansions with more maps (and of course, new settings and rules). So no prizes for predicting that Clank in Space will be getting an expansion, with the very Games Workshop title Apocalypse! It looks like being more of the same stealing, ship escaping fun.
Invader Zim: A Dice Game
Jhonen Vasquez’s underappreciated animation Invader Zim now has a dice game. Sorry, it has a ‘Doomsday Dice Game’ because you can play as Zim and Gir to create a machine to destroy the Earth, or as Dib and Agent Darkbootie to save it. The central mechanism is accruing spins of a power dice to get the 100 energy you need to win, but push your luck too far and you’ll fizzle and lose it all. Gameplay is half an hour, with a September release from IDW Games.
A Thief’s Fortune plays with time
Artipia Games have created A Thief’s Fortune and the vibe seems clear from the cover: a middle eastern setting with a thief stealing a magical hourglass. However, the hourglass is the key because yes, you all play a thief, but you’re all different timelines of that thief because the hourglass is seriously arcane. Gameplay involves moving resources through the future, present and past of yourself and build an engine. Victory comes through amassing fortune points.
Maiden’s Quest: they don’t need a prince
You don’t have to sit in a tower and wait to be rescued if you’re a princess, you can do it yourself. Wizkids Maiden’s Quest is a card game that doesn’t require any table space and has a mechanism allowing games to be stored partway through, but that’s all secondary to the fact you play the maiden’s doing their escape on their own. If you’re thinking that sounds easy the age range is 14+, and there’s rule for solo, co-op and two-player head to head. It’s out in the next few weeks.
City of Chaos Returns
More then 20 years after the original Monocle Games release, City of Chaos is being reborn by Ares Game. A combination of tale laying, choose your own adventure and RPG in the sort of world where a Pneumology Guild can turn your breathing into a weapon, it’s hybrid nature was noteworthy back then and it doesn’t borrow IP: this is a unique world which changes for each play. The original designers are also back with it.