Championship Soccer by sggc RYB Games is yet another soccer-based board game. Nearly no information can be found on the site, neither can the game be bought from the site; I’m guessing that they’re looking for a publisher. The CEO is Malcolm Brown (Dayton, OH), and he has a few other game designs in development, including a Greek fighting game called Phalanx, and a two-level Chess game called Stereo Chess.

From their soothingly-narrated promo video, it seems that the soccer ball moves up, down, right, and left across the field according to dribble and kick cards played from a hand of three cards as well as three dice rolled.

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Heads-Up Challenge from Poker Kiosks is a barroom game of head-to-head Texas Hold’em. I’m pretty sure that Poker Kiosks is a subsidiary of Poker Tek.

You can’t win any real money playing it, just bragging rights. I don’t know how many hands, or how much time, you get for your dollar.

And you can buy a home version at Poker Kiosk’s site for $6,000, or at Poker Tek’s site for $5000.

Oh what the heck. I’m really just posting this because of the gratuitous babe in the picture.

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Horse Fever is a game from Italian sggc Cranio Creations. They’re exhibiting at Essen.

The game comes with an assortment of different types of cards and a CD with the “Horse Fever Soundtrack”. Instead of a straightforward racing or betting game, players “fix races, bribe bookmakers, make horses fall asleep, buy stables, and borrow money” to earn money and victory points. The artwork hints at a humorous theme.

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Jakks Pacific, the third major US toy and game retailer, has had yet another down quarter. Looking back at PP’s archives, they managed to do this at least since Q3 2008, perhaps further.

Compared to Q3 2008, sales were down $6.4 million to $351.4 million, which is only a 1.8% drop. But income was down$20.4 million to $33.7 million, a loss of %37.7. (source)

So it’s no surprise that Jakks let go over 100 employees a few days ago. (source)

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Essen Spiel, the world’s largest game convention each year, is warming up.

BGG (now also called Geekdo) is running its own booth at the con: to sell the new BoardGameGeek game and gamer bags (???), but primarily to get people to try out the new GeekBuzz rating system. Essen attendees will get a card allowing them to pass by the booth and rate games they play during the con.

Watch and chat with Aldie, Derk, and the others of BGG live at the con at their live streaming feed.

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Eine gegen Eine (One Against One) is a game by Heinrich Glumpler (and others) published by Sphinx Spieleverlag.

I can’t tell you anything else about the game contents, rules, or genre, as they are meant to be discovered as you play. From the designer:

It is – let’s say – a “Filler” (regarding the playing time of about 20 minutes that’s no secret anyway) having the additional charm that the players have to solve the “Riddle of the rules” by looking at the components – and then have to play the game according to these (in fact their!) rules.

On the one hand, Friedemann Friese gave it a good review (while suggesting that it doesn’t appear to be highly replayable). On the other hand, how much can you trust a guy who dyes his hair green, laughs maniacally, and uses the phrase “very unique”?

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The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor (PA) presents the Lincoln Highway Road Trip board game, designed by LHHC intern Alex Gra.

Contains a board, brochure/rules, 200 cards with questions about the area, and six “pewter-like” game pieces. The game was handed out for free to schools along the highway.

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Journal Singapore is a political game of influence by Ryan Ong from sggc Monsters Under the Bed.

Each round you have three actions to drawn cards, influence provinces, or move using your plan cards. Conflicts are resolved with blind bidding. The game is for 3-5 players and can be played short (one era) or long (three eras). Player elimination is possible.

The game uses historical references from Singapore, and I’m impressed that it’s not the usual trivia game.

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Released Tuesday was Dominion: Seaside, the second expansion for the hit card game, and Spiel des Jahres winner, Dominion. Unlike the previous expansion, Dominion: Intrigue, Seaside does not have the necessary Treasure and Victory cards to play as a stand-alone game. What it does have, though, are 27 new Kingdom cards with a common theme of preparing for future turns. Some—cards in the new Duration category—use playmats and tokens that are also included with the game. For the nautical theme, there are Island, Warehouse, Navigator, and—as if I wasn’t already hooked—Pirate cards.

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Geek’s Dream Girl is another dating service for gamers and the similarly inclined single person. Proprietors “e” and “j” offer personal advice on making the most of online profiles, choosing an attractive photograph, crafting inspiring emails, and translating the secret language of the opposite gender. Packages are available at Plastic, Copper, Silver, and Gold d20 levels. To help gamers with a frame of reference for their romantic pursuits, the Dream Girls’ web site has an article on translating astrological signs in to Dungeons & Dragons character classes.

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