Love giant monsters fighting it out, but want a little bit more than King of Tokyo has to offer? Ultimate Warriorz may be the game for you! Ultimate Warriorz is a reprinting and updating of Mad Arena, an older game I was in no way familiar with.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when this arrived on my doorstep. The whole box-as-the-arena seemed very gimmicky, and the extremely light rules almost turned me off to it right away. After one play with my 5-year-old, I was hooked. A few more plays later Ultimate Warriorz became a staple game in our household.

The game is fairly light, and very easy to learn. The depth in the game comes from the different combatants, their stats, and special moves. Each round you’ll be playing cards simultaneously, and resolving them by their initiative number. These cards allow you to move, melee attack, range attack, or use special moves. Each card also lists your current defense value. Making sure you get early strikes, but trying not to leave yourself in a defenseless state, is an important part of the game.

The game lasts a set number of rounds, determined by the number of players. At the end of the game points are added up and the winner is declared. Basically your points are the amount of damage you’ve dealt during the game. Bonus points are awarded if you’re the first person to damage an enemy. The game can also immediately end if only one player is left standing.

While I’m still a huge fan of King of Tokyo, I almost feel like this has taken it’s place in our household. There’s much less luck, and a bit more planning here. The game are really very different, but I feel the whole “light monster combat” game is where these both would be grouped.

The kids routinely pull this one off the shelf to play, and have a great time trying out different combatants and how they work. My 5-year-old has pretty much called permanent dibs on the giant red dragon, however, and seems to handle the high health/low defense of the monster pretty well.

I went into this game not expecting very much, and was pleasantly surprised. With the holidays coming up, this would be a great gift for a family to enjoy.

A copy of Ultimate Warriorz was provided free for review by Asmodee Editions.

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At the Fantasy Flight Games In-Flight Report (which I’ll cover separately), Christian Petersen talked about Asmodee’s grand plans. The company, he said, sees the possibility of achieving a scale similar to the largest international toy companies but doing so by building on the best type of toy, games.

Asmodee’s presence at Gen Con was certainly consistent with that attitude. The booth and demo space was again even larger than last year, the number and variety of games more than I could cover.

One I was not able to try, Mysterium ($50), was also one of the hottest at the show. A limited supply brought people running to the booth with the opening of the exhibit hall doors. Mysterium is described as a combination of Dixit and Clue. It has a game-master of sorts but is played cooperatively. The goal is to solve a murder mystery with clues provided by art cards.

My favorite was one that Asmodee will be distributing for Queen Games, Treasure Hunter by Richard Garfield. Due at Essen, Treasure Hunter combines an easy card draft with a straightforward process that totals up the players’ cards in each of three color categories and awards the ones with the least and greatest values bonuses or penalties, as the case may be each round. In addition to value cards for each color, players are also drafting the occasional modification card, as well as dog cards used to fight off trolls.

Mafia de Cuba ($30, September) is Asmodee’s entry in to the social deduction category. It also comes with a beautiful cigar box, which is used in the game to hold the godfather’s diamonds, as well as a group of role tokens (faithful henchmen, driver, FBI agent, etc.). After the box is passed around the table, the goal of the godfather is to figure out who stole his diamonds. But say, for example, he accuses someone who turns out to be the agent, well then that agent wins the game instead.

Starfighter ($30) is a two-player card-based spaceship combat game played in columns. The concept is fighter screens making runs at opponents’ cruisers. However, the fewer columns a player takes advantage of one round, the more cards they may draw the next.

Barony ($50) has players trying to elevate their noble characters to the rank of Duke. This is accomplished by recruiting knights, moving them around the board, upgrading them in stages, producing resources, and eliminating opponents.

2015 has been a big year for dinosaur games. In this category, Asmodee will deliver at Essen Raptor. It’s a two-player tactical game in which one person plays the scientists trying to capture baby raptors and the other side plays the dinosaur mother protecting her young. Gameplay involves the simultaneous selection of cards. The person who’s card number is lower gets to play their card’s special ability that turn. The one who’s number is higher, receives the difference in action points.

Another Essen-scheduled game from Asmodee is Doctor Panic. An action party game with a medical theme, Doctor Panic incorporates eight mini-games, every one of which must be completed within the total time limit. The mini-games include such activities as matching the pose on an x-ray card or sewing thread to match a suture pattern. A soundtrack counts down the time limit and sometimes also interrupts normal play with sidetrack tasks, such as running around the table.

For Days of Wonder, Asmodee was showing the prototype of a new Ticket to Ride double-sided map board. One side features the British Isles, comes with a new deck of cards, and adds technology development to the game. For example, at the start, players can only complete length-2 routes. To complete longer routes, they must first upgrade their trains by playing wild-cards. The other side of the board has a map of Pennsylvania and adds company stocks to the game. Each completed route provides shares in certain companies. At the end of the game, the majority shareholder in each company earns a bonus.

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French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” has been winning over kids with tales of fantasy and adventure for more than half-a-century. The enigmatic young space traveler from Asteroid B-612 will be making his American movie debut sometime next year.

In the meantime, fans of all ages can relive the adventure of the blond-haired boy in a new board game based on the upcoming film this fall. Gen Con attendees can get their hands on a copy, as Asmodee Games will have the title available at their booth.

The game follows the path of the movie’s heroine, the “Little Girl” as she heads out in search of the Little Prince’s planet.

As a pilot on this adventure, players collect stars from different cloud spaces and story tiles. The player with the most stars at the end of the adventure wins the game.

The game includes the following:

• 8 route parts
• 5 paper plane tiles
• 18 story tiles
• 12 telescope tokens
• 36 star tokens
• 12 grand-father cards
• 48 fox cards
• 6 wooden planes

The Little Prince: Rising to the Stars supports two to six players ages six and up and takes about 20 minutes to play through. It will retail for approximately $25 and should be available at your local board game store in early fall.

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The Splendor mobile app launches today on Android and iOS devices. Put out by Days of Wonder, the game offers two types of play. One is a faithful adaptation of the tabletop game and can be played against the computer or in pass-and-play mode. The other, called “Challenges”, is more of a solitaire puzzle experience.

Both have me hooked!

What’s the game like?

For those not familiar with this recent cardboard hit, Splendor supposedly has players developing their Renaissance merchant houses to earn prestige and recognition from the nobles. Really though, the theme is pretty thin. The gameplay however, while quite simple, presents some very interesting strategic challenges.

On each turn, a player can either take gemstone chips (available in limited quantities in five colors) or spend previously collected chips to purchase a development card from those on display. Every card provides a permanent bonus in one color, making it easier to purchase additional cards in subsequent turns. Some cards also provide victory points.

The cards are laid out four-to-a-row in three rows. As you go from the bottom row to the middle to the top, the cards get more expensive but are also more likely to provide more victory points.

A group of noble tokens work essentially like achievements. The first person to collect the number and color of cards indicated on each token gets certain bonus points.

Game-end is triggered when someone hits 15 victory points, and of course the player with the most points is the winner.

How does the app play?

The mobile app works exactly the same way. The screen resembles a normal tabletop setup, with art derived from the physical version. And the usual digital options are provided: choice of avatars, volume control for background music, etc.

The only thing that Splendor doesn’t currently do is live online play. Instead, there’s pass-and-play and a choice of five computer opponents. These aren’t rated by difficulty level but rather by style of play: balanced, specialized, opportunistic, random behavior, and secret behavior. I haven’t tried them all yet but those I did I found to be worthy adversaries.

Days of Wonder promises to add an online multiplayer mode in a future update. In the meantime, players have the option to post scores to an online leaderboard.

What are Challenges?

Challenges are solitaire puzzle-like scenarios. With challenges, the basic method of play remains unchanged, though the specific parameters—for example, the number of chips collected per turn or the point value of various cards—may be different. In some cases, the goal is to hit a set number of victory points within a certain number of turns. In others it’s winning a specific card or collecting a particular combination of bonuses.

There are three sets of six challenges included with the base game, each associated with a center of trade from the 15th or 16th century.

Again, I haven’t played through all of them but those I did were, well, challenging. For most too, the cards that come out are still random. Thus even a completed challenge may be interesting to play again.

Where can I get it?

For its $6.99 price, digital Splendor is a good deal. The quality of the tabletop-to-mobile adaptation is first-rate.

If there’s one thing to quibble with it would be with the way the Challenge parameters are explained and displayed. For example, it took me a few minutes to figure out that in describing a Challenge, “value of Prestige Points” means the number of points needed to win. But once that was resolved, it certainly didn’t present any ongoing barrier to play. Nor did I find any such issues with the basic gameplay tutorial.

The underlying game too is much more than one of those mindless time-wasters. Yet it’s not so complex that it requires some high-level dedication to learn or play reasonably well. For me at least, that’s the sweet spot. I suspect I’ll be playing this one a lot.

Click here to purchase Splendor for iOS devices via iTunes.

Click here to purchase Splendor for Android devices via the Google Play store.

A complimentary copy of digital Splendor was provided by Days of Wonder for review.

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The 2015 Spiel des Jahres—German Game of the Year—has been awarded to Colt Express from publishers Ludonaute and Asmodee and designer Christophe Raimbault. Colt Express is a game of competitive train-robbing in the old west, played on three-dimensional rail cars. To win, one has to not only steal the most loot but also keep it away from fellow bandits. And then there’s the big bonus for firing the most bullets.

The Kennerspiel des Jahres, or Expert Game of the Year award, was given to Broom Service from publishers Alea and Ravensburger and designers Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister. A remake of the earlier Witch’s Brew, Broom Service is a game in which the players collect ingredients for magic potions. Choosing a selection of roles to act on each round, they must also choose for each role whether to go with the stronger but riskier “brave” action or the safer “cowardly” action.

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On Thursday, Asmodee announced that it had acquired the worldwide rights to Spot It!, also known as Dobble. The acquisition represents a consolidation of rights previously held by Divertis Properties Group, Play Factory, and Blue Orange Games.

Spot It! is a game that’s quite simple and fun to play. The idea is to find the one and only one pair of matching images on any two cards. Yet this simple formula has been very profitable for the game’s publishers. According to Asmodee, 7.7 million copies of Spot It! and Dobble have been sold worldwide. Divertis has stated that as of last year, sales had totaled $91 million since 2009.

Before the acquisition, Divertis and its subsidiary, Play Factory, owned the game. Blue Orange was licensed to produce and distribute it in the United States and English-speaking parts of Canada. Elsewhere distribution was through Asmodee.

The acquisition of Spot It! should allow Asmodee to consolidate the game’s diverging product lines and international distribution, as well as pursue a Spot It! app for mobile devices. The announcement quoted Stéphane Carville, Chairman of Asmodee Group, as saying:

We have big ambitions for this game in North America, particularly in its digital version.

Certainly the move makes sense for Asmodee, a company that’s been in acquisition mode recently. But there’s more to this story. Another driver of the consolidation appears to be the settling of a lawsuit filed by Divertis against Blue Orange.

In August 2014, Divertis filed in U.S. District Court a suit against Blue Orange Games for violation of copyright and trademark rights [PDF], seeking a court order to stop any further sales of Spot It! by Blue Orange. In fact, the suit was an effort to enforce in the United States the judgement of a French court that terminated Blue Orange’s license and required it to pay Divertis €70,000 in penalties and legal fees and approximately €500,000 in royalties. Divertis’s complaint alleged that Blue Orange violated its license agreement by registering unauthorized copyrights, failing to pay royalties, removing Play Factory’s name from the packaging, and sublicensing the game to Disney without permission. As of March (when the judge in the case refused Divertis’ request for a preliminary injunction) the lawsuit was ongoing.

Asmodee declined to comment when I reached out to them. However, I think it’s fair to assume that the company would not move forward with the acquisition if rights issues remained in question. The announcement quoted Jean François Andréani, Chairman of Divertis Properties Group:

Turning Spot It! over to Asmodee is certainly the best option for accelerating consolidation and development of the game on a worldwide level and taking the lead in market share in the process.

Thierry Denoual, Chairman of Blue Orange, also said:

It makes sense that we divest the business over to Asmodee Group, which has all the strengths needed to enable Spot It!/Dobble to the long term leadership in the card game market.

In fact, I would suggest that settling the suit and consolidating the rights in one organization should allow Asmodee to take an already very successful product even further.

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Asmodee games is set to release another in the Builders game series. This August, keep an eye out for the Antiquity version, which is very similar to the other Builders games, but has a couple of added mechanics.

In The Builders, players earn victory points by successfully completing a build project. Pay to send a worker to the site. When enough workers with enough materials on hand (like wood or stone) are assigned to a site, the player earns that site. The first player to reach 17 victory points wins the game.

The Antiquity version of the game has a new mechanic: investments. Once per turn, players can make a loan from the bank, which will instantly give you additional money, but reduce your victory points. You can also buy a tool, which will increase your materials, or send a worker to school. That worker will learn an additional skill. You can also purchase slaves, which don’t cost anything to send out to work, but will give you negative victory points at the end of the game unless you give them away first.

The game includes:

• 42 Worker cards
• 42 Building cards (including eight machines)
• 15 Gold coins
• 25 Silver Coins
• 1 Rulebook

The Builders: Antiquity supports two to four players ages 10 and up. Game play takes approximately 30 minutes. It retails for $17.99 and is expected to launch this August. Look for it in your local board game store.

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Asmodee Editions, the company that distributes such popular titles as 7 Wonders, Elysium, and Splendor, has a new game out later this year that is all about the scents.

Parfum is a game of chemistry. Players act as perfumers, trying to create the perfect scent by collecting various ingredients. Use the Aroma dice to gather specific notes used to create perfumes that wealthy clients have requested.

The game comes with 42 fragrance tiles, 25 customers, 25 fountain tiles, and 15 dice. Plus, there are a number of wooden bottles that represent perfume, player tokens, a double-sided game board, character descriptions, and a few more additions to make the game complete.

The game supports two to four players, ages eight and up. Gameplay takes approximately 45 minutes.

Parfum is scheduled to launch by the third quarter of 2015. It will be available at local board game stores for a retail price of $50.

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After the release of the Babel expansion in 2014, another new twist is coming to the much sought-after world of 7 Wonders – Duel. Designed for 2 players only, it infuses certain elements from traditional solitaire card games that the available cards will be arranged in a pyramid layout, and only cards that are not blocked by the others could be taken. When a player collects two identical science symbols on the cards, tokens that grant bonus effects are awarded. To win the game, players can choose to achieve military victory, scientific dominance or the most VP.

7 Wonders: Duel has an approximate play time of 20 minutes, and is expected to be released in October 2015.

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Asmodee Games, having acquired Fantasy Flight Games and Days of Wonder in 2014, has purchased Paris-based Ystari Games and Belguim-based Pearl Games, according to a news posting by Marabunta, a sub-brand of Asmodee. Products published by Ystari Games include Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Caylus, and Endeavor. Pearl Games publishes Troyes, Ginkgopolis, Deus, and others.

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