All the monsters in King of New York are about to get two new sets of evolution cards when King of New York: Power Up hits this October. A new monster, Mega Shark, also makes his appearance with this expansion.

This set will also allow owners of the new version of King of Tokyo to mix in King of New York monsters in Tokyo with Evolution cards.

You’ll need $20, and a copy of the King of New York base game to play.

Included in the box:

• 112 Evolution Cards
• 1 Monster standee and board
• Assorted tokens
• 1 Rulebook

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King of Tokyo is getting a new, fresh look, along with a clearer rulebook. The new edition comes with King of Tokyo veteran monsters: The King, Gigazaur, Meka Dragon, and Alienoid, along with Space Penguin (up until now only available at tournaments) and Cyber Kitty.

The rules are still the same, as are the deck of power cards. This is just a visual refresh, and a great looking one at that!

The main reason for the makeover? There’s a digital version of the game coming out, and the new look will carry over into that.

King of Tokyo arrives July 14th in the US, and at the end of the year everywhere else. Also, a special edition containing Baby Gigazaur will be exclusive through Target for 1 year.

Also, a quick note about expansions. Since the older power cards will have different card backs than the new ones, they can’t be used unless sleeved with an opaque back. IELLO will be releasing their own sleeves in the near future.

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Equal parts strategy and lighthearted fun is what you get from Iello. And to make that combination even more accessible, Iello is lowering the price on its Tales and Games series to $25.

The Pied Piper (March 17th, $25), the latest in that series, has players scurrying rodents through each other’s homes. Regular cards move individual rodents clockwise around the neighborhood of player homes, sending each closer to condemnation with every visit. Sewer cards allow players to bypass a house, such as their own. And a Pied Piper figure clears rodents when traveling through, thus allowing a home’s owner to partially restore its condition.

King of New York Power Up (fall, $20) expands King of New York with the same type of monster customization options found in King of Tokyo Power Up.

Loot N Run (March 17th, $15) is an easy card game about archaeological treasure-hunting. Each turn a player has the choice to loot (take a card), awaken (challenge another player), or run (score the cards held in hand). On every card is a number of treasures and a number of monsters. If whenever challenged a player holds more monsters than treasures, they lose the cards they have.

Tem-purr-a (March 17th, $15), about over-eating cats, is one of those play-cards-in-sequence games. The twist with this one is that if a person can’t play in sequence, then they have to draw a number of cards equal to the total value of all cards in the discard pile. Lurking in the draw pile, though, are a few indigestion cards, with more added every time one is drawn. For each one of those drawn, players collect indigestion tokens. The player with the fewest tokens is the winner.

Happy Pigs (March 17th, $35) is a cute pig-farming game with a economics lesson buried inside. Players who sell pigs at the same time must split the points.

The economics lesson at the heart of Candy Chaser (April, $15) is market-manipulation. [Fortunately, though, there is no CFTC jurisdiction!] The players as kids smuggling sweets in to school each secretly specialize in a certain type of candy. While of course they’re trying to maximize the going price of their own candy, if another player is able to guess their specialty they’re knocked out of the game.

Sea of Clouds (summer, $30) is about air pirates, which is enough for me. I was told, though, that others would also appreciate the Winston card drafting.

Oceanos (summer, $35), from designer Antoine Bauza, is a game in which players customize submarines to explore the sea.

Another game from Antoine Bauza, Monster Chase (summer, $25) is a quick cooperative memory game for little kids. The idea is to chase the monsters, each of whom is afraid of one particular toy, back in to the closet before they surround your bed.

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Reddit user, raremind, posted some pics today of his miniaturized King of Tokyo set that he can easily pack up and store in his bag. The project is pretty impressive, and cuts down the size of the game a good amount. In the end, it’s all stored in it’s own bag, and has a much smaller footprint than the original game. I especially like the use of tokens instead of the cardboard stand-ups, and the use of a paper slider for health and VP really trumps the dials in my opinion.

You can check out all the pics he posted over on imgur. If you like what you see, give him an upvote on reddit.

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Most of the new games being demoed by Iello at Gen Con were on their way from the factory and expected to be at retail in September.

Kabuki ($15) is a memory matching micro game with beautiful images of Japanese theater costumes.

Me Want Cookies! ($25) is desert themed with a twist. I mean that literally. The idea is to follow the twisting paths across three cards, starting on the left with the desert rolled on a die, to the final desert on the right-most card, and then be the first to grab the token matching that last desert.

The next in Iello’s Tales & Games series, Little Red Riding Hood ($30), is something of a racing game. Most play Red or one of her friends. One person plays the wolf. All are trying to be the first to get to grandmother’s house. Movement cards are helpful, however, once used must be flipped to the alternate side so they can be used by an opponent.

In Medieval Academy ($40) everyone plays student knights. The goal of players is to advance their tokens on each of the boards representing the various knight school subjects—chivalry, dragon-fighting, service to the crown, etc.

Sapiens ($45) was described by Keith at Iello as Dominoes with power-ups and that certainly seems apt. Thematically, the game is about leading a tribe of primitives. Mechanically though, points for shelter and food are scored by placing domino-like pieces with matching sides. Each board space on which a piece is played confers a certain number of points, while some also provide special bonus actions.

Not due until Essen, The Big Book of Madness ($50) is a cooperative game in which the players, as student wizards, are challenged to fight back an increasingly dangerous stream of monsters that they unintentionally released from a magical tome. Of course, as students, they’re ill-prepared to face the threat from a book they were never even supposed to touch. So while keeping the monsters at bay, the players must at the same time research and cast ever more powerful new spells.

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Worldbuilders and IELLO have announced a Gen Con 2015 monster for King of Tokyo and King of New York. The monster, Draccus, will be available to con goers for $20 at the Worldbuilders booth (#663). All proceeeds from the sales will go to Worldbuilders, which aids Heifer International to stop world hunger. After the convention you’ll be able to snag Draccus from The Tinker’s Packs, again with the proceeds being donated to the charity.

Draccus is the creation of New York Times bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss, and the art was done by Régis Torres.

In Rothfuss’s book The Name of the Wind, the narrator, Kvothe, finds himself face-to-face with the Draccus, a very real beast on which the legends of dragons were based. Kvothe is shocked that not only does it actually exist, but he suddenly finds himself having to survive an encounter with one, and save an entire city from its drug-crazed rampage. Kvothe needs to use all his wits and tricks to come out alive, let alone triumphant.

I love the idea of the monster being used to raise funds for charity. It’s a pretty sweet looking one too.

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In the shoot-and-reveal card-tossing game of Alien Wars, players take the roles of aliens who aim to eliminate each other’s fleet and become super commander of the galaxy. Each player has a set of 9 cards which give special effects when activated. These cards, together with three Nano Minefield cards, are placed face-down on the table. Then players take turns to reveal a card, activate its effect if necessary, use the Shooting Disc to shoot, and reveal and eliminate another card. The game continues until all but one player’s cards remain on the table, and the last standing player wins.

Alien Wars plays 2 to 6 players in about 10 minutes. It is expected to be released in August 2015.

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Iello’s fun and chaotic card game Pingo Pingo will get you up and moving, literally. Some aspects of the game require you to physically get up, run to an object in the room and get back to the table before the crazy penguins invade.

The fast-paced game revolves around a 15-minute soundtrack (the game comes with a CD, but you can download the soundtrack to your smartphone). As the music plays, different actions take place. For example, if the song is playing daytime music, players must adhere to daytime rules on the cards. The same applies to night. If you are away from your seat when the crazy penguins shout “Pingo Pingo” and you might lose your loot.

The fun comes with the action cards. If you draw a yellow-border action card, you will have to perform some physical feat. For example, you may have to run to the other side of the room to tap the suspension bridge base. Or, you may have to shoot a wild beast with your dart gun.

Yes, the game comes with a dart gun.

The point of the game is to gather treasure from the island by drawing cards and following their actions as quickly as possible. You have seven health points. When you lose all of your points, you lose the game. If you make it to the end and have the most treasure, you win.

The game supports two to five players ages six and older and includes the following:

• Pirate pistol and 10 darts
• Soundtrack CD
• Space Penguin target
• Bear target
• Two suspension bridge bases
• Pirate ship base
• 35 life point cards
• 82 adventure cards
• Rulebook

Pingo Pingo is available now from your local board game shop for a retail price of $34.99.

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The winners of the 2015 Origins Awards, as given out by The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design at the Origins Game Fair, are:

• Best Game Accessory—Wings of Glory Game Mat from Ares Games
• Best Historical Miniatures Rules—Sails of Glory from Ares Games
• Best Historical Miniatures Rules Supplement—Battleground Europe from Warlord Games
• Best Historical Miniatures Figure or Line—Sails of Glory Series 2 from Ares Games
• Best Historical Board Game—Heroes of Narmandie from Iello
• Best Traditional Card Game—Splendor from Asmodee
• Best Collectible Card Game or Expansion—Magic: The Gathering Khans of Tarkir from Wizards of the Coast
• Best Miniatures Rules or Expansion—Golem Arcana from Harebrained Schemes
• Best Miniatures Figure or Line—Dungeons & Dragons Attack Wing from WizKids
• Best Roleplaying Game—Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook from Wizards of the Coast
• Best Roleplaying Supplement or Adventure—Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual from Wizards of the Coast
• Best Family, Party or Children’s Game—The Hare and the Tortoise from Iello
• Best Board Game—Sheriff of Nottingham from Arcane Wonders

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Welcome to the Dungeon from Iello is a quick-playing cross between push-your-luck and auction based on a theme of fighting monsters. Each round, players take turns deciding whether to add the next monster card to the dungeon, have the shared hero lose a piece of equipment, or just drop out of the contest altogether. When only one player is left, they will run the hero through the stack of monsters with whatever equipment remains. Surviving means victory points.

Welcome to the Dungeon is for 2-4 players and retails for $15.

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