Rubik’s Cube

Brian Johnson solved a 2×2 cube in just under 1 second (0.95) for a North American record.

Jan Bentlage’s three-solve average of 25 moves for the 3×3 Rubik’s Cube qualified as a world record for fewest moves.

Draughts

Latvian player Zoja Golubeva’s win at the Draughts World Championship for Women represents her 15th time taking that title.

Host country Uzbekistan led the medal count at the Asian Draughts Championship with 34 gold, 25 silver, and 25 bronze.

Magic: The Gathering

The Magic Online Championship brought the best online players together in the same room to play each other via laptop. The winner, Magnus Lantto, qualified for the Pro Tour and World Championship and took home a prize of $25,000.

For the release weekend of the Modern Masters set, there were coordinated Grand Prix events in Chiba, Japan (with 5,000 attendees); Utrecht, Netherlands (another 5,000 attendees); and Las Vegas (11,000 attendees total, though the competition was split in to two). Four couples were married at the events, and Wizards claims 1 million people watched online. The winners were Yuki Matsumoto in Chiba, Davide Vergoni of Italy in Utrecht, and Aaron Lewis and Scott Markeson in Las Vegas.

Monopoly

A group in Suisun City, California claims to have broken the world record for largest Monopoly board ever assembled.

Chess

When Natalya Zhukova of Ukraine won the European Women’s Chess Championship recently, it was a repeat of the same feat 15 years ago. However, her win was marred by some controversy.

Wei Yi, who only turned 16 during the tournament, won the Chinese Championship and broke in to the top-30 of FIDE internationally ranked players.

Jeffery Xiong of Texas, is only 14 years old but won the Chicago Open, broke the 2500 ratings mark, earned his third GM norm.

Connect 4

Guests, 314 of them, at Butlin’s Minehead Resort in Somerset, U.K. got together to break the world record for most people playing Connect 4 at the same time.

Scrabble

The winner of the 2015 Bayer National Scrabble Championship in India was Mohan Verghese Chunkath, a former Chief Secretary of the government of Tamil Nadu. Among his 24 games, Mr. Chunkath scored 56 bingos.

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There’s a UK and Ireland Monopoly Championship series currently underway with regional tournaments taking place over the next month and a “national” event scheduled for July 19th in London. The tournaments are running in two sections, one for adults and one for youth 8-17 years of age. The winner of the adult final goes on to the World Monopoly Championship, September in Macao.

Registration for the regional tournaments is free and open online.

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Monopoly

At the Australian National Monopoly Championships, the winner was student Tony Shaw, who says that being a nice guy in negotiations was key to his success.

Scrabble

From the 55 teams of 4th-8th graders competed in the North American School Scrabble Championship at Hasbro’s headquarters in Rhode Island, it was Noah Kalus of New Paltz, New York and Zach Ansell of Los Angeles, California who claimed the trophies, computers, and $10,000 prizes. They won their final game 587-331. Noah and Zach were introduced by their common coach and played together online before teaming up together for the first time at last year’s championship.

Rubik’s Cube

Powerhouse Cuber Feliks Zemdegs, on the way to winning the Canberra Autumn, broke the world record for a one-handed solve of the 3×3 cube in 6.88 seconds.

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Scrabble

A world record was set for the greatest number of consecutive Scrabble games played in 24 hours. The record 30 games were played by World Champion Craig Beevers, who won the first 29 and lost the last.

Monopoly

The new Monopoly Canadian Champion is Andi Cameron of Ontario, who bested 47 other players May 1st & 2nd in Toronto. With the title came a $10,000 prize and a stake in the World Championship event to be held September in Macao.

Rubik’s Cube

Collin Burns not only won the Doylestown Spring, he also solved a standard 3×3 in a world record 5.25 seconds.

Other recent world records include:

• Haixin Yang solving the 3×3 one-handed in 8.27 seconds at the Chengdu Open.
• Oliver Frost solving a 5×5 blindfolded in 5 minutes, 35.84 seconds at the Welcome Back to Guildford.
• Jakub Kipa solving 3×3 with feet in an average 29.96 seconds at the Polish Open.

And then there was the guy who solved a Rubik’s Cube while spinning on his head:

Chess

The World Women’s Chess Championship began with a field of 64 players, narrowed to four for the semifinals, and finished with Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine besting Natalia Pogonina of Russia 2.5-1.5 in the finals. Mariya is the 15th Women’s World Chess Champion and took home a prize of $60,000.

For the fourth consecutive year, Webster University has won the President’s Cup, commonly known as the college final-four of Chess. The win also represents the fifth consecutive for coach Susan Polgar, who previously worked with Texas Tech.

Host country, China, won the World Team Chess Championship but came in third, following Georgia and Russia, in the women’s section.

At the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, a tough game with Viswanathan Anand started the tournament off shaky for world champion Magnus Carlsen. And yet he managed to pull out a draw and finish the rest of the event undefeated and the winner with 7.0/9 points.

Yochanan Afek has earned the rare honor of the grandmaster title for Chess composition. Chess composition is the development of Chess problems or puzzles. And within this realm, Mr. Afek specializes in endgame studies.

Twelve year-old Jonah Willow forced Grandmaster Alexander Cherniaev to a draw to pull third place at the Nottingham Chess Congress, thus also qualifying for the upcoming British Chess Championships.

Backgammon

Japanese players were the favorites at the 27th Nordic Open Backgammon Tournament in Copenhagen. Yet it was Dagfinn Snarheim of Norway who walked away with the trophy and 300,000 kroner prize.

Draughts

Allan Igor Moreno Silva of Brazil won his third consecutive Pan American Draughts Championship.

Subbuteo

The Grand Prix of Scotland was dominated by Greece, with Kostas Sesses topping 50 other players in the open section and Greece taking the trophy as well in the team competition.

In Malta an International Open one day was followed by a Grand Prix the next day. The former was won by Juan Noguera of Spain. At the latter, though, it was locals Samuel Bartolo in the lead for the individual competition and Valletta Subbuteo Club first among teams.

At the Open of Traiskirchen (Austria), Alexander Haas placed first in the open section and TFC Mattersburg first in the team section.

Magic: The Gathering

At the head of Grand Prix Atlantic City was Christian Calcano, Grand Prix Paris Amand Dosimont, Grand Prix Toronto Lucas Siow, and Grand Prix Sao Paulo Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa (his 17th time in a grand prix top 8).

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An editorial published today by the Press of Atlantic City decries Hasbro’s abandonment of Atlantic City in the 80th Anniversary Edition of Monopoly. This follows a series of tweets by U.S. Representative Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey also complaining about Hasbro’s campaign to have the public vote on replacement cities.

RT if you think @HasbroNews should keep #AtlanticCity in #Monopoly80 & future editions

— Frank LoBiondo (@RepLoBiondo) February 27, 2015

The problem is that these (and other critics) have it wrong. Monopoly 80th Anniversary Edition, which is already on store shelves, keeps all the traditional properties derived from Atlantic City real-estate.

There are two upcoming Monopoly Here & Now Editions that will replace the traditional street names with the names of cities in the U.S. and across the world. This should hardly be a surprise to residents of New Jersey, however. It’s not even close to the first time such a thing has happened. There have been thousands of previous versions of Monopoly with properties based on world cities, movies, video games, and nearly every other subject matter you can imagine.

So, calm down, New Jersey!

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USAopoly surprised me at Toy Fair. I mostly know them for their licensed versions of Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Yahtzee, etc…, but a handful of original titles filled their booth this year. Before I get into those, I’m going to post a gallery of all the licensed products that are new.

OK! There’s a lot of material to cover above.

Monopoly

The Legend of Zelda version is new as of last year, and has been an excellent seller. New to the scene are Mass Effect, Pokemon, Jurassic World, Doctor Who: Villains, Firefly, and Penny Dreadful.

Yahtzee

There’s Back to the Future (the Flux Capacitor case lights up!), Firefly, The Legend of Zelda, and new versions for The Avengers, Age of Ultron. These I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of, but the dice come in either an Iron Man or Ultron head.

Clue

Doctor Who. It rhymes.

BANG!

It was really cool to see that there’s a Hereos of the Storm version, and a comic book Walking Dead version. Also, Halo.

Munchkin

A Walking Dead expansion for Munchkin Zombies was shown, as well as Adventure Time Munchkin. I actually took a copy of the latter home from a Steve Jackson party, and it’s pretty sweet. USAopoly did an excellent job of capturing the feeling of the show and fitting it in with the equally zany world of Munchkin.

Puzzles

Two beautiful Legend of Zelda puzzles. One is of the Hyrule Map, and the other is a colorful piece from The Wind Waker.

Risk

I wasn’t able to take pictures of either Risk title I saw, but they’re both very exciting. The first is an Avengers: Age of Ultron version that comes with little painted miniatures of the Avengers. The packaging said something about “collect them all,” but the rep showing me around didn’t know what that was about. It could be a pretty interesting mechanic if there were an element of randomness to the figures in the box.

The second, and by far one of the most exciting licensed products, was the Game of Thrones version of Risk. This thing was huge. It comes with 2 giant boards depicting Westeros and Essos, and the game is played over both maps at once. The pieces were amazing in their detail, and the box was minimal and beautiful. This is one I’d go out of my way to purchase.

OK. That horizontal line above is where we break from the licensed copies of classic and well known board games and get into original titles USAopoly is putting out.

TacDex – $9.95

TacDex is a newer game to the USAopoly line, and is a War-style card game developed by Richard Borg. Already having a Pirates! deck, they’ve now added a Super Mario Brothers deck, Walking Dead deck, and Halo deck. I was told you can mix and match the decks, if so desired. Right off the bat I’m interested because of Richard Borg’s involvement.

Rollandia

Rollandia is a really cool looking game where you’re rolling dice to try and build your castle. You need to roll groups of numbers to build each piece, and there’s a component of using your already-claimed numbers to effect other players. The whole look and feel of the game caught be totally by surprise after seeing such a huge amount of licensed Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, etc… games. Nothing against those, but it’s always nice to see new and innovative titles hit the market.

Nefarious – $29.95 – Ages 13+

Rollandia was really cool looking, but one look at Nefarious and I had already moved on. In Nefarious you’re playing evil scientists trying to take over the world. You do this by inventing devices, performing espionage, and doing research. Visually stunning, designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, and slick looking game play make this one to keep an eye on.

Pass the Blame : The Party Game for Irresponsible and Telestrations 8: After Dark  – $29.95 and $19.95 – Ages 17+

Two adult games following the new trend in the wake of Cards Against Humanity. Both party games involve compromising situations and foul thoughts. Pass the Blame has situations cards that players must write excuses for. Not as filthy as Telestrations After Dark, but it can get a bit dicey. Telestrations After Dark has you playing a game of Telephone, but with sketches. One player sketches a phrase, the next guesses what the phrase is and tries to draw it again, and so on. This one is a bit more intentionally dirty with terms like “doggie style”, “human centipede”, and more.

Wonky

Wonky comes with a box of mostly-cube-like pieces and cards that tell you what color cubes to place and where. Players have to follow the directions on the cards and build a tower as high as they can without it falling. A quick, easy, family game.

Tapple

A word game with an interesting twist. A card is drawn with a category, after which each player takes turns naming something in the category and tapping down the letter the word started with. Once a letter is tapped down it can’t be used again. Players who can’t think of a word are knocked out.

Lift It

This one had a pretty cool hook to it (pun intended.) Lift It has you trying to build certain structures with the pieces provided, but you must do in within a time limit, and by only using your hook on a string to pick up and place pieces. Some challenges are even cooperative, where 2 players need to each hook pieces and work togehter to build something. I gave this a shot, but was met with an almost insurmountable challenge trying to get my shaky, carpal tunnel ridden hands and wrists to do as I asked.

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Besides the Marvel, Jurassic World, and Magic: The Gathering games we’ve covered in separate articles, Hasbro’s Toy Fair reveals included news of Monopoly, Scrabble, The Game of Life, Minions, Star Wars, Disney Princess, My Little Pony, and preschool games.

For Monopoly’s birthday, Hasbro has already released a Monopoly 80th Anniversary Edition with wood houses, as well as licensed Coach to produce a high-end, New York-themed edition in leather. Through March 4th in partnership with BuzzFeed, the company is collecting votes to select cities for the next Monopoly Here & Now U.S. and World editions.

Scrabble will see two new versions in 2015, Scrabble Junior (spring, $15) and Scrabble Twist (fall, $20). The former has a two-sided board. On one side, children ages 2-4 match letter tiles to words that are already filled in. The latter is a handheld electronic game where the goal is to quickly find the word among five mixed-up letters, and then press the buttons in the right order.

A new version of The Game of Life just out replaces some of the careers with video game designer, singer, and secret agent, among others. The Game of Life Junior (spring, $15) is about collecting stars while having adventures, like at the beach or zoo.

In May, ahead of the upcoming Despicable Me Minions movie, Hasbro is launching the Minions Challenge Card Game. It’ll be sold in $3 blind bags containing one Minion figure and five battle cards.

Deploy your battle cards against your opponent and keep playing until your Minion reaches the top of this score card to win!

Sounds vaguely War-like.

For Star Wars there was only one game, Loopin’ Chewie (fall, $25), but it’s one that’s generating a fair amount of excitement. Though we already wrote about it, at Toy Fair we got some pictures.

A Disney Princess Candyland isn’t new but an update this year (fall, $15) adds Princess Frog.

In the fall, Hasbro will release My Little Pony Poppin’ Pinkie Pie ($20), an inverse hot-potato type game. Players attach balloons to a birthday cake and when Pinkie Pie pops out, that player is the winner.

For the preschool crowd, Mashin’ Max (March, $10) has kids moving pawns around the board to collect berries. Max in the middle, though, spins around and smashes his fist down to capture the players’ pawns.

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New Marvel games from Hasbro include:

• Monopoly Avengers Edition (spring, $20)—with hero cards that grant each player unique abilities.
• Operation Marvel Super Hero Adventures Edition (fall, $20)—where players remove debris from Iron Man’s suit.
• Hands Down Marvel Super Hero Adventures Edition (spring, $10)—in which the goal is to earn the “Ruler of Justice” title by being the first to get rid of all character cards.
• Thor’s Power Hammer Game (spring, $20)—featuring an electronic toy hammer that when struck on a flat surface measures a strength score against various villains.

WizKids has coming out in April Marvel Avengers Age of Ultron HeroClix and the Marvel X-Men Mutant Revolution strategy board game.

From Wonder Forge expect:

• Marvel On the Go Dominoes (spring, $6)—which is just Dominoes but with the pips replaced by pics.
• Marvel Matching (spring, $6)—a basic matching memory game with hexagonal pieces.
• Marvel Avengers Age of Ultron Party Game (fall, $10)—in which teams compete at using paddles to keep balloons in the air.
• Marvel 6-in-1 Games (spring, $15)—which includes Dominoes, Crazy Eights, Go Fish, Four-in-a-Row, Matching, and Bingo.

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Game revenues were down 4 percent for Hasbro in 2014. According to its latest report, the company earned $1.26 billion from games in 2014, compared to $1.31 billion in 2013.

Growth by Magic: The Gathering, Monopoly, The Game of Life, and Simon was offset by a decline in sales for Duel Masters, Twister, and Angry Birds.

Overall, though, 2014 was a good year for Hasbro, with total net revenue up 5 percent to $4.28 billion and adjusted net earnings up 10%. The strongest performer for Hasbro was the boys category, up 20 percent mostly on the strength of Transformers, Nerf, and Marvel.

Benefiting from growth in lifestyle licensing, the entertainment and licensing segment was also up 15 percent.

Answering questions after the presentation, Hasbro’s president, Brian Goldner, revealed that sales of Magic: The Gathering are divided roughly 55/45 percent between large retailers and other outlets (specialty, hobby, etc.). The Friday Night Magic program has grown to 7,000 gaming sessions each week. And by next year, sales of Beyblade are expected to have pretty much evaporated.

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Somewhere in France is a copy of Monopoly that I’m sure you’d be happy to bring home. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Monopoly brand, Hasbro in France has replaced the play money in one copy of the game with $23,268 worth of real Euro notes. An additional 10 copies have been filled with $340 in cash, and 69 games with $170.

[via UPI]

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