Schmidt Spiele is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Mensch ärgere Dich nicht, a version of Ludo, or Pachisi, with three new versions of the game.
Mensch ärgere Dich nicht Gold-Edition is the same game upgraded with larger wood playing pieces and gold-colored dice.
Mensch ärgere Dich nicht: Das Kartenspiel, that is “The Card Game”, isn’t so much a translation of the original as it is inspired-by it. While trying to build and score rows, players have the opportunity to steal from each other, thus recreating the frustration of having a piece sent back to the start.
Closer in play to its namesake, Mensch ärgere Dich nicht: Mauerhüpfer, or “Wall Hopper”, is also a roll-and-move game where landing on a space occupied by an opponent sends his piece back to the start. In this one, though, the movement track is a zig-zag with walls separating the parallel paths. On that wall between each adjacent pair of spaces is a number. Two dice are rolled and each one can be used either to move along the path, or when a die matches the number on the adjacent wall, to jump that wall in a shortcut to the end.
GameBrotherZ has announced plans to triple its line of products this year—that’s six new games for 2014! Most of them, though, are variations on Spuzzle, the company’s game of racing to complete mini jigsaw puzzles.
There will be four new Disney-licensed versions: Spuzzle Planes, Spuzzle Disney Princess, Spuzzle Cars, and Spuzzle Disney Junior.
For children a little older, GameBrotherZ is launching Spuzzle Strategy. This version still uses puzzle pieces but has players vying to construct the longest trail, while blocking and cutting short the paths of others.
And then there’s MimiQ, a kind-of Go Fish game, where instead of calling out cards, the players make faces at each other. Expect this to be laugh-out-loud funny for 5-year-olds—a player that doesn’t have the card he’s been asked for is supposed to stick out his tongue.
At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, Pegasus Spiele is debuting three new board games.
One is Camel Up, a camel racing game where the players bet on the winners and losers, the wood camel pieces stack on each other, and a pyramid device determines how the camels run.
Another of the games is Hospital Rush. In this one, the players are medical interns competing for the position of senior physician.
And finally, there’s Hook!, where bored pirates pass the time by shooting each other with cannon balls.