Not Parent Approved ($25) is a kid-friendly version of Cards Against Humanity for teens and tweens—in other words, irreverent and possibly gross but not crude or explicit. It comes with 105 question cards and 351 answer cards.

 

 

 

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Not Parent Approved

Munchkin CCG Card Previews

Another sneak peek at the upcoming Munchkin CCG was provided by Steve Jackson Games at Toy Fair, just for readers of Purple Pawn.

The Munchkin CCG is a two-player game with both battling and bluffing elements. Due by the end of the year, it pokes fun at both RPGs and CCGs. There’ll be two-deck starter boxes and randomized boosters in some sort of rarity scheme. Boosters, though, will only be available at hobby retail.

  • Comments Off on Munchkin CCG Card Previews

Toy Fair 2017—Playmonster

My favorite game for kids at Toy Fair was Ultra Dash (June, $25), Playmonster’s version of an earlier game, Hyper Dash. It has a set of targets in different colors and a wand (which they call a “tagger”) that flashes the same colors in varying patterns. Kids, or energetic adults, are supposed to run from room to room, plugging the wand in to the matching targets. Settings allow for most targets in a fixed time, quickest time for a fixed number of targets, or for play as a team relay game.

On the silly end of things, Playmonster had Belching Mikey (June, $10), a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version of its hot-potato game, Stinky Pig.

This year, Playmonster is also bringing back two fast-play card games previously with other publishers, 7 Ate 9 and Qwitch (available shortly, $10 each). A player’s goal in both is to get rid of their cards by discarding in series. In 7 Ate 9, the next card follows the numbers on the previous one. So for example, the 4 ± 3 card can be followed by either 1 or 7. In Qwitch, cards have numbers and letters, and the direction for the following card is set by a separate deck with + and – symbols.

For adults, Playmonster is launching two party games. Accentuate (June, $25) has players reading movie quotes in various accents. Teammates able to guess the accent or movie earn points. Go Bleep Yourself (June, $25) is about filling in the blank (or bleep) with either something funny or something that turn’s reader would likely have said.

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Playmonster

Magic: The Gathering Archenemy Nicol Bolas

In the first-time promotion of Magic: The Gathering at its Toy Fair showroom, Hasbro had on display Archenemy Nicol Bolas ($60), a boxed set for a format not seen in several years. Archenemy games have three playing against one, though to even the odds, the one player starts with 40 life instead of 20 and is bolstered by a supplementary deck of scheme cards (they turn over one per round).

Archenemy Nicol Bolas will be released June 16th with four 60-card decks, 20 all new scheme cards, and a special double-wheeled life counter for the archenemy (counts 00-99).

  • Comments Off on Magic: The Gathering Archenemy Nicol Bolas

Coming this fall for Beyblade Burst is the Avatar Attack Battle Set ($50). It’s a new battle arena with so-called avatars unique to each bey—accessory devices like blades or hammers attached to the arena, which players can use to influence (interfere with) a match mid-game.

In terms of the beys themselves, this fall will also see the launch of Rip Fire Packs ($15) with beys that light up when spinning.

Launchers too will see innovation in the fall. Instead of pull-through rip-cords, Master Kits ($20) will include spring-loaded retracting string launchers (and a bey).

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Beyblade Burst

Action games were the highlight of Hasbro’s Toy Fair showroom this year. Though we’ve already covered Toilet Trouble, Fantastic Gymnastics, and Speak Out Kids vs Parents, I still feel the need to include this picture of fellow pawn, Thomas, being sprayed in the face by a life-sized toilet prop (just for journalistic accuracy, of course).

Following up on Pie Face and Pie Face Showdown, Hasbro plans for this fall Pie Face Sky High ($25). It still delivers whip cream to the face but this time does it with a device similar to those carnival sledgehammer strength-testers.

Egged On ($20) looks like a carton of eggs. The eggs themselves are flexible rubber and split in two with a pretty good seal. Fill some with water or other suitable substance and then play by smashing them against your head. Egged On will be available in Target stores in March and everywhere else in May.

Simon Optix is a wearable version of the pattern-matching Simon game. The person wearing it is supposed to wave their hands in front of the visor following the flash of colors.

Bop It! Maker (fall, $20) is another pattern-matching challenge. Unlike previous entries in the series, though, this one is user-programmable. That is, the user creates their own waves, shakes, and other moves—as well as records a name for each—which the device randomizes.

Playroom Entertainment seems to be working its way out of some recent challenges. Production and distribution is getting back on track and several games should be heading out to retail over the next few months.

Joining an already successful line of geeky trivia games will be Geek Out! The Big Bang Theory (May, $20) with questions based mainly on the show. The Geek Out! games challenge players to see how many answers they can provide for each question.

Costume Party Assassins is a murder-mystery deduction game with meeples in disguise. Players roll dice to move those meeple characters around the board but the rules of movement are relative to a player’s own secret character.

Snorta (June, $20) is a reprint of a former Out of the Box party game that has players making animal noises and trying to remember who made which one.

New in Playroom’s series of Bright Idea Games for kids is the cooperative Bird Day Party (May, $10). In this one, the idea is to find a bird card whose back side matches either the color, or gift, or both of the next turned-over invitation card. If it doesn’t match at all, that bird leaves the party. As the field of bird cards narrows, though, it does become somewhat easier to remember the features of each, which is good, as the goal is to get through the invitations before all the birds duck out.

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Playroom Entertainment

Professor Puzzle of the UK, known mostly for wood and metal brain teasers, also has a line of giant garden games. Several should be available in the United States next month.

Giant Chess ($50 retail) features a weatherproof mat and light plastic pieces with a 5½ inch king.

The Jenga-like Toppling Tower game ($50) starts out at 2 feet tall and is made of light beechwood, so it shouldn’t hurt when it does topple.

Also made of beechwood are the Giant Dominoes—set of 28 double-sixes for $30.

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Professor Puzzle’s Giant Games

The big news from Games Workshop was the Warhammer Quest re-issue, but that wasn’t on display at Toy Fair this year. Instead, the main booth was all about the recently-released version of Blood Bowl. I loved the old version of Blood Bowl, and getting to see the newer line — with the professionally-painted miniatures — was really neat. The new boxed set, retailing at $99, contains 12 miniatures for the Ork and Human teams, in green and blue respectively, ready for assembly and paint. Additional teams come in colored plastic to easily identify teams without the need for painting miniatures before play. Skaven and Dwarven teams are priced at $35.

New to this edition are different fields to play on. The board that comes with the base game has a human field on one side and a distinctively orkish field on the reverse. Additional themed pitches include the $38 Skaven/Dwarven double-sided board with rules for underground “weather” effects and a $32 Blood on the Snow pitch with a winter-themed pair of fields “covered in reindeer skulls, squashed presents, loads of blood and some slightly dubious patches of yellow snow.”

However, you’ll really need Death Zone, a 48-page book containing seven team types (Skaven, Nurgle, Dwarf, Elven Union, High Elf, Dark Elf and Wood Elf) with background, rosters and famous examples of each, to complete your game. The book also contains additional rules for the coaching staff, season play, star players, additional skills… Throwing rules like this into a separate product is what Games Workshop did for the previous version of Blood Bowl to keep the entry point to the game low. Arguably, the same case can be made for this edition, as the base game is just under $100. But if you really want to get into the new version of Blood Bowl, you’re going to need this $25 softcover book.

Cards replace the punchboard tiles from the earlier version, and — for those of you who remember the last incarnation of Blood Bowl — the box is actually sturdy enough to hold the game.

Downstairs in Games Workshop’s second booth, the two newest lines showcased are the Warhammer 40k Starter Sets and the Warhammer 40k Build+Paint series.

Both Starter Sets retail for $50 and will be shipping soon. Battle for Vedros contains 28 miniatures that require no glue for assembly: nine Space Marines (including a Dreadnought) and nineteen Orks. A basic rulebook and dice for the game are included in the package. Tyranid Encounter! is at the same price point but comes with 40 miniatures: twenty-four Tyranids and sixteen Space Marines.

The Build+Paint sets will be available in waves. Series 1 is being released now with miniature kits that contain glue, paint pots, and a brush starting at $14.99. Items on display included three Ork and three Space Marine kits. The Ork Blastabike and Space Marine Attack Bike retail for $14.99, the Ork Trukkboyz and the Space Marine Speeder Strike retail for $24.99, and the larger forces for Orks (Raiders) and Space Marines (Heavy Assault) are priced at $39.99. Like the Blood Bowl miniatures, the Build+Paint sets come in colored plastic to allow for quick play at the table before painting.

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Games Workshop

Toy Fair 2017—Iello

At Toy Fair, Iello was talking about expanding its line of children’s games this year.

The Legend of the Wendigo, available now at $20, centers around a native-American monster fable. In this version of the fable, the monster takes over the bodies of kids at summer camp. One player replaces a new camper tile each round with a special version that shows the wendigo on the back-side. If the other players can’t guess which camper has been replaced, the monster player gets to posses another, keeping past victims as they go.

Also available now is The Mysterious Forest ($30). This one has memory and resource-collection elements and is based on The Wormworld Saga comic series. It’s also a cooperative game. At the beginning, players get a quick look at a set of cards with the resources they need to collect. Then the cards are turned face down and the players roll dice and pick tokens representing the resources they need. Finally, the cards, which represent an unfolding story, are turned back over one-at-a-time. If they have the right tokens, they complete the saga and win. Fortunately, they also start out with a few special Loki helper tokens to fill in the gaps.

For adults and older children, Iello had on display Pyramids (March, $20), a game of constructing monuments in ancient Egypt. Each round, players choose from among a pool of god tiles that give them the ability to add stone cards to their pyramids and obelisks. At the end, pyramids score points for stones strung together and in various colors. Obelisks score points for height, glyphs, and a range of colors.

  • Comments Off on Toy Fair 2017—Iello
« Previous Page  Next Entries »