I was pretty excited when a big box from USAopoly appeared on my front step a week ago. Inside was a bunch of licensed goodness just waiting to be played. One of those items was The Walking Dead TacDex, a game I was eagerly waiting to try since seeing it at Toy Fair this year. A card game by Richard Borg? Sign me up!

Maybe signing me up was a bit hasty.

Don’t get me wrong. TacDex isn’t really that bad. It’s just…War. Granted, it’s War with a few twists, but nothing mind blowing that really changes things up much. Each player has a deck and a hand of cards. Each player plays a card simultaneously and either the higher or lower number wins depending on what side the Battle Marker is on. Some cards have powers that let you draw an extra card, have the other discard a card, or that give you the option to flip the Battle Marker. Play continues until both players draw their End cards which have been shuffled into the second half of the deck.

Some times games go great. Each player has a descent hand of cards that they can play from throughout the game. Often times, though, you end up running out of cards and have to rely on the 1 card you draw at the end of your turn. This basically makes nullifies certain aspects of the game, namely making your opponent discard cards and using the cards that let you play your numbered card after the other player places theirs.

I guess I should have expected something as simple, but Richard Borg’s involvement got me a bit more excited. My oldest two kids still like the game, and there hasn’t been a day of summer vacation that they haven’t played it since it showed up. As for me, I politely turn down invitations to play.

A copy of TacDex: The Walking Dead was provided free for review by USAopoly.

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Tuesday at the GAMA Trade show, Renegade Game Studios and Steve Jackson Games announced a patnership to produce Munchkin Trading Cards. To be clear, these cards, available in the fall, are not a game, just trading cards of the kind with images on one side and character facts on the other. However, in addition to the typical sticker and autograph cards, inserted in to random packs will be actual unique playtest cards from the Munchkin game development team, new one-off rule cards, and original hand drawn sketch cards (at least one per box of 24 packs). While the total number of cards in a pack has not yet been set, MSRP per pack should be $3.50.

Also announced at the show were Munchkin Gloom from Atlas Games, Munchkin Smash Up from AEG, and Munchkin Zombies Walking Dead and Munchkin The Nightmare Before Christmas from USAopoly. The last is an October release and the rest are set for Gen Con.

Coming direct from Steve Jackson are Munchkin Steampunk (a hobby channel exclusive through December), Star Munchkin 3 (with a single extra card, for a total of 113, only in the first print run), and Munchkin Stocking Stuffers (a bundle of five Christmas-themed packs plus some gift stickers).

And possibly in the works are Munchkin vending machines, either for game cards or for tchotchkes, like mini figures and dice. At the moment, no concrete steps have yet been taken for these. However, the retailers at the show voiced strong support.

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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.

 

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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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