Greetings and salutations, gamer friends! I’ve just come (virtually) from the Restoration Games… and I bear tidings of new games!
But first, some news about games that are already out there.
Fireball Island
Restoration Games is entering into a partnership with Goliath Games to put Fireball Island into mass market distribution. In addition, they’ll be releasing a new streamlined version entitled Fireball Island: Race to Adventure that has a smaller footprint (and marbles) as well as quicker gameplay. (Note: the Race to Adventure edition will not be cross-compatible with the expansions for the original Curse of Vul-Kar.)
Downforce
Goliath will also be releasing a Target edition of Downforce… but the only “new” element will be six new power cards. (Yes, the box will be different and the cards slightly smaller – but it’s the same game.)
Unmatched
While there wasn’t any more information about the Marvel Unmatched boxes (as a playtester, I can tell you that I love me some Squirrel Girl), there was an official announcement of the fourth quarter release of Battle of Legends, Volume 2. The art is amazing… and the selection of new heroes is very cool as well – Yennenga, Achilles, Sun Wukong, & Bloody Mary.
They also noted that they’ve looked pretty carefully at how to do a “box of holding” for all the Unmatched stuff – but haven’t seen any design ideas that they’re satisfied with… yet.
Return to Dark Tower
After $1.5 million in development costs and three years of work, it’s about to finally arrive. Barring any weirdness, fulfillment should start late this summer. (Rob D. noted that he was now doing an odd bit of game design – working on sound and lights.) I went “all in” for this one… so I could not be more excited.
And now the new stuff…!
Unmatched Digital
December 2021 should see the release of Unmatched to Steam (Win/Mac), Switch, iOS, and Android with cross-platform multi-player. And, for those of us who sometimes can’t phone a friend, it’ll have AI as well for solo play. It’s being “built” by ACRAM (the same team who made the digital versions of Charterstone and Istanbul). No surprise – only unlicensed characters will appear… and more “no surprise” – there will be battlefields and heroes added as time goes on.
Berried Treasure
Restoration is taking an old Sid Sackson game and adding, well, pie. And raccoons. It’s a quick (25-30 minute) set-collecting/take that bit of lunacy. I’m impressed with the new art design.
Key to the Kingdom
We finally got to see artwork for this redesigned roll’n’move – and the Restoration team focused on the whimsical/tongue-in-cheek nature of this fantasy game. The art is by the same artist who did Everdell. I just like that you always have the option instead of rolling & moving to “take a Heroic Nap”. I could use one right now. It will play with 2-5 players, age 7+… and it (due to “fun with shipping”) is simply marked as “coming soon”.
Crossbows & Catapults
Yes, friends, the good folks at Restoration are once again willing to help us put an eye out… they’ll be bringing this classic to Kickstarter in 2022. They hired Stephen Baker (one of the grand old men of games with fun stuff – such as Battle Masters, Heroquest, Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier, and Heroscape) to work the design. There will be a mass market version post-Kickstarter, as well as expansions that will be hobby distribution. Interestingly, Rob Daviau noted that it won’t be rubber-band powered… can’t wait to see what they come up with!
Thunder Road Vendetta
Yes, I saved the best for last. (Well, at least I saved the thing I’m most excited about for last.) Thunder Road is coming back – better than ever. More dice, more crazy ideas, expansions (motorcycles, for example), a command board to give you more control, ongoing damage effects, hazard tokens, terrain out to the side of the road… I could not be happier if I tried. TR Vendetta will hit Kickstarter in October 2021… and should fulfill much quicker than Dark Tower due to (a) not having a digital component, and (b) the team being fairly far along in the design process.
