If you want to regress into your 80s childhood (you’re welcome to join me there if that’s too far back for you) look no further than Restoration Games. The folks who brought you an amazing remake of Dark Tower, followed up with Thunder Road, and are now releasing the chaotic, literal smash-em-up castle game, Crossbows and Catapults – along with more Thunder Road and everyone’s favorite martial arts turtles.

Crossbows and Catapults (Fortress War & Castle Battle)

Back in 1983, the classic Crossbows and Catapults game had two kids each build a castle out of plastic blocks and then smack the snot out of each other (the castles) with plastic ammunition fired from tiny almost-realistic catapults and other bits of plastic warfare. The premise was fairly straightforward – knock the other guy’s stuff down and hope they don’t do the same to you. It would be simple to just injection-mold some blocks, tie a few plastic beams together with rubber bands to make a catapult, and boom – instant kids classic. However, that’s not how Restoration Games rolls. Just like their masterwork of the Tower in Dark Tower, they engineered the heck out of this (at first glance) kid’s game. Let’s start with the blocks. Yes, you want them to stack really well and not just fall over easily, but you ALSO don’t want them to fall over too easily. The result are castle bricks that interlock well, but are also destructible when hit by the little plastic ammunition. (I believe there are more types of castle blocks, as well.) The catapults are designed with springs rather than rubber bands, so they won’t snap or break over time. There are even little screws that can be adjusted to change the angle at which the catapults launch their missiles.  There’s an expansion that even brings a trebuchet and a ballista to the mix. Another expansion adds more blocks for building the castle. However, I’m not sure how feely available those expansions will be. If I’ve now woken up your inner child I will have to disappoint you by saying that the game was available at Gen Con but won’t see stores until October 2nd. Also, there are two distinct versions of the game. One version called “Crossbows and Catapults: Castle Battle” is a smaller, less expensive mass-market version handled by Goliath Games. The full, royal treatment version of the game is called Crossbows and Catapults: Fortress War. Fortress War has everything that is in the Castle Battle version, plus more stuff – so the two can be combined if you wish.

Thunder Road Vendetta: Carnival of Chaos

Another remake of a classic game, the Mad-Max style combat racing game Thunder Road Vendetta has been a huge hit in OpinionatedGamers circles as well as just about everywhere else. The first expansion, Carnival of Chaos, takes everyone’s favorite racing destruction game and removes most of the racing part to leave just a pile of glorious destruction. In addition to providing pieces for a 5th player (purple), the expansion provides a circular, central area for vehicle combat that can also magnetically connect with road pieces to provide a quick way for each side to race into the arena from separate directions. Players are obviously trying to destroy each other but the most important thing is to carry the crowd’s favor which can involve all the nasty surprises to be found in the arena. There are pillars that can launch cars into the air, “party favors” litter the board – providing power-ups, superweapons to be grabbed, and don’t forget to spend as much time as possible in the spotlight in order to earn favor with Turbo Tina. Tina throws out edicts each round to make an ever changing environment and goals. The winner of the game will be the player who obtains the most scrap (victory points) at the end of the game.  Carnival of Chaos is busy being shipped to Kickstarter backers and it should be on retail shelves round October 30th.

Unmatched – Bards, Witchers, and Turtles

Another popular game around here is the Unmatched system of character combat. Each player takes control of one or two characters – each with their own special deck of cards – and fights it out with the other players on a simplified map board using color-coding to assign melee, near, and far positioning.  Restoration Games has released a huge host of characters based on everything from historical figures, to legends, to Jurassic Park and Marvel superheroes. The most recent release, Unmatched: Slings and Arrows has Shakespear fighting Hamlet, Titania, and the Wayward Sisters. Coming down the pike on September 24th will be a brand new Kickstarter launch of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set (sign up ahead of time and qualify for an exclusive coin.) It is entitled Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Insiders will recognize the keyword Adventures. This indicates that the new release will be a cooperative game where the four turtles band together to defeat their nemesis – Shredder or Krang, depending on which side of the board players use – New York or the Technodrome. As with the previous co-op title, the Turtles characters can be mixed and matched with any Unmatched combat and other characters can be brought in to fight in the cooperative mode. (With the caveat that the occasional character’s powers may not be the best fit for co-op play.) Each turtle character deck will be drawn by a different artist giving each turtle their own coherent style. There will be no “exclusive” cards to the Kickstarter but stretch goals will include extra specially-commissioned alternate art cards free to backers. It might appear for sale at a later date but would run upwards of $30 or more. Restoration has even commissioned art from Eastman – the original artist of the Turtles comic. Further out, the Unmatched series will co-mix with the Witcher – a very popular line of videogames. The Witcher: Steel & Silver and The Witcher: Realms Fall will both come with three characters and double-sided maps. Look for the Witcher titles to release in late November. Restoration has no plans to end the Unmatched series so it looks like 2025 will be just as exciting. Oh, one last thing. Walking the demo hall I saw a very nifty set of boxes for storing one’s ever-growing Unmatched set. It’s a box that stores 12 smaller plastic boxes designed to just fit Unmatched Figures with their decks of cards in an easily accessible way. Definitely something of interest to the collector who may be accumulating a rather large pile of Unmatched boxes.