Like cooperative games? You’re in luck, it’s time for an eclectic blend of light to heavyweight games. First, we have Gibberers, which sold out on the first day so I’ll have to wait to get a chance to play this create-a-language cooperative game that only plays in 1 to 3 hours! Ship Show is another co-op where two teams work together in a sort of real-time Amazon warehouse worker simulation. The classic Marvel Legendary has a new version with characters from the alternate-timeline What If…? stories. We finish with the very much NOT a cooperative Love-Letter-style card game based around the Spy X Family anime series.

Hobby Japan

Gibberers: Invention of Language and Civilization

Perhaps the strangest game of the convention for me was Gibberers – a cooperative language learning game where people invent an entirely new language over the course of one to three hours!. If you’re looking for a hard-core language learning game experience, look no further. In Gibberers, players take on the role of prehistoric humans trying to teach each other words and communicate with a small vocabulary. Starting out small, a few slips of paper are laid out where players assign made-up words to a specific, common word. Simple things like Up might be “Joo” or No might be “Kiko.”  Over the course of the game, players slowly develop their own language that culminates in discussions entirely within the newly developed language. Every game will play differently. The game has some suggested sets of sounds that can be chosen but experienced players are encouraged to use their own sounds when playing the game. It can be a rather intense brain-burner so the game can be played in a 60 minute game or a full 180 minute “expert” version. The game does not yet (that I know of) have a US distributor but they hope to set something up by the end of the year.

Ultra PRO

Ship Show

In Ship Show , a fully cooperative game for 2-8 players, players are first divided into two teams. Then, a set number of batches (like batch 8 and batch 2, as shown on the back of the tile) of square tiles are placed into a central warehouse area. Each token in a batch represents some sort of time like a burger or a microscope. All players, working together, then have 3 minutes (sometimes less) to lay out all the tiles in a grouping order of their choice. A crossword-puzzle style grid  is suggested as you can sometimes group items in several categories. Once the sorting (and/or the time) is complete, players divide into their teams. The stockers take a new batch of product tiles and race against time to place them face-down next to similar face-up items. Stockers may move previous items around if needed. Once the stockers are finished, or time is up, the shippers take their turn. They are given a set of cards matching the face-down batch of tiles. They now have a limited amount of time to try to match their cards with the face-down tiles. Successful guesses are rewarded, and an unsuccessful guess is counted as a customer return. The players only get three returns the first round, and one less each round after. Once all items have been shipped (or time ran out) a new batch of face-down tiles is drawn and the stocking & shipping phases are repeated. Players can buy three different bonus 

abilities during the speed round by spending previously successful shipped goods. After a fourth round, the game ends and the players calculate their overall score based on how many items they shipped and how many were returned.

Upper Deck

Legendary – What If?

My son and I are big fans of the Marvel superhero-themed deckbuilder, Legendary. I read somewhere they’re around the 40th expansion? That’s far more than we own but I did like the new stand-alone (but compatible, of course) edition based on the What If…? series of stories. These flip the common Marvel tropes on their heads like Peggy Carter taking on the role of Captain America or Henry Pymn as a villain. The What If…? version of the game tries to provide a more thematic game through its new elements. The game now only uses 8 Shield officers, forcing players to rely more on the hero tableau. There are special bystanders, changing up their actions. Wound cards are now labeled with a cost of zero (they always were, but now its on the card.) Lots of heroes are now multi-class, having more than one symbol, which allows them to trigger more card combos. There are now rival overlords in the villain deck. They actually become weaker the more of them that are in play. However, any that do escape become another mastermind – yikes! Evil Ultron can get to infinity attack! Yes, that means players need to find a way to generate infinity attack to defeat him. The masterminds in the game include the Scarlet Witch, Ultron Infinity, Hank Pym, and Killmonger (Black Panther’s nemesis, remember?). Keeping in line with the What If…? series, Killmonger also appears as a hero. 

Kess Entertainment

Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts

Last year, my family was introduced to the fun, family friendly anime series Spy X Family. It features a spy father, assassin mother, and mind-reading daughter all of whom are trying to work undercover from each other. Spy X Family: Mission for Peanuts (*the daughter loves peanuts…) is a 3-5 player Love Letter style of game where players are out to get each other by playing their cards against other players’ hidden cards. (I guess that makes it Love Letter X Spy X Family?) Players have a hand of 2 cards and usually have one card in front of them – serving as their role at the moment. Cards can be played for an instant (assist) effect on one’s turn, or placed in front of you for their ongoing role effect. There’s lots of take-that back and forth in the game. Stealing/trading cards and roles, looking at other players’ cards, etc… Win the round by being the last player standing or by having the best pair of cards as listed on the handy cheat sheet (basically get the spy dad if you can.) However, managing to hold the entire family (daughter, mom, dad) at any given time is an instant win (for a peanut.) The game continues until all the peanuts are gone and whoever has the most peanuts wins.