Always fun to check out my favorite booth full of puzzles and blue triangle goodness. This year, the Lorcana craziness was mostly moved out of the booth so getting there was much less traumatic than last year. The big banners of the booth were showing off the co-op Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition), yes that’s the full name, which has players taking on the role of four different Disney heroines. The co-op monster-fighting Horrified is back in World of Monsters. Garden Heist is a “red light / green light” style kid’s game where racoons are trying to steal from a house. One of the sleeper hits of the show for Ravensburger was Oh my pigeons! – a lightweight card game of claiming pigeon figures that also includes a bit of dice-flicking. Possibly my favorite very-young kids game of the convention is Garden Heist – where racoon-meeples try to invade a toy house in a sort of red light/green light manner. Finally, the trading/memory game That’s Not a Hat is back in a Pop Culture edition.

Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition)

A cooperative game for 1-4 players, Chronicles of Light has players taking on the role of Disney heroines: Moana (Moana), Violet (The Incredibles), Maid Marian (Robin Hood) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast). Each round, players are given six actions which can be divided amongst the characters, up to 2 per character. One player is signified as the leader for a round but the game encourages lots of discussion and communication between players. Players move around the board trying to build up their abilities through meetings with other characters and creatures, picking up items, and other quest-related things. Once the players finish their six actions, the end of the day hits and Darkness takes a turn. Shadow Villains roam the board and must be defeated by the heroines. Conflict is resolved by traveling to their location and initiating a fight using dice. Characters have many thematic abilities available, such as Maid Marian’s rage ability when she brings out that deadly badminton racquet. There are quite a few different missions to undertake and the game board has a modular design, so each game will have its own feel. One selling bullet point I wrote in my notes (my notes, possibly not what was actually said, mind you) is that the game was “very organically created by a female-led team.”

Oh My Pigeons!

Oh My Pigeons! has players trying to fill up their “bench” with little pigeon figures. It’s a very lightweight game with a fair bit of chaos. Players are dealt three cards to start. Cards are the heart of the game and have lots of options that include gathering pigeons, stealing others’ pigeons, swapping boards with another player, and the Oh My Pigeons! Card. When played, a die is rolled and the outcome determines whether the player gathers a new pigeon, steals one, or gets to flick the actual die at another player’s bench in order to knock off the little figures.

More Villainous

Fans of the Villainous franchise should be happy with all the new releases. Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last is a standalone game that can be added to other Star Wars Villainous games.  Revenge at Last brings in Darth Maul and Captain Phasma. Darth Maul is trying to recruit a Jedi to their cause while Captain Phasma is trying to establish a footing for their First Order Stormtroopers. Revenge at Last also has a healthy dose of iconic ships and transports from the Star Wars franchise. Disney Villainous: Sugar and Spite is another standalone and expansion, this time for the Disney line of Villainous titles. It introduces King Candy (from Wreck-It Ralph) and Shere Khan (from The Jungle Book). 

Horrified: World of Monsters

As in the previous games (this one can be mixed and matched with the Greek Monsters one) players are cooperating to defeat monsters. It can be played 1-5 players as there are 5 different adventurers in the box. In this “Punk Noir” style setting there are four creatures to fight, each with their own way to be defeated. The Sphinx has you solving riddles, the Yeti requires you to find and return the children, the Jiangshi, and the Great Old One, Cthulhu. Cthulhu is interesting as it actually has a two-phase resolution, you have to do one thing, then stuff changes and you have to accomplish thing #2.

Garden Heist

Garden Heist is a sort of boardgame interpretation of the kids game red light / green light. Players move their racoon meeples forward on the game board, hiding behind the trees and obstacles. Eventually, the “scouting” player cuts things short and gets to bend down and look through the window of the house to see if they can manage to catch an ear or other bit of an animal-meeple sticking out from behind a bush. Racoons earn points depending on how far forward they are able to get, with buckets of points if they manage to get all the way up to the house.

It’s Not a Hat: Pop Culture

A pop culture edition of the passing gift memory game. Players are passing cards around the table, trying to keep track of who has what item. Pop Culture has “pop culture” type stuff rather than more mundane things. This version also has some special cards that allows players to trade cards with players across from them, not just to their left and right.