New York Toy Fair 2018 - Part 5

The Review Board

Posted by The Review Board on Mar 29, 2018

This is the 5th part of my NYC Toy Fair photo story. Part 4 covered games by Brain Games, Bézier Games, CMON, and Formal Ferret Games. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Ravensburger

Suspicion is a 2-6 player game, in which each player secretly controls one character out of the possible 10. Players roll dice to move different characters on the board, and play action cards to carry out different actions. For example, stealing a gem, moving a character, etc. Players score points for stealing gems and guessing the identity of the other players, and the player with the most points wins the game.

The game used to be a Target exclusive, and is now being released as a retail version.

In The Quest for El Dorado, 2-4 players play as expedition leaders searching for the legendary land of gold. Players build their team, hire helpers, and gather equipment so they can get to the land of gold first.

I was not allowed to photograph Jurassic Park: Danger! at the toy fair, but it is due to be released in the near future. While still under embargo, the GenCon release of Ravensburger is extremely exciting!

Golden Games

Several LOST games are scheduled to be published.

Stronghold Games

Terraforming Mars: Prelude is an expansion to the successful game Terraforming Mars. The expansion is compatible with any of the other expansions and contains 35 prelude cards (that boost your corporation engine or give you a better start at the terraforming process), 5 corporation cards and 7 project cards.

Devir

Gretchinz! is a 2 to 4 player racing game. It can be expanded to up to 8 players with a second copy of the game. In Gretchinz, players roll their dice (representing the possible actions) at the same time. The first player to get the dice sequence he or she wants yells “wagh!”, and everybody else needs to use their current roll.

Players advance their cars based on the rolls, and attack each other with cards. What makes the attack mechanism unique is that players cannot see the value of the cards they hold; they can only see their opponents’ cards.

Sensible Object

Beasts of Balance is a stunning 1-5 player cooperative dexterity game in which players try to balance and build a tower of animals, and help the animals evolve.

Players stack the 3D artifacts into a tower that is connected to an app. If the tower does not collapse on your turn, you will create a magnificent world with new creatures and skills in the app.

R&R Games

Artifact Stack is a 2-4 player game in which players play as archeologists who search for manuscripts, statues and treasures in a temple. Cards are stacked and only cards that are not covered are available to players at no extra cost.

Each game setup is different, both because of the multiple artifact decks you can use to build the temple, and because of the randomized cards’ selection.

In Rajas of the Ganges, 2-4 players play against each other to better their empire by developing their estates into wealthy provinces. Players use dice and have to carefully strategize the use of their workers in order to become victorious.

In MiMiQ Farm, players use facial expressions to ask for cards from their opponents. When a player has 3 identical cards he or she has a “trump”, and the player with the most trumps wins the game.

Dude Games

Magic Maze: Maximum Security is an expansion to the successful game Magic Maze. The expansion adds guards, as well as two types of modules that customize the game and its experience (make it easier or harder).

The addition of guards and modules increases the replayability of Magic Maze and makes it more intense and challenging.

Grumpf is a 2-6 player game in which players play as hunters in the little land of Grumpfs. Each player controls 8 grumpfs tokens with different strengths, and places them as fast as possible on different areas. If the conditions for the hunt are fulfilled, the player who owns these grumpfs wins trophies.

ARGH is a 2-4 player game with bluff and deduction elements. In ARGH, players try to find allies and components to build a bomb, while avoiding other cards.

During the game, players pick a card from any of the three decks and place it face down in front of them, offer it to another player, or steal a face-down card from another player.

Outlive is a 2-4 player survival game in a post-apocalyptic universe. Players send heroes on missions, gather resources, improve their settlements, and recruit new survivors.

The game plays over 6 turns with two phases in each turn (day and night), and each phase allows players to perform only a subset of actions. Thus, players have to plan their turn carefully if they want to survive.

Identity Games

Escape Room: The Game – Virtual Reality is a standalone expansion to Escape Room: The Game. The game uses an app to add a virtual reality component to the rooms, and adds two new rooms that can be played with or without the Chrono Decoder.

Restoration Games

Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar is a reimplementation of Fireball Island by Restoration Games.

Dinosaur Tea Party is a deduction game for 2-5 players. Players play as one of the dinosaur guests, and ask each other questions in an attempt to guess the identity of the other players. The first player to guess three names wins.

Mayday Games

Rescue Polar Bears is a 1-4 player cooperative game in which players team up as different nations and try to save polar bears.

Each player selects a nation and a ship (each ship has different abilities) that is used to rescue the polar bear, and the team is scored based on their achievements.

Rooster Rush is a 3-6 player party game in which players need to cross roads and avoid traffic.

I hope you enjoyed part 5 of the NYC Toy Fair. Stay tuned for the last in this series, part 6.