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There’s a movie theme to this week’s news, with a plethora of games coming via adaptions and the news that the cast of a current blockbuster love gaming.
Dragon Ball Z Games are Coming
Even if you don’t know much about anime, you’ve probably heard of Dragon Ball Z as it’s one of the biggies. Now IDW are unleashing a series of games based on the show, with the magic words “non-collectable”.
We’re promised board, dice and tile laying games, with the first being Dragon Ball Z: Perfect Cell, a four player co-op using dice. Roll for energy and damage, healing and other skills as you play characters from the show fighting baddy Perfect Cell. It’s a short game at around 30 – 40 minutes, is out in March, and is from the design brain of Chris Bryan.
Werewolf is the unofficial Murder on the Orient Express Game
Given the popularity of crime fiction, solving murders is already a popular game so the star studded new adaption of Murder on the Orient Express is probably its own challenge for the cinema goer. But actors have downtime and actors get bored, and Entertainment Weekly discovered that the cast of Murder have adopted a game as their own.
Werewolf.
Yes, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem introduced Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr, Olivia Coleman and Michelle Pfeiffer to the social deduction game in weekly play sessions, and they also brought in Chris Pratt and JJ Abrams for extra fun. These are not names you expect to write in the board games news column, so woo hoo. If you’re wondering, Ridley is meant to be awful and Willem Defore amazing.
Mondo is making Jurassic Park and Fight Club games
There are already several ‘inspired by’ Jurassic Park games, but Mondo are bringing out an official one, and what a monster it looks. ‘The Chaos Gene’ promises one player escaping from dinosaurs, one working with DNA, one player as velociraptors and one player as a T-Rex.... Which will be me in every game I play. No idea how that gels together, but it sounds great.
Mondo were behind The Thing adaption Infection at Outpost 31, and their other newly announced movie adaption (or is it a book adaption) is Fight Club, which we’ve been promised is a card game that “won't be comparable to any game in existence.” A third 2018 release is on the cards but it’s so secret we don’t know much anything beyond it having a narrative engine.
Now you can turn your targeting computer on (and off again)
Do you remember that bit in Star Wars where Luke turns his targeting computer off and uses the force to bomb the Death Star? You are not Luke Skywalker, and Melissa Ludowise has created an iOS app which creates an augmented reality targeting computer for X-Wing. It’s free, it’s called DialVision, it allows you to see firing arcs and templates, and we’re not sure why. So, err, turn your targeting computer back on and try to get that past your stern mate.
Bristol to become The City of Games
The team behind The City of Kings are going to run their own three-day gaming festival, and they’ll be turning Bristol into the City of Games (based at the Future Inns Hotel). Your scribe was born in Bristol and can say with total bias how lovely a place it is. Anyway, February 9 - 11 will see a vast range of games, from boards, social to escape rooms, a ‘design a game in twenty-four hours’ contest and all sorts of fun. Family friendliness and donating to schoolkids is top of agenda.
A Kickstarter has already raised the three grand they wanted at £10 for a day ticket, so it’s looking good.
Star Wars: Destiny unveils more tournament decisions
It was only recently we covered Star Wars Destiny and the tournament changes Fantasy Flight had made with sealed and booster rules. Now there’s more, with tournaments breaking down into three types: Standard, Trilogy and Infinite.
There is a lot of clarification and terminology in all this, but essentially Trilogy uses the recent release cycle so new players don’t have to go mining on eBay, Infinite allows everything for that crate digging experience, and Standard is the championship, err, standard and sits in the middle.