Despite several games with deadly themes, this month’s roundup features several family games as well as one quirky, dexterity marble surfing game.
Ultimate Battle (Gamerite Studios) – Players draw cards and combine them into crazy combos that they then sketch out to attack another player. Have a badger card and rocket card? You can make a rocket firing badger to send against your opponent. Players defend by drawing similar wacky combinations. Disagreement cards are used to solve disputes, automatically awarding the battle to oldest player, tallest player, or something similar, keeping the play moving.
Wanted: The Outlaws (Bibelot Games) – A card and dice game designed for 1 to 4 people, in Wanted: The Outlaws players hire characters and send them on jobs hoping to earn reputation. Jobs can go wrong and your characters might end up shot or even dead. Players can also report tips to earn money and sabotage other players. Once all the cards have run out, the player with the most reputation is declared the baddest outlaw in town and wins the game. The solo play pits the player against the town sheriff.
Virus the Card Game (Around The Clock Games) – Players work as mad scientists as they build viruses in this 15 minute card game. Each turn, players lay down their cards simultaneously. Viruses start with a transmission card and you work your way up from there, playing mutation cards such as tonsillitis and vector cards such as flies. Each card makes the virus deadlier until a player succeeds in creating a 100 percent lethal virus and wins the game.
Trekking the National Parks (Bink Ink) – A family board game in which players race across the U.S. trying to earn points by visiting national parks. Players collect trek cards which each have a colored icon as well as a movement value. The icons can be traded in to earn park cards, which are worth points, and the movement value is used to travel across the country. Players gain extra points for being the first to visit a park. At the end of the game the player with the most points wins.
ChronoSphere (Kind Fortress) – A light historical trivia game in which players must play cards of historical events and discoveries in the order that they occurred. The cards have the dates hidden on one side, and if you feel another player is either bluffing or incorrect you may choose to challenge half of the whole chronosphere (either the BC or AD side). The penalty for being wrong on a challenge is between 2-4 cards. The player who last played a card into the challenged side is the player responsible for that entire side being in correct chronological order – in other words, you can easily pay for someone else's mistake if you're not careful!
Island Surf (Tyler Tinsley) – Island Surf is a dexterity game with a mix of strategy. Players attempt to surf around several islands, laying out marbles on the game mat to create a wave. Players try to surf along the wave by running a mini surf board across it with two fingers. Players can move and place marbles on their turn, trying to balance ease of the surf with greater distance. The islands are also movable, allowing players to create a new course each game.
Canopy Walk (TF Verlag UG) – A two player tile-laying game. Players attempt to build as many canopy walks across the rain forest as possible in their player color. Tiles are played and must connect either to the edge of the jungle or a previously played tile. Players may also draw new tiles rather than move. The game ends when either the draw pile is depleted or both players pass their turn in the same round.
Disclosure: unless otherwise noted, we have not seen or played any of the above games. Our assessment of each is based on the information given on the crowdfunding project page.
