GAMA Trade Show 2011 Exhibitor Coverage – Part 11
Today’s GAMA Trade Show 2011 exhibitors include 42 Games, Stronghold Games, Heartland Games, Cleveland Kids, and Battle Foam
42 Games was showing off their newest game, Orbit: Rocket Race 5000. Orbit is a fast-paced strategy card game where you try to match colored sides together to play them, going around in an “orbit” around the board. They are going to move into production on this game in the next month or so. Orbit was a successful kickstarter.com project, and we congratulate them for that. Please note, the picture below is a prototype version of the game. The production version is even better.
Stronghold had a recently released title called Survive: Escape from Atlantis! This game is actually a reprint. It was published by Parker Brothers / Hasbro in 1982 (and sold 1.5 million copies back then). There was actually two different versions of this game. The the US, it was titled Survive. Overseas, Escape from Atlantis! Here, it is both, and not just in title. There where small differences in the game and pieces, and Stronghold has included both rules and pieces so you can play either way. The basic idea of the game is that people are on an island that is sinking, and you have to get your peeps off the island. Of course, with sea serpents, whales, and sharks, it isn’t very easy. Being out of print for over 10 years, it is good to see this classic back!
They also have a new title coming out soon called Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War. You are a nations cold war spy organization trying to capture the important briefcase of doom. The gameplay on this is very interesting, it is almost like a backwards Stratego. You move your guy, not knowing a spy’s power, and your opponent tells you if it legal. And by non-legal moves, you try to deduce what you have on the board. Of course, be careful. There is a double-agent.
Also 3rd quarter this year, they have a reprint of the 90’s game Outpost from TimJim Games and Crude: The Oil Game (also known as McMulti).
Heartland Games had a nifty new game called Square Shooters. Square Shooters is a dice game where the dice represent each card in a full 54 deck of playing cards. They designed them in a way where the cards are distributed in such a manner, that you can still get all the common poker hands. The game has a basic set of rules where you draw a card that has a hand on it, and you have 3 rolls of the dice to match the hand. But it is a card game and a dice game, so there are many creative ways you can use these dice outside of the base game. The came comes in 3 varieties. A Blister pack that has the 9 dice only. a Basic set that has the dice, some poker chips, the game cards, and a storage pouch. Finally, the deluxe set, that has everything in the basic plus a dice cup, more chips, and a pack of standard playing cards.
Square Shooters also had the best booth of the show. They made it look like a little piece of the old west. Kudos and good luck to them.
Cleveland Kids
Cleveland Kids has a new game called Donkey: It’s A Kick!. This game has an interesting story. When he was a kid, the owner’s mother developed a game where you still played once you were out, to keep it enjoyable for everyone to the end. They had several variations of this game, but that had a direct influence on the development of Donkey. And that spirit remains in this game. The card game is one of those fun, unpredictable, party style games. And once a player is out of the game, they are a Donkey. And their sole purpose is then to cause chaos and dish out revenge. I did not get a chance to play this game, but there were many time that you could hear the sound of hooting and hollering coming from the Donkey table.
Battle Foam’s biggest thing right now is there Mantic bags coming sometime this summer. They have also going to be working with Heavy Gear Blitz. They have also just signed on with Spartan Games. So, you will see bags coming for Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada, and Uncharted Seas. These are also planned for this summer, but they still need to get things finalized. And of course, they are always putting out new trays for the new miniatures coming out from their partners.
And we continue tomorrow…
