The first day of the 2009 American International Toy Fair is now history. I will post more comments and some photos from the event before hearing to the Javits Convention Center for day two. For now, here are a few initial reactions:Monopoly City looks very interesting. This new game from Hasbro allows players to negatively impact their opponents' property values by, for example, putting landfills near their valuable buildings -- adding a new layer of strategy to Monopoly.
I'm definitely intrigued by Clue: Secrets & Spies, also from Hasbro, which has an entirely different board and gameplay than standard Clue and adds text messaging to the game.
Playroom Entertainment's Livingstone looks like another solid entry in their growing line of excellent middleweight strategy games.
The card/dice game Scary Tales, also from Playroom Entertainment, look like quite a bit of fun. It's a twisted take on fairy tales from designer Reiner Knizia.
Word on the Street is a wonderful new game for word lovers from Out of the Box Publishing. And Out of the Box also has three new, fast-playing card games: 7 Ate 9, Super Sonic, and Run Wild.
But, for me, the most fun of the day was learning that Hasbro is publishing a new edition of Star Wars Epic Duels. This version will apparently streamline the gameplay, and I don't have any details on what that means yet -- but I had so much fun with the original Epic Duels (my pick as the #3 best board game of 2002) that I'm thrilled to see it is coming back in whatever form.
That's it for now. Look for more news from Toy Fair 2009 soon!
Photo © Erik Arneson
Comments
Please share more info about the new Epic Duels. Is it really only 6 characters? What about the age 6 and up label? It seems like it might be a “dumbed down” version…
I was told that it “streamlines” the gameplay, which I took to mean that it “simplifies” the gameplay. And there were only six figures visible in the box, but I don’t think that was necessarily the final box design. Plus, there could be additional figures not seen through the plastic. Or perhaps they will sell it like the Galactic Heroes games that are currently available — different characters in different boxes. With six characters per box, three different boxes would provide 18 characters. (This is just speculation.) As soon as I have more concrete information, I will definitely post it.
Interesting. I can’t wait to hear more!
There’s not much to streamline simple the original game is already pretty simple, straightforward, and fun. Too bad they can’t just reprint the original game and add some expansions for those of us with the old game. I realize there are TONS of fan created decks but I like having authentic exansions too. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir though…
Do you have any idea when Epic Duels will hit the market?
You don’t know how fervently I am praying that this version is compatible in some way with the original Epic Duels!