Board Game News

Screenlife, creators of the popular Scene It? DVD games, is planning to add more than a dozen new titles to its collection this year.

American Idol fans can relive unforgettable moments from one of TV’s hottest shows as the American Idol-All Star Challenge DVD Game hits store shelves this March. The game mixes traditional board game play with real clips, exciting challenges and questions related to the show. The living room is transformed into a stage as players scrutinize the best and worst performances from the first four seasons of American Idol.

Also new this year from Screenlife is DVD Blast! This fast-paced trivia game challenges individual players or teams with real clips and puzzlers from hot Hollywood properties. DVD Blast! will be available in three debut titles: Family Guy, Austin Powers and Survivor. Featuring on-screen scoring and played entirely with the remote control, it’s perfect for parties, travel or a few spontaneous rounds at home.

Another exciting fall arrival will be Banzai, a DVD game based on the hysterical television show that’s quickly become a cult classic. Who’s more capable of catching a squirrel in the park with a fishing pole? And how many chocolate pies can a man in a shopping cart jump over? Players will get plenty of laughs as they wager sushi pieces on these and other bizarre Banzai stunts, using only chopsticks to fill the betting bowl.

New from the Scene It? line are several fresh titles packed with real entertainment clips, hundreds of trivia questions and on-screen challenges. Players who need an immediate pop culture fix can transport themselves to the Central Perk with the Scene It? Friends Edition, which debuted in January. The game includes all 10 seasons of the hipsters’ memorable escapades, and challenges players to prove just how well they know their Friends. Trivia questions like, “Which of Phoebe’s songs is made into a music video?”, “What is Joey’s signature pick-up line?” and “Who was the only Friends star to direct several episodes?” bring the Emmy Award-winning show back to life.

Set to launch this fall is Scene It? Nickelodeon Edition, a game that will keep younger players amused for hours as their Grossology knowledge is put to the test. Favorite clips featuring SpongeBob, Cosmo and Wanda, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom, Tommy Pickles, Aang and other beloved Nick characters will be paired with trivia questions and on-screen challenges such as “Grosser than Gross” and “Slime Bucket.”

Screenlife will also introduce four original Scene It? Super Game Packs in 2006, incorporating some of the hottest properties from movies, sports and TV. Scene It? Comedy, NFL, Disney and The OC Super Game Packs each contain a game DVD, trivia cards and other accessories that, when combined with any Scene It? game board, supply an entirely new playing experience.

In total in 2006, fourteen titles will join the ranks of Screenlife blockbusters such as the Scene It? Harry Potter Edition, the top-selling board game of the 2005 holiday season, and the Scene It? TV Edition, named 2005 Game of the Year by the Toy Industry Association.

Laura Robinson, co-inventor of the popular party game Balderdash, is launching !dentity Crisis, a fast-paced, hilarious celebrity guessing game. The new game will be published by Mad Hatter Toys & Games, and was introduced at the Canadian Toy and Hobby Fair in January 2006.

!dentity Crisis, like its predecessor Balderdash, is based on a popular parlor game. !dentity Crisis brings teams together to guess the names of the famous (and infamous) - from Madonna to Tiger Woods, George Washington to Donald Trump. Three rounds of play become progressively more challenging and crisis cards add extra laughs.

“We’ve updated a concept called ‘Celebrity’ for modern gamers and thrown in a few curve balls to make it even more fun and exciting to play,” says Robinson. “It’s a riot!”

Balderdash, which has sold over six million copies worldwide, is the classic bluffing game where players try to out-bluff each other with daffy definitions for words in categories such as Laughable Laws, Weird Words, Incredible Initials, Marvelous Movies, and Peculiar People. You get to make up an answer that’s as silly or as serious as you want, and score points for guessing correctly and for bluffing the other players. With the real answers often proving even more outrageous than the bluffs, Balderdash is great fun for the family or a gathering of your friends.

Chris Haney, co-inventor of Trivial Pursuit, the world’s number one trivia board game, has developed Timetripper, an exciting new trivia guessing game with a past and an attitude. According to Haney, “With Timetripper, baby boomers, smart Gen-X-ers, and people everywhere can have a blast guessing the year of great events of the 20th century. A handicap cube heats things up because you don’t have to be exactly right with your answer. Players are amazed by memories that they might not have thought about in a long time.”

Timetripper was developed over a year of intensive research and design by Chris Haney, the co-inventor of Trivial Pursuit with friend and fellow journalist Scott Abbott. Called “the biggest phenomenon in game history,” by Time Magazine, Trivial Pursuit has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide since its introduction in 1982.

Timetripper, published by Mad Hatter Toys & Games, was introduced at the Canadian Toy and Hobby Fair in Toronto Saturday Jan. 28 - Monday Jan. 30.

Shift is a board game for 2-6 players. It is about Love, Fear, Work, Relationships and Human Behavior … and it might just change your life.

Shift is a psychological game, in the sense that we, through self-examination and laughter, can begin to understand where our thoughts are coming from and the power they hold. All of our thoughts come from love or fear and once we are able to recognize where our thoughts come from, we can further understand where our thoughts are taking us. Shift reminds you that you have the ability to control your thoughts once you are aware of what you are thinking. What you believe is what you will experience.

Shift includes thoughts from great minds such as Buddha, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and more. To put a spin on things, a stand-up comedian has taken some of these concepts and make them more fun. So, go ahead and laugh!

The Shift web site offers more information about the game, blogs from the creators of the game, and a very nice demo (actually a tutorial) that steps you thru how to play the game, and shows you some of the reasons that the game can become so life-changing.

Deflexion is a new and very unique strategic board game. It is the only board game I’m aware of that uses actual lasers as part of the gameplay.

The game uses an Egyptian theme, and the objective is to light up your opponent’s pharaoh, while shielding your own from harm. Players alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces having two, one or no mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces can either move one square forward, back, left, right, or diagonal, or can stay in the same square and rotate by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing one of the lasers built into the board. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror, and if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece it is immediately removed from play. If your laser illuminates your opponent’s pharaoh, you win!

Although the rules to this chess-like board game are very simple and easily remembered, the game requires concentration, visualization, and strategic thinking, as you try to protect your pharaoh while simultaneously attacking your opponents positions.

Suzanne Perez Tobias of the Wichita Eagle makes some board game recommendations (”Got Game?“), categorized into four categories:

Great Party Games: Apples to Apples, Balderdash, Catch Phrase, Cranium, Encore, Jenga, Pictionary, Scene It?

Kid Favorites: Blink, Candyland, Guess Who?, Hi Ho! Cherry-O, Pass the Pigs, Perfection, Trouble

Up-and-Comers:Blokus, Do You Sudoku?, HeroScape, In A Pickle, Settlers of Catan

Old Games, New Twists: Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission, 20Q Challenge, Uno H2O, Scrabble: Deluxe Turntable Edition, Twister Moves

I can’t argue much with any of these picks (except that some of them aren’t really board games). Any of these games would be a great addition to your gaming library, and should provide hours of fun for many years to come. Follow the links, or refer to the article, for detailed descriptions of each of the games.

About.com posted a list of the Top 7 Board Games for Teens, including:

• Trivial Pursuit - 90’s Edition
• Clue - Simpsons Edition
• Password
• Scene It? Disney Edition
• Lord of the Rings Risk
• Super Scrabble
• Monopoly - The American Edition Game

That’s a pretty good list, but it’s mostly updated versions of classic games. I’d add a few more recent games to the list:

• Apples to Apples
• Cranium
• How to Host a Teen Mystery
• Settlers Of Catan
• Wise and Otherwise

Scene It? Sports Edition is a fun, dynamic DVD game that brings athletes and highlights to life. The only game to bring the major sports leagues together is now available at Board Game Central.

Scene It? Sports Edition, powered by ESPN, features real game highlights and hundreds of popular athletes, including Lance Armstrong, Dwyane Wade, Wayne Gretzky, Donovan McNabb, Cal Ripken Jr., Mia Hamm and Jack Nicklaus. The game showcases images and replays from great sporting events and scenes from sports movies. Fans can relive exhilarating moments like Bobby Thomson’s ’shot heard ’round the world’, and classic moments such as Franco Harris’ ‘Immaculate Reception.’

“For more than 25 years, ESPN has entertained sports enthusiasts worldwide,” said Dan Patrick, who anchors SportsCenter, and who hosts this game. “Scene It? Sports Powered by ESPN will challenge all sports fans with a competitive edge. It’s a great game that captures the spirit of ESPN: game highlights, content, entertainment, trivia and premier athletes.”

A mixture of real sports and sports pop culture, Scene It? Sports Edition is a one-of-a-kind game experience. Players face off as they race around the game board to answer hundreds of sports trivia questions: What durable pitcher holds the record for the most Cy Young Awards? Who was taken as the number one overall draft pick in the 2003 NBA draft? What 2002 soccer flick was named after a world-famous soccer star?

The Scene It? series of games enhance traditional board-game play with DVD content and exciting visual puzzles, and is recognized as family-friendly with great value and innovative game play. The TV Edition of Scene It? was named “Game of the Year” during the 2005 Toy Fair in New York City.

Many people have ideas for new board games, but are not sure the best way to turn these ideas into reality. An excellent way to prototype a new game concept is to use one of the new Make Your Own Board Game kits, which supply you with all the gaming supplies you’ll need, including gamepieces (tokens), dice, and play money. The kits also supply help with designing the game board - usually in the form of a computer application with templates of common gaming layouts.

There are several kits to choose from, for various types of games. So fire up that creativity and let the new games begin!

There is a new game in the popular Carcassonne series, called Carcassonne : The Discovery.

The Carcassonne Discoverers have sailed the oceans and found a new land. Now the sailors navigate the surrounding seas, the explorers comb the meadows, and all are cautious in the robber-infested mountains. Unlike other Carcassonne games, areas do not score when complete, but only when a player chooses to remove their follower.

Carcassonne : The Discovery provides a great introduction to the series, in a simple yet strategic format that is comfortable for players of all levels.