The problem, however, is that Yours Truly knows little about most of the IPs being licensed. The number of fictional worlds in existence is so vast these days that it's hard to be aware of them all, much less experience them for myself. U.S. publisher Brotherwise Games, for example, contacted me in early March 2021 to set up a game page for The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged and have it go live on a certain day at a certain time after the press embargo lifted — but I had no idea what the game might even be about.
Turns out that The Dragon Prince is an animated series on Netflix in which "[a]n extraordinary discovery inspires two human princes and an elven assassin to team up on an epic quest to bring peace to their warring lands". Three seasons of the show have aired to date, and seven seasons have been contracted in total.
As for the game, it's a card-based tactical miniatures game for 2-6 players designed by Johnny O'Neal in which two teams, each consisting of 2-3 heroes, face off in duels on one of the game's six battle-maps. More from the publisher
The base game includes eight characters: Rayla, Ezran, Callum, Amaya, Janai, Viren, Claudia, and Soren. Each is represented with a high-quality miniature, a hero card, and a 16-card deck.
• Lacuna Coil is an Italian gothic metal band from Milan, and the Italian company Labmasu Games is hoping to bring Horns Up — subtitled "The official Lacuna Coil card game" — to market in 2021 courtesy of Kickstarter (preview link).
Your goal in the game is to be the first player to reach the stage, and gameplay seems reminiscent of Saboteur, albeit with every player fending for themselves. Each player starts on an entrance card eight spaces from the stage. On a turn, you add an audience card to your hand, then generally play audience cards, whether to block opponents with walls or demands for a ticket or to build a path for yourself through the crowd.
At the end of your turn, you move your marker as far as possible along the path, then turn all unoccupied path cards face down, representing the crush of the audience as you push your way through.
• Oh, hey, here's something I recognize: Ravensburger has announced that the next title in its Marvel Villainous game line is Mischief & Malice, with this being an "expandalone" title that can be played by 2-3 players on its own or combined with the original Infinite Power release from 2020 to allow for play with up to four, in addition to having different villains face off against one another.
As with other small Villainous sets, Mischief & Malice contains three villains who each have a different goal to achieve in order to win: Loki needs to collect and spend ten "Mischief", while Madame Masque needs to defeat eight Marvel heroes, and M.O.D.O.K. must activate the Cosmic Cube.