New Game Round-up: Collect Coins in Megaland, Become Most Wanted, and Prep for the Eurovision Song Contest

New Game Round-up: Collect Coins in Megaland, Become Most Wanted, and Prep for the Eurovision Song Contest
Board Game: Megaland
Red Raven Games typically releases only one or two games a year, but for 2018 it's going for three, with the newly announced Megaland being distributed exclusively by the U.S. retail chain Target starting in Q4 2018. This press-your-luck design by Ryan and Malorie Laukat is for 2-5 players and takes only 20 minutes to play. Here's an overview of the game:

Quote:
At the start of each round, each player places their character on the level tile, then draws one treasure and places it above their character board. Once everyone does this, draw the topmost level card to see whether players suffer damage from the monster on it. Players can then decide whether to leave the round and bank their treasures, or whether to press on; if they go on, they draw another treasure card, then reveal the next level card. If you take total damage equal to your number of hearts, you fail and are out of the round, losing any treasure that you had.

Once everyone has left the round, whether by being knocked out or by passing and banking their treasures, players can buy building cards, such as bowling alleys, arcades, and soap makers. Buildings cost 1-5 treasures, and you must pay different treasures when buying a building that costs more than 1. Each building gives a one-time or permanent effect. Maybe you'll collect jump tokens that you can use to clear monsters so that you don't take damage; maybe you'll acquire a hospital that gives you coins when neighboring players fail the level; maybe you'll buy more hearts to let you run farther in the future; and maybe you'll collect coins, which can be the most precious item of all since the game ends after the round that someone collects 20 coins. Whoever has the most coins at that time wins!

Megaland contains six starred building types that are used in each game, along with seventeen other building types, with only seven of them being used in any game.
Board Game: Most Wanted
• At Gen Con 2018 in August, North Star Games will release Most Wanted, a game for 2-8 players from Happy Salmon's Ken Gruhl and Quentin Weir and NSG's own Dominic Crapuchettes, who has said that Most Wanted is North Star's attempt to do for poker what King of Tokyo did for Yahtzee. A full game of eight players should still take only thirty minutes, and here's a rundown of what's going on:

Quote:
Most Wanted is a western-themed game in which you compete to become the most notorious outlaw. As you become more notorious, you need an increasing amount of bail money for when your "well-thought-out" plans go wrong. The first player to get an unlucky 13 points has the dubious honor of winning. Go get 'em, partner!

Most Wanted is a poker-style game that features seven different actions in the standard game, with five additional actions on the side that can be swapped in and out for variety.
• Hanno Girke from Lookout Games notes that a version of Francis Tresham's 1830: Railways & Robber Barons — which has been out of print for several years — with revised graphics might be available for demoing at Gen Con 2018 in August.

Stronghold Games will release the Stefan Feld and Michael Rieneck title Forum Trajanum — which HUCH! will debut at SPIEL '18 in October — in the U.S. in 2018.

• The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest starts on May 8, but you can get a jumpstart on the event thanks to the Eurovision Song Contest board game that Dutch publisher Just Games will release on April 24, 2018. The description of the game is minimal — "Test your knowledge, prepare your own performance, and participate in the most popular song contest!" — but if nothing else, it's guaranteed to be better than 2007's Eurovision Song Contest The Boardgame, which features roll-and-move gameplay at its worst.

Board Game: Eurovision Song Contest

Related

New Game Round-up: Madeira and ZhanGuo Return, and Expansions Galore from Plaid Hat and Fantasy Flight Games

New Game Round-up: Madeira and ZhanGuo Return, and Expansions Galore from Plaid Hat and Fantasy Flight Games

Apr 20, 2018

• What's Your Game? has announced that new editions of Madeira (a 2013 title from Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade) and ZhanGuo (a 2014 title from Marco Canetta and Stefania Niccolini)...

Game Previews from the 2018 GAMA Trade Show: Starship Samurai, Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1, Imhotep: A New Dynasty, Teotihuacan: City of Gods, and Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

Game Previews from the 2018 GAMA Trade Show: Starship Samurai, Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1, Imhotep: A New Dynasty, Teotihuacan: City of Gods, and Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

Apr 19, 2018

• Let's run through more game preview videos that BGG recorded at the 2018 GAMA Trade Show, starting with the timely Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger from Prospero Hall and Z-Man...

Designer Diary: The History of Coal Country

Designer Diary: The History of Coal Country

Apr 18, 2018

Coal Country is the second prototype I developed, starting work on it immediately after the 2012 Origins Game Fair and first showing it at Gen Con 2012.The first prototype I developed, the one...

New Game Round-up: Travel to Tokyo to Pick Up Passengers, Collect Cats, and Fight With Dominoes

New Game Round-up: Travel to Tokyo to Pick Up Passengers, Collect Cats, and Fight With Dominoes

Apr 17, 2018

In May 2018, the BGG crew will be at Tokyo Game Market to record game overviews with designers and publishers and to gawk at the huge number of new and unfamiliar games on display.In preparation...

Designer Diary: Decrypto, or Coco Chanel – Anne Frank – Alan Turing

Designer Diary: Decrypto, or Coco Chanel – Anne Frank – Alan Turing

Apr 16, 2018

I often like to compare the creation of a game to that of a living thing:First, the mind of the game designer is inseminated by an idea, a feeling, a need; then, the idea gestates in the...

ads