New Game Round-up: Ground Floor Rises Again, Spielworxx Launches Captains of the Gulf, and Ravensburger Prepares for Summer

South Louisiana has a long, rich history of delicious Cajun dishes like gumbos and jambalayas. A big part of what makes these meals so great is the seafood in them that is fished from the Gulf of Mexico. The men and women who run the shrimp boats that fish that seafood have to be both hard-working and crafty, finding the optimum strategy to bring in the best catch. They are the "Captains of the Gulf".

Captains of the Gulf is a thematic action selection game, full of flavor. In the game, 2-4 players each operate a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to make the largest profit over eight game turns. The players try to upgrade their fishing boat, add crew members, then move out to fish crabs, oysters, and shrimp, after which they need to deliver them to ports.

Cards are multi-purpose; they are added to a player's mat on top (licenses), at the left side (crew), or at the right side (boat upgrade). Moreover, when you fish you need to play them out of your hand.

To play Cool Runnings, you'll need a dose of coolness and a freezer — yes, literally as the game "characters" are made of ice and you must create them prior to play.

The winner is whoever brings their ice to the finish line first — or whoever still has an ice character in play while everyone else has melted away. During the game — which is played on a modular, waterproof game board — players will attack one another with a pinch of salt, a water bath, or a simple hands-on approach in which your own heat can damage someone's character. If the defending player can play the same attack card as you, though, the attack bounces back on you!