New Game Round-up: Shovel Knight to Exceed Your Expectations, and The Return of Evil Dead 2

New Game Round-up: Shovel Knight to Exceed Your Expectations, and The Return of Evil Dead 2
Board Game: Exceed: Shovel Knight Solo Fighter
Level 99 Games' Exceed Fighting System by company founder D. Brad Talton, Jr. is designed to allow characters from multiple universes to go toe to toe to see who ends up toeless, and the latest universe to be incorporated into the game system already saw a teaser in 2018 thanks to the release of Exceed: Shovel Knight Solo Fighter, a single fighter deck that could be pitted against any existing character.

Now Level 99 Games has announced the December 2019 release of two standalone Exceed games based on the Shovel Knight game series: Exceed: Shovel Knight – Hope Box and Exceed: Shovel Knight – Shadow Box, with each box containing decks for four fighters. Two "single fighter" expansion decks will also be released at the same time.


From gallery of W Eric Martin


Board Game: Evil Dead 2: The Board Game
• In 2016, Space Goat Productions ran a Kickstarter campaign for Evil Dead 2: The Official Board Game (KS link), a project that collected more than $700,000 and that Space Goat last updated in April 2018 with a "we have taken a step back to regroup and consider a number of options" message that was apparently shorthand for SGP going into hiding and never delivering the promised game.

Now a possible resolution to this situation has arisen thanks to a new Kickstarter campaign (KS link) from Jasco Games and Lynnvander Studios for Evil Dead 2: The Boardgame. Note that no one from the earlier campaign is involved with this new game design; the only thing they have in common is the source material.

That said, Jasco Games has promised that if this new campaign funds, it will deliver copies of the game to backers of the original KS campaign for only the cost of shipping. As they note in this KS project: "We cannot deliver exactly what previous backers pledged for, as that was not our project, however, we hope that you will all love this game and appreciate what we are trying to do for our beloved gaming community. Our Evil Dead 2 board game is an entirely NEW game designed by Lynnvander Studios and directed and tested heavily by Jasco Games and our play testers."

Thomas Gofton and Dylan Birtolofrom Lynnvander Studios visited the BGG booth at Origins Game Fair 2019 to talk about their attempt to right this situation and to present the game itself:




Board Game: The Zorro Dice Game
• When I see a title like The Zorro Dice Game, coming in 2020 from designers Brian Henk and Clayton Skancke and publisher Overworld Games, I sometimes wonder who the audience for this game is. Does anyone care about Zorro in 2019? How about in 2020 when this game is due out? Is Zorro still a thing?

Admittedly my knowledge of Zorro begins and ends with him being a swordsman of some type. I have no nostalgic connection to the character, which is also true for Robin Hood and King Arthur, two other characters that feel of the same type as Zorro, with all of them being public domain at this point and with enough of a history that at least someone cares to keep them in the public eye. (Video essayist Patrick (H) Willems covers the history of Robin Hood and King Arthur in film since the early 1900s and has an interesting take on why modern versions haven't succeeded.) As for this 2-6 player game that's being Kickstarted in late 2019, here's an overview:

Quote:
An aging and battle-weary Zorro can no longer adequately defend the people from oppression so he must now find a worthy successor. Prove yourself to him by showing your heroism and proficiency in battle by defeating the scoundrels and villains that are persecuting your fellow citizens. After the final battle, it will be clear who deserves to wear the mantle and become the next Zorro! Will it be you?

Gather equipment in The Zorro Dice Game by defeating heroic feats in Yahtzee/King of Tokyo-style dice rolling, either alone or with another player helping. Collect sets of heroic feats to earn more dice that only you can use, but that will also trigger a scoundrel or a villain. Once the villain emerges, whoever defeats them will win the game and become the next Zorro!

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