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NY Toy Fair 2018 Round-up II: Forbidden Sky Less Forbidden, Story Cubes Invites Star Wars Storytelling, and Codenames Goes XXL

NY Toy Fair 2018 Round-up II: Forbidden Sky Less Forbidden, Story Cubes Invites Star Wars Storytelling, and Codenames Goes XXL
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Let's check out a few more upcoming games on display at NY Toy Fair 2018, which ends today, Tuesday, February 20, starting with what might be the most anticipated game on display at the show:




Okay, "on display" is a bit of an overstatement given that Gamewright had nothing more than a box visible to highlight the upcoming release of Matt Leacock's Forbidden Sky, but this box does tell you that (1) the game comes in a box instead of a tin and (2) it contains more than would have fit in the Forbidden Desert tin. No, the packages won't line up nicely on your shelf, but you're getting more, so that's good, right?

Gamewright confirmed to me that this game is scheduled to debut at Gen Con 2018 in August. Fingers crossed that they make a life-size version in the air above the Indianapolis Convention Center. I'm sure they can afford the insurance for running that event...




Gamewright also showed off Cahoots, a cooperative game from Ken Gruhl in which 2-4 players take turns playing one of four cards in their hand on one of the four discard piles — matching color or number when they do so — in order to satisfy one of the goal cards on display. If they do, they discard that goal and draw a new one. The challenge is to make it through twelve (easy game) or sixteen (hard) goals before the deck runs out to win.




Bananagrams released Big Letter Bananagrams in 2017 with the components designed for ease of play by older players or those with limited eyesight. Lookout Games is sort of following that same model with Patchwork Express, which will feature larger pieces for ease of handling and visibility (as well as gameplay that will encourage positive scores, and therefore possibly better feelings for those who play).

Czech Games Edition released a limited run of giant versions of Codenames and Codenames Pictures in late 2017 for use at conventions, and now it's planning to release Codenames XXL into distribution in 2018. This version is identical to the base game other than having everything be larger. Stores can use this version for demos, game groups can use it for playing with large crowds or in public spaces to attract passersby, and those with vision difficulties can use it to play without having each card read to them repeatedly.




For Codenames fans of a different stripe, this new version of Codenames: Deep Undercover was on display in the PSI booth. I'm not sure whether this is a revised version of the original or something new. Many times at NY Toy Fair I shoot pics, then worry about figuring out the details later.




Smooching in Star Wars? Okay, there's a bit of that I suppose, but it still seems odd to see that presented as one of the representative dice — and while you might imagine that the dice are placed in the package randomly, I don't think that's the case. Those dice are in place to sell the package through the user seeing them and instantly creating a story of their own. Who are you going to ship in Star Wars IX: Regrets of George Lucas? Grab one or more Story Cubes sets, and you can create your own screenplay.




The wooden token is returning to the Jungle Speed box. Heck, maybe it's been there recently, and I just didn't know it. It's hard to keep track of all these things...




This demo kit for Ticket to Ride is a great idea, one that other publishers should consider emulating. I've seen publishers of party games release small card packs that allow an end user to get the feel of a game, but not something like this, with the gameplay scaled down in a way that potential customers can play a full game in 10-15 minutes in the store. (This might seem like a repackaging of Ticket to Ride: First Journey, but it's not. Players have only 15-18 trains, true, but you have goal cards to complete for points and not a race that's challenging you to complete a certain number of tickets first.)

We'll close with a handful of tweets that can stand on their own without additional comment:








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