New Game Round-up: Pandasaurus and IDW Present Godfathers, Clones, Zombies, Thieves & More Machi Koro

New Game Round-up: Pandasaurus and IDW Present Godfathers, Clones, Zombies, Thieves & More Machi Koro
From gallery of W Eric Martin
• In what's possibly the most unexpected licensing deal in recent months, IDW Games has announced a deal with Paramount Pictures that will allow it to release "a line of The Godfather tabletop games ranging from quick-to-play card and dice games to big box strategic board games".

The first title in the series is The Godfather Card Game, due out in August 2015, but no details of the gameplay, designer, etc. have been announced. As for other games in the series, a press release from IDW Games notes that "[t]he games will range in length and complexity, and take place in a variety of locations and timelines spanning the trilogy of films. Gamers can look forward to rising to power and doing everything they can to stay on top in a cutthroat world. These games will truly be an offer The Godfather fans can't refuse." They had to get that last line in there or it would void the licensing contract.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
• In somewhat more expected licensing news, IDW Games has announced a similar deal with Temple Street Productions for a line of games based on the Orphan Black television series. (Parent company IDW Publishing moved nearly a half-million copies of the first issue of an Orphan Black comic in February 2015, although an unknown number of those copies sold via a LootCrate exclusive so that number isn't indicative of how many readers the comic might have.) Here's a short description of the first title in this series, due out July 2015:

Quote:
In Orphan Black: The Card Game, you are secretly assigned to one of three teams: the Proletheans, Neolutionists, or the Bird Watchers. The goal of the game is to influence as many clones into joining your faction as possible, while also keeping your opponents guessing as to which of the three factions you're really working for. If you can keep other players in the dark while secretly exerting influence on your targets, you'll come out on top.

• IDW Games and publishing partner Pandasaurus Games are releasing a new edition of the Antoine Bauza and Corentin Lebrat title Ali, first released by Libellud in 2012, under the name Open Sesame in June 2015. Here's a rundown of that game:

Quote:
In Ali, players re-enact the story of "Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves" – but as a push-your-luck memory game. Each round, one player takes the role of Ali while the other players are all thieves. These thieves must repeat, in turn and without error, an ever-growing list of objects – these objects being the treasures that Ali Baba covets and wants to steal. The question for Ali is whether to stop or not before he covets too much and ends up stuck in the cave, with the treasures falling into the hands of the thieves.
• IDW/Pandasaurus describes Trap! Zany Zombies — artwork from which is depicted below, as a "fast-paced, creature-hunting card game". Beyond that, I know nothing.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Machi Koro: Millionaire's Row, the English version of the Machi Koro: Sharp expansion for Machi Koro, is also due out in June 2015 from IDW/Pandasaurus.

• Finally from IDW/Pandasaurus comes Machi Koro: Deluxe Edition, as depicted in the following tweet from Rodney Smith of Watch It Played, who's checking out upcoming games being shown at the GAMA Trade Show:

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