![New Game Round-up: Revisiting Hogwarts, Making Fake Art, and Going Loony in the U.S.](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/iIIGoA267xJDn3RuOfXBeQ__thumb/img/zX7ii2eBry5znNIWJ7-Fisqttbw=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic3043308.jpg)
I got a first look at the game during NY Toy Fair, but details were scant at the time. USAopoly was unsure whether to label the game "deck-building" given that the casual gamer would not know what that means, but the parallels between deck-building and spellbook-building — think of Harry and friends advancing over the years from Wingardium Leviosa and Expelliarmus to Avada Kedavra and Obliviate — seem obvious once you start thinking about the two, so apparently USAopoly has now embraced the term.
Here's an overview of the game, which I believe is due out at Gen Con 2016 in August:
By gaining influence, players add more cards to their deck in the form of iconic characters, spells, and magical items. Other cards allow them to regain health or fight against villains, keeping them from gaining power. The villains set back players with their attacks and Dark Arts. Only by working together will players be able to defeat all of the villains, securing the castle from the forces of evil.
In Final Touch, players hire themselves out as art forgers willing to copy the masterworks of great artists, with all of them competing to create — or rather, re-create — the same image. But only the player who uses the right colors to finish the image will receive money for their work, and this skill is sure to reveal the best painter...or the best bluffer...
In more detail, players play "Touch of Color" cards from their hand to either improve or smear the forgery, working both together and against their fellow painters. The first player to put the final touch on any forgery in the making earns the money for that forgery, while smearing pays out to their opponents and moves them on to the larger paydays. The first artist to earn $25 by putting the final touch of paint on a forged painting wins!
• Laurent Escoffier and David Franck's Loony Quest from Libellud has been unavailable in the U.S. since its debut in 2015 due to Blue Orange Games' development and publication of their Doodle Quest in 2014. Both games feature the same elements at their core, but were developed for different audiences by their respective publishers. Now Asmodee has cleared the way for distribution of Loony Quest in the U.S. and expects the game to be available in August 2016.
• dV Giochi has picked up Jim Henson's Labyrinth: The Board Game for release in Italian in late 2016.