New Game Round-up: Samurai Renewed, The Little Prince Revisited & World's Fair 1893 Relived

Samurai is set in medieval Japan. Players compete to gain the favor of three factions: samurai, peasants, and priests, which are represented by helmet, rice paddy, and Buddha tokens scattered about the board, which features the islands of Japan. The competition is waged through the use of hexagonal tiles, each of which help curry favor of one of the three factions — or all three at once! Players can make lightning-quick strikes with horseback ronin and ships or approach their conquests more methodically. As each token (helmets, rice paddies, and Buddhas) is surrounded, it is awarded to the player who has gained the most favor with the corresponding group.

Gameplay continues until all the symbols of one type have been removed from the board or four tokens have been removed from play due to a tie for influence.

At the end of the game, players compare captured symbols of each type, competing for majorities in each of the three types. Ties are not uncommon and are broken based on the number of other, "non-majority" symbols each player has collected.

The Little Prince: Rising to the Stars brings you in a journey from the Grandfather's house to the Little Prince's planet. It is a point-to-point movement game, in which your goal is to collect stars.

You move your plane by playing one of the fox cards in your hand, and every player starts with the same set of cards (eight cards numbered 1-5, with duplicates of 2, 3 and 4). Whoever is farthest back on the path to the Little Prince's planet is the active player, and this player plays one card from hand, moving at least one cloud and up to the number of clouds shown on the card. If you land on a star cloud, you take a star from the reserve; if you land on a telescope cloud, you flip one of the tokens at Grandfather's house to see what happens; if you land on a bird cloud, you take one card from Grandfather's deck, which provide different types of movement. If you arrive on a cloud where an opponent's plane sits, you take a card at random from that opponent's hand and give him in return a card of your choice.

When you cross one of the three connecting boards, you take one of the story tiles next to it, with these tiles holding 1-5 stars. Collect both the fox and Little Prince, and you earn eight stars for this pair instead of only two.

If you manage to make it all the way to the Little Prince's planet — and you'll need to pick up extra movement cards in order to do so — you receive a star-filled paper plane, with the quickest players receiving the most stars. In the end, whoever collects the most stars wins.

The World's Fair of 1893 in Chicago was a spectacular international exhibition that showcased many great achievements in science, technology, culture, and entertainment. Acting as organizers of the fair, players work diligently to increase their influence throughout the city and obtain the grand exhibits that will be put on display. The organizer who has earned the best reputation when the fair begins will emerge the victor.

On each turn of World's Fair 1893, the active player places an influence cube on one of the five areas and gathers the lot of cards associated with it. New cards are then added to some of the lots, and the next player takes a turn.

The five areas represent sections of exhibits, like Fine Arts and Electricity. Some cards represent influential people who affect influence in the areas, and other cards represent exhibit or attraction proposals. Every exhibit proposal has a specific type that matches one of the five areas.

The game consists of three scoring rounds, each triggered when players collectively gather a certain number of attraction cards. Players gain reputation points for having the most influence in an area and for gathering the most attractions in each round. Players with the most influence in an area also receive approval for exhibit proposals they have gathered that match the area. Players gain reputation points at the end of the game based on the breadth and diversity of their approved exhibits.