:strip_icc()/pic5265754.jpg)
/pic5248148.jpg)
I mean, I get it. NY Toy Fair is a trade show attended by distributors, buyers, and retailers who often don't need to know the details of how a game is played, and a box will be enough for them to decide whether to order, bag it, or investigate further. This game has a US$10 price point, and it's based on that IP which has a following in my part of the U.S.? Give me a case and say no more about it as I have another 57 booths to hit before I can go home.
Such presentations give me little to say in this space beyond "This is coming", and it leads to BGG database entries that say, "This will be a thing", but such bread crumbs can be better than nothing — at least that's what I tell myself.
•••
:strip_icc()/pic5265280.jpg)
A representative at the Ultra PRO booth at NY Toy Fair 2020 told me that Sweet City is a city-building title coming from Stone Blade Entertainment. (Ultra PRO is the parent company of SBE.) Beyond that, I got zip. Maybe we'll more at GAMA Expo 2020, which takes place March 9-12?
:strip_icc()/pic5265279.jpg)
Ascension: Eternal is a new two-player-only version of Ascension that serves the same role that Ascension: Apprentice Edition did in the early 2010s: Teach new players the basics of the game in a cost-effective way without them having to worry about whatever twist is included in the various standalone titles. This title will feature new artwork that matches the current Ascension aesthetic, have a duel-based focus, and carry a US$20 MSRP.
:strip_icc()/pic5265704.jpg)
Draconic Dice is an Ultra PRO release with dice...and that's all I know, despite me running into designers Ken Gruhl and Quentin Weir at the Ultra PRO booth not ten minutes after I took this image. I didn't realize at the time that they had designed this title, so I didn't ask them about it. Again, maybe we'll have more at GAMA, maybe at the Origins Game Fair. All in good time...
As for Survival, this concept consists of two titles — Alien Survival and Funhouse Survival — with the games featuring dual-use cards that let you choose a location or an action, with players trying to survive against both one another and a threat within the game itself.
:strip_icc()/pic5265692.jpg)
Playroom Entertainment, another brand under the Ultra PRO umbrella, had a huge number of mock-ups on display at NY Toy Fair 2020, such as this collection of Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot titles. The La-Di-Da London Booster is due out in 2020, as is the Introduction to the Quest box that leads off a relaunching of the line that focuses on the action at the heart of the game: gathering bunnies, collect carrots, and blowing up the plans of other players.
:strip_icc()/pic5265705.jpg)
The party game Geek Out! has done well enough with its The 80's Edition and The 90's Edition titles that The 00's Edition will arrive in 2020, along with a new edition of Geek Out! Pop Culture Party in a smaller box.
:strip_icc()/pic5265713.jpg)
Dad Joke Face-Off will be joined by Dad Joke Face-Off 2, with Social Butterfly being a party game in which you ask a question or present a topic to the other players, then attempt to rank everyone in how they'll respond or answer, with everyone else trying to judge how well you'll do.
:strip_icc()/pic5265717.jpg)
Maureen Hiron's Cosmic Cows will get a new look for 2020, the cows needing to adapt to the times and modify their look.
:strip_icc()/pic5265748.jpg)
Dave Myers' Costume Party Assassins is being relaunched as Costume Party Detectives because, as it may not surprise you to learn, mainstream toy and game stores don't want to carry a title with "Assassins" in the title. This game, which you can catch an overview of here, will now feature a modular game board, and Playroom Entertainment is aiming for a US$20 MSRP.
:strip_icc()/pic5265763.jpg)
Snorta! is also coming back in a new form, with the 3D figures being replaced by cards as the game is aimed at a US$10 MSRP.
:strip_icc()/pic5265761.jpg)
Aside from the new editions, Ultra PRO and its brands are adding a few licensed titles to its catalog, with German Tikhomirov's Deranged coming out sometime in 2020. Originating publisher Hobby World debuted the title at Gen Con 2019, and you can watch an overview here.
:strip_icc()/pic5265762.jpg)
Bruno Cathala's Jurassic Snack from 2018 has been picked up for release in the U.S. by Playroom Entertainment. (overview video)
:strip_icc()/pic5266099.jpg)
Stefan Alexander's CuBirds, a 2018 release from Catch Up Games, is another title that's been picked up by Ultra PRO for release in the U.S. (overview video) Maybe it's time for me to finally play my copy so that I can create a preview of my own timed to this release. All too often I need an excuse to get something to the table
:strip_icc()/pic5266097.jpg)
French publisher Game Flow has released a few games-on-books in a series titled "My First Adventure", and Playroom will release La Découverte de L'Atlantide as Discovering Atlantis. We recorded an overview of this title at FIJ 2019, and it's nice to see videos for this title, CuBirds, and Jurassic Snack be put to use once again. The game industry is comprised of pockets of designers, publishers, and gamers the world over, yet good ideas travel and discover new homes.)
:strip_icc()/pic5266105.jpg)
Wouter van Strien's Sunflower Valley: The Card Game from Hobby World will be renamed Sunflower Valley: The Tile Game for its release from Playroom Entertainment since you lay out the card-like tiles (or tile-like cards) on the table instead of holding them in your hand. Hmm, no overview video for this one. I received a mock-up at SPIEL '19, so maybe I can add that one to my list as well.
:strip_icc()/pic5266106.jpg)
Looksee: Treasured Sees, seen here in mock-up form as is the case with most of these titles, plays like a combination of SET and Spot it! Each turn, roll the two dice. If the numbers match, you want to find an item that appears that many times on the revealed card; if they don't match, as is the case here, find an item that appears as many times as the missing number (in this case, 1) on the card. The same goes for color, so in this case players need to race to spot and put their finger on the dark blue item that appears only once.
Again, this is a mock-up, so ideally the final game won't have light blue and dark blue as colors on the dice and cards.
I had not expected to fill an entire post with titles from Ultra PRO and its related brands, but I made it happen, closing out a long list of titles with Burger Academy, a real-time programming game in the vein of Ricochet Robots in which you have stacks of burger components, then reveal a card, with players determining ahead of time how difficult they want the challenge to be. You stare at the components for a while, then give a number of moves that it will take you to shift components in piles from one stack to another in order to create the burger depicted. (One move equals you picking up one or more components from one pile and placing them on top of another pile.) Whoever gives the lowest number in the time allowed then tries to execute on their plans.
You can adjust the difficulty of play by having more or fewer stacks, and as a bonus Wonder Woman will stare at you the entire time that you're playing.
:strip_icc()/pic5265171.jpg)
:strip_icc()/pic5262615.jpg)
:strip_icc()/pic5207819.png)
:strip_icc()/pic5261636.jpg)
/pic5216127.jpg)
