Survive:: Escape from Atlantis

Had a chance to look at a pre-release copy of this in October and it looks quite good. I especially like the sinking island mechanic. Island pieces get replaced one by one with water tiles, eliminating any of your pieces on the land tiles at the time of the switch:

Arriving Soon

SG2002

Survive: Escape From Atlantis

$49.95 SRP

2-4 Players

Ages 8+

60 Minutes

An underwater volcano has erupted and the island of Atlantis is sinking into the sea! Unless the people of Atlantis escape before the volcano explodes, all the inhabitants are doomed! In this game you try to lead your people from the sinking central island of Atlantis to the safety of one of four islands nearby. Your people can get there by boat (if they find one) or by swimming but avoid the Sea Serpents, Whales, and Sharks! The player with the most survivor points wins.

Survive is a cutthroat game where players seek to evacuate their pieces from an island that is breaking up, while remembering where their highest-valued pieces are located to maximize their score.

Boardgame Avalanche

Boardgames today remind me of Black and White comics during the 80's, the collectabel card game deluge of the mid 90s or, more recently, all the OGL stuff that released after D&D 3.0 launched, with over 100 items released per month.

After the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle became a hit in B&W comics during the mid 80's, we saw Radioactive Adolescent Black Belt Hamsters, Aristocratic Time Traveling Extraterrestrial Thieves and so forth, until the racks filled with piles of two color 3 adjective and a noun titled comic books. None but the Turtles still get published. After Magic hit big, the next couple of years saw 40+ different CCGs released, of which only about 3, counting Magic are still around. Of the publishers that rode the OGL wave, I can count on my fingers the number still publishing products that hit the shelves with any regularity.

So, as Yogi Berra put it, "This is like deja vu all over again" when I received an email from a distributor with fourteen boardgame releases scheduled for December. Fourteen new boardgames isn't that large of a quantity, but these are all from one publisher, Rio Grande Games. Three new ones from Avalanche Press, three from Indie Board and Game Press, and 32 more from assorted publishers. That's 52 boardgames coming out in December and I've probably missed a few. We're selling more boardgames than we did 5 years ago and the market has certainly expanded but I"m seeing the same sort of glut that hit the market in each of the categories mentioned earlier and I fear a lot of companies will go out of business before it's over.

Fantasy Flight Releases

Fantasy Flight Games has announced the following games will hit distribution next Tuesday so we should have them by the 20th:

CI01 Civilization
SL06 Death Angel
WHC13 Warhammer Invasion: The Fourth Waystone

Starstrike Blast Details

Starstrike Blast Sneak Peek is this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Details Released for ‘YGO: Starstrike Blast’

Out this Month

Published: 11/04/2010, Last Updated: 11/05/2010 03:45am

Konami has announced details of its Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starstrike Blast set (see “Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Q4 Releases”), out November 16th. The 100-card booster set will contain 48 Commons, 20 Rares, 14 Super Rares, 10 Ultra Rares, and eight Super Rares.

Big Synchro Monsters in the set will include Shooting Star Dragon, Red Nova Dragon, and Formula Synchron, the first Synchro Monster that’s also a Tuner.

A new Monarch, Delg the Dark, is introduced, along with new Karakuri monsters, who constantly change battle position.

A new Spell Card, Tuning, is introduced ot make it easy to summon Yusei’s top Synchro Monsters. New Tuners, including Glow-Up Bulb and Scrap Mind Reader, are introduced.

Other new cards introduced in the set include Skull Meister, Droll & Lock Bird, Spellstone Sorcerer Karood, and Psi-Blocker.

Yu Gi Oh

Scheduled for January Release

Coming in January

KOI88539 YGO: Yusei 3 - Duelist Pack $42.53 NPI January 25th Street Date	KOI88556 YGO: DB: 5Ds Double Deck Box $4.74 NPI
For the sixth consecutive year, five-card Duelists Packs are an easy and affordable way for even the youngest or most casual Yu-Gi-Oh! fans to “Rev It Up!” This 30-card set brings Duelists more of Yusei’s latest and greatest cards! Featuring 8 brand new, powerful cards (4 new Monsters, 2 new Spells, and 2 new Traps), plus a second chance to get 22 more of Yusei’s favorites. 30-card complete set: 17 Common Cards, 7 Rare Cards, 4 Super Rare Cards, 2 Ultra Rare Cards, plus 10 Strategy Cards	Duelists can carry their cards with confidence in this durable, double-wide Deck Box! Emblazoned with the full Mark of the Dragon, from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, the Double Deck Box can hold everything needed to Duel anywhere, anytime! This quality Deck Box is magnet-fastened to make sure its contents remain safe and sound, even through the rigors of competition. Each Double Deck Box features a magnetic closure and contains two removable trays and two index boards.

Save Dr. Lucky

Well, Pazio successfully did it will Kill Dr. Lucky, so why not with Save Dr. Lucky? The sinking ship gmae mechanic is pretty cool and SDL was up for an Origins Award when it first came out because of it. BTW, this is not an add on for Kill Dr. Lucky, this is a stand alone game. The original version never sold as well as Kill Dr. Lucky, when Cheapass published it. We generally sold 5 copies of Kill Dr. Lucky to every copy of Save. Guess people just enjoyed killing the old coot more than they did saving him.

Coming in December

PZO5502

Save Doctor Lucky (Deluxe Ed.)

$29.99 SRP

April 14, 1912.
A cold night in the Atlantic.
An errant iceberg, a titanic cruise ship, and one very lucky old man.

Doctor Lucky is a charismatic and well-respected philanthropist with a heart of gold. Of course, you secretly hate the old bastard, and you’re probably going to try to kill him someday. But killing him aboard a sinking ship would be pointless. So you’ve decided to save his life instead, and do it while someone else is looking. That way, even if you go down with the ship, you’ll at least go down in history.

And isn’t that what life is all about?

In Save Doctor Lucky, players are passengers on a sinking ship. You have one goal: to save Doctor Lucky’s life while someone else is watching. Players rush from deck to deck trying to find items that will aid them, and trying not to see anyone else who might play the hero. But as the ship sinks, the board grows smaller, bringing Doctor Lucky and the passengers together into the few remaining decks.

Save Doctor Lucky includes:

• A four-part game board
• A deck of 90 card
• A rule book
• Pawns and stands for seven players and Doctor Lucky

Save Doctor Lucky is the standalone prequel to Kill Doctor Lucky, also available from Paizo Publishing.

Soda Pop Miniatures

Interesting looking anime inspired sculpts. Looks like they'd be fun to paint but not too useful in an actual game, unless you're running BESM or Exalted:

Arriving in November

SPM0049 Ayu Beat $12.99 SRP Limited Edition	SPM0056 Kisa and Scratch $14.99 SRP Limited Edition
SPM09001 Candy and Cola $12.95 SRP	SPM09002 Princess Malya and Mr. Tomn $49.95 SRP
SPM09003 Fiametta, Acrantric Doctrine Acolyte $12.95 SRP	SPM09004 Kenobo, Monk of Gormandi $17.95 SRP
SPM09005 Rin Farrah $12.95 SRP	SPM09006 Calico Kate and Skully $49.99 SRP
SPM09008 Isabeau Durand $12.95 SRP	SPM09009 Suicide Queen and Rollo $14.95 SRP
SPM09010 Iron Chef $17.95 SRP