Another Toy Fair has passed, and after several days of non-stop trekking through the 600,000 square foot Jacob Javitz Convention Center there was only one thing left to do: recap the event. Or sleep. Sleep is always good.
So what did the hobby gaming industry bring to the table (no pun intended) this year?
• Steve Jackson Games revealed several new Munchkin products while also showing off a new version of Zombie Dice that will come in a branded zipper-bag. The new bag is a big sigh of relief since Zombie Dice is a fantastic game, but many are tired of seeing dice fly across the room.
• Asmodee demonstrated the sequel to last year’s big hit, Dixit, while also promoting their original party game success, Jungle Speed. If you’re familiar with the latter, you’ll appreciate the following YouTube video that the Asmodee rep pointed us towards. Several university students decided it would be a good idea to hide the totem game piece in a separate room, leading to… Jungle Speed Insanity.
• Mayfair Games introduced their entire 2011 line-up, and brought a selection of their expansive catalog to demo with Toy Fair attendees. After hours, they threw a gaming party at local game shop The Compleat Strategist. They were joined by the Gen Con crew, and the event carried on through the night as it turned into a geek pub crawl with stops at Nelly Spillanes and Rattle N Hum.
• Looney Labs revived their Icehouse Pyramids line, while also previewing a re-branded version of Aquarius. Although they won’t launch until June, existing fans of the Icehouse Pyramid games can sign up for the new fan club to be the first ones to get information on their return.
• Sandstorm Productions made their Toy Fair debut, representing several geek-friendly board game studios. Closet Nerd Games showed off their two main titles, The Target and Globalization, while WildFire was promoting their card game Nuts, the sequel to last year’s Origins-award-winning Poo. Closet Nerd Games focuses purely on strategy titles that minimize luck and chance, while WildFire produces casual and humorous card games.
• Stronghold Games also appeared at their first Toy Fair, showing off their high-quality remakes of cherished out-of-print titles Code 777 and Survive. From looking at these two, Stronghold will be around for a long time as they are living up to their promise of focusing on quality over quantity.
• Gamewright, a company known more for their games that target young age groups, demonstrated City Square Off, an abstract tile-laying strategy game that should appeal to gamers of all ages. Players are given random brick-shaped pieces that they must fit into their own personal game board. As the board becomes increasingly crowded, player must avoid placing any new pieces out of bounds or they will lose the game. It plays like Blokus in a sumo wrestling match, and I personally can’t wait to try it again.
• Techno Source introduced an officially-licensed Tetris board game, Tetris Link, that plays very similarly to Ravensburger’s 2008 hit FITS, which itself is heavily inspired by the original Tetris video game. We seem to have entered a chicken-and-the-egg loop, and will take a deeper look at both games in a future post to determine who deserves the crown of best Tetris-inspired board game.
Related Posts:
Toy Fair 2011: New CCG Redakai Brings Unique Visual Effects to Card Gaming
Toy Fair 2011: Asmodee Games Reveals Follow-Up To Hit Title 'Dixit'
--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!
