It's New Game Friday! David Wiley (Cardboard Clash) is here to tell us about the new games.
Here’s what is new this week:
- Crown Rivals
- The Grand Carnival
- Personal Space: The Drive-In Moon
- Tiny Reef
This week's new games are all available at https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
The Grand Carnival
The sleepy town of Littleton comes alive each year when the carnival arrives. The summer of ‘37 was especially exciting - several carnivals arrived, competing to build the biggest attractions and draw in the largest crowds. But only one could win the coveted title of The Grand Carnival.
A nice, simple game of tile laying that has some interesting decision-making space inside the game. You’re building your theme park with tiles that have either walkways or construction sites. In order to make attractions, you need to get the right polyomino spaces together for the construction sites, as that is how you’re scoring part of your points. But you also need to have walkways for guests to visit the attractions, leaving tickets at the attraction for points as they move toward the Big Top. Add in the tricks, which once a person completes everyone else has one more turn to complete the trick or be left out of that unique card’s ability. If you like a game of building with tiles but wish there was something more to consider than just where to place a tile, this might just scratch that itch for you.
Tiny Reef
The planet’s coral reefs are in danger and a group of biologists are taking action to protect them. On a mission to Tiny Reef, they take inventory of the reef animals to make it a sanctuary for marine life.
During a game of Tiny Reef, players draw on their sheet the marine animals they observe, following certain constraints. They earn points by forming groups of Marine animals of the same species and fulfilling some of the goals.
Another flip-and-write game to enjoy, this one has delightful marine life as its art feature. You’re biggest barrier to entry here might just be the need for writing utensils in orange, green, and purple - the color of your animals matters as you draw them onto your board! Why? Because you cannot have two of the same color beside each other. Every turn has a single card flip over, and that card has two different animals to choose from on it. This means each player can grow their board in their own way, something that is really good to see. At a great price with an easy PNP build, this is one you do not want to miss out on.
Personal Space: Drive-In Moon
The Drive-In Moon is a postcard expansion for the game Personal Space.
Orbit: 1:00-2:00 AM/PM
Popular Attraction: Zorp's Diner
Local Cuisine: Zip Corn Dogs
An exciting little attraction to expand your Personal Space experience. Come and enjoy the musical tunes playing in the background while eating corn dogs. Eat enough of those corn dogs and you might just get your picture on the wall. You won’t regret visiting this scenic drive-in moon.
Crown Rivals
Crown Rivals is a deckbuilding game of palace intrigue, using standard playing cards.
Always wanted to play Star Realms but didn’t want to invest in buying the game? Well, this game is the answer to the question as to whether or not a game like Star Realms could be made with playing cards...and it definitely looks interesting. The best thing is you only have to print the short rules, and you’ll be able to play assuming you have a standard deck of cards. With easy-to-remember rules and card abilities, you can get this up and running quickly. I’ll be waiting anxiously to see how they tackle adding the solo boss bots in a later expansion. Because a game like this is prime for expansions, right? Right?
Check out all of the new games here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/new-games
Game of the Week: Interceptor (only $1!)
Government officials are plotting to undermine democracy! They need to exchange documents and money in secret, but a pair of investigative journalists are getting suspicious of their activities. Will the intrepid reporters be able to expose the corruption before it's too late?
Remember games of Mastermind where you needed to crack the code? Well, this is kinda similar in that you can instantly win in this 4-player game. You divide into pairs and each team makes a code with their arrangement of cards. Since there’s only two sides to the card, that shouldn’t be too hard, right? One side is trying to match the orientation of the other team’s cards in order to get those cards. However, if you can guess the signal the other team is using, you can instantly win. If you like bluffing and code-cracking, this might be a great fit when you have exactly 4 players.
Check out Game of the Week here: https://www.pnparcade.com/collections/game-of-the-week
See you next week with more information on our newest print and play games!