Frank Branham: Nifty finds at Toys R Us

I do shop TRU occasionally (ok...frequently) and pick up the odd game. My most recent 3 acquisitions are kind of interesting. I've yet to fully play and tear through all of them, but most of the games you find at TRU are pure popcorn.
Heroscape: Swarm of the Marro Master Set.
Hasbro decided to discontinue the original Rise of the Valkyrie Heroscape set. The replacement set has fewer heroes, less terrain, and new scenarios.

The theme is swampy, the battlefields are flatter (less terrain), and it does include a large alien hive centerpiece covered with eggs and webs. So it seems like a far less interesting set than the Master Set it replaces.

...except for the campaign scenarios. These three scenarios use the full master rules, but have fixed unit descriptions. Normally if teaching Heroscape, a new player has to make the most important decision of the game (unit selection) right at the beginning. That means that you have a good 45 minutes (setup, rules, picking units) before killing things.

The campaign scenarios also have a Heroquest-y feel. The units in the set are 5 or 6 heroes, and a boatload of varying types of alien Marro. The scenarios also only allow the Hero player to move to the next scenario with the survivors of the previous scenario.

Quick, clever, and pretty cool. I've yet to try it, but it does look like one of the better developements from Heroscape.

Clue Suspects:

This isn't a game. The box isn't entirely clear on that part. It is a nifty little set of 50 deduction puzzles that involve locating the 10 suspects in the various rooms of the house. Each puzzle has clues like "Miss Scarlet was on the same floor and to the right of Professor Plum."

The puzzle comes with a plastic house frame, and tons of little pawns to help you visualize each problem.

Say What...

I was immediately drawn to the idea of this electronic party game. You have 15-30 seconds to unscramble a famous quote or song lyric. That sounds quite tedious.

The clever part is the interface. Each quote is broken up into 5 parts, represented by a translucent plastic ball. As the scrambled phrase is read to you, each successive ball is lit to indicate the part. You than reorder the balls, and hit a button to have the phrase read to you in the new order.

This means that you have to remember the phrase and try to reorder it in your head as it is being read. The problem is, you don't recognize the phrase until it is most of the way through being read. You have to try to remember things while searching your memory for the quote. It takes me two or three reads to get a quote, while Sandi can almost always do it perfectly on the first go.

Atypically for an electronic game, Say What also give you variations. You can choose to limit by time, guesses, or play a weird speed round game.

The basic time game also adjusts its difficulty. Players who are doing well in early rounds will receive less time on later rounds. The basic game is a first to 5 points, with a tiebreaker round which compares the speed of the tying players on a set of final quotes.

The tech is interesting as well. At least 4 or 5 different voices are used to read the quotes. The balls have no electronic components, but have different patterns of ridges on the bottom that trigger a small pattern of switches in each depression.

Bonus Halo preview:
Only a few hours in so far. And...it's just more Halo. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The campaign is just a bit friendlier. It is easier, and the game seems to sense unerringly when you are trying to figure out where to go next and pops up a nav arrow.

Instead of the eerie cool of Bioshock, this is mostly almost nice reminiscing kind of game. Plasma grenades still stick nicely to Grunts, shotguns are the tool of choice for the Flood zombies, and the awful unbearable horror of the Dukes of Hazzard theme occasionally invades my head while driving a Warthog tearing across the countryside.

Yep. It's Halo. © 2007 Frank Branham

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Awe, man, now I’ve got “bum chicka bum chicka bum, justa good ol’ boys..” going through my head (an “ear worm” as the German’s call it). Posted by Jeff Allers on Sep 27, 2007 at 01:43 AM | #

>> and the awful unbearable horror of the Dukes of Hazzard theme occasionally invades my head while driving a Warthog tearing across the countryside. Ha HA!  My son was singing that last night as he jumped a convienent ramp with the mongoose. Todd Posted by Todd Goff on Sep 27, 2007 at 03:18 AM | #

"Hasbro decided to discontinue the original Rise of the Valkyrie Heroscape set.” Just curious, but what’s your source for that info?  There were some rumors floating around to that effect, but I didn’t know it’s been 100% confirmed. Posted by Jon Theys on Sep 27, 2007 at 09:49 AM | #

You are right. TECHNICALLY it is a rumor. Given comments from Sandra @ House Mouse games, the fact that stores are stocking the Marrio expansion set in the same slots as the original master set, and that the amount of plastic in the original master set seems quite excessive for the $40 price. I’d put money on it. The big downside is that this may be the last Heroscape thing ever. The other expansion sets for this fall have been pushed back to 2008. The two new master sets (the Marvel one as well) have less stuff, but a fairly hefty pricetag, and the rounds of expansions are getting longer and longer delays between when the initial release date is announced and the actual release date. I suspect that the sales are slowing. Thus Hasbro has to make fewer, which increases the price per unit. Posted by Frank Branham on Sep 27, 2007 at 10:04 AM | #

Oh… slowing Heroscape sales. That makes me incredibly sad. (I was really looking to the giant fly-looking monster.) OTOH, that will free up more cash for my Battlelore & Memoir ‘44 addictions. Posted by Mark "Fluff Daddy" Jackson on Sep 27, 2007 at 10:33 AM | #

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