|
|
|
|
SimplyFun Releases Three New Games
- Kayak Chaos – This game for 2-4 players is a race down a river with a path of river tiles that shifts the current to and fro. Players can play up to three cards on a turn, moving their canoe down the river or out of the path of rocks or shifting an entire section of the river (!) to clear your way. More powerful cards let you flip a river tile, trade two tiles, or stop someone from messing with your ideal river layout. Kayak Chaos, which is available now, is for ages 8 and up with a playing time of 30 minutes and a $28 price tag.
- Adventures of Riley: Penguin Rescue – A roll-and-move game for 2-6 players ages 4 and up with the colored faces on dice driving movement around a board to collect your penguin pals. This game, which retails for $32 and is based on a children’s book, is available now.
- Turtlemania – The name of this game is somewhat baffling as no turtles appear to be involved in any aspect of play. Players stack 136 mah-jongg-style tiles, then players simultaneously race to pull matching pairs of tiles from along the outer free edges as quickly as possible. The turtle-free Turtlemania will be available in August and retail for $49. The playing time is listed as 10 minutes, and the number of players is “as many as you want,” according to the SimplyFun website.
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 24, 2008 at 08:00 AM in News, Boardgame News / 569
Comments:
You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!|
But, but, there are green, swirly turtle tiles. They’re the only things resembling animate objects. :^) Posted by Nathan Morse on Jul 24, 2008 at 06:25 AM | #
|
|
By swirly turtles, I mean turtles in the style of Schildkroetenrennen, which - interestingly enough - Simply Fun republished as Ribbit, with frogs instead of turtles. I guess the displaced, unemployed turtles got encased in carbonite and put into Jabba the Hut’s favorite spectator game....
Posted by Nathan Morse on Jul 24, 2008 at 06:29 AM | #
|
|
The last time I played Mah-Jongg there were several configurations of the tiles available; each of which had an animal name. The traditional configuration, which looks much like a pyramid, is known as Turtle; just as the shape that this game seems to create. Posted by Dave Kudzma on Jul 24, 2008 at 08:36 AM | #
|
|
I also just found out the three people involved in making KayakChaos are the same responsible for Bootleggers, and the eventual Sid Meier’s Pirates!: The Boardgame. Posted by Dave Kudzma on Jul 24, 2008 at 08:41 AM | #
|
|
Thanks for the note, Dave – my Mah-Jonng knowledge has increased an infinite amount with that single piece of knowledge. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 24, 2008 at 12:52 PM | #
|
|
LOL. I hadn’t played Mah-Jonng in a VERY long time. I recently installed Windows Vista, and when you open the “Media Center” you can open the usual games that you have seen in the past (Mah-Jonng, Solitaire, Hearts); albeit higher octane versions, graphically. Each game had a pleathora more options, and Mah-Jonng had almost 10 configurations; none of which seems to make much of a difference other than from a visual stand point. Posted by Dave Kudzma on Jul 24, 2008 at 02:29 PM | #
|
|
Eric, what Dave’s talking about is the solitaire tile-matching game that uses Mah-Jong tiles. Mah-Jong is actually a somewhat Rummy-like game, in which each of the precisely four players attempts to form a particular configuration of hand in order to go out. There are many, quite varied styles of play and scoring. http://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq01.htm The first solitaire tile-matching game of which I knew that used the tiles was called Shanghai. So, now you have two paths of knowledge regarding the name “Mah-Jong” (and its many spelling variations, as well). Enjoy your divergent realities! Posted by Nathan Morse on Jul 24, 2008 at 07:27 PM | #
|
|
A bit of a departure from gangsters and speakeasies I suppose. :) Don Posted by Don Beyer on Jul 25, 2008 at 08:49 AM | #
|
|
Are there listed designers for the other two games? Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Jul 25, 2008 at 10:18 AM | #
|
|
Jonathan, I asked Matt Molen at SimplyFun for details. The designers are:
• Turtlemania – Cynthia Pickens
Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jul 25, 2008 at 04:33 PM | #
|
|
Need to also recognize Mike Morgenstein on Kayak Chaos. I just updated the BGG entry too. Mike has been a big part of our games and has officially joined SDR Games. Don Posted by Don Beyer on Jul 26, 2008 at 11:38 AM | #
|
|
I don’t really see what’s the difference between turtlemania and the good old mahjong version that you play on the computer. Only the design and that you can take the tiles simultaneously? Posted by Laszlo Molnar on Jul 27, 2008 at 02:51 AM | #
|
Next entry: Baker's Dozen – Details on the "New" Game
Previous entry: Board 2 Pieces: July 24, 2008
