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Daily iPad App: Game Table lets you play checkers and chess against a friend
Game Table takes a different approach to iPad-based board games. Rather than focus on a strong computer opponent or fancy graphics, Game Table lets you get back to the basics by offering only a game board. There is no computer opponent to beat and no cumbersome rules to follow. It's just a basic game board with the appropriate game pieces. Most of the fun is supplied by you and your friends. The fact that Game Table is only a game board is one of its strengths. You can setup the game and play by the standard rules or get creative with the pieces and play by you own set of rules. It's this flexibility that earned Game Table a place on my iPad. My biggest critique of the app has to do with the size of the tablet. Most traditional game boards are large and require a table to play. The iPad is comparatively small, which makes it difficult for two people to play at the same time. You either have to hand the iPad back and forth or find a very narrow table that'll let both of you touch the iPad while facing each other. Game Table is no slouch when it comes to the type of games it offers. The app includes Checkers, Chess, Backgammon, Reversi, Go and card games like Poker. Game Table is available for 99-cents in the iOS App Store. There's also a free version, so you can try, before you buy.
World of Warcraft Monopoly now available at the Blizzard Store
The World of Warcraft Monopoly Collector's Edition is now available at the Blizzard Store for $39.95. This Monopoly set comes with tokens chosen by fans, bills featuring your favorite World of Warcraft heroes, and Azerothian real estate. For example, in the places of Boardwalk and Park Place are Orgrimmar and Stormwind, respectively. The official World of Warcraft blog goes into more detail. If you'd like to see the full contents of the board game before you make your purchase, check out Joystiq's unboxing image gallery. While WoW Monopoly is a new addition to the Blizzard store, it has been available at retailers since May 18, 2012. Note that your Battle.net Balance (where Diablo III Real-Money Auction House proceeds go) cannot be used to purchase anything at the Blizzard Store at this time. But if you've been waiting to buy the World of Warcraft Monopoly Collector's Edition direct from Blizzard, now is your chance.
DICE+ wants to team with screens and usher in an era of powered board games (hands-on)
We learned about DICE+, the digital chance cube, just before E3, and today we finally got to give it a few rolls and find out a bit more about DICE+ from the folks who made it. It's an inch-sized cube with a soft-touch rubbery finish that's packed with a Bluetooth radio and a rechargeable battery. For now, it juiced up via microUSB, but an induction charging version is also in the works. Its power cell grants up to 20 hours of continuous rolling, or a little over a week for non-gambling degenerates. Speaking of, the cube's maker, GIC, said a major point of emphasis in the cube's design was getting the balance of the thing just right to ensure the randomness of DICE + results -- and it's even spoken with casino companies about their tolerance requirements in that area. While DICE + may find its way onto craps tables eventually, for now, its maker's focused on what it calls "powered board games."%Gallery-157624% You see, while we're all familiar with board game mechanics -- roll a die/spin a wheel and move your game piece accordingly -- they don't translate well to the digital realm. People don't trust a computer to give truly random results, and tapping a screen to "roll" dice gets boring quickly. That's the beauty of DICE+, players get all the advantages of a digital board game, like animations and greater interactivity, without the aforementioned downside because it engages them in a satisfying, familiar fashion. Join us after the break for our impressions, and a bit more info about this throwback gadget.
DICE+ digital chance cubes rolling out at E3
As far as random number generators go, the traditional die is about as low tech as it gets. Or at least, it was. Gaming startup GIC has taken it upon itself to update the old chance cube by outfitting it with LED backlights, anti-cheat roll detection and Bluetooth connectivity. DICE+, as the shakers of tomorrow are called, will sell for between $30 and $40 when they launch later this year. Although the digital dice promise compatibility with iOS, Android, Symbian, Linux and Windows, GIC has yet to announce what platforms will be available at launch. We'll have to wait for E3 for the details, but the possibilities are intriguing -- hit the break to see the cubes in action. In the meantime, we'll be dreaming of Dungeons, Dragons, a digital D20 and Microsoft Surface.
Blizzard readying WoW Monopoly boardgame
If you've ever wanted to own the Twilight Highlands or the Swamp of Sorrows, Blizzard's new foray in boardgaming is for you. The gaming giant is partnering with Hasbro and Parker Brothers to bring you a World of Warcraft-style Monopoly title. The unholy hybrid will be available this May for $39.95. Blizzard is also allowing fans to vote on game pieces via its Facebook page, and the choices include the doomhammer, crafting anvil, hearthstone, and spellbook. Blizzard is also trying its hand at a RISK tie-in with RISK: StarCraft, which is slated to debut later this summer.
zAPPed board games hands-on
Alright, zAPPed is no GameChanger but, where Hasbro's line of iOS-integrated board games falls short in the pun department, it shines in cleverness. The Game of Life launched just a couple of days ago with a special edition designed to be used with an iPad app, while other classics Battleship and Monopoly are scheduled to follow later in the year. All make your iDevice an integral part of the gaming experience and leverage an ingeniously simple solution to boosting the interactivity. Underneath the game pieces are uniquely arranged capacitive plastic pads that allow the apps to identify what you're holding. Different boats in Battleship have slightly different arrangements of pads underneath that allow the app to tell whether your carrier or destroyer has been sunk.Monopoly uses the same trick to differentiate player debit cards. When it comes time to make a transaction, you swipe the card across the screen of your iPhone and funds are automatically added or subtracted from your account. Monopoly also adds a few more play options, including a mini game for escaping jail. The Game of Life, of course, lets you spin a virtual wheel, but also customize virtual pegs -- adding hair and accessories where once you were stuck with plain pink or blue ones. Game of Life zAPPed Edition is out now for $25, while Monopoly will land in June, followed by Battleship in September. Check out the gallery below and the PR after the break. %Gallery-147154%Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Hasbro and Zynga make a deal, toys and games incoming
Hasbro has struck a deal with Zynga to produce toys and games based on the social developer's catalogue of rich, nuanced IPs, which is great news if you've ever found yourself wishing you could somehow continue to give Zynga all of your money, even when you're away from your computer and smartphone.Now, Hasbro's definition of "games" is more board-oriented than Zynga's, and while the licensing arrangement allows for "co-branded merchandise," it doesn't allow Zynga to make games based on Hasbro brands. The first products will hit store shelves sometime this fall, and while no specifics toys or board games have been announced we've got a feeling that My Little Ponyville and Ouija With Friends aren't that unlikely.
Unofficial Dominion on iOS now, official version later
I'm a big fan of Ascension, the iOS app that replicates the real-life deck-building card game of the same name. But when it comes to more self-contained deck-building card games where you build a deck as you play, as opposed to collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering, there's really one big name out there, and it's Donald X. Vaccarino's game Dominion. It's a great game that like Magic: The Gathering has been begging for a solid iPad/iOS port ever since Apple's platform first took off. That hope is coming true in more ways than one. There's already a version of Dominion available on iOS for US$1.99, but apparently it's unofficial yet (temporarily) approved. It may be strange to see a paid app that's unofficial and actually uses the art and IP of the game, but apparently Rio Grande is cool with that, because it has an official version coming out as soon as "a few weeks" from now. It's granted temporary licenses to developers to release their own versions of the game as long as those versions are down and gone by the time the official release arrives. Personally I'll probably wait for the official version, especially since it sounds like the wait isn't that long. But it's good to hear that one of the best card games around is coming in virtual form to Apple's tablet. As for Magic: The Gathering? Wizards of the Coast, the ball's in your court. Wizards has said it's releasing a reference app for Magic on iOS, but there are still no plans for an official version of the game itself. Meanwhile, Kard Combat is it.
GameChanger board uses your iPad for board games
We stopped by Identity Games' booth here at CES in Las Vegas to see its GameChanger game board (which you can basically see above, albeit in a very cheery/creepy PR picture setting). Despite the less-than-intriguing marketing, the GameChanger is a really great idea. It's a 1'x3' board with an iPad dock in the very middle. With the help of a free app and some plastic cutouts, you can play physical board games, using your iPad for various digital functions. In one of the games, licensed from the Magic School Bus brand, each player takes turns "spinning" a digital wheel on the iPad by swiping with a finger. After spinning, each player needs to move their piece around the board. The iPad tells that player where his/her piece should land. When you reach certain spots on the board, the iPad will give players puzzles to solve or trivia questions to answer to move forward. There will be eight games total on the free app in April, with 12 available by the end of August. In addition to the board games that use plastic overlays, there are also "Action Games" that just use the base board, and allow players to shoot back and forth or get involved in more real-time competition. The whole contraption, though a little flimsy (the plastic covers just basically sit on the gameboard, and the whole thing is colored with a weird gray look), works very well. The board always knows where it's being interacted with, and the iPad does a great job of keeping games rolling along and mixing physical pieces with digital interactions. I don't think this is the best example we'll ever see of real life and digital interaction like this (in other words, it doesn't change the proverbial game quite so much), but it's one of the first, and it's done very well. GameChanger is available now for US$79.99. One more thing. Identity Games is also working on an iPhone version of the GameChanger, and while it's not anywhere near done just yet, they did kindly show us an artist's rendering of the prototype, which you can see below. As shown, it's probably designed for four players, and includes options for answering trivia questions with A, B, or C, as well as moving in four different directions. Looks very interesting indeed. The iPhone version is supposed to be out and available sometime around this August, so we'll look for it then.
MMO Family: Games of chance vs. MMOs
From childhood on, I've always been a gamer. But I grew up when computers were just emerging as something that didn't just belong in the bowels of the Defense Department. My games were primarily of the board game variety, with a smattering of classic card games, and my exposure to video games didn't begin until later on. Today, I see kids being raised on video games, and I see it as a good thing. "But board games are the good games," you might protest, and while they're still relevant today and I'm glad to see the recent revival in family board game night, a good portion of board games do not compare to what video games offer to children. This edition of MMO Family explains why!
Gamechanger iPad accessory combines docking with board games, we go hands-on (video)
Well, is it really a game changer? Depends how you use the term. But this GameChanger remains a clever way of combining the often mundane world of dock charging with a low-fi board game. The device is already out and those children of yours would normally be pestering for the charming sum of $80. However, there's a holiday discount to $50 that'll extend through the rest of January, with the promise of refreshed content delivered through the iPad app. Several games now use the vanilla touchmat underneath the cardboard game outlays and they're generally a bit more fast-paced than the board game offerings. The makers also intend to extend the gaming offering while they roll out the device in more languages and territories. Our hands-on video is en route, until then, feel free to peruse the gallery below. Zach Honig contributed to this report.
CPU Wars and c-Jump: the nerdiest card and board games ever
Board games and card games are kind of dorky to begin with. And there are plenty of titles out there that hold a special place in the heart of the nerd (just ask one about Settlers of Catan). But, there is a line, a line which even the nerdiest amongst us might not care to cross. For example, c-Jump -- a board game that teaches the basics of programming. Some of the spaces you'll land on in the course of your journey down the mountain include "goto jump;" and "switch (x) {". Then there's CPU Wars, for the three people out there that think Magic: The Gathering is too mainstream. In this card battle game you pit CPUs from throughout history against each other and attempt to collect all your adversary's processors. You can order c-Jump through ThinkGeek for $25 and pledge cash to CPU Wars over at Kickstarter. You'll find a video of the card game after the break.
GameChanger is a game-changing, iPad game board that lets you change games
All joking aside, GameChanger is actually pretty neat. It's a combination iPad dock and playing board that isn't limited to a single game. The Apple slate becomes an integral part of play, where you spin a virtual wheel to determine how many spots to move while the app tracks your progress. The board itself comes with different skins (two at the moment: The Magic School Bus and Animal Mania) that have their own particular set of animations, questions and tasks when you select the title from the free GameChanger app. There's no dice or cards to lose, but you might be wishing for bits of plastic and cardboard when a sore loser tosses your tablet across the room. GameChanger is available now for $80 and a few more details can be spied in the PR after the break.
Star Wars Operation lets you get to the bottom of the R2-D2 booster rocket debate
Let's face it kids, you weren't going to be a doctor. Time to give up on that dream. But what about the equally exciting and significantly less bloody world of droid repair? We all know that robots will soon have a major presence in our society, piloting our spaceships and mingling with our Wokiees (good luck getting into our cantinas, though), so it's probably best to get a jump on these job skills at an early age. With future job markets in mind (ones oddly similar to those experienced a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away), Hasbro is launching a new edition of the popular board game Operation, swapping out the red-nosed Cavity Sam for everyone's favorite rolling trashcan, R2-D2. The game can be pre-ordered now for $27, and it'll start shipping in September, so if you need an early-autumn kid birthday gift for under $30, this may be just the droid you're looking for.
App Review: Tikal offers jungle brilliance for 10 action points a turn
Every six months or so, Codito/Sage Board Games releases another excellent Euro-style board game for iOS. The first example was the excellent Medici, which was followed by Ra. Coming up next is Puerto Rico. Last week they brought us Tikal, a truly wonderful game that won the 1999 Spiel des Jahres award and still stands up to any of the releases coming out today (last year, it even got a sequel, which is just fascinating). While the game is amazing, the Tikal app feels like a 0.9 version, but the crashes and quirks should be worked out quickly if Sage's history tells us anything. Tikal the board game is about exploring the jungle around Tikal, the archaeological site, for ancient Mayan temples and treasures. It may be troubling if you think about it in terms of colonizer and indigenous peoples, but sometimes you need to just enjoy brilliant gameplay when you find it. Read on to see how it all works. %Gallery-122202%
Monopoly Live adds a nagging, money counting computer to the Hasbro classic
Once again, technology might have just sucked the fun out of a beloved (or at least tolerated) past-time. Hasbro's refresh of Monopoly -- Monopoly Live -- includes a ten-inch tower that sits in the center of the board, keeping an eye on it via IR technology. This bad boy rolls the dice, counts the money, and makes sure you don't nudge your thimble someplace it shouldn't be. Of course, the game's basics remain intact: domination of your friends and loved ones with skill and greed -- although we fail to see how kids are to properly learn about capitalism when they no longer have the ability to cheat. Coming soon for $50.
Macworld Expo 2011: Trouble Brothers' Sword of Fargoal 2 and other titles
Jeff McCord and Steve Shippert head up a Seattle-based company called Trouble Brothers, and while I visited their booth at Macworld to talk about iOS games, the two have quite a gaming history. They met while playing trivia games in Seattle, and they have worked on real-life board games in the past. They've also done some educational game titles and even a city-wide treasure hunt in their hometown. So these guys know gaming, and the games they've produced for iOS make that very clear. First up, I got to see Sword of Fargoal 2. Sword of Fargoal is one of the most popular RPG titles on the App Store -- it's a retro title that is based on an old roguelike game that's actually run by another company -- Fargoal, LLC -- of which McCord is a part. With his partners Elias Pshernig and Lead Designer Paul Pridham, McCord was showing the game at the same booth, even though it's not technically a Trouble Brothers title. Sword of Fargoal 2 keeps that basic idea, but updates the aesthetic quite a bit. In addition to new music and new dungeon types, there will also be new classes to play via in-app purchase (Thief, Magic user, Ranger and Fighter) as well as male and female versions of each. I also got to see some new animated openings for the game, and they look terrific.
App Review: Let's Catch The Lion! is cute, strategic fun
The new Let's Catch The Lion! board game app looks cute as all get out, and to be fair, it is designed as a kids' game. But this Shogi (Japanese Chess) variant is a worthwhile download from the App Store even for board gamers who don't have a child in the house. It's a solid two-player strategy game and should interest anyone who likes abstracts. Doubutsu Shogi (which is Japanese for Animal Chess) was designed by the professional Shogi player Maiko Fujita, who wanted to get more girls interested in playing the original game. She found a great balance between strategy and fun in a small package, and the translation to iDevices lost absolutely nothing. How could it, given the tabletop game's incredible simplicity? Read on to get the full story. %Gallery-108436%
App Review: Reiner Knizia's Ra
Reiner Knizia's classic Egyptian-themed auction and tile-collecting game Ra is not an easy one to figure out. When playing around a table, you need to collect the right tiles, look over to see what other people are collecting, keep an eye on the status of the sun/bid tiles and, in general, process a lot of changing information. If you enjoy this gameplay but don't like setting up the game or dealing with scorekeeping, the new universal Ra app is sure to please, especially at US$4.99 (it debuted at $6.99, but quickly came down). Ra for iOS was designed by Sage Board Games, the same people who brought us the excellent Medici and have a lot of wonderful board games in their "convert to app" sights. Because it's such a popular game in the Eurogame community, a lot of people have been waiting for Ra, and it kind of feels like this is an important app for the developers. If it's a success, then we expect more board game apps to come. If not, then what happens? We have no inside information on the company's finances or strategic plan, but it's probably not cheap to produce an app like this, and no one wants to lose money -- even if they're making things they love. Does Ra make the grade? We think so, but read on to see what its like to get a bit of desert auction sand in your iPad or iPhone. %Gallery-107267%
Zombies!!! for XBLA shambling in Spring 2011
The last we'd heard of Zombies!!! for Xbox 360, an Xbox Live Arcade adaptation of the killer board game, it was seeking a new developer after the prior one lost its head. Turns out the Xbox Live Arcade version is still alive and will be handled by Babaroga, the same developer that just brought the game to Windows Phone 7.According to Twilight Creations, creators of the tile-based strategy board game, the XBLA version should be out sometime in the first quarter of 2011. Three years after it was first announced, it would seem the game is finally headed for a console release. Considering it's a game about classic zombies, we understand that development can shuffle along slowly.[Thanks, Andrew O.]
