GHOSTBSUTER The Board Game - Kickstarter

Cryptozoic opened the floodgates of funding on it’s kickstarter for Ghostbusters: the board game last week to flurry of backers.

There is not a whole lot of information concerning actual gameplay at the moment except that it will be a 1-4 player co-op with varying tile placement and varying difficulty depending on which enemy your team of paranormal scientists will be facing. The game seems to have a basic roleplaying stat based combat mechanic along with some roll and move aspects to get to different spots on the board being plagued by ghosts.

I was a little hesitant to back this project myself given the pretty high price tag, $80 for the base game and $125 for a “deluxe” set including exclusive minis and glow in the dark dice. Also Cryptozoic has a pretty spotty track record with board game duds featuring the Walking Dead, Hobbit, and Big Bang Theory properties. However their Adventure Time: Card Wars, Archer, and DC Deckbuilding properties have proved that this company is capable of making some decent games once in a while. Something I’m hoping to see with their entry into the Ghostbusters franchise, one of my most beloved fandoms.

The thing that put me over the edge and convinced me to jump in on this project was the amazing kickstarter exclusive stretch goals. The original game only offered up a few recognizable enemies but now that they are including a miniature of the ecto-1 instead of the proposed cardboard piece as well as some Zuul, Vinz, Gozer, and Jeanine Melnitz minis I am far more interested in the $80 base game. The $125 version only offers up a few different bosses, a sandman and a “Super Sized” 100mm Stay Puft Marshmallow man (Which I would just use my pop vinyl stay puft and design my own rules around anyways), an art print, glowing dice, and a few extra game tiles. Not quite worth the extra moolah in my opinion.

Another interesting thing that builds value is ALL OF THE STUFF that comes with this game. Despite the possibility for some pretty uninspiring mechanics this game has a lot of great miniatures and artwork.

If you are a big fan of the Ghostbusters I strongly suggest checking this kickstarted out HERE.

Floating Market - Kickstarter

Floating Market is another interesting game looking to get some dollars on kickstarter. The premise is based around the players acting as kids trying to get enough fruit from a Taiwanese floating market to make a yummy fruit salad. They do this by placing their miniatures at different boats and rolling a set of dice to see which boat produces the fruit they want. The first player to get all the fruit they need wins the game.

The worker placement mechanic combined with a settlers of catan style resource production mechanic seems like it will make a pretty fun lightweight strategy game. The artwork and components seem to be of good quality and the production company has a good history of putting out quality games. The $29 dollar price tag is a great deal on this game especially since it will undoubtedly be a $50 MSRP when it releases to the public.

Shield Wolf Miniatures

Shield Wolf Miniatures in Greece is producing some pretty nice 28mm fantasy miniatures for it’s “War is Coming” game. The funding on this project is a bit more unorthodox than others since instead of a “pledge x get product x” system Shield Wolf is offering different “Coin Purses” based on each pledge level. The Coins, in turn, can be redeemed for different miniatures in their line, adding a whole extra step to the kickstarter process.

The upside on this project is that the miniatures look extremely well detailed and the project is already pretty well funded. Also Shield Wolf is offering a 100% money back refund if you are not satisfied with their product, a sign that they are supremely confident in their work.

The downside is that very few of the actual miniatures are shown on the site. Most images seen are only 3d computer models which can vary greatly from the actual product. Also this is a young company without any mass production experience. These kinds of companies with grand plans and not much solid product to show off oftentimes can be skeptical investments and y’know the whole investing in anything from Greece can be seen as little risky too at this moment.

If you’re feeling like taking a chance on a young company with big dreams this seems like it will be a pretty decent product especially if it means you can get your hands on this mammoth.

Magic: The Gathering board game

Wizard of the Coast released the box art for their new Magic: the Gathering board game featuring miniatures of their most popular planeswalkers. The initial impressions that I’m getting from this is that we are going to see a lot of the same slap dash paint jobs, googly eyes, and droopy staffs that we see from their heroclix lines. Low budget miniatures aside it seems that this game will be borrowing heavily from the heroscape game system featuring highly customizable armies and terrain which isn’t a bad thing at all.