Hey all, I’m back and “better” than ever! What I have here is the first post in a three part series focusing on the upcoming Origins Game Fair 2016. Origins seems to be getter even bigger every year and with that there seem to be a lot more game releases happening at the convention. This year is no exception as there are a few games that are very exciting to me. This post will start my top 10 games that I’m interested in from the game fair. This particular post will take on my games 6-10 of the top 10, the next will be games 1-5, and then the final will be the top 5 games that I’m interested in that are demo only. First of all, if you want to read my Origins post from last year feel free to click on the link below.
Origins Game Fair 2015 Top 5 Games
Alright, with that out of the way I feel like it is time to move on the list itself. What follows will be the games 6-10 on my list and the next post should be in the next couple of days. Enjoy the read and let me know if you have any questions!
#10 – Junk Art (Pretzel Games)
Junk Art is a dexterity game designed by the duo of Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim and released by Pretzel Games. This game is actually a bit of an anomaly for this list and I’m not generally the biggest dexterity game fan. However, this one just really seemed to jump out at me with its theme and components. This game has a bit of a hand management feature as you are placing the cards and will then take those pieces off the pile and create your junk art. I really like the look of the amazing wooden components and how you stack them upon each other to create your works of art. Pretzel Games really has an amazing eye for the wooden components of this game as they just look incredible. This is one of the few dexterity games that you’ll ever find my top 10 lists and thus it is a rarity for the dexterity games when it comes to my personal tastes!
#9 – Beyond Baker Street (Z-Man Games)
Beyond Baker Street is a co-operative, deduction, and hand-management style game designed by Robin Lees and Steve Mackenzie and released by Z-Man Games. This game is a very interesting looking deduction and co-operative game where you have a hand of cards that are five clues. The twist in this game is the Hanabi twist. This basically means that you are able to see everyone else’s cards but are unable to see your own. This makes the game an interesting play as the players must really work together in order to solve the case before Sherlock Holmes does so himself. While this seems to be an ungraded Hanabi, I don’t care! I love Hanabi and thus am really looking forward to see what this particular game does with the mechanisms.
#8 – Bear Valley (Stronghold Games)
#9 – Beyond Baker Street (Z-Man Games)
Beyond Baker Street is a co-operative, deduction, and hand-management style game designed by Robin Lees and Steve Mackenzie and released by Z-Man Games. This game is a very interesting looking deduction and co-operative game where you have a hand of cards that are five clues. The twist in this game is the Hanabi twist. This basically means that you are able to see everyone else’s cards but are unable to see your own. This makes the game an interesting play as the players must really work together in order to solve the case before Sherlock Holmes does so himself. While this seems to be an ungraded Hanabi, I don’t care! I love Hanabi and thus am really looking forward to see what this particular game does with the mechanisms.
#8 – Bear Valley (Stronghold Games)
Bear Valley is a push-your-luck card game designed by Carl Chudyk and released by Stronghold Games. This is another game by the fantastic Carl Chudyk but it appears to be a very different beast than what I’m used to from him. Most of his games have a fairly complex ruleset to get used to (i.e. Mottainai, Glory to Rome, Innovation) but a ton of deep gameplay with cards that have multiple uses. This game is a somewhat quick and apparently simple (although maybe not the best rulebook) push-your-luck game. I actually really like the look of this game and think that it could be an interesting game to add into the collection. Here’s to hoping that this is another Carl Chudyk winner!
#7 – Animals on Board (Stronghold Games)
Animals on Board is a set collection and “I split, you choose” style game designed by Wolfgang Sentker and Ralf zur Linde and released by Stronghold Games. This is an interesting game with “I split, you choose” as its primary mechanism. The basic premise of this game is that you are taking animal cards and doing one of a couple actions during your turn. Either you will split up a pile of cards any way you choose or you’ll spend food and take one of the sections of cards. You want to have either one or more than two animals on your ark and then you’ll be able to score them. However, if you end up stuck with only two of a certain animal then you won’t received any points for them. It looks fun and simple and like a game that will go over really well with a large number of different people. I look forward to trying this one.
#7 – Animals on Board (Stronghold Games)
Animals on Board is a set collection and “I split, you choose” style game designed by Wolfgang Sentker and Ralf zur Linde and released by Stronghold Games. This is an interesting game with “I split, you choose” as its primary mechanism. The basic premise of this game is that you are taking animal cards and doing one of a couple actions during your turn. Either you will split up a pile of cards any way you choose or you’ll spend food and take one of the sections of cards. You want to have either one or more than two animals on your ark and then you’ll be able to score them. However, if you end up stuck with only two of a certain animal then you won’t received any points for them. It looks fun and simple and like a game that will go over really well with a large number of different people. I look forward to trying this one.
#6 – Simurgh (NSKN Games)
Simurgh is a worker placement and tile laying game that is designed by Pierluca Zizzi and released by NSKN Games. This is one of the many games this year that are coming out in English even though it was released overseas last year. This is a game that was on my Essen list for 2015 and I am still very much interested in it. I’m hoping that it will have a decent release distribution so that I’ll finally be able to get my grubby hands on a copy! Also, they’ve finished the Kickstarter and funded an expansion (Call of the Dragonlord) that will also come out this year. This is a gorgeous game and appears to be an interesting use of worker placement and tile laying as you have to build the placement spots as you go. I can’t wait to play this one!
There you have it my wonderful readers, games 6-10 of my top 10 game interests of this year’s Origins Game Fair. Stay tuned to the blog for the next couple of days as I’ll have up my games 1-5 that will see their release at Origins and then my games 1-5 of games that will be for demo only. I am hoping that one day I’ll get to go to Origins, but until that time I’ll be doing my research by watching the live feeds to see what I’m missing. Well, again, you all are awesome and thanks a ton for reading! I’ll be back soon with some more Origins fun. Until then, game on!
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