Steve Jackson Games was kind enough to let me stand at their booth while their community manager, Hunter Shelburne, gave me the deets on all the new and exciting things that are coming up for SJG. With Munchkin celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, there is obviously a bit of news happening around that. Munchkin may be Steve Jackson Games’ bread and butter (part of Mr. Jackson’s well balanced breakfast) but it’s not the only thing going on over at SJG. They’ve got quite a few awesome games I was able to preview, let’s check them all out!
Munchkin Apocalypse
It’s the end of the world as we know it! Munchkin Apocalypse brings Armageddon to your tabletop, sans Liv Tyler and Batffleck before the Bat. It’s a standalone game as well but it comes with a board to help track the seven seals of the apocalypse. The seals help create an “imminent threat” mechanic that should help foster some more teamwork against whoever is going for the win through the seals. When the seventh seal is unveiled the game ends and whoever has the combat strength (levels not included) wins. In addition to the added seal mechanic and sweet round board, there are several more “bad things” like alien invasions, zombie takeovers, monsters, and more to combat against.
Additionally, Steve Jackson Games has released several guest artist editions throughout the year in celebration of Munchkin being almost old enough to drive. Some of them include:
- Munchkin – illustrated by Ian McGinty
- Star Munchkin – illustrated by Len Peralta
- Munchkin Fu – illustrated by John Kovalic
- Munchkin Cthulhu – illustrated by Katie Cook
- Super Munchkin – illustrated by Art Baltazar
- Munchkin Oz – illustrated by Katie Cook
Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game
If you are familiar at all with Steve Jackson Games Zombie Dice, then as far as you are concerned you 
can call this one Batman Dice. But it doesn’t quite have the same ring (also there’s probably silly copyright issues and whatnot). However, the concept is the same and it’s a fun and exciting way to press your luck and see if you can evade THE BATMAN! (cue theme music). The game has a release date of November of 2016 but the demo copy at Gen Con definitely looked great. The dice are snazzy and the fact that SGJ teamed up with Cryptozoic Entertainment for this title means that this is guaranteed to be a good time.
Simon’s Cat Card Game
Who doesn’t love cat card games? No one. That’s right. So let’s put together one of our favorite game creators and one of our favorite subjects and see what happens. Simon’s Cat is what happens. A lighthearted 3-6 player card game, you play a cat trying to avoid Simon’s wrath. The gameplay is similar to Uno. Everyone gets equal amounts of cards and you can only play the same number or same color on the last card. The trick is that not all colors and numbers are created equal! Once a player cannot play another card, that pile is called “a mess,” which is bad. When you make (or get, in this case) a mess, you draw the ire of Simon! Play continues until all the cards have been played. Whoever ends up with the least amount of Simon cards gets fed first and wins! The player with the most messes, most Simon cards, gets fed last and loses because we’re hungry meow! This is a fantastic quick and easy card game that is fun for just about any age group. It was a must buy for me at Gen Con.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Board Game
This board game is excellent. I mean, it’s really great. I’m not trying to say it’s the greatest board game, but it’s very excellent. It’s probably the most excellent board game. This was Hunter’s pick for most favoritist, and I can’t disagree. At first one might think it’s a cheesy game that they threw a gimmicky title on and voila! However that’s totally not the case. According to my sooper seekrit insider info (Most Excellent Community Manager Hunter), this game idea started off as a programming game. As the idea developed someone had a lightbulb and said “hey, wouldn’t this game be even more excellent if we added some Bill & Ted?” And thus, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Board Game was created.
Intrigued? You and up to three of your friends play as different versions of Bill. S. Preston Esq and Theodore Logan and travel throughout the circuits of history, collecting famous dudes for your history report so you don’t fail. Unfortunately, every time you pick up a famous dude your time traveling phone booth breaks in a most un-excellent way and throws you off your path. The player with the lowest card number goes first unless you have 69! “69 dudes!” gets shouted and that person gets to go first. The five cards in each players hand will make up the two moves the time machine gets to go. All the while, two evil dudes are totally pursuing you on your journey. If an evil dude moves through your space you have to drop your most recently acquired famous dude on that spot. The evil dudes move based on the cards you played to move and move every time you play a card. In order to pick the famous dudes back up, you’ll have to leave the square and try to maneuver your way back to that square, which might be impossible given the added moves your breaking time machine requires plus whatever moves you can muster from your hand. This universe is definitely stocked with a lot of dudes, dude! The game adds complexity while keeping everything totally bodacious. When the deck runs out of cards, party time is up and your history report is due. The Bill or Ted with the most famous dudes wins. It’s a totally excellent game for totally excellent people. The game shipped August 1st and should drop Soon™.
A huge thanks and shout out to Hunter Shelburne and all of the excellent dudes at Steve Jackson Games for the opportunity to preview their awesome games, get some sweet swag, and hang out at Gen Con 2016. Check out the Steve Jackson Games website to get the skinny on all of their upcoming material from Munchkin to GURPS and everything in between.
