Page 24 - Spielbox_Special_2021_gesamt_EN

Current. Fall Preview 2021
Continued from page 11
Frosted Games
So far, the genre of pinball & write has been severely underrepresented on gaming shelves. Which is going to change in No- vember, because Frosted Games is bringing WizKids‘ Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade to Germany. Basically, all that‘s missing for a real pinball feeling is a little table in the corner of the bar with three older gents, sipping beer in a cloud of smoke.
At the beginning of your turn, you roll the dice, select one of the two six-siders and use it to direct the ball to a target. Since the ball rolls down gradually, it has to hit lower targets. Or it may follow an arrow if, for example, it was spat out by a bumper on the same level or shot up by one of the pinball fingers.
Depending on the targets for which you aimed, these are crossed off and become locked. Only in a later round (i.e., with a new ball) can they be unlocked again; sometimes only after you have played the entire group. If you are not happy with the dice result, you can metaphori- cally rattle the pinball machine. But this rude handling of the sensitive equipment bears one great danger, something that every pinball fan dreads: the tilt! Just like in real-life pinball, which designer Geoff Engelstein closely followed.
Blaze.
Also just like with the real machine, there are lots of bonuses to unlock, which pay out massively in advantages or vic- tory points. At the end of a game, when you‘ve lost your three balls, you need the points to enter the Hall of Fame.
One to four pinball maniacs can show what they‘ve got at the four tables named Carniball, Dragonslayer, Cyberhack or Dance Fever. So, plenty of variety. How- ever, starting a game is not as easy as in a bar, where you simply insert a coin. Here, you have to digest almost 15 pages of rules before the ball can dance on the table. (ab/cs)
Grimspire
Contrary to the expectations raised by the name, Leandro Pires’s Paper Dungeon is not a dungeon crawler, as the rooms are known to everyone in advance – and are
player’s personal strength in the respec- tive category. The task is mainly to in- crease one’s strength in a clever sequence for more defense. Personalized missions and abilities offer different strategies for the various groups of heroes. The highlight of the game is the triple fight against a particularly dangerous boss monster. Whoever inflicts the most dam- age will receive a special reward.
Paper Dungeon is a good example for the differentiation in our hobby. Un- initiated players without any knowledge of how monsters and heroes typically act are easily overwhelmed by the many details and cross-connections, while fre- quent players take the game as a pleas- ant excursion, executing their turns si- multaneously and easily finishing within the indicated half hour. (cc/cs)
Heidelbär Games
Heidelbär continues its card game series with the trick-taking game Blaze, featur- ing a special metallic design. So far, the well-reviewed Spicy was the best in the series, and now the publisher is having a go at a variant of the traditional Russian card game Durak. The goal is not to be the last to get rid of your cards, in which case you become the fool. ”The game thrives on the mutual humiliation of the players. Accordingly, there are a number of ways to do this,“ Wikipedia explains how things are done around the bar table in Russia. Fortunately, the Heidelbärs did not take this approach.
The game is played with sixty cards in three suits and over two rounds. Try and avoid going into the second one with too many hand cards, or it will be all the more difficult to get rid of them. The active player attacks his neighbor to the left, the defender, who must counter the, possibly multiple, cards played out, by following suit and with a higher value or a trump card. If they cannot or do not
Flippermania.
slightly different in every game. Instead, players use the roll & write prin- ciple to record on their sheet where they move their virtual alter ego as well as their skills and ac- complishments. Rolling the special six six-sided dice, three of which each player activates, restricts personal progress only very slightly, since move- ment, healing potions and producing magical items is always possible, no matter the result.
Contrary to the usu- al method of rolling the strength of a monster‘s defense, the outcome of the fight is known from the beginning: The mon- ster gets flattened every time, and there are dam- age points according to a
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Photos: Heidelbär Games, WizKids