ISSUE 489 - FEBRUARY 2016 ISSN 0257-361X Volume 40 THE GAMES JOURNAL WWW.GAMESJOURNAL.AT SPECIAL ISSUE NUREMBERG: 659 NEW GAMES BY 332 DESIGNERS FROM 124 PUBLISHERS OUR REPORT u IMPRESSIONS FROM NUREMBERG 2016 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAGMAR DE CASSAN REPORTS ON THE 66th TOY FAIR NUREMBERG THE GAMES FROM NUREMBERG 2016 This circuit of the halls at the International Toy fair is an appraisal of the new releases! Report on the 67. International Toy Fair - into a fully-fledged scooter with just a few Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg by Dagmar de adjustments. It can be easily converted in Cassan, assisted by Ferdinand de Cassan, keeping with the child’s age and abilities, Maria Schranz and Walter Schranz helping to develop their motor skills. The The allocation of halls according to product jury was not only impressed by the design, groups remained unchanged; there were but also how simply the product could be quite a few first-time exhibitors in Halls adjusted for the various stages, its high- 10.0 and 10.1, some of them with opulent quality finish and its value for money. booths. Trends Gallery and NEC were again to be found in Hall 3A. Publishers are listed alphabetically, and as usual I have not mentioned standard games like Lotto, Memo, and Domino unless they merit a special note. This also goes for new versions of educational games or series of The winners of Toy Award 2016 were games, etc. presented again at the eve of the Toy Fair, Company brands and small publishers again chosen in four categories. represented by distributors are listed under the brand name. Parallel multi- publications are usually described only once. Curiosities, eye catchers and other interesting finds are mentioned in- PreSchool category (3 to 5 years): between. This year I have - with very few Junior Kit, Revell exceptions - only listed and described a The Revell Junior Kit is the perfect entry game once, even in case of simultaneous point into model construction. Young co-production by several companies. Other constructors can choose from five assembly non-game-novelties are mentioned when kits, including a police car, jeep and fire especially interesting! Information on engine. Thanks to the screw mechanism Kickstarter projects is only mentioned very (patent pending), the cars can be built using rarely; in general Kickstarter projects are not a screwdriver, no force required. And best of listed. Baby&Infant category (0 to 2 years): all, the models are so robust that they can Exhibitors without novelties are not Globber 5 in 1, GLOBBER TEMPLAR even withstand high-speed chases in the mentioned. The Globber 5 in 1 helps the very young child’s room. find their feet and subsequently transforms 2 u ISSUE 489 / FEBRUARY 2016 www.gamesjournal.at IMPRESSIONS FROM NUREMBERG 2016 / 40 YEARS FOR WIN t OUR REPORT the topic of opera productions over one season. You play within a time frame or for SchoolKids category (6 to 10 years): achieving a given number of victory points. Bunch O Balloons, ZURU If Bunch O Balloons are nearby, you had better find cover fast if you do not want to get wet! It takes less than 60 seconds to Abacusspiele fill and seal 100 water balloons in one go, ready for throwing. The process is simple - just attach the product to the tap or garden Family games: hose, “load” with water, shake briefly and Game of Trains – Sorting game with a rail- all of the water balloons tie at once. Let the way topic by Alexey Konnov, Alexey Paltsev water fight commence! 40 Years forWIN Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief This issue of WIN is unique! A report on all games in Nuremberg that were on show there. The internet, of course, did know nearly everything before the Fair started, being filled with lots of lists and de- scriptions. But what was really there is noted only here. Wir are also completely neutral in the selec- tion of companies, we simple list what we find. And sometimes there are a few golden eggs that and Anatoliy Shklyarov for 2-4 players, ages only we did find. 8+: Each player operates his railway line, at Are those numbers really benchmarks for our the starts the cards are sorted in descend- games, and if so, what do they tell us? ing order and must be resorted into an as- Games: Teenager&Family category cending order in the course of the game. 622 (2013) - 694 (2014) - 603 (2015) - 659 (2016) (11 years and older): First published in 2015 by Brain Games. Designers: KosmoBits, KOSMOS Verlag Micro Robots – Placement game by An- 269 (2013) - 344 (2014) - 315 (2015) - 332 (2016) Thanks to KosmoBits, teenagers can learn dreas Kuhnekath for 2 or more players play- Publishers: to program through play. With a control- 114 (2013) - 125 (2014) - 102 (2015) - 124 (2016) ler board and four sensor characters, they The vintage of 2014 was evidently a special one play through the app, level by level, solv- and 2016 is close to getting near. If we can expect ing programming puzzles. All with the aim quiet times as can be supposed from the turn-over of soon writing their own first programs for numbers announced by the industry will surely the four characters so that they can be used depend on the general economic development outside of the game. Countless interesting in Europe. Hopefully the first attempts at saving projects await here – from a light-sensitive will not be made in games. drawer alarm system to an LED disco which One fact remains – more designers add more flavor responds to movement. to the community, the concentration of publishers makes room for many new small publishers, see ers, ages 8+: Based on Ricochet Robot all Kickstarter. The market is changing rapidly, surely players search simultaneously fort he best to the advantage of gamers, as the quality increa- path fort he robot. The board shows 38 dice ses and the new games raise our expectation. symbols in six colors, all six values for all col- Our next stop will be Festival International des ors. You roll a color and a number dice for Jeux, in Cannes, only a few more days until we can the start and finish of the robot path. Each browse in the halls. 40 GB case reached with an orthogonal step must I would be pleased if you encounter many games share either color or number with the previ- that interest you when you read this issue, and that Progetti Ludico ous case. the games will find their way onto your games ta- Word Up – Word game by Nikolay Pegasov ble. Sipario! – Development game with cards for 2-10 players, ages 7+: You draw a card If you like our WIN: The German edition, too, is cur- by Simone Tansini for 2-5 players, ages 10+: for a letter and for a category and name a rently available for free download, see In NEC the designer showed his game on word – for instant the shortest word for a http://www.spielejournal.at www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 489 / FEBRUARY 2016 t 3 OUR REPORT u IMPRESSIONS FROM NUREMBERG 2016 Zooloretto Junior – Placement game by Abado – Card game with a SciFi topic by Michael Schacht for 2-5 players, ages 7+: Yannis Lidy and Dorian Berthelot for 2-6 players, ages 7+: To save the creations on planet Orania, the scientists need to suc- cessfully transplant Organs and body parts, players must avoid rejection of transplants. Canailles à la maison! – Placement game for 1-4 players, ages 5+: Placers need to cor- drink with “R”. Published 2015 as “Think it up!“ from Hobby World. Card games: Fliegen klatschen – Card game by Christian New edition of Zooloretto Mini, with same small changes. Expansions: Cacao Chocolatl – Expansion for Cacao by Phil Walker-Harding for 2-4 players, ages 8+: rectly arrange tiles in sequence – danger, ac- cident and accident prevention. Topic of the game are accidents at home. Produits de la ferme – Lotto for 3-6 play- ers, ages 3+: The game features sources of Heuser for 2-8 players, ages 6+: You turn up cards until five different flies are on display or a fly swapper appears – in this case you swap at color for which there is a majority of cards. New edition, first edition 2004. Four modules, which can be used alone, Knatsch – Dice and card game by Michael together or in each combination: Chocolate Schacht for 2-6 players, ages 8+: You use – Huts – Irrigation – Cards dice to build a castle or to win a tournament; Zooloretto Würfelspiel Affenstall – Ex- pansion for Zooloretto Dice game by Mi- chael Schacht: A new score sheet with new agricultural products and their production processes, for instance milk from cow to consumer. Advance Games A company associated with Foxmind, many with cards you can influence dice. New of the games are well-known and were pub- edition, first edition 2000. lished by various companies, for instance Games for children: challenges. Catalogue edition #17, back Kajunga – Adventure game by Yair Einav Leo muss zum Friseur – Card game by Leo side of catalogue Nürnberg 2016. for 3-5 players, ages 8+: You want to be the Colovini for 2-5 players, ages 6+: The king Abacusspiele is distributer for dvGiochi * Rio Grande Games Abeilles Educational Games first player to reach the treasure at the end of the animals needs a haircut urgently, of the track. but the other animals slow him down with chatting; players help Leo to reach the hair- dresser before the shop closes. 4 u ISSUE 489 / FEBRUARY 2016 www.gamesjournal.at IMPRESSIONS FROM NUREMBERG 2016 t OUR REPORT alea Broom Service Das Kartenspiel: Card game by Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister for Schnapp den Sack – Reaction game by spot you empty your wheelbarrow and add Wolfgang Kramer for 2-5 players, ages 8+: You the blocks to your hill.