Kickstarter Your Week! A New Perspective at Ninja Camp
Ninja Camp
Ah this takes me back! Those long summer days, your parent’s dropping you off at Ninja Camp. The fights to get a top bunk (the better to perform drop kicks off) and hoping to survive the assassination games… wait? This is just me? Oh! Well now you too can get a taste of Ninja Camp with Action Phase Games’ new card game. There seems to be more cute animals and less blood than I remember though…
Cards are not only held in hand, they also form the play surface that you will be moving your ninja meeple… neeple… nipple…? over. A large grid of cards that offer an action when played that moves your neeple, and a value for end game scoring. Play one of the cards in your hand, move your nipple, I mean… let’s just stick with calling them ninjas… Move your ninja and pick up the card it started on. So choosing your move is not only a spatial puzzle of positioning, it’s also about landing on the high point value cards, but it’s also about getting the good, useful actions so that you’re in a better position next turn than your opponents!
This game is a great use of cards! I can see lots of tough decisions, a steady increase in tension as the board disappears below your feet, and lots of scope for cleverly boxing your opponents in, particularly if your able to pay attention to what cards they pick up. It allows you to plot a path multiple turns ahead, yet have to rapidly adapt as your opponents casually wreck your schemes! A great looking game.
Oh! The publishers went for ninjeeples. Yeah, that’s much more sensible.
Camp closes August 18th.
Perspective
If there’s one lesson we all learn in life, it’s being able to draw objects in 3 dimensions. No! Wait, wrong perspective. It’s the importance of seeing other peoples’ perspective! Never has this been truer than in the game, Perspective, in which the only person who doesn’t know how close you are to winning is you! While everyone is trying to collect a particular combination of coloured cards, the cards are double sided and it is the backs that you need to have right to win. Except, of course, you’re not allowed to peak!
Instead you can use the actions printed on the side facing you to gain information about your hand, by flipping a card or asking to be told, or to change the cards you hold with a deck or with other players. Of course, all these abilities can also be used against your opponents, to take them away from their objective or to confuse them about what they have! At any point, a player can lay down their hand to claim victory… but if they are wrong they are immediately eliminated! Ouch!
This is a memory game, and a deduction game. It’s a quick fire puzzle that will cram in a lot of game into just 27 cards. That brutal punishment for being wrong means a player may have won… and not know for certain! While you can see half of everything your opponent’s hold, by paying attention to the actions they perform, you can deduce what colours they are looking at too. The limit of 3 cards per hand is great, ensuring that you will never be able to perform all the actions, forcing you to make the best of a challenging situation. While the game is effectively abstract, it still has lovely art and for only $10-14, this is well worth picking up!
Don’t lose Perspective before August 17th.
Worth a Look
The Voting Game – Normally seeing another card based party game elicits a groan from me as yet another Cards Against Humanity wannabe begs for funding, so while The Voting Game does have a NSFW expansion, it’s core game is good enough that I would actually be willing to play it at a party with my friends! Because, in a rare twist for a party game, it actually makes it about your friends! It’s a simple game of voting for which of your friends best fits the answer to a “who would…” question, which can be great in a gently charming way. Not for a party with strangers, but enjoyable with good friends. Ends Aug 18th.
Res Publica: 2230AD – A re-release of Reiner Knizia’s 1991 game Res Publica, transferred to a new sci-fi setting. In a card based civilisation building game, players try to collect sets of cards they can turn into cities, to gain VPs, or space stations, to draw more cards each turn. The key mechanism for obtaining these cards is through setting up trades with the other players. There are a few other cards thrown in that let players tweak the rules that are new, but it is primarily a reskin. Ends Aug 19th.
Soccer City – A strategic soccer board game! Already available in Spain, the team behind it are bringing the game into English and making it available world wide. The key gameplay mechanic is utilising your hand of ability cards to get the ball into your opponents net. Careful hand management and player positioning is key to the game. Ends Aug 20th.
Roadkill Rivals – A light and light hearted card game, even while having a somewhat distasteful theme, as players attempt to run over as many Southern US animals as possible. Don’t take it too seriously though, and enjoy the very nice artwork, and the intriguing twist of having all player hands open, offering lots of guessing and double guessing each other’s manoeuvres. Ends Aug 20th.
Image credit to board game geek users Action Phase, thevotinggame, exa1zar2ius3, Soccercity and MattGiraffe, as well as the Perspective Kickstarter page.
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