Pulp Fiction Comics & Games

I know Atlas held the world on his shoulders, but there’s no way he could have lifted all the Atlas Games restock we received this week.

I’m talking games like Pieces of Eight, Gloom (and its expansions), Mad Scientist University (and its expansions), Lunch Money, Beer Money, Once Upon a Time (and its expansions), Let’s Kill! (and its expansions), Recess, Letter Head, Grand Tribunal, and Spammers.  A good portion of these games are card based and pocket-sized, much like a number of popular Z-Man games.

To hand choose a couple of the finest options, here’s a brief rundown on Letter Head, Recess, Let’s Kill!, and Once Upon a Time.

Letter Head is a blend of word and bluffing games.  A good fit for anyone who’s played and loved Quiddler, players gain cards that contain letters and point values as they attempt to create words.  The difference here is that you can barter and lie to your opponents to gain cards you don’t have.  But it doesn’t stop there, Letter Head also contains rules for 14other letter-based gaming scenarios.  Good bang for your

buck.

Recess transports you back to the school playground as players race their boy and girl tokens across the playground attempting to have them meet (and kiss *Gross*) within a time limit.  If you land on a space with another player’s token, though, some bullying ensues with only the winner walking away with lunch money.  And beware the nuns roaming around the playground who will whip your butt into detention so fast you won’t even see theruler coming at you.  A perfect kids/family game.

This next one is a rosy little ball of sunshine called, Let’s Kill!.  Man, with games like this and Gloom (equally dark, equally hilarious) Atlas might not be a gaming company you want to run into in a dark alley.  Anyway, the title pretty much says it all as the game revolves around players drawing victim cards from one deck and weapons from another in an attempt to murder as many people as you can in the most gruesome ways possible.  And if that isn’t enough bloody mayhem for you, there’s always the Crime

Scene Instigation and A Pretty Corpse expansion decks to add more victims, weapons, and other interesting cards to the mix.

Once upon a time there was a great game called Once Upon a Time.  I know, cheap.  Sue me.  Once Upon a Time uses elements of storytelling and roleplaying to create a game where players via for control of a fairy tale-esque by playing cards that shape the direction of the tale.  However, if another player interrupts you, they can gain control of the story’s flow.  Certainly a game where having a sharp imagination comes in handy.  Plus, you can always add the Dark Tales expansion (with a grimmer set of cards with trolls, goblins, and darker elements) or get really creative with the Create-Your-Own Storytelling Cards (blank cards that allow you to draw in the story elements).

As a period to this tale of Atlas, you should also know that we received the entire line-up of Dungeoneer card games.

Going boldly where no Heroclix game has ever gone before is the new Star Trek Expeditions cooperative boardgame.  Updated with the likenesses of the most recent J.J. Abrams film, the storyline of this game has players juggling three objectives, working together to solve all of them in a thirty day (one day=one turn) time limit.  Classic Heroclix-style dials are utilized, but in a different fashion that before; characters’ dials rotate, not from damage but, from choices and successes they make.  As far as using the license to its fullest, most enjoyable extent, this game knocks it out of the park.  Come play test it on any of our Sunday game nights, if you feel inclined.

Camelot Legends helps you get your knight on!  Players build up their own round tables in an effort to complete tasks and missions in the lands of Camelot, Cornwall, and the Perilous Forest.  The game contains 100 different cards, giving players a ton of options from which to build their cavalry

of knights.  Whichever team of knights completes the most tasks by the end of the game wins.

Another expansion in the ever expanding Warhammer Invasion card game, Legends, introduces new legend card types to be used with each race.  What are legend cards, though?  Representing one of the more powerful characters in your army, these cards can be placed in the center of your play field, allowing for cards in all your other three zones to utilize their powers.  Basically, Legends adds another layer of play in the already diverse two-player battleground that is Warhammer Invasion.

Last, but most creative, is the card expansion for Dixit.  Called Dixit 2 (okay, that’s not too creative), this hefty little expansion box adds eighty four new, full art cards to the existing game.  If you haven’t played Dixit, shame.  But, past the reprimanding, here’s how it works:  much like a Pictionary version of Apples to Apples, Dixit has players laying down cards decorated with gorgeous artwork in the center of the table and having one player guess who laid down what based on a prompt.  If nothing else (and there’s plenty else), the game is beautiful!