Grid Movement

Fluxx: The Board Game lives up to its card game namesake as this board game is all about change: changing rules, changing goals, and changing tiles on the board.

Players start the game with their three pieces in the center of a 3x3 grid of tiles, with each tile divided into four spaces and each space showing an icon of some type (chocolate, sun, cookies, etc.) or an octagon or a portal. Players each start with three cards in hand, and the overall goal of the game is to collect 3-6 goal cards, with the exact number possibly changing during play.

On a turn, a player draws one card, plays one card, then moves one space, with all of those values being subject to change during gameplay; depending on what's currently allowed by the rules, you can also use movement points to rotate or move tiles in the play area. If you have a piece on each icon shown on the topmost goal card in play, you claim that card and are that much closer to winning. Players can also claim goal cards they have in hand by, again, placing their pieces on the appropriate icons. Other cards in the game allow players to change the rules, the game board, the ownership of player pieces, and so on.

In CrossWays players want to be the first to build a path of their pieces from one side of the game board to the opposite side, but to build they need to use the cards they draw and have in hand.

On a turn, a player can lay down a single card (e.g., a red 9) and place one of their pieces on this space on the game board; she can also lay down a pair of cards with the same value and place two of her pieces in a stack on any space, including the white ones that are otherwise off-limits. If a player has two pieces in a row on a stack, no one else can play on top of that stack – but by playing a suited run of cards, a player can remove pieces already on the board, putting those spaces into play once again.

The little magician apprentices have lost some magic objects inside of the master’s maze. Now they try to collect them before the Master notices anything. However, in the maze there are invisible walls and only one of the missing objects is revealed at a time. So they have to make their way through the maze by means of a good memory and lots of skill.

Each player moves their magician over the board while trying not to bump the labyrinth below. Each magician is joined with a magnetic ball so if you hit a wall the ball drops and you have to start all over again.

Space Checkers adapts traditional checkers to the 3rd dimension. Instead of 12 men on an 8x8 square, each side has 8 men on a 4x4x4 cube. The adaptation is straight-forward: Black sets up near the south lower edge and can only move north and up; Red sets up near the north upper edge and can only move south and down. Captures and crowning are 3D analogs to the 2D case.

Rather than having 4 large levels, the board is split into 4 towers of 2x2 portions. This allows one to more easily reach the pieces at the interiors of each level, without interfering with the visualization of the complete cube.

The Battle at Kemble's Cascade is a board game adaptation of a classic shoot 'em up video game. In the game, which is played out on a scrolling space backdrop, the players take on the roles of brave space pilots sweeping around in nimble yet powerful fighters, searching the asteroid clusters for universal glory and ancient technology. Players compete to obtain the most glory, with glory resulting from carrying out missions, finding lost treasure in asteroid clusters, and destroying alien entities, not to mention other players.

In the game, players fly through an ever-scrolling space setting, which is represented by rows of cards. Each turn, the bottom row is removed and a new row is added to the top. Players move their spaceships and resolve effects continuously, performing actions such as collecting power-ups and money, fighting alien cruisers and titans, blocking and shooting other players, and dodging asteroids and black holes. The players need to balance the use of their ships' energy as it's used for both absorbing enemy fire and boosting their movement speed and fire rate.

The game includes missions and achievements as well as a mechanism called "threat level" to keep everyone in suspense throughout the whole game. Threat allows players to enjoy the satisfaction of both shooting wildly at each other and dodging the hundreds of bullets raining down from enemy fighters and other players.

All player ships are fully upgradeable with four different weapon classes, engines, shields and more. Each player must buy the upgrades and navigate the path that best fits his chosen strategy in order to successfully complete his missions and attain the most glory.