Memory

Mystery Express

Days of Wonder announces Mystery Express

Whodunit on Rails re-invents the classic deduction-style board game
Los Altos, CA; Paris, France - January 25, 2010. Days of Wonder announces Mystery Express, an imaginative new take on the classic deduction game from Antoine Bauza & Serge Laget. While Days of Wonder's first "whodunit" game, 2003's Mystery of the Abbey, was considerably more quirky and chaotic, Mystery Express explores the more analytical side of the genre, rewarding a logical and more precise approach to solving the crime.

Players board the famous Orient Express in Paris just as a murder occurs. The rest of the trip - through Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and their final destination of Istanbul - is consumed with determining the who, what, when, where and why of the crime. Players use their special powers of deduction; information gleaned from others in various train cars; and investigative actions to determine the exact circumstances of the murder. The one who correctly identifies the most elements of the crime by the time the train reaches Istanbul wins the game.

Mystery Express is a classic Days of Wonder design made up of top-notch components and unique, period-perfect illustrations. Along with the Mystery Express board map detailing its itinerary from Paris to Istanbul the game features: 5 resin character figures and matching character tokens; 5 Ticket wallets that include a description of each character's special power; 100 Deduction sheets that players use to keep track of their deductions; 72 Crime cards; a Mystery Express miniature train to track the Mystery Express's journey on the map; a Conductor figure; 2 small passenger tokens, a miniature travel bag, a train whistle and rules booklet. Mystery Express is for 3-5 players and will be available worldwide in April 2010. Price is $50/€45.

Video Overview from Myriad Games Presentations available here

Letters from Whitechapel

Get ready to enter the poor and dreary Whitechapel district in London 1888 – the scene of the mysterious Jack the Ripper murders – with its crowded and smelly alleys, hawkers, shouting merchants, dirty children covered in rags who run through the crowd and beg for money, and prostitutes – called "the wretched" – on every street corner.

The board game Letters from Whitechapel, which plays in 90-150 minutes, takes the players right there. One player plays Jack the Ripper, and his goal is to take five victims before being caught. The other players are police detectives who must cooperate to catch Jack the Ripper before the end of the game. The game board represents the Whitechapel area at the time of Jack the Ripper and is marked with 199 numbered circles linked together by dotted lines. During play, Jack the Ripper, the Policemen, and the Wretched are moved along the dotted lines that represent Whitechapel's streets. Jack the Ripper moves stealthily between numbered circles, while policemen move on their patrols between crossings, and the Wretched wander alone between the numbered circles.

Catan: Gallery Edition

In the Settlers of Catan Gallery Edition, the award-winning game is simplified and reduced in price to allow for quick play and introduction to casual players. The Settlers of Catan are once again traveling through the lands of Catan, racing to develop their settlements.

Players are now able to gain the flavour of the popular board game within 60–90 minutes with simplified rules that allow quick game setup and learning. The Catan board game continues to have the popular modular board and the variety of strategic options available that made the original Settlers of Catan game so popular.

Anagramania

Anagramania is an anagram-based board game for 2 to 6 players. Unlike typical anagram word puzzles, the clues in Anagramania are not just the word or words from which the answer is derived. Instead, Anagramania clues actually provide a hint or definition of the correct solution. Here's an example:

"Sam rang a friend to find out why the letters he wrote were so confused!"

The object is to re-arrange all the letters of the keywords ("Sam rang a") - which are shown in bold italics on the actual clue cards - to form a single word that solves the clue. The answer is of course "anagrams".
For each game, every player has an 11" x 4" 'throw away' clue sheet containing twenty clues like the one above. There are 24 sets of six clue sheets in each game pack. That's enough for six players to play 24 separate games.

During game play, players conceal their clue sheets in special 'pockets' that allow them to see only one new clue at a time. In most board games players have to await their turn, which can be quite irritating if each player requires several minutes for his or her turn. That's not the case in Anagramania. In each turn, all players compete simultaneously to solve the same clue. No time limit is set at the start of the turn, but once any one player claims to have the answer (and has written it down) other players have just one minute more to complete their efforts to find the answer (timed by a sand timer).
By solving clues, players move pawns on a 14" x 14" play board. A correct answer earns forward progress - two squares for the first person who answered, one square for others. For a wrong answer, the player moves his/her pawn back a square; and for no answer, the pawn is left in its current position. The winner is the first player to reach the center circle on the board, with a typical game lasting about 45 minutes. The simultaneous method of play makes the game very exciting, and leaves no time for any player to get bored!

Mentalogy

Mentalogy is a game which requires the player to remember and then recall a series of different words, numbers and pictures.

The winner is the first player to reach the finish point by remembering all the cards on the green, yellow, red and blue triangles in any order!