GAME OF THE WEEK & NEW GAMING RELEASES: Week of 10/6/14 When the puck drops at 7:00 PM tonight in Toronto, with the Montreal Canadiens facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the National Hockey Leagues 97th season will officially be underway. The league was formed way back in 1917 and consisted of just four teams (the Toronto Arenas, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and the Quebec Bulldogs) all of which were located in Canada. In 1924, the first American team, the Boston Bruins, were allowed to join the NHL. By the end of the 1990’s, the league had expanded to 30 teams, which is where it stands today, with seven Canada based teams and 23 teams located here I the United States. The league struggled to stay afloat in 1917, barely making enough money to keep the franchises in business. Throughout the years, however, superstars such as Maurice Richard, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux helped fans become enamored with the game and today is has a passionate fan base with 21,632,479 fans attending games last season. Today, stars such as Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Kane carry the torch passed on from the superstars of yesterday. Cryptozoic Games released their NHL Power Play deck building game, this past week, to coincide with the beginning of the NHL season. Hockey board/card games are a rare breed. Very few main stream gaming companies have released hockey related games and even fewer have released games with the NHL and NHLPA branding. Niche companies like Strat-O-Matic and APBA have been releasing hockey simulation games, using dice and charts to re-create hockey games, for years. Those games featured real life players but did not carry NHL licensing. As a result, the player cards were simply white cards with black printing and the player names and ratings on them, with the city the player played in. For example, the card would simply say Martin Broduer, New Jersey. While these games are beloved by many, they are very bland and do not have mass appeal. There are two things that separate NHL Power Play from the rest of the pack. The first thing is the fact that NHL Power Play carries both the NHL and NHLPA licenses. As a result, the real life players AND all of the NHL teams are presented on full color player cards featuring the NHL team logos and action shots of the players themselves, much like NHL trading cards. The second thing that makes the game unique is that it is the first hockey deck building game. It is based upon a system similar to that first introduced by Dominion in 2008. The following is a description of the game from the Cryptozoic website: “Captain your very own Pro Hockey Team in the NHL Power Play™ Team-Building Card Game! With your Captain card to guide you, put together the best team you can from names across all 30 NHL teams. Have you ever wanted to create a dream team of your favorite players? Now you can! Every card features your favorite stars of the NHL in glorious high-resolution action shots. Can you light the lamp enough times to win the game? Compete for the best attackers, the best defenders, the best skills, and the best maneuver cards. Each card you add to your team will build upon the strategy you have chosen. Soon your team will act like a well-oiled machine and you’ll be ready to take a shot on goal. If you can beat the goalie, you score a point! The player who scores the most points wins. Games typically end with “hockey scores” like 4-3. When you take a shot on goal, the action is tense. Before you reveal all of the tricks up your sleeve, there is a chance for defenders to interfere with your attack. The more defenders that get in your way, the harder it will be to score. After the defenders (if any) have been revealed, you play out your hand. That’s right! The defenders won’t know who’s crashing the net until after they have coordinated their defense. Now that you know what you’re up against, play your cards and see if your strategy and players were good enough to overcome the defenses and the goalie. If it is, you score!”. The game features over 200 cards of official NHL photography. If you are a hockey fan, you owe it to yourself to check the game out. It’s playable by 2-4 players, aged 15+, in approximately 45 minutes. Cryptozoic will be releasing expansions to coincide with the NHL Allstar Game in late January and the Stanley Cup playoffs in April. NEW RELEASES: In addition to NHL Power Play, we also released the new edition of the storyteller card game DIXIT, the shape and color matching game QWIRKLE: TRIOS, the ECHOES OF THE PAST expansion for the civilization building card game INNOVATION, the underwater city collection game ABYSS, the BLUE SUN expansion for the space trading game FIREFLY: THE GAME, the “defend the castle, but stab your buddy” game MUNCHKIN PANIC (combining the games Munchkin and Castle Panic), the IRON GODS: LORDS OF RUST adventure path and UNDEAD UNLEASHED campaign setting for PATHFINDER, and the railway network building game RUSSIAN RAILROAD. BACK IN STOCK: Back in stock are the NEW JERSEY/SOCHI track pack for the FORMULA D racing game, the DELUXE EDITION of the word scoring game SCRABBLE, the KILLER BUNNIES blue starter game, the WORLDS COLLIDE and INTO THE ABYSS expansions for THUNDERSTONE ADVANCE, the LEWIS & CLARK expedition game, the dice and card game ROLL FOR IT, the FINN VS. JAKE set for ADVENTURE TIME: CARD WARS, the original CASTLE PANIC game, and the MONSTER MANUAL for the DUNGEON & DRAGONS NEXT role playing game. DONT FORGET, all card and board games and accessories are 10% with your Hobbytown USA card on October 16th!!!!!!
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:50:27 +0000
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