Battleship Galaxies – Board Game From Hasbro Coming Soon

June 22, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment 

UPDATE: It’s out!  My copy is on the way (should be here by 7/15/11).  It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it out.
This one slipped right by my radar, but it still has a few weeks before its release so here’s a quick news clip from icv2.com…
In June Hasbro is releasing Battleship Galaxies: The Saturn Offensive (MSRP $65), a space combat miniatures board game that has relatively little in common with its Hasbro-produced namesake. The game involves a conflict between the human Intergalactic Space Navy (ISN) and the ships of an alien force known as the Wretcheridians. The opposing forces are represented by 20 highly-detailed starship miniatures of several different ship types, each with its own movement, shield, hull strength and weapons ratings—all of which are detailed on reference cards.
The scenario-driven Battleship Galaxies board game was designed for between 2-4 players, ages 13 and up by Craig Van Ness, Colby Dauch, and Jerry Hawthorne. The scenarios determine the goal of the game and the initial set-up of the game board. For every turn players have a certain allotment of energy, which can be used either for movement or combat. Combat results are dice-driven. Players role two dice, one with letters and one with numbers. The resulting letter number combination is compared with the target ship’s reference card to determine the result. Hits on a ship are marked by the placement of colored pegs in the figures base—one of the game’s few oblique nods to the more simplistic Battleship game.
Players can either take on the role of ISN officers defending an isolated settlement, or lead the attack as the commanders of the ruthless Wretcheridian attackers. Players have considerable flexibility in constructing their fleets, and they can also build up their deck of Tactics cards to add weapons and upgrade their ships.
Battleship Galaxies includes a 48-page, full color graphic novel produced by IDW that details the backstory of this intergalactic combat.  We asked both IDW and Hasbro for more information on the contents of this graphic novel, but neither responded with information in time for this article.
In addition to the graphic novel, the Battleship Galaxies game includes: a game board, 20 plastic starship miniatures with bases, 24 ship cards, 2 screens with side supports, 2 coordinate dice, 35 blue pegs, 40 red pegs, 2 energy boards and markers, 72 tactics cards, 8 obstacle tiles, 8 discovery tiles, a victory point tile, rules, and 2 quick-reference cards.
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Gore Verbinski to Direct Clue

February 25, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment 

gore verbinski clue

I wonder who they are going to get to replace the likes of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Leslie Ann Warren.  The original is a classic and was populated by funny, talented actors who knew their craft.  Good luck Gore…

Universal Pictures has made a series of deals with Hasbro to adapt board games and toys into big screen movies. Last year the studio signed Ridley Scott to develop a movie based on Monopoly. Over the past month it was announced that Platinum Dunes was developing a movie based around the Ouija board, Etan Cohen was writing a screenplay for Candyland with Enchanted director Kevin Lima to direct,  and Steve Oedekerk to write a big screen adaptation of Stretch Armstrong.

And now comes news that Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski has signed on with Universal to direct and produce a live-action adaptation of the board game Clue. While most of the other properties might seem like odd choices, Clue has a murder mystery storyline that seems much easier to turn into a narrative story.

As you know, the board game is set in a big mansion where a murder has taken place. The competitors try to uncover who committed the murder, Professor Plum, Ms. White, Col. Mustard, Miss Peacock, Mr. Green or Ms. Scarlet, what murder weapon was used, either a knife, rope, candlestick, wrench, pistol or a lead pipe, and what room the murder was committed in. The board game has made over $1 billion in sales over the last 61 years.

The board game was previously turned into a big screen film in 1985, and while the black comedy was a critical and financial failure at the time of it’s release, the film has gone on to develop a cult following on DVD and television airings. Most interesting is that the film actually is one of the only mainstream movies I know of which was released with alternative endings. Depending on which theater you screening the movie, moviegoers were presented with one of three different endings. Newspapers listed the film with an A, B or C depending on the ending included with the print. It would be interesting if they tried to do such a gimmick in the Internet age, and if the gimmick would result in more ticket sales.

Verbinski is an interesting choice because he has experience in bringing fantastical period stories to life with a great mix of realism and wonderful visuals. However, this is just one of the films that Verbinski has on his plate. I think I would much rather see his big screen adaptation of the video game Bioshock than another Clue movie.

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