Movies / TV / Radio theme

Times Square

An unusual, complex, yet tightly balanced board/card game for two from the prolific Reiner Knizia. The original title, "Auf der Reeperbahn...," alludes to a popular German movie from 1954.

Near the center of a 17-space track start the six game figures which the players compete to attract to their opposite ends of the board. You play as many cards of the same color on your turn as you wish, and much of the movement is a direct result of card play: e.g., by playing a red 4 you bring the red figure ("Rote Lola" or "Dancing Deb") 4 spaces closer to your end of the board.

However, there are special tricks and restrictions which must be learned and held firmly in mind before the sense of the game begins to emerge. The central green figure ("Brilli-Lilli" or "Saucy Sue") which wins for you if the game ends with her on your half of the board, for example, can only move within the bounds of her "bodyguards," two grey figures. The yellow figure ("Blonde Hans" or "Handsome Hal") can summon, without benefit of a card played, any of these three figures to his square. The companion green figure ("Schampus-Charly" or "Champagne Charlie") which can also win the game if you get him into one of the two spaces at your end of the board (your "nightclub"), only moves toward you if the board situation at the end of your turn involves both bodyguards on your half of the board and/or one of the other figures in your nightclub. And so on.

The game, part of the Kosmos two-player series, is one of attack and counterattack, defense and forward thinking, and can be won early or on the turn of the last card on the second time through the deck. At 10-15 minutes, it begs to be played again immediately.

Hogwarts: House Cup Challenge

Hogwarts: House Cup Challenge is an Adventure Board Game that allows 2 - 4 players to portray Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville in their quest to win the House Cup for Gryffindor!

Players move their characters around the board encountering Adventure Cards and increasing their Knowledge, Skill, and Honor. As the Characters' abilities grow, they will face harder challenges based on the first five Harry Potter films, from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Players who complete difficult adventures earn victory points for themselves and for Gryffindor. When Gryffindor reaches 500 points, the player with the most points wins the game!

The First Play Rules allow beginners to play a full game in 30 minutes. The Full Rules allow for a complete adventure as the characters progress and grow through the first five films.

Doctor Who Fluxx

Fluxx is a card game in which the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win.

At the start of the game, each player holds three cards and on a turn a player draws one card, then plays one card. By playing cards, you can put new rules into play that change numerous aspects of the game: how many cards to draw or play, how many cards you can hold in hand or keep on the table in front of you, and (most importantly) how to win the game.

Doctor Who Fluxx takes the basic gameplay of Fluxx and merges it with multiple regenerations of the Doctor, various companions, Gallifreyan technology, K-9, Cybermen, Daleks, Weeping Angels, and the Master.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – Daybreak Expansion

Game description from the publisher:

The Battlestar Galactica, humanity's last beacon of hope, falters and crumbles. A tenuous solidarity between human and Cylon wavers under overwhelming desperation and doubt. For those seeking the promise of peace, a single vessel guards the future. The Demetrius, guided by unknown forces, plots a course through the stars – a course for home. Many would oppose this vision of the future. In this desperate time, both human and Cylon are driven to take matters into their own hands. For some, this means risking everything. For others, this means mutiny.

Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak Expansion brings humanity's plight to its gripping climax. With two supplemental game boards, twelve new character sheets, thirty new Crisis cards, twenty-five new Skill cards, and much more, Daybreak invites players to undertake desperate missions, struggle under the constant threat of mutiny (through the addition of a Mutineer card in the Loyalty deck that can affect either human or Cylon), and bargain with Cylon Leaders driven by motives of their own!

Daybreak also includes rules and components for an optional Battlestar Galactica experience titled "The Search for Home", featuring a new endgame and a new game board for the Demetrius, the sewage processing ship that becomes the fleet's best hope of salvation.

Godfather: Corleone's Empire

Designer Eric Lang, known for his "dudes on a map" games, describes The Godfather: Corleone's Empire — a standalone big box board game with high-quality miniatures — as "thugs on a map".

In short, the game is a streamlined, confrontational worker placement game filled with murder and intrigue. You play as competing mafia families who are vying for economic control of the organized crime networks of New York City, deploying your thugs, your don, your wife, and your heir on the board to shake down businesses and engage in area-control turf wars.

Money, rackets, contracts, and special advantages (such as the union boss) are represented by cards in your hand, and your hand size is limited, with you choosing which extra cards to pay tribute to the don at the end of each of the five rounds. At the end of the game, though, cash is all that matters, and whoever has the most money wins.

The game also features drive-by shootings in which enemy tokens are removed from the board and placed face-down in the river.