Jess’s Fave Five Kickstarters of the Week 9/13/19
This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. Let’s kick back and relax with a fresh can of Kickstarters.
Mint Cooperative
Jonathan Gilmour & Brian Lewis design big games. Big in both physical size and popularity. I’m talking Dinosaur Island, Dead of Winter, and Wasteland Express. So when you tell me that they have designed an entire cooperative strategy game that fits inside of a mint tin I am both surprised and excited. Mint Cooperative is just that game.
In Mint Cooperative players work together to protect the towns of Mortimer County from the evil (Mint Puns incoming…) Dominion of Halitosis! This dental disaster of a villain is creating mayhem around the towns and to defeat them, you must make your way through all of the Mayhem cards in the Trouble deck. If you manage to use your superhero special abilities to defeat all of the mayhem cards before the Regional Panic Track meets or exceeds 27, you all win! The Mint Tin series has produced some really solid games so far and they are perfectly pocket-sized for easy travel. Learn more about Mint Cooperative on Kickstarter here.
Flapjack Flipout
My memory isn’t fantastic and when you add in a speed dexterity element I can pretty much guarantee I’m going to lose track to things pretty quick, but I think that will make playing Flapjack Flipout even more fun. In the game you need to fulfill orders that one player will be calling out. The game is a race, so everyone will make a mad dash to grab flapjacks. Once you have one you’ll place it on your grill and try to flip it over without dropping it. If you successfully flip your flap you can place it face-down on the table and once you have a pile that fulfills the order, you ring the bell and check if you are correct. The issue is you cannot check your stack once it is on the table, so you’d better remember what you cooked!
Flapjack Flipout looks delightfully chaotic and fun. You can sink your teeth into it by heading over to the Kickstarter campaign here
Nouvelle-France board game
Nouvelle-France is a block placement game about building three historic sites from the Nouvelle France era that uses a unique snowdrift mechanic. Each turn you will be drawing cards to build the block market and choosing construction blocks to add to one of the three buildings (military redoubt, the church, or the seigneurial mill). You earn points for each of your colors that link to the new block. Whenever a snowflake card is drawn from the deck, you’ll add a snowdrift which stops you from scoring any blocks that are snowed in. Once the final snowflake card is drawn the game ends and the player with the most points wins.
I like the how the snow piling up acts acts a timer for the game and puts the pressure on to build as quickly and smartly as you can. The game also looks beautiful with its wintery color palette and 17th century art style. You can learn more about Nouvelle-France here on Kickstarter.
Code 3
A game about cops where I can have a dog driving the squad car? I AM IN!
Code 3 is a cooperative game about fighting crime in a future time… oh wait no. That was a cartoon. This game is all about cops in the 80’s. You’ll get to customize your team by selecting two officer decks and shuffling them together. Each deck is unique, so your partner pairing choices can offer a lot of variety. In the game scenarios, you’ll need to meet objectives to unlock the next piece of the story.
I think it is pretty neat that as you play, if you decide to break the Police Department’s Code of Conduct, you will need to shuffle Internal Affairs cards into your deck. If you manage to draw two IA cards in the same turn you’ll then be subject to an Internal Affairs Interview which can slow you down and possibly cost you the game. I expect that coming up with fun partner duos is a big piece of the game and it looks ripe for expansion packs in the future. Investigate further by heading over to the Code 3 Kickstarter campaign here.
LOTS
Another building game. Don’t mind if I do! LOTS is a puzzley stacking game where players are all working on building up the same tower. You gain points for completing floors or by matching colored blocks, but if you knock any blocks down by accident, you score nothing for that round.
I like the simplicity of the game and the fact that it combines dexterity with puzzle solving. LOTS looks family friendly and lots (haha more puns! Don’t fire me) of fun. Check it out on Kickstarter here.
What Kickstarters are you backing this week? Let me know in the comments below and Check back next week for more fun projects!