Latest Gets?

[Lazarus]

Got a pile of monster board games!  Got a few on sale and grabbed The Shining at Target because I was weak.

Raxxon - Got this one on sale.  It's set in the same world as the Dead of Winter zombie games.  You play as specialists working for a corporation (That may or may not have caused the problem) and you have to evacuate a city of healthy citizens while the  zombie plague burns through the populace.

Zombie Terror - 2 player Survivors vs Zombies game.  Players face off across multiple scenarios.

The Shining - Pretty excited about this one.  Same design studio as Horrified.  3-5 players act as caretakers at the Overlook and have to survive the 4 months of the off season.  One player can start the game as corrupted in a variant play mode, but the standard game determines if any of you lose your heads each round and attack the others.  If ANYONE dies, you lose. 

[Mike Scott]

Got a few on sale and grabbed The Shining at Target because I was weak.

There's a board game based on The Shining?

[Lazarus]

It's VERY new.  And pretty affordable!  Your friendly local game store and Target are carrying it.

https://www.target.com/p/mixlore-the-shining-board-game/-/A-76614883 

Mixlore is the name of the company distributing it, just so you guys know.

[Lazarus]

Another horror adjacent game. Gloomy Graves.  The theme caught my eye and i picked it up with a few small games in case I ended up not being able to leave the house in coming days.  You play as a gravedigger in a fantasy world where epic battles constantly rage and someone has to dispose of the magical creature corpses.

We got to play it last night and I really liked it.  The cards are small, but it takes a bit of space on the table, especially the longer the game goes on for.  Each player has a personal graveyard, and there's a central mass grave that grows a bit every turn.  The goal is to collect points cards that are earned by having the required number of adjacent graves for the creature type that are all touching.

Here's the best example of play I could find with a quick google search.

[geezer butler]

Family member sent me these Space Ace and Eddie figures for my birthday a while back. I set them up with my Alice figure (purchased at Amoeba Music a couple of yrs ago \m/)

2020-03-09_06-08-43 by geezer2014, on Flickr

[Lazarus]

Bought another game!

Mr. Jack Pocket.  Mr. Jack is a 2 player Jack the Ripper game.  One player is the killer, and the other, the police trying to track him down.  Mr. Jack Pocket is a SUPER streamlined version of that experience.  Also the generic investigator is replaced by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson!

Just to give you an idea of how stripped down this is, here is the board from the normal game



And here is an example of play for pocket.



I really like this a lot.  It plays in less than 15 minutes, and is cheap, so it's quite worthwhile.  Especially when I only really have my brother to play games with at the moment.

[Lazarus]

More new stuff.  I'm terrible at being thrifty. 

First thing is that I FINALLY ordered my 30 film Universal Monster BluRay set!  Very excited about this, as I have not seen MANY of the sequels.  The Creature Sequels, the Rains remake of Phantom, Invisible Man sequels, Werewolf of London.  SO much I've been missing.  But this year I intend to try and build up my Universal Collection.  This Island Earth, Phantom v1, and Mole People all need purchasing, and I need those Universal Horror collections.  Lots to look forward to!

Secondly, I got more games.  The first one is Friday the 13th, which is NOT affiliated with the films.  It's a reskin of a game called Poison!, which frankly is the version I'd rather have, but this one has a theme about bad omens, including the number 13, a black cat, a broken mirror, and walking under a ladder.  It's a well liked game, and I'm happy to have it.  (There's also ANOTHER reskin called Baker's Dozen, which is about donuts, if that is something that interests you.)

The OTHER game I got is much more interesting.  Escape the Hidden Castle



This one has been around in some form all over the world since the 80s, and is likely considered a classic.  It's been published under multiple names, including Hugo (The name of the ghost in most versions of the game), Midnight Party, Ghost Party, and possibly more if you can read other languages.

Now, all of those other versions have something my version doesn't have.  Plastic playing pieces.  The older versions of the game come with plastic guests, and a plastic ghost.



Which is fun.  That was what I was looking at when I got this, because I thought it would grab my 5 year old nephew, who I bought this to play with.  Instead, the newest version comes with cardboard standees with plastic stands (which, to be fair, are well made) and a cardboard 'Phantom' who is sort of a generic Phantom of the Opera silhouette which is made out of a kind of tent of cardboard.



I thought this was a little disappointing.  I may have to track down a nice copy of Midnight party down the line because I like the ghost in that one.

I am however, happy to report that my nephew enjoyed the game, and we all had quite a good time with it.  It's sort of a race game, where you and the other players all have multiple guests at this castle, and little do you know it's haunted!  As you and the other players move around the board (and you must move a guest every turn) The phantom is potentially moving up from the dungeon in the center of the table.  And once he reaches the gallery, the chase begins! 

You can duck 1 guest into one of the rooms lining the gallery, which is a safe space, or you can run for your life as the Phantom races around the room, snatching any guest he catches and throwing them in the dungeon, scoring that player points.  Here's the kicker:  There isn't enough rooms for everyone, and you can BOOT ANOTHER GUEST back into the gallery and take their space if you roll the exact number you need to enter their room.  Some rooms are harder to enter than others, and reduce your score.  As the phantom finishes complete laps of the gallery, his token advances on his track, and he eventually gets FASTER.  Once the phantom hits the table, the end of the game is typically reached pretty quickly.  Once once player has amassed 46 points, or the phantom's token reaches the end of his track the game is over, and the player with the lowest score wins.  Their guests escape the castle, and rest of the guests are trapped there FOREVER.

It's light.  It's not terribly expensive, and it's well made.  I do recommend it with a decent group.  The game supports up to 8, which I think would just be chaos, and I think I'd like to try it.

[Mike Scott]

First thing is that I FINALLY ordered my 30 film Universal Monster BluRay set! 

Cool! Lots of fun ahead!

After that, then you need the 5 volumes of "Universal Horrors" BDs (and "Murders in the Rue Morgue"). That'll set you back about 300 bucks! 

[Lazarus]

I think my first acquisition after the box is gonna be whoever has the nicest Chaney Phantom Blu Ray.  Since that apparently isn't included in the set?  And then This Island Earth because I like it.

[John Pertwee]

The Kino Phantom release is the best release so far.

[Mike Scott]

The Kino Phantom release is the best release so far.

https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Opera-2-Disc-Blu-ray/dp/B013CG18X6/ref=sr_1_4?crid=22458KSUD1I5S&dchild=1&keywords=phantom+of+the+opera+blu+ray&qid=1586714884&s=movies-tv&sprefix=Phantom%2Caps%2C182&sr=1-4

[Lazarus]

That's the one I was eyeing!  Good to know.

[BRICK]

The Kino Phantom release is the best release so far.

The Kino Blu-Ray is very good, but I'm still hanging onto my Image Entertainment DVD special edition; which is also great. I would love to combine the best elements of each into one definitive edition.

[Mike Scott]

The Kino Blu-Ray is very good, but I'm still hanging onto my Image Entertainment DVD special edition

I have the Image, but I'm thinking of getting the Kino, as well. No Reason you can't have both! 

[John Pertwee]

I have the Image, but I'm thinking of getting the Kino, as well. No Reason you can't have both! 

Watching all three versions of the film in one weekend is so much fun. The "sound" version was interesting.