German publisher HeidelBAR Games has announced two new card games:  Blaze, releasing this month, and Animal Poker, scheduled for winter release.

Inspired by the traditional Russian card game Durak, Blaze is a game of constantly shifting alliances.  In turn, each player plays against the next player, trying to get rid of their cards and collect as many Firebird feathers as they can.

Blaze features 83 cards produced with a metallic printing technique to add colorful shimmer.  It is intended for 3 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, and plays in under half an hour.  MSRP has not been announced.

Blaze continues HeidelBAR’s series of culturally-anchored card games that started with Spicy (see “Asmodee Will Release ‘Spicy’ Into U.S. Trade”), Coyote, and Anansi (see “Asmodee USA Will Release ‘Anansi’ Into U.S. Retail”).

In Animal Poker, players compete to improve their status at Animal Inc. by getting rid of all their cards.  Each round, the players sit in rank order, then take turns playing sets of matching cards, with each following player having to play an equal number of cards with the same or a higher number.  The first player to empty their hand gets to be the “boss” for the next round, and the boss after the last round wins the game.

The game is intended for 4 to 8 players, ages 8 and up.  The game duration varies based on the number of rounds the players choose to play.  It comes with 104 number cards, 3 freelancer cards, and 8 job cards. MSRP has not been announced.