At New York Toy Fair, Ravensburger North America was celebrating receiving the Game of the Year Award for Disney Villainous (see “Game Award News”) and the reveal of the first stand-alone expansion, Wicked to the Core (see “Popular 'Disney Villainous' Gets Standalone Expansion”). The publisher had several other previews for games debuting this summer.

Ravensburger is making a name for itself by picking up pop culture licenses with a very deep fan base and adding immersive game play to dynamic adaptations. Last year it was Jurassic Park Danger, and now, they’re applying it to Jaws.  The asymmetrical board game makes one player the shark, and the other players the team of heroes (Quint, Brody, Hooper) trying to find it. The shark’s identity is initially hidden, as it prowls the shallow waters, picking off beachgoers. The heroes have fishfinders, binoculars, and barrels to find the unknown predator, while it silently picks off swimmers and gets stronger and stronger.  Once the shark is located – the board flips and the major confrontation begins. The shark tries to flip the heroes’ boat and eliminate them, while the players try to defend themselves. The game is for 2 – 4 players, ages 12 and up, and plays in a hour. MSRP is $29.99. Ravensburger will have the game front and center at Gen Con, and plan to make a major splash with its presentation.

Universal Classic Monsters will be making their Ravensburger debut in Horrified, a collaborative labyrinth game this summer. Players take the role of villagers with special abilities trying to defend their village from classic monsters. The game can be scaled in difficulty, it can be played with two monsters attacking the village, or three, or four. Each monster comes with different conditions for their removal, ex: There are four coffins hidden on the board that must be removed to defeat Dracula. There are seven different monsters included (Frankenstein’s Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, Wolf Man, The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, and Dracula.) The game is for 1 – 5 players, ages 10 and up, and launches at Gen Con. MSRP is $34.99.

King Me uses a checkers game mechanic and takes the game to another level. Players compete to catch the most crowns from the middle of the game, but there are many strategies to accomplish this. There the traditional way like a checkers game, there are also crowns which give the player special powers in certain areas of the board that are worth extra points at the end of the game. There is also a way to control different territories on the board that are triggered over the course of game by different cards. MSRP is $19.99.  Specific release date was not announced.

Impact is a new version of the popular game Strike with some added elements. The starting player throws a die into the arena and it triggers certain effects. If the die comes up blank, the die is out of the game. If the die matches the symbol of other dice in the arena, the player removes them. If the arena is emptied out, the next player must throw all their dice on their turn. Each symbol on the dice corresponds to a specific element and special power that can cause players to execute a specific task, like exchanging dice, before the game can continue.  MSRP is $19.99.  Specific release date was not announced.

As Ravensburger’s Alea strategy-imprint celebrates its 20th Anniversary, a new big box edition of Castles of Burgundy will be released. It will include 11 expansions along with the base game, with one new piece of expansion content and higher-end components. MSRP is $59.99. Release is set for Gen Con.