Hey everyone, I'm really looking forward to this one! What if the Fantasy Strike characters were all kids, and played a puzzle game together...and we simulated that with a card game? Except there are discs like poker chips instead of cards so you can shuffle them really easily? That's Puzzle Strike!
If you're confused, don't worry about all that, and just know that it's based around a really interesting mechanic where "almost losing" gives you more comeback power, so there's a lot of back-and-forth action right up to the end. There are also a lot of close calls where you're actually over-the-limit on how much your "gem pile" can hold before you lose, but as long as you clear enough of them out by the *end* of your turn, you're ok. Here's a prototype of the box for the standard version of Puzzle Strike:
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And here's a prototype of the DELUXE version, with wooden box and all wooden chips:
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Here's a closeup of the back of the box, which tells you a bit more about the game:
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Like I said, I'm really excited about this one. While Yomi is more of a tournament game, Puzzle Strike supports 2, 3, or 4 players, has an absurd number of interactions and combos, and the puzzle game mechanics make it pretty unusual and exciting to play. Plus, it has kid characters and a pink box. My testing shows this results in girlfriend-approval.
Unfortunately this one will cost more than my other two games, but I hope you'll bear with me on that. Because it supports up to 4-players, you can chip in with some friends, and I really think the unusual gameplay is worth it, not to mention that you get over 300 discs and four bags to hold them. Stay tuned for more info, or feel free to ask the various chatters in sirlin.net/chat if you're thinking about playtesting it before release.
There's also a Boardgamegeek page for it here, for further discussion.