SECTOR GUIDE SPECIAL: Game changers
Games and puzzles are a perennial winner with families, kids and adults, and this appeal has helped it remain one of the industry’s brightest sectors. Billy Langsworthy looks at some of this year’s new lines
HASBRO
This Christmas season, Hasbro has a number of new games launching, each giving a fresh spin on some of the company’s most iconic creations. Fans of Monopoly can customise their own version of the classic board game with the new My Monopoly. Players can download the My Monopoly app or visit
www.mymonopoly. com to set up an account, print out your photos on the My Monopoly game sticker sheets and add them to tiles, tokens, and Chance and Community Chest cards. Users can move their personalised tiles to diff erent places on the board in order to create a diff erent game board each time they play. Hasbro is also giving a modern take on the classic recall challenger Simon game with Simon Swipe. Simon Swipe challenges
gamers to tap when they see one light, swipe when there are two or swipe and
FLAIR
Flair’s portfolio this year includes the likes of Freaky Franky, Tumblin’ Monkeys and Ali Baba. New for the autumn is
Tumblin’ Monkeys, a game that sees two players take it in turns to pull out sticks
one by one and watch as the monkeys start to fall. The player with the least
monkeys at the end will be the winner. Elsewhere, Ali Baba
forces players to be careful around a camel – the aim
of the game is to add 15 playing pieces to the camel’s saddle without the creature getting the hump and sending the pieces flying. Flair is also welcoming
Freaky Franky to its games and puzzles portfolio. Solo players can punch
Franky’s head to watch his eyes and brain pop out, while two friends can get involved with the ghoulish fun by pulling Franky’s arms to see who is the strongest. Finally, the Tom and
Jerry Tom Bomb Game is a tension fuelled creation that sees players place the keys one by one, hoping not to be the one to launch Tom into space. 020 8633 0320
46 September My favourite game…
Kay Green, UK Marketing Director, Hasbro
“It’s a split between
Twister, because I was a fi dget as a child, and Connect 4 for the challenge, even though nine times out of ten, my brother always beats me.”
reverse when the lights move
clockwise and then go back. The game boasts 16 levels and four games to choose from. Elsewhere, Bop It is
welcoming the likes of Nicki Minaj and Avicii with new game, Bop It Beats. The game is similar to classic Bop It, however this
time it features music from
some of the biggest artists in the charts
today including Pound the Alarm by Nicki Minaj and Levels by Avicii. Players have to match commands including Can You Spin It clockwise,
Scratch It with the turntable, or Reverse and Spin the turntable clockwise across fi ve game modes: Classic, Classic Party, DJ, DJ Party or Remix.
In the Classic and DJ
games, the diffi culty level increases as the game progresses while at higher levels in the DJ game;
SAMBRO
Sambro is expanding its games and puzzles portfolio with a range of products featuring licences spanning Mickey and Minne Mouse and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The new Spin Off Mickey Mouse and Spin Off Minnie Mouse games see players hang items like watches, umbrellas and lollipops on the iconic couple as they spin. Whoever hangs the most items before the timer runs out wins. For spookier fun,
Sambro’s Zed the Zombie Unrest in Pieces game challenges players to put Zed’s body parts and accessories back together before the timer runs out. If the timer does run out, Zed’s zombie parts will fl y.
the commands are presented in lights. For younger game enthusiasts, Hasbro has blended Elefun and Friends characters with its classic Mousetrap game.
The aim of Elefun and
Friends Mousetrap is to land on the boot space to hit the bucket and set the trap in motion in order to catch their opponent’s mouse and win. 020 8569 1234
With the T Ninja T
eenage Mutant urtles movie hitting
the UK in October, Sambro has the tie-in Catapult Pizza Game and the Pizza Spin game.
On top of this, the company also has a wide collection of high-quality licensed wooden pre-school puzzles available. 0845 873 9380
www.toynews-online.biz
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