The 2019 UK Games Expo (UKGE) is almost upon us, opening to the public on Friday! With a mountain of games at the show we have dug through catalogues of games to find what we are most excited to play, or even get a glimpse of at the event. Note that there are plenty of amazing already released games at the event but they aren’t covered in this list. The show is in Birmingham’s NEC from May 31st – June 2nd and here are our top anticipated titles.
Snowman Dice
Brain Games doesn’t make many misses for me, with the likes of Doodle Rush and Icecool being firm favourites. It might be a little early in the year to think of snow for those of us in the UK. However, Snowman Dice could be a great title for the winter months. A simple dice game where players build snowmen from dice and also flick snowball dice. It sounds entertaining and with a short estimated playtime lets cross some frozen fingers it delivers!
Sumo Gnomes
The name alone is intriguing but then there is the description from publisher Peculiarity: “Use custom dice to move, push, spin and trick your way around the stump, looking for that crucial advantage you’ll need to push your opponent off and claim victory!” Apply a relatively cute theme, the fact it is a small portable and fast paced gameplay, and this could be a great travel title. Not many titles manage to grb players with a 5 minute playtime but this might be different.
Zombicide Invader
This is probably one of the big hitters at the event. I enjoyed the original modern day Zombicide. When the mechanics were slightly adapted to take the series back into medieval times with Zombicide Black Plague the series got better. This time around there are no zombies, not even orks. Instead, it is aliens that players are fighting and battling through. Sci-fi as a theme has so much potential, with it looking like CMON has managed to capture elements. Certain weapons only work on the planet surface, there are controllable turrets and plenty of aliens to get through. Certainly, one to get hands on with!
Lanterns Dice: Lights in the Sky
There is something so simple about the original Lanterns that sees it return to the table time and time again. In this installment the regular tile placement has been ditched, so a central board won’t be growing. Replacing it is the mechanism of the hour roll and write. There are now polyomino shapes instead of just squares and the vibrancy seems to have survived. It’ll be interesting to see how this adaptation works and if the theme handles the new mechnics.
Ticket to Ride London
1970s London is the setting for the next “small” Ticket to Ride title. Last year we enjoyed the New York variant, and it’s taxis, saying “Ticket to Ride New York is designed to be a small footprint, short game and it delivers on both fronts”. This year it is the turn of London’s iconic doubledecker buses. It doesn’t look to have strayed at all far from the format of New York – so will be very light and fast to play. It isn’t another large map, which I’d prefer, but should be worth the 15 minutes it takes to play!
Let us know in the comments section below what games you are most looking forward to!
