Netflix To Make Board Games Out Of Their Shows
The other day I was thinking about Tales From The Loop and wondering if the main reason for its success was that there is no official Stranger Things tabletop game. This feels like a bizarre oversight, as when you think about it, the show is one giant advertisement for tabletop gaming. Just as The Queen’s Gambit introduced a lot of people to chess, I’m sure many viewers got absorbed in ST and then drove down to their hobby shop, but found nothing based around the series. But the shop owner DID have a game about a bunch of kids fighting monsters in the 80s, just not on-brand.
So when I heard Netflix was getting into vaguely tabletop-y ventures regarding its IP, I thought “good, they’re finally correcting that oversight.” Not sure why it took so long. It’d obviously be like printing money. Then….uh, I saw the product in question, and….this ain’t it, chief.
Stranger Things: Attack Of The Mind Flayer is not the kind of heavy RPG experience they play in Mike’s basement. It’s just a card game, and a basic one at that. “A hidden role game designed for 4-10 players, two teams go head-to-head and uncover who is sane and who has been possessed by the Mind Flayer.” Hope it’s not Eleven, or everybody’s dead. There’s a germ of a good idea here — if they based it on Among Us and had the flayed person in question sabotaging the team, that would be mighty cool — but it is not even that. The hole in the market continues to be unfilled. You want a Stranger Things RPG, you’re gonna have to just make one up. Or modify Tales From The Loop a bit.
There is a little bit more of an effort spent on their Squid Game game, though none of these are true RPGs — just board games. “In this 3-6 players game, each contestant has a team of up to 12 members and competes in six games featured on the show: Red Light/Green Light, Dalgona, Tug of War, Marbles, Glass Bridge and Squid Game.” There are small maps approximating these events, though unlike Stranger Things, the players don’t get assigned specific roles from the show. You can’t play as Screeching Woman or Mobster Thug The Screeching Woman Slept With.
There’s also an Ozark game. I don’t watch Ozark, and know nothing about it. So I have no comment.
“Choose a faction, vie for money, and then influence and control locations from the series like Lickety Splitz and the Missouri Belle. The player with the most stashed money at the end of the game wins!”
All three games will go on sale July 30, at the same time, for $24.86 each. They will be sold exclusively at Wal-Marts nationwide.
Farah
July 14, 2022 @ 7:10 pm
Hope these Boards means the shows wont get canceled and have a proper series finale.