The 80’s classic game Fireball Island is being remade and is now up on Kickstarter. If you remember the original from 1986, it’s a game the whole family can enjoy.
Back in 1986, a board game was released that was like no other. I’m talking about Fireball Island, which holds a fond place in my childhood. This game had it all, a giant 3-D Island with multiple paths lined with caves, bridges, and other perils. And perched dead center at the top was the frightening idol Vul-kar! Wow did he look mean, and he was! Fireballs would launch out of his mouth and barrel down one of the many paths and mow down any unsuspecting explorers. Now, as cool as all that is, the gameplay hasn’t aged well and finding a complete copy is not cheap. Wish mine wasn’t lost to the ages, or survived the various moves and yard sells.
Well, there is good news, there is an awesome game company known for taking old games from our memories and restoring and updating them. I’m talking about Restoration Games with their tagline, “every game deserves another turn”, you know great care is going into these restorations.
They asked what game fans wanted them to remake and the top requested game was indeed Fireball Island. So now live on Kickstarter is their newest project Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar. This new version will be even larger than the original and fit into a smaller box. The gameplay will be updated and streamlined for modern gamers. The fireballs have been tweaked to provide a bit more chaos for their pathing, so even though you might rotate Vul-Kar to an advantageous angle there is no telling which path it may still take. The gameplay is adding a set collection aspect where you score more points for making sets of treasure. The famed Heart of Vul-Kar which was the win condition in the original now will just score you a lot of points so while not winning you the game it will certainly give you an edge. You also must collect snapshots from each part of the island to be able to leave the island. You are on a vacation after all so while dodging fireballs you need to have some memories right?
They also made several expansions you can get as add-ons. Among these expansions is the Last Adventurer which adds snakes to poison players and a giant boulder that launches from any caves. The Curse of the Crimson Cutlass adds a smaller additional island with a wrecked pirate ship that can blast players with cannons. And Crouching Tiger Hidden Bees adds bee marbles that are poured into Vul-Kar and scatter all over to sting players and make them lose movement from their injuries. The tiger can pounce on players and make them lose a whole set of treasure to the player who hit them.
This game is receiving quite a bit of hype as it has overtaken Gloomhaven to become number one on the BoardGameGeek hotness chart!
I am certainly looking forward to playing this restoration of one of my favorite childhood games. I backed it with the all in pledge of $135.00 on day one. This tier will get you the base game and all the expansions as well. If you only want the base game you can pledge $60.00 which is an amazing price point for such awesome production value. Right now the project has made over a million dollars and has exceeded 10,000 backers which just goes to show I’m far from alone in this nostalgia.
Restoration Games is also touring the US and some of Canada right now to let people try out the prototype. Which I’m very much looking forward to, as they are visiting a game store in my home state.
If your interested in backing this project or seeing gameplay check out the video below.
