Gamers that aren’t into the indie board game scene have been heard scowling about the appearance of many beloved board games on Xbox Live. I understand that it’s not their cup of tea, but the board-to-videogame phenomenon is only growing in popularity, and people who happily played Settlers of Catan and Carcasonne on the weekends are pleased as can be.
Lost Cities is the latest in that trend, adapted from the Rio Grande board game of the same name. Designed by Reiner Knizia, the two player game challenges you to draw from a card pool to amass points while exploring Brazilian rain forests, endless desert, ancient volcanoes and deep oceans. Play is simple and takes 30 minutes or less, which makes it ideal to play with a guest or at game gatherings. The board game won the International Gamers Award for best 2 player game in 2000.
The Live version is due out this Spring and will cost you 800 Microsoft points. This version will also have a 2 versus 2 player mode in addition to the standard 2 player, which will be great for online matches and such. I was always the kid mesmorized back in school whenever history class turned to ancient exploration, so is the sort fo thing that makes me twitch with delight. It likely won’t be the game to convert the anti-boardgame set, but it looks like it could keep tabletop nerds happy (ahem, like me.)
[Thanks to Technophile for the help!]
