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Bringing Home the Fun Bacon with Oink Games

In a world dominated by the English language and western culture. It is easy to lose sight that there are many great games that are produced in Asia and one of the most prolific is the land of the rising sun, Japan. 

Thus it was with great excitement that we have managed to acquire 5 compact yet interesting titles from a Japanese Publisher called Oink Games. The titles are Troll, insider, Deep Sea Adventure, The Pyramid's Deadline and Maskmen and all come with English rules inside the box.

Related: Sushi Go Party, a tasty treat best not passed on

To give you a taste of what Oink Games is serving you game wise, we will be introducing 3 of their games to you here:

Deep Sea Adventure

The first is the very popular Deep Sea Adventure. In Deep Sea Adventure, you are all poor divers looking to get rich quick by claiming treasure from under the sea, yet you are all sharing only one supply of air and the goal is to be the richest diver who manages to get his treasure into the submarine alive. 

Gameplay is really simple, in turn order players first choose if they are going up towards the submarine if they have at least one treasure or down into the sea as once you have chosen to go up, you can't go back down. The air supply is then reduced by the amount of treasures the current player is holding. Then two dice which only have faces from 1 to 3 are rolled. The total of the two dice dictates how far the player must move minus the amount of treasure one has. Now wherever you land you may pick up that treasure or if it is a blank spot you may even lighten your load by dropping a treasure.

The round ends when all the players have either reached the submarine or have drowned. Do this for 3 rounds and the player with the most points wins. 

Insider

Insider is a game that asks the question, are we controlled by what we hear and what we see, are we able to decide freely? This is achieved in game by shuffling the role cards and dealing one to each person. One of these will be the master and the other will be the the insider. Now through a opening sequence, only the master and insider will be the only ones who know what the secret word is yet the master does not know who the insider is. Then with a timer count down, all the players are able to ask the master any questions that can be answered with a Yes, No or I don't know. 

The goal of the game is for the correct word to be guessed, for if it is not, all the players lose but if the correct word is guessed, the timer is then used again for players to discuss who they think the insider is. If the insider is exposed, the rest of the players win, if not the insider wins. 

The Pyramid's Deadline 

In The Pyramid's Deadline you are all architects in ancient Egypt tasked with building the grandest Pyramid for Pharaoh but be careful as if you have not completed your pyramid when Pharaoh dies, then you will be executed. 

Gameplay is simple. During your turn, you roll dice and in turn order each person picks a die which shows what kind of piece he may take then add it to their pyramid according to the game conditions. The game ends when all players have completed their pyramid or on each die is a square stone and if all the square stones on the table are taken, Pharaoh dies and all who have not completed their pyramid and the  player that takes that last square stone loses. The winner is the player who has the highest scoring pyramid, counted by multiplying the length by the height then minus the amount in capstones on the pyramid. 

As you can see Oink Games makes not only compact and interesting games but each game feels quite unique in their own way. To find out more on the other 2 titles or even to pick up the above games we have talked about, do pop by our HarbourFront outlet to enjoy some Japanese fun and fare!

E: huibin@toytag.com
Zhou Huibin is a smith of words who majored in Philosophy & History from the University of Western Australia and whose life has followed the flow of his hobbies. He seeks continual contentment in his ponders, reading, writing, painting and board games which fills almost all of his time.
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