March 16, 2005 (SEATTLE) — WizKids Inc., makers of the popular Pirates of the Spanish Main™ and Pirates of the Crimson Coast™ constructible strategy games™ (CSGs), is proud to announce Rocketmen™: Axis of Evil, a new CSG debuting this summer. Rocketmen will be accompanied by both Web- and DVD-based cartoons that feature a cutting-edge animation style that updates the fun of a retro space serial. WizKids created the CSG genre in 2004.

"WizKids® is committed to creating innovative new games," said Mike Samora, vice president of Sales and Marketing at WizKids. "Rocketmen combines large-fleet strategy, resource management and a fun, "retro-space" universe." In the weeks leading up to the release of Rocketmen, an exclusive cartoon will debut on the WizKids website. Later, a DVD will collect all eight episodes of the cartoon, add two new episodes and come with exclusive Rocketmen game pieces.

The Rocketmen game will be sold in fine game, comic, and hobby stores everywhere. Its exciting fictional universe was created by Jordan Weisman, and the game was created by WizKids’ award-winning game designers.

Founded by 20-year game-industry veteran Jordan Weisman, WizKids is a Seattle-based game developer and publisher dedicated to creating tabletop games driven by imagination. Its Mage Knight™, MechWarrior® and HeroClix® CMGs are among the most successful games on the market today, and the company has sold hundreds of millions of figures worldwide. For additional information, visit www.wizkidsgames.com.

Rocketman? Sound rather cheap to me, WK probably could get a licence for more settled space strategy concepts like Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Gallactica, Babylon 5 etc. And WK should come up with better stuff than this to tickle my intrest. :mad:

The fact that this is not a licensed game means that they don't have to obey the rules of the licensor - they have complete freedom with their game mechanics. This could be a very good thing, if they were to maintain quality control, unlike the issues that have come up due to poor wording in Crimson Coast.

I think it looks cute but I'm SO not getting hooked on any more games right now. :+)

The crew seem to fit into slots on the base, that's spiffy. There's more customization, maybe Revolution or later will incorporate some of these events. A ship with several extra masts so you can decide if you want long or short range (perhaps short range has higher ranks) or something.

Fish

And, of course, it'll probably come out two days before I leave for a conference, just like Pirates did. Arrr. (Still, IT MUST BE MINE!)

---Dave

It is just a rip off of Pirates, and is just thioer to make money. It looks really gay!

although i hardly think it looks 'gay' (and i personally quite like the cheesey retro look, something like the original Buck Rodgers and Fash Gordon), i would say this can only spell bad news for pirates.

its been released pretty soon after pirates, which hardly fills me with joy. either this is bad planning (which at the moment seems to be a feature of WK) or they aren't looking to invest in pirates for the long term (which i persume means that after Revolution i wouldn't expect to see any decent sets).

doubling the work load only ever means halving the quality. i suspect that its going to end up being a better version of pirates which is likely to annoy everyone. and they'll probably swipe all the clever ideas for that game, leaving pirates with none.

nevertheless, it would be quite funny to claim to be part of the Legions of Terra!

I don't think Rocketmen will hurt Pirates any more than HeroClix hurt Mage Knight. Which is to say, it will eat into sales some, but not a lot.

After all, I pretty much completely dropped out of Mage Knight once there was a similar-system game in settings I liked better, and I'm sure many others did, but you don't see MK being discontinued.

And since some people (like me) will no doubt keep buying Pirates as well as getting into Rocketmen, their overall sales increase.

---Dave

first off, the generic outer space thing doesn't really appeal to me so unless it has some really neat and new game mechanics I am not interested. What worries me though is WK track record. After MK was a success they started changing minor things and adding different themes and came out with Mechwarrior, then Heroclicks, then shadowrun, MLBclicks, creepfreaks, crimsom skies... and I think that is what doomed MK for a lot of us earlier players that did not move on to MK2. It seems like they didnt pay as much attention to MK or playtest the new sets enough so that things just got out of hand at which point they just s****ped it and started over. I would hate to see a similar thing with Pirates. Whatever happens happens though. It could all turn out to be a very good thing for pirates but right now its just not something I am interested in.

D^S

the retro thing is in right now, ala sky captain and the world of tommorow etc.

Mage Knight was redone not because it was a failure, but because it had been successful enough to last long enough to expose things they felt needed changing (or, more cynically, they wanted to get people to rebuy the basic set). Mechwarrior just went to 2.0 as well. I suppose, if it lasts long enough, Pirates will be rebooted (re-bootied?) as well.

Reversioning happens. It's that or death.

---Dave

It does look a little cartoony. But hey, space/pirates? I think if they get some nice custom ships for each race, it could be cool. Plus the great thing about these self contained in 1 pack games, you only need to spend 4 bucks to give it a shot. You don't like it, your not out that much.

I definitely will give it a shot when it comes out.

I think it would be much better if it was kinda psuedo serious space opera type stuff though.

I will buy a couple of packs and see how it works, but I don't know if I can afford to get into another game around the same time POTR comes out... since I've already started with Pirates I'll stick with 'em. (As it is I am hurrying to try and complete my sets of POTSM and POTSM cards before the new set is released...)

Umm..dude? Sky Captain and the world of tommorow was a flop in the box office. Sure it appealed to those who liked c r a p p y acting and that old thirties look. But where else do you see retro. It isn't in. It's out and down the c r a p per. I can go down to my local mall and see whats in right now, and I have, and I can tell you that retro is not in.

Now on with the game discusion. This game altough thirtiesish as it is, looks like a good idea. Although I think that bringing it out so soon after pirates is being released is a big mistake I might be able to get into this.

I'm excited about the space game. It might even do better than CF, SR of CS.

I'm guessing that money bags Topps wants to either see more profit or more games. WK appears to be chosing more games.