What would happen if the typical mechanisms of the video game became a board game? One possible answer is 8Bit Box , distributed in Italy by Mancalamaro . In recent years we have witnessed the proliferation of a concept that goes by the name of “transmedia” or the contamination of multiple media by the same intellectual property. A concept that also existed in the past, but which has grown stronger in the last decade. The comic that becomes a film, a video game, a toy and perhaps a collectible card game, the launch of a new film accompanied by books and comics (a strategy recently used for Ride) and the video game that becomes not only a film, but also a board game and role-playing game, as happened with Assassin’s Creed, Dark Souls, The Witcher , but also for Super Mario.
8Bit Box does something similar, but instead of translating the single title it decides to adapt the whole ecosystem of a home console to the board game. In fact, in the box you will not find a single game, but a series of titles, such as the Nes or Megadrive cartridges, which work by exploiting the same control system in different ways: a cardboard controller that simulates a joypad.
The first title is called Pixoid, and it is clearly inspired by Pac-Man. A player must escape from ghosts, played by his opponents, for a defined number of turns. If you are captured, control of the protagonist passes to another player. Whoever resists the most turns wins.
The second game, Outspeed, is a race in which players have to hinder themselves to maintain the first position. The peculiarity is that the game board “scrolls” forward, since at each turn a part of it is added frontally and the last one at the bottom eliminated, simulating the horizontal scrolling of a racing game. Whoever at the end of his turn remained in the section that is about to be discarded, is eliminated.
The third game is called Stadium and tries to replicate the classic “Olympic” games in Track N ‘Field style, the winner is whoever wins the most gold medals at the end of the competition.
In addition to these modules that make up the launch lineup, new expansions are planned for 8Bit Box that will use the same “hardware”, just as if it were a console. The minimum recommended age for 8Bit Box is six years for the simplest game up to 10 years for the more complex one, but we are sure that some older nostalgic far older will not fail to add it to their collection.
