monsterpocalypse

Chris Knight's avatar

Over the years I’ve expressed my fondness for Monsterpocalypse: Privateer Press’s game of giant kaiju battling it out in cities that players put together before thrashing them to smithereens.  It’s an awesome game that has a lot of appeal and when it first came out a decade and a half ago it enjoyed quite a dedicated fan base.

Then some decisions were made.  And they weren’t necessarily for the better.  In its original iteration Monsterpocalypse was a “blind box” game that you bought a package of without knowing what was in the box.  The idea was that you could trade game pieces with others.  Some of us filled out our factions by purchasing the wanted pieces on eBay.  That in itself was sort of a fun pastime “game within the game”.  That wound up being replaced by traditional packaging that let you see what you were getting.  And then ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

For a few months now I’ve debated whether or not to make this post.  I gave the company at issue a gracious amount of time to respond to the very MANY people who had taken them at their word and trusted them to produce a great product.

However it has now been almost seven months since anything in the way of official word has been published.  That should have been plenty of time to let the backers know what’s up.  Claiming that it’s been caught up in “manufacturing problems” isn’t cutting it anymore.

So it’s time for Mythic Games to level with us: Is there going to ever be a release of the Monsterpocalypse Board Game?

I’ve written before about my fondness for Monsterpocalypse: the miniatures game about giant kaiju monsters thrashing it out with one another atop a city that the players build, then demolish.  Monsterpocalypse was first ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Several years go, this blogger went a little nuts over Privateer Press’s Monsterpocalypse.  The kaiju-inspired miniatures game became a staple every week at friendly local game store HyperMind.  I ended up collecting a complete army for all the factions that got released.

Then something happened: Privateer Press sold the rights to a Monsterpocalypse movie.  The project – which was to have been helmed by Tim Burton – did not get made.  And the game languished in licensing hell for several years.  And then a few years ago Privateer Press brought Monsterpocalypse back: as a “hobby game”.  The minis were no longer pre-painted, although they were somewhat larger than the original models.  By that time I wasn’t feeling up to getting into the game again, though my love of the concept was always there.

Well, call Monsterpocalypse the franchise that just won’t die, because soon there’ll be ANOTHER way ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

I’ve written tons before on this blog about my mad love for Monsterpocalypse: Privateer Press’s awesome game of giant monsters and metropolitan destruction! And if you haven’t checked it out yet right now is a great time to give it a looksee. Privateer Press recently announced that the game was moving to a non-collectible format (making it much easier for new players to get into it) and a full-length Monsterpocalypse motion picture from DreamWorks involving Tim Burton is currently in pre-production.

And now those ever-clever folks at Team Covenant have come through with – ta-daaaah! – new Monsterpocalypse playmats! Introduced at MonCon 2011 this past weekend where attendees were treated to the convention-exclusive “Mayhem on Memorial” map (I really wish that I could have made it to MonCon, ahh well hopefully next year :-), the Covenant Maps Campaign brings you a new playmat every sixty days, with the ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

I’ve been so busy with community theatre and other projects that it’s been months since I’ve had time to get in a game of Monsterpocalypse: Privateer Press’s terrific game of giant monsters and metropolitan destruction (or defense, depending on which faction you wanna side with). But that hasn’t stopped my love for this sweet lil’ game (which I wrote of my love for over a year ago). I now own sizable armies of each faction and every Mega figure except for Mega Vorgax (one just sold for $197 on eBay: I love the Planet Eaters but not that much :-P). And I’ve come to develop a pretty good metagame-thinkin’ style so far as strategy goes.

Monsterpocalypse is one of the most fun games that I’ve ever played. But there’s been one complaint about it: that its been a collectible miniatures game. Meaning, you had to buy booster boxes ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

That’s the word from no less an authority than DreamWorks Studios’ website. We heard a few weeks ago that a big-screen feature based on the board game Monsterpocalypse was in very early production. That John August might be getting attached already (he previously wrote the screenplays for Burton’s films Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride) suggests considerably more movement afoot than we might have previously thought.

In the meantime however, those clever and industrious folks at Team Covenant have put together this jaw-dropping fan-made trailer for a Monsterpocalypse movie. It premiered at MonCon 2010 in Tulsa a few weeks ago and it totally captures and conveys the atmosphere of Monsterpocalypse!

Well done, Team Covenant! And dear reader: if you’d like to share this with others (you know you wanna) please point ’em to MonsterpocalypsetheMovie.com (easy to remember aye? 🙂...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

DreamWorks has acquired the rights to make a full-length feature film based on Monsterpocalypse. Yup, that Monsterpocalypse: the collectible miniatures game that I wrote about back in November…

Not only that, but DreamWorks execs are reportedly trying to get Tim Burton attached to the project. Monsterpocalypse creator Matt Wilson is already on board as co-producer for the movie.

Hmmmm… this could be pretty good. Provided that the correct tone and atmosphere is there. Monsterpocalypse has some terrific background fluff behind it and building on that, DreamWorks could turn in a heck of a good movie. In my mind a Monsterpocalypse film should be like the original RoboCop: intense on action and drama but also with tons of tongue-in-cheek humor and satire. Make it a CGI animated spectacle and DreamWorks potentially has a very strong movie franchise in it stable.

‘Course, I can’t let a post like this ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

A lot of you probably remember how over the summer I made this video on behalf of HyperMind – that groovy game store in Burlington – for a contest entry. It was for the Monsterpocapalooza event sponsored by Privateer Press for that company’s Monsterpocalypse collectible miniatures game. Well as is usual whenever I’m about to get involved with something, I research the bejeebers out of it! I never get involved with a project regarding something new to me without giving it the hard hairy eyeball and reading everything that I can find on the subject. The store’s owners gave me a copy of the Monsterpocalypse rulebook and I scoured the Internet for whatever I could find, and in the end we banged out a darn good video. It even made the top ten of the Monsterpocapalooza finalists. And I also have a nice letter from the president of the company ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Folks, please understand something: this is NOT a joke! That was my first thought when I read about this situation late last week. And then over the weekend I played Monsterpocalypse for the very first time (and very much enjoyed it) at HyperMind and this was the #1 topic of discussion among the faithful players meeting there.

So then I contacted the good people at Privateer Press, the producers of Monsterpocalypse, and received confirmation: the Department of Homeland Security has delayed the publication of the Monsterpocalypse Series 3: All Your Base Strategy Guide due to “national security concerns”.

Throughout the day I have made attempts to contact the Department of Homeland Security, by both phone and e-mail. As of this writing no one in any official (or unofficial for that matter) capacity with the United States government has gotten back with me about why a collectible miniatures game ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

I’m planning on being at HyperMind in Burlington, North Carolina tomorrow for most of the day, doing videography for their big Monsterpocalypse store-wide event but also gonna finally play this game for the first time ever. Here’s the promo video that I made for it (which is also in the Top Ten for the Monsterpocapalooza contest!)…

Anyhoo, the festivities start at 9 a.m. at HyperMind, located at 3396 South Church Street in Burlington, North Carolina. It’s a family-run store with great atmosphere and good people always stopping by to play Monsterpocalypse, Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars Miniatures, Dungeons & Dragons and just about everything else 🙂...

Read more