Unstable Games has built a reputation for creating tabletop games that are easy to learn, difficult to put down, and frequently just a little more chaotic than the box art initially suggests. After featuring several of the publisher’s previous releases in our own gaming roundups, we’re looking forward to seeing what the company has in store with its two newest releases, If Words Could Kill and Mystic Moon, both launching this month.
If Words Could Kill is available now for $14.99, supporting two to five players ages eight and up. The fast-paced word-dueling game strips combat down to its most basic weapon: choosing the right word at the right time. Players forge a spell from their available letters and use it to attack an opponent. The goal is to come up with a word strong enough to overcome the previous attack, forcing players to balance vocabulary, strategy, and speed. If your response is weaker than your opponent’s word, you lose a shield. Lose all of your shields, and your game is over. The result is part strategy game, part vocabulary competition, and part test of how quickly your brain can find a word that is both legal and devastating. It is also the sort of game that can expose exactly who in your friend group has been quietly hoarding an impressive vocabulary.
On July 27, Unstable Games will release Mystic Moon, a potion-brewing game for two to four players ages 10 and up. Priced at $20, the game puts players in the role of witches competing to create the most impressive brews before the final cycle of the moon is complete. Players must forage for ingredients in a moonlit garden, barter with the mysterious Elder Witch, and arrange ingredient puzzles inside their cauldrons. Naturally, rival witches are not simply going to sit around and politely wait for everyone to finish. Players can unleash mischievous frogs to steal ingredients from opponents or deploy poisonous mushrooms to sabotage their brews. When the final moon cycle ends, the witch with the strongest collection of potions and points wins.
Mystic Moon also arrives with some serious momentum. The game raised more than $1.7 million on Gamefound in just 21 days before making its way into retail. Unstable Games is already expanding the world with two expansions, Curse of the Zodiac and Secrets of Alchemy, along with a vinyl figure blind box series. That makes Mystic Moon more than just another standalone tabletop release. It appears to be the beginning of a larger collector’s universe, something Unstable Games has increasingly embraced across its catalog.
