Alien Menace, the company known for producing cheap, humorous games and for giving a wider aucience to Mythrole Games‘ titles, has announced plans for a revised, expanded edition of Sucking Vacuum, the company’s Origins Award nominated board game. Called Ultimate Sucking Vacuum, the revised game will be a boxed product, done in full-color, with dice and everything needed for 3-6 players to begin fleeing the International Space Station right away. The Ultimate edition will also include tournament rules and an “Alien Incursion” variant, which is something I wanted back when I played the original version. Though the press release fails to mention a release date, my sources say Ultimate Sucking Vacuum will arrive in June for $19.95. [EDIT: The catalog I just picked up at GTS ’04 says the game has a March release date, so we won’t have to wait nearly as long. – Allan]
Alien Menace press release follows:
Alien Menace Announces Ultimate Sucking Vacuum
8 March 2004 – Today Alien Menace is proud to announce Ultimate Sucking Vacuum, a completely revised version of its best selling mini-game. The new full color boxed edition will boasts many improvements over the previous mini-game version including completely revised rules, full color components, and three completely different game variants.
The game that Pyramid described as “A fun, silly game of manic desperation” and Gaming Report gave “5 Stars,” Sucking Vacuum is an easy to learn fast action strategy game for 3 to 6 players who assume the role of an astronaut searching for equipment and struggling to escape the doomed International Space Station. Players must make their way through a randomly assembled space station map while fighting off the attacks of other players who are trying to escape themselves. The map, counters, dice, and everything else needed is right inside the box.
Ultimate Sucking Vacuum is more than just a rehashed release of the original game. Alien Menace has made improvements throughout but most noticeable to fans of the company will be the addition of color. “For the first time since we opened the doors we’re publishing a game in full color,” said Ed Evans from the company’s headquarters in Maple Shade, NJ. “Every component has been completely re-worked in the new edition. We worked to leverage our experience to find a way to publish a full color boxed game with a great mix of components and keep the suggested retail price at $19.95. Nobody is even coming close to packing so much quality and fun into their games at this price point.”
For Ultimate Sucking Vacuum the team at Alien Menace partnered with professional graphic artist Alvin Helms of 3rd Eye Graphics who developed the new game’s look and did all of the graphic design. “Alvin’s contribution simply can not be overstated,” Ed commented, “the cohesiveness of the graphics in this game and the overall look must be seen to be believed. The level of detail is just incredible.” Every component was designed by Alvin with excruciating attention to detail allowing each element to contribute to the overall feeling of the game.
Gameplay will be similar to the original, but the rules have been completely re-written and revised in a number of areas. Alien Menace has “taken feedback received from the gaming community and added some completely new material to the new game,” according to the game’s designer Marc Davis. “Fans of the original won’t be disappointed, but we’ve streamlined the game and added some brand new wrinkles to create an even better experience.” Additionally, the game will have two completely new game types including the Alien Incursion variant which has been extremely popular at local conventions. The original Sucking Vacuum was a game of desperation. The revised edition takes it to the next level, and Alien Incursion blows walls out.
Be sure to visit Alien Menace Games at the 2004 GAMA Trade Show (GTS) booth #1111 in Las Vegas!
For more information on Alien Menace visit their website at:
www.alien-menace.com. Or send e-mail to games@alien-menace.com.
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About Alien Menace Games
Founded in 1999 Alien Menace strives to create games that are fun, imaginative and focus on our core beliefs of violence, greed, and the overwhelming need to blame others for our own problems. We intend to sell enough of these games to make the partners ungodly rich or to sell the company to some faceless corporation for far more than its true value.