Oink Games makes some of the prettiest small boxes in the hobby, and its newest is a stunner. The Frozen Passage is a cooperative card game where you and up to three friends steer ships through a frozen sea route between the Pacific and Atlantic, and the cards genuinely shimmer: hexagonal tiles with an aurora-like silver foil that slot into iceberg-shaped stands, so the table ends up looking like a channel carved through pack ice.
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See how it worksDesigned by Emi Kuji, it plays 1 to 4, runs about 20 minutes and is pitched at ages 8 and up. The puzzle is a shared one. Together you build an inverted pyramid of 15 cards in three colours numbered 1 to 9, working from the bottom up to the goal cards on top. The catch is that everyone's hand is hidden, so you have to read your crewmates and time your plays, with a handful of item cards (a dog sled, a wireless radio, a lifeboat and the like) to dig you out of trouble. Place every card and the whole crew wins together.
Oink has built a cult following for big ideas in tiny boxes, and for components that punch well above their price. The Frozen Passage looks very much in that tradition.
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Find events near youIt debuts at Tokyo Game Market this month and reaches Japanese shops on 29 May, with North America getting it at Gen Con in August. UK gamers, good news: you do not have to wait for the wider European launch at Essen in October. Hachette Boardgames UK has The Frozen Passage down for 1 June at GBP 20. Co-ops this quick and this good-looking make perfect game-night openers, so grab the group and set sail.
Sources: Oink Games | The Toy Book | Hachette Boardgames UK
