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Be the Gulo of the Sandcastle Kingdom

tonyheth May 6, 2026

▪️ Pandasaurus Games always has a lot of really cool games in the pipeline, and they recently announced a few titles being released this summer, but don’t forget about their other just-released titles as well!

▪️ Shackleton Base: Below. Within. Above. is a new expansion just released! This expands the very popular Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon which was released last year. In the box, you can expect to find 3 new corporations to mix with your base game, new scoring milestone tokens, and more content for the solo gamers out there.

▪️Also recently released were the two small expansion packets for Faraway and Castle Combo. Don’t underestimate a few cards being added to your games; they add a big punch! Check out Castle Combo: Out of the Oubliette! & Faraway: Under Starry Skies.

And now for all of the summer releases! I have three exciting new games that have been announced for release this August!

[imageid=8660175 medium rep]▪️ Time to check out Kingdom Crossing from designers Marco Canetta, Stefania Niccolini the team that brought you Zhanguo: The First Empire & Railroad Revolution. This game plays 1-4 players in 45-90 minutes.

From the newsletter:

Welcome to Brightspring!
In a faraway land in the midst of a verdant forest crossed by the Crystal River lies the small kingdom of Brightspring, ruled by the wise Queen Beavery, who is facing a problem: Her four regions are separated by seven bridges, and to divide her time evenly between the subjects of these regions, the kingdom would need an eighth bridge…

Help the Queen build a new bridge! Scour the kingdom, recruit the best artisans, gather construction resources, and create magnificent decorations. Note, however, that you can never use the same bridge more than once in the same day.

▪️ Seems like a perfect time for Sandcastles to be released as we get ready for the warm beach weather. For 2-6 players and plays in 20 minutes.

More on the mechanics from the newsletter:

Over 15 rounds, players draft a single tile per round and add it to their sandcastle: a personal 5×5 grid anchored by a Starter Tile. The catch? Tiles are revealed one at a time, and once you take one, you’re out of that round. Wait too long hoping for something better, and you might be forced to take whatever’s left.

Tiles score through a mix of mechanisms: adjacency bonuses for matching starfish colors, row-by-row window counts, birds on sky tiles, and flat values for shells, shovels, and buckets.

This gives players a satisfying puzzle to optimize across their grid. Designed by Alex Cutler (Critter Kitchen, A Place for All My Books), it’s a clean, quick game that’s equally at home on a family table or as a warm-up for game night.

▪️ Finally, a new release of a classic game from 2003 called Gulo Gulo. This is a family game that will play well with kids and large gatherings, as it plays 2-6 players in 20 minutes.

From the newsletter:

Re-introducing Gulo Gulo 🥚 Some games never should have gone away. Gulo Gulo is one of them. Originally published in 2003, this Kinderspielexperten Nominee spent years as a sought-after out-of-print gem. Now, with all-new art by Jennifer Meyer and a freshened-up ruleset, it’s finally coming back to retail on August 21.

The premise is as follows: you’re a family of wolverines racing to rescue Gulo Junior from a nest guarded by suspicious swamp vultures. The nest is packed with colorful eggs, but hiding somewhere in the middle is the alarm pole. You need to reach in and steal the right one without knocking anything over. It’s harder than it sounds, but also extremely fun to watch.

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