Oregon Trail card game and an adult version of Codenames found at Target (update)

A Target shopper found a batch of new, exclusive tabletop games and posted pictures straight to Reddit. Among the new titles is an adults-only version of the popular party game Codenames. Another shopper also found an Oregon Trail-themed card game.

Polygon first encountered Codenames at last year’s Gen Con in Indianapolis, where we included it in our roundup of the convention’s best board games. Players take the role of spymasters, trying to give their teammates clues to find other agents in the field. The simple mechanics and opportunities for improvisation quickly put in the number one slot of the Board Game Geek community’s best party games.

Codenames: Deep Undercover puts an adults-only twist on the game with words like commando, motorboat and clam. Publishers Czech Games Edition seems to be saying this was all Target’s idea:

It's the Target call - idea and distribution. And we gave Them the agreement to do so.

— Czech Games Edition (@czechgames) July 25, 2016

We’ve got plans to spend time with Codenames: Pictures, another new version of the game that replaces the words entirely. It’s slated for release in just a few weeks and is expected to be on the floor of this year’s Gen Con.

Pressman Toy Company, on the other hand, has gone decidedly old school with The Oregon Trail Card Game. Leaning heavily on the original 1974 classic, details are scarce but it looks to be a faithful interpretation including cards for food, water, bullets and oxen to start your journey and a sideboard to place your headstone when you inevitably die of dysentery.

Of course, we’ve called our local Target and they deny any of these games are in their computer system. But they’re clearly in the distrubition pipeline, which could put them on store shelves during or even slightly before this year’s Gen Con.

For all of Polygon’s tabletop coverage, see our dedicated page here.

Update: We heard back from Target, and these and other new games will be widely circulated exclusively at their stores starting Aug. 1.