A goofy, but classic, board game makes a surprising return

Restoration Games has announced that its creating a sequel to the ‘80s board game classic Fireball Island, and a Kickstarter to support the project is on the way.

“The original from 1986 was truly unique,” Restoration Games said on its website. “The players were explorers, venturing forth on the mysterious island in search of treasure. It featured the imposing idol of Vul-Kar sitting atop a large, vacuum-molded, three-dimensional board of the island, home to all kinds of kinetic chaos. The signature scene is a red marble spitting out of Vul-Kar’s mouth, careening down the chute and knocking the explorer from the rickety wooden bridge to their fiery doom.”

Fireball Island was fun more for its gimmick — that rolling “fireball” was pretty cool — than the rules themselves, but it seems as if the designers are aware of these flaws.

“But let’s be honest: The game itself was a bit rickety too. At it’s core, the original is a simple roll-and-move, with a heaping helping of take-that card play and no real meaningful choices,” the announcement says. “But we were kids, right? What did we know?”

You can watch the original commercial for the game below.

The new game will continue the original’s story, with the game itself designed by Rob Daviau, J.R. Honeycutt and Justin Jacobson.

“We’ve already got some stunning concept art by the talented David Kegg,” the team announced. “Noah Adelman of Game Trayz (the man behind those ridiculous inserts for Mechs vs. Minions) is working with us to develop an exciting new layout for the island. We’ll start showing off more of the game in the months to come.”

This is an unexpected surprise, and great news for fans of the campy original.

Polygon was on the floor at the 50th annual Gen Con tabletop gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can find all our stories here as they go live throughout this week.