A little while back, I spoke about the Unmatched board games and my enjoyment of them. Since then, I've invested in even more and do my best to play the game more often than I buy expansions, though I don't always succeed. Unmatched has expanded since I wrote my last entry to include a couple of ideas that I had thought to write here,to include PvE expansions in the "Adventures" series. Of course, there is still room for improvement, I am not fond of the way all the Marvel expansions are entirely heroes and not villains, for example, but I'll discuss that more below. So that this whole exercise doesn't have too much of an air of wish listing, I'll endevour to give examples of how I feel a character should run, or at least what an idea would be bringing to the game that isn't there already. As I tend to go with these articles, I'll begin with what I feel to be more reasonable and within the realm of possibility, and then move on to more fantastic and fanciful ideas.
More Villains
Whilst this feels the most prevalent with the Marvel expansions, Unmatched always seems to focus more on heroic characters, and I feel a bit of variety in this regard would make for a better ludonarrative experience. With the whole "crossover" nature of Unmatched, the Battle of Legends boxes are fine, and Cobble & Fog only has the one heroic character in Sherlock Holmes, but a mix of "baddies" in there would be great. The Marvel boxes are especially baffling, with three heroes all fighting one another for no real reason; makes me wonder why there wasn't a "Secret War" or "Contest of Champions" overlay to the line. "Hells Kitchen" did it correctly as far as I'm concerned, with a "Hero", "Antihero" and "Villain" in Daredevil, Elektra and Bullseye. Of course, Marvel is done in Unmatched for now, and The Witcher sets did this better, but the upcoming Hellboy release could easily fall into this trap again.
Another Cobble & Fog
Cobble & Fog was the first Unmatched I purchased, and I think it is a great little box, even if Sherlock is very strong compared to some other characters. I would think that "Cobble & Fog 2" would be an easy sell, especially as the four-character boxes always feel like better value. This would be a pretty straightforward box to get together as well, using the original as a basis. Throw in Abraham Van Hellsing to deal with Dracula (probably with some kind of open hand mechanic to represent his knowledge of foes) and James Moriarty to menace Holmes. I see Moriarty being a character that plays a lot of schemes and relies on their Sidekick, Colonel Moran, to do the actual damage. Then there's plenty of other ideas that would work, like Spring-Heeled Jack as a hit-and-run type and maybe even Fagin with a horde or urchin Sidekicks that pinch your cards.
Unmatched Adventures
The "Adventures" line offers a lot of opportunity for Unmatched, even without branching out too much further from ideas they have already executed. Obvious ideas include a "Cobble & Fog" version with Captain Nemo as the antagonist, Hellboy featuring the Old Ones and even Battle of Legends with a Hydra or Titan of some kind. I have one idea, however, and it is a very 'me' idea, using Superheroes of the Golden Age; it would fit with the Pulp idea of the first "Adventures" set and require no licensing whatsoever. Taking inspiration from things like "Super Wizard Returns" and "The Next Issue Project", I think the enemy being an all-powerful Stardust and the heroes being pulp standards like The Shadow, Lady in Red and The Spider would be a fun little box that adds some variety without being too far off the mark for the series.
Battle of Legends
If I had a favourite series of Unmatched, it would have to be "Battle of Legends". A crossover fighting game of mytho-historical and literary heroes is right down my alley and I'm a little shocked there aren't more of these than the Marvel versions, as they almost write themselves. There is a line of taste to consider, to be sure, like I'd avoid figures that are still broadly worshiped or are historically rather iffy, so probably no Shiva or Baron Samedi and certainly no Torquemada Corteaz or Davey Crokett (George Washington getting a character still baffles me). Still, that leaves a massive list of possible characters, just off the top of my head; M. Zenith, Herakles, Guan-Yu, Jack the Ripper, Hua Mulan, Quetzalcoatl, Maui, Brunhilde, Raffles, The Phantom of the Opera, Scarlet Pimpernel, John Carter, Raymond Carter, Carmilla, the possibilities are endless. We see this in many of the two-character boxes as well, so there's no limit to this theme except weird rights and good taste.
Fighting Games
So this is where I get a tad wish-list-y, Unmatched is basically a fighting game on a board right? So why not try for a fighting game license? Sure, there's huge problems with this idea and it's pretty unrealistic, but if it could be pulled off, it's tailor-made for Unmatched. Obvious ideas include Street Fighter (for that "Marvel Vs Capcom" vibe) or Mortal Kombat, but they're the big boys and will probably cost a packet to license. So how about some also-rans like Killer Instinct, Primal Rage or Rise of the Robots? Surely they're not asking the same money as Marvel, you know? I feel like I barely need to justify this one, as the ideas would translate almost straight across; big slow brawlers play the same, strike and fade works just fine and most of the moves already have elaborate names for the cards. Add in some retro pixel art for the fans and the whole package would be pretty neat.
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