Some days I feel like most game news is coming out of a time capsule, with old designs and game systems being revived for today's "kidult" market that thrives on nostalgia and is (relatively) flush with money for non-essential goods.
I recognize that "kidult" is a term that many find demeaning since the word's definition is not the most flattering, such as this one on Wikipedia: "A kidult is an adult whose interests or media consumption is traditionally seen as more suitable for children." Even so, the U.S. and European toy and game industry fully embraces the term as one that describes a vast audience accounting for roughly one-third of all toy sales in a year. Children want to buy lots of playful things, sure, but adults are the ones with the money, so the industry will cater to their interests, often by returning older game designs to market in new, improved versions: "Want that thing from your past that you pined for but couldn't afford or never found in stores near you? Now's your chance!"
In mid-February 2026, for example, UK publisher Rebellion Unplugged announced a March 2026 crowdfunding campaign for a new edition of the Tunnels & Trolls RPG, which debuted in 1975, making it one of the oldest RPGs in existence.
And in November 2025, World's Largest RPGs announced a March 2026 crowdfunding campaign for the Traveller 5E RPG. This is a new edition of the Traveller RPG that debuted in 1977, with it being compatible with the game system for Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition). (Traveller is already on the market in a second edition from Mongoose Publishing, with this "second edition" being more like a seventh or eighth edition given all that's been published over the past fifty years.)
Renegade Game Studios already has four G.I. JOE Heroscape titles due out in mid-March 2026 — titles that mash together nostalgia for product lines from the 1980s and the 2000s — and in a February 27, 2026 livestream, the company announced six new Heroscape titles that will be released in July 2026, with five of them being offered in both painted and unpainted versions. The least expensive versions of all ten titles collectively retail for US$510, so this is hardly a line being purchased by youngsters.
Another older title that Renegade Game Studios is still bringing to the market anew is Richard Garfield's Robo Rally, which in February 2026 was joined by Kane Klenko's Robo Rally Dice.
This new design features the same set-up as the original game, with players programming their robot to move through a warehouse-like space filled with dangers in order to reach all the checkpoints before anyone else can — but instead of programming robot movement with cards, players now roll dice at the same time, locking in movement, turns, and more as they wish. As soon as one player fills all spaces on their board, they function as a timer, trying to keep others from using their dice effectively.
The new game boards included in Robo Rally Dice can be used in Robo Rally and vice versa, so each is now an expansion for the other game.
At SPIEL Essen 26, Z-Man Games will debut Citadels Duel, a two-player-only game from Guillaume Montiage and Manuel Rozoy that's based on Bruno Faidutti's 2000 game Citadels. Two city planners compete to design a district that generates wealth and renown, with the building tiles coming in the five types present in the original game and with characters like the thief, king, merchant, and assassin that you will call on for assistance.
On March 3, 2026, Cryptozoic Entertainment will launch a crowdfunding campaign for Fight! Mortal Kombat 1, with this being a deck-building game using the "Cerberus Engine" game system previously applied to the DC Comics universe, The Lord of the Rings, Street Fighter, the Cartoon Network, Naruto Shippuden, Rick and Morty, and Attack on Titan, with the latter title being reprinted in a new edition bearing a new "Season 1" subtitle ten years after its debut in 2016.
The Mortal Kombat video game debuted in 1992, and this game series now features sixteen titles, including two reboots in the continuity of the series, with 2023's Mortal Kombat 1 ironically being the second such reboot.
In April 2026, Mantic Games will release Noble Team, a new expansion for Halo: Flashpoint, which is based on the Halo video game series, which is a decade younger than Mortal Kombat, having debuted in 2001, but with seventeen titles compared to sixteen.
Sometimes I feel like I should have a moratorium on IP-based games and spinoffs, even for just a month, to force myself to write about games that are bringing something new to the market in terms of setting and world-building...yet at the same time, I know of spinoff and IP-based titles soon to be announced that folks will really want to know about, so it seems wrong to hamstring myself this way. I just need to prioritize the new on a more regular basis — or get over my bias against more of writing about more of the same!
