USAOPOLY Announces New Game Star Wars: Dark Side Rising

There has been a disturbance in the Force as a rare, non-FFG Star Wars-themed game has been announced today. USAopoly (who also goes by the name 'The OP') and Disney Consumer Products UK have publicized the pending release of Star Wars: Dark Side Rising, a new cooperative card and dice game that is set during the events immediately prior to and during Star Wars: A New Hope. The game is designed for 2-4 players for ages 10 and up and has an estimated game time of 45 minutes.

In this light strategy game, each player will lead their own Rebel cell, led by their starting Team Leader (either Captain Cassian Andor, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker or Hera Syndulla), as they work together to recruit other iconic characters (such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Admiral Raddus) and prevent the construction of the original Death Star to thwart the Empire's overall plans for domination of the galaxy. A custom-sculpted 3D Darth Vader bust is featured on the game board that commands the Imperial forces trying to either wipe out the Rebels or make the Death Star operational. The Rebels win by defeating enough Imperial agents before the Empire is able to either successful bring the Death Star online or eliminates too many of the Rebellion's assets.

The game will be released in the European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) regions in the fall. It is unclear from the announcement whether this game will be exclusive to the EMEA regions or will receive a North American release at a later date. However, The OP has stated that Star Wars: Dark Side Rising was designed specifically for EMEA.

Admittedly, the look of the game from the images released and the described game-play sounds very similar to The OP's earlier board game Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War. The shared use of the term 'Rising' in both titles also suggests that Star Wars: Dark Side Rising may be the latest entry in a unofficial board game series begun with Thanos Rising.

Star Wars: Dark Side Rising will also be showcased at the UK Games Expo as well as DISTOY 2019 in London.

More information about this release is available here.