One thousand years ago, superstition and the sword ruled. It was a time of darkness. It was
a world of fear. It was the age of Gargoyles.

Stone by day, warriors by night, we were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect, frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years.
Now here in Manhattan, the spell is broken, and we live again!

We are defenders of the night. We are Gargoyles!

This is an epic year to be a fan of Gargoyles. The Gargoyles series officially made it’s debut on 10/24/94, but you would think that Gargoyles was a current show with as much love and attention that it is getting with new merchandise and collectibles this year. New Gargoyles merch include a Gargoyles series of Q-Figs from Quantum Mechanics, an ultimates Gargoyles action figure line from NECA, and an amazing board game from Ravensburger which we will be taking a closer look at in this blog.

Milton Bradley produced two Gargoyles board games in the mid 1990s. Parker Brothers released a Gargoyles battle style card game in 1994. Sega Genesis had a Gargoyles side scrolling platform video game in 1995. Gargoyles characters were recently added to popular mobile games Disney’s Sorcerer Arena and Disney Emoji Blitz in 2020. In August 2021, Ravensburger is taking Gargoyles games to the new heights with their Gargoyles: Awakening board game.

Ravensburger games and puzzles are always a great time for the family. Their popular Disney board game “Disney Villainous: The Worst Takes It All” took home Toy of the Year honors in 2019. Ravensburger’s attention to detail and love for the characters in the games that they produce is what helps make their products on another level.

Our friends at Ravensburger sent over a copy of Gargoyles: Awakening for us to check out.

Let’s take a look at the packaging for Gargoyles: Awakening.

Packaging

The front of the box features Goliath, Hudson, Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington, and Bronx. All of these characters are playable in the gain except for Bronx who is swapped out for Elisa Masa. Side profiles of the two main villains of the game, Demona and David Xanatos, are also included on the front of the box as part of the castle window archway. The box artwork looks great and would definitely make this game box standout on the shelf.

The back of the box shows the game board as well as everything that comes in the box which we will go into further details down below.

What’s in the Box?

Game Board, 3 City Buildings, Police Clock Tower Building, Eyrie Building, 6 Hero Placards, 6 Hero Figures, 60 Hero Cards (10 per hero), 18 Minion Tokens, 10 Skill Tokens, 3 Data Disk Tokens, Grimorun Arcanorum Token, 5 Custom Dice, Villain Health Tracker, 8 Health Tracker Clips, 2 Villains Standees, 40 Villain Cards, 4 Episode Placards, Instructions Booklet

New games can be intimidating to learn, but the detailed instructions booklet includes all of the game information to get you going fast.

There are 5 buildings that you will need to construct which will transform your game board into a dynamic 3D game board.

The buildings were easy to assemble as the step by step instructions are included in the instructions booklet. Note: You will have to disassemble the buildings for all of the pieces to fit back into the box when you are done with the game.

Here is the gorgeous game board before the buildings are attached.

The bottom of the Gargoyles: Awakening game board could have easily been plain black, but this is a Ravensburger game so you know that no detail is left behind. The bottom of the game board features artwork of the game’s villains, Demona and David Xanatos.

The game board comes alive when you add the five buildings that you have assembled.

Here are the six colorful hero figures: Hudson, Broadway, Elisa Mesa, Goliath, Brooklyn, and Lexington.

The hardest part about this game is choosing which great character to play as for your hero. Bronx is missing from this Gargoyles clan. If Ravensburger ever make an expansion pack to this game, I would love to see characters like Bronx, Angela, Macbeth, Demona, and David Xanatos added as playable figures.

There is a Hero Placard for each playable hero in the game. This card will help you keep track of your hero’s health and remind you of your hero’s special moves and day time mode behavior.

Each hero also gets 10 cards featuring original Gargoyles art. I love the art on these cards.

Demona and David Xanatos are in the game as Villain Standees. In the game episode, Battle with the Steel Clan, one of the players will be Xanatos and all of the other players try to defeat him…more on that later.

Minion tokens include Bikers, Steel Clan, Enslaved, and Coldstone.

The Grimorum Arcanorum, Eye of Odin, and Data Disk tokens are used in the different Gargoyles episode game modes.

The stone themed dice have different designs that can cause no damage, one damage, or could activate your heroes’ special ability.

Game Episodes

There are four Gargoyles episodes / game modes included in this game: Reawakening, Information Warfare, Temptation and Magic, and Battle with the Steel Clan. There is an Episode Placard for each episode that will explain that episode’s rules and goal. The back of the card shows you which components you will need for each episode as well as how to setup your game board to start.

Reawakening is a great episode to start with when you are first learning to play. All episodes except for Battle with the Steel Clan are co-op games where 2-5 players play together to complete the episode’s goal. Each game takes 45-60 minutes. In Battle with the Steel Clan, one player is David Xanatos and the other players try to take him and the Steel Clan down.

I love the episode approach as it makes the game have big replay value.

Each episode also has it’s own set of Villain cards with original villain themed Gargoyles art.

Here is the game board setup to play the Reawakening episode.

Where to Buy?

Ravensburger’s Gargoyles: Awakening will be released on 8/1 and can be found exclusively in Target stores or on Target’s website.

Order: Gargoyles: Awakening

Final Thoughts

We live again! If you haven’t seen an episode of Gargoyles before, all episodes are available on Disney+ so start binging. If you are a fan of Gargoyles, then owning this game is essential to your collection. The amount of passion and love for the Gargoyles franchise from Ravensburger can definitely be seen by the amount of detail and design that went into this game. No detail was spared, and there is great original Gargoyles artwork everywhere. Gargoyles: Awakening is definitely for fans made by fans. Not only does the game look epic and amazing, but the gameplay is easy to pick up and not overwhelming at all. The four episodes included in Gargoyles: Awakening make each time that you play the game fresh, and the callbacks to the series pulls on my nostalgic heart strings every time. It is the perfect game for the Gargoyles franchise and fans.

A big thanks to Ravensburger for letting me try out this game a little early as I have been obsessing about the game since it was announced a few months ago. We live again!