Mondo's King of Movies: The Leonard Maltin Game is the tabletop experience for cinema fans. For forty years, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide served as the film geek's Holy Bible, an annually updated softcover brick of a reference book, packed with thoughtful, witty, and occasionally weird capsule reviews of thousands of movies. Those synopses are at the heart of King of Movies: The Leonard Maltin Game, a tabletop casual party game of creative invention and hilarious deception. "I love talking about movies. Now's your chance to step into my shoes," says Leonard Maltin.

While the title and the source material of this latest Mondo game sound incredibly intimidating, the game is really for anyone. In King of Movies, it doesn't matter if you've seen every movie ever made or if you've never seen a movie in your life. The fun is in the fibbing and trying to throw the other players off. One player reads a movie title and the other players invent a short synopsis in Leonard Maltin's unique style, with the goal being to trick the other players into thinking theirs is the real Maltin review. If you choose the real Maltin or you fool another player, you score. It's a pretty interesting premise, which sounds perfect for a party, whenever those are able to happen again.

Even during this time of being stuck indoors, Mondo has us covered. Stuck at home, apart from your movie-loving friends? Not a problem. One person can own the physical game and everyone else can easily play along via Zoom with the King of Movies app for iOS and Android. They've truly thought about everything. Featuring handsome packaging with art by Mondo all-star Matt Taylor, the game contains everything you need to play the game with up to six players.

King of Movies already sounds like it has everything, but there's an extra creative element added in. If your synopsis is extra creative, your insane/brilliant/outrageous movie idea might just become a future cinematic sensation. Snap a photo of your best and most creative King of Movies synopses and post them to Twitter and Instagram with #MaltinKingofMovies. On January 1st of each year, Leonard Maltin himself will choose one synopsis that will be officially optioned by Drafthouse Films. How crazy is that? Maltin will be going through and reading these fake ideas, which may end hitting the big screen, whenever movie theaters are allowed to open their doors again. Even so, a VOD release would still be pretty amazing, especially if the idea was done of the top of your head after a few adult beverages late at night with close friends.

King of Movies is for 2-6 players. Ages 3+. Designed by Ant Timpson with art by Matt Taylor. The game is produced by Tim League and Mondo Games, with writing and editing by Zack Carlson. King of Movies is expected to ship September 2020 and will cost $25. You can head over to Mondo to pre-order your own copy.

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