UK Design Firm Puts a New Spin on Your Favorite Childhood Games

A game of rock-paper-scissors doesn’t require any equipment, but maybe it should. Angus Hyland of the acclaimed design firm Pentagram has recreated both the classic schoolyard game and the board game, Battleship, as Co.Design reports. And they look cool enough to break out at any game night, regardless of whether kids are present.

Rock Paper Scissors Bomb’s Italian Futurist-inspired illustrations bring an art museum aesthetic to what’s essentially a reworking of the card game War, but with a trump card. When you’re throwing around hand signs on the playground, a “bomb” (or "dynamite") option would bring the game to a halt immediately, but since Rock Paper Scissors Bomb is based on random draws, a wild card makes more sense. You can’t out-guess your opponent’s move when the game is based on luck, but then again, you don’t have to obsess over your opponent’s thought process either. (For those of you who've never heard of the bomb option, its rules and legitimacy are highly contested.)

In contrast to Rock Paper Scissors Bomb, Dazzleships Battleships actually reduces the amount of equipment you'd need to play classic Battleship. Hyland turned it into a game played with dueling notebooks—and a little glitz inspired by the dazzle camouflage that American and British warships used during World War I. Instead of moving plastic ships around on a board, players plot their fleet out on nautical maps in paper notebooks decorated with the kind of complicated geometry that decorated dazzle ships.

Both Rock Paper Scissors Bomb and Dazzleships Battleships are certainly flashy ways to bring schoolyard favorites to your next dinner party. Dazzleships Battleships is currently available for $16, and Rock Paper Scissors Bomb is set for release in March.

[h/t Co.Design]

All images courtesy Pentagram