Unparalleled: Slings and Arrows sees The Bard’s most famous characters battle it out on the tabletop

By James On Jun 12, 2024

Unparalleled, the incredible action board game franchise from Restoration Games, sends its latest standalone expansion into the world today. Titled Unparalleled: slings and arrows, starring The Bard himself, master William Shakespeare, alongside a handful of his most memorable creations. If you’ve ever sat through a sophomore English Language Arts course or, gods forbid, been an English Literature major like me, then you’re in for a treat.

In Unmatched, players take on the role of beloved pop culture characters, but compete against each other in 1v1 or 2v2 battles. The system relies on action cards to power combat, as well as collectible game boards that provide unique restrictions on movement and line of sight. But beyond that solid foundation of gameplay, the franchise is best known for its ever-growing roster of characters, including Robin Hood, Ms. Marvel, Houdini and Bruce Lee, to name a few. It’s the only modern board game I know of that lets you pit Spider-Man against the cast Buffy the Vampire Slayerthen leave out the birds of prey Jurassic Park compete against the winner.

Slings and arrows adds six new main characters to the Unparalleled universe, as well as a few sidekicks. Best of all, each of the four powerful forces in the box plays completely differently.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

Shakespeare is accompanied by three sidekicks, who are essentially nameless actors. His cards are powerful enough, with enough ways to land a blow or land a blow. The gimmick is that by playing cards at the table you also try to create a line of poetry of ten syllables. Once you’ve strung together enough words, you get a bonus effect from the first card played in the row. And yes, the performance of that line, once formed, is required to score – it’s in the rules!

The Wayward Sisters, also known as the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, come with their own cardboard kettle. Each of their action cards contains an ingredient, and by playing cards of the right type in the correct order, you can cast spells that grant extra movement, increased damage, and more.

Unmatched gives Hamlet some extra color and interprets him in his own way, just as the best actors have done throughout the centuries. Here he has a lot of control over his ‘madness’, indicated by a token marked ‘To be’ on one side and ‘Not to be’ on the other. Depending on which side is up, Hamlet can draw extra cards or deal extra damage during battle. Meanwhile, his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern look on approvingly.

Finally there is Titania A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Together with her partner Oberon, who looks like he has one Hades 2-style glowup, the agile fairy uses her six glamor cards to confuse and baffle her opponents.

All in all, it’s an excellent package, especially for the price of $39.99. It even includes custom plastic packaging to keep track of all the bits.

Unparalleled: slings and arrows is available now from the publisher and online from retailers such as Amazon. It was previewed using a retail copy of Restoration Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.