Button Men, the dice-rolling beat ‘em up with actual buttons, is coming back after 18 years

Button Men was a curious micro game designed and published by Cheapass Games founder James Ernest in 1999 that featured characters printed on actual stickpin buttons that would then beat each other up. Now, this tiny curiosity is making a comeback, nearly two decades on.

At the time of its original release, the five-minute dice-roller earned a following after doing the convention circuit during the year, and ended up picking up two Origins awards for best graphic presentation and best abstract board game.

Cheapass has announced that the new version of Button Men, which will take to Kickstarter on April 25th, will actually drop the unique medium of its name, swapping the buttons for cards due to the increased cost.

As such, the box will come with 48 character cards and 30 dice for around $35 to $40 – so about £30 in the UK.

The publisher added that the benefit of adopting this new format would be the ability to sell expansions as decks of cards, but didn’t say anything more about what such sets could consist of, when we might see them or how much they’d cost.

If you’re looking to pick up the classic Button Men set, there will be some sets floating around on International Tabletop Day, but only in the US – maybe head to eBay after the event to see if you can hunt down a copy.