Days of Wonder, $40
Ticket to Ride is a game where two to five players ages 8 and up compete for the highest score for by connecting cities across the United States with train routes. To start the game, each player picks a color and takes the 45 train car pieces and scoring marker of that color. Each player also draws three ticket cards and must keep two of them. The tickets define a pair of cities and a point value. If you can connect the cities on your ticket before play ends, then you get the number of points on the card. If you do not connect the cities, you lose that many points.
Play is simple. On each turn you have three options. You may either draw three tickets – keeping at least one in your hand, or you may draw 2 cards (either from four face up cards or “blind” from the deck), or you may claim (“buy”) a route – a path between two cities. Routes vary in their requirements (“cost”) from one card up to seven cards, either of a specific color or any single color. The longer a route is, the more points it scores. For example, a one card route scores 1 point, a three card route scores 4 points, and a six-card route scores a whopping 15 points. Some city pairs have two connecting routes, but most only allow one, so there
will always be competition for key routes.
Scoring for individual routes happens throughout the game, but ticket scoring only takes place at the end of the game. The game ends when a player is down to 2 or less train pieces. All tickets are then scored, and the player with the longest continuous route gets 10 bonus points.
The production values are fantastic. Days of Wonder strives to provide top notch game components, and it shows. The box, board, and playing pieces are all nice, attractive, and have the look and feel of quality. They even include a bag of extra playing pieces of each color knowing that with 45 required per color, it’s highly likely that you’re going to lose some over the years. The game is ready to play as soon as you open the box. No breaking pieces off of plastic “trees” or other such set up – just unfold the board, pick your colors, shuffle the cards, and play. Even the 45 train pieces you need to play for each color are already separated into their own bags. The spares are in a bag by themselves. I, for one, appreciated not having to count 45 pieces of each color before playing. Also included in the package is a code allowing you 6 months of free play on Days of Wonder’s web site. Here they have several of their games, including Ticket to Ride that can be played on-line with people from all over the world.
Ticket to Ride is one of the games our whole family will play. It’s simple and lighthearted enough for those who want a casual game, but there is plenty of strategy for those who want a deeper game. A typical game takes 30 to 60 minutes. Competition is always fierce (in a friendly way) as well. In our first game as a family, my wife and younger daughter (the more casual gamers in the family) tied for the win, and 2 of the other three of us also tied for second (or was that last?). The most recent game we played, I ended the game the turn before my oldest daughter would have scored a 21 point route. That made for a 42 point swing – she would have crushed us – leaving me with a win (for a change)!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Game Review: Nerdy Wordy
Briarpatch, $17.99
Nerdy Wordy is a new word game from Briarpatch. At first I thought I had never heard of Briarpatch, but after looking at their web site, I realized I’m familiar with their games – just not the company. They also produce the “I Spy” games, “Thomas and Friends” games, and others you would probably recognize.
As a fan of word games, I was excited to give this one a try. It’s also a two-player game, and we’ve come to realize there are times that you can only find one person to play, so two player games are also of interest.
The game has two flip-top game boards (like the old “Battleship” game, each equipped with 25 letter cubes - five containing the letters A through F, five with G to L, five with M to R, five with S to X, three with Y and Z, and two blanks (wild cards).
The game boards contain five rows of five wells in which to place the cubes. You take turns choosing a letter from your remaining cubes, and both players secretly place the cubes into their board. The goal is to form as many words as possible - crossword style. When the all letters have been used and the boards are full, the winner is the one with the most points.
You get points for complete words but also for words within words. For examples, “STEAM” contains “TEAM”, “TEA”, and “AM” - all of them score.
Although the game seems like it should be fun, my oldest daughter and I didn’t really like it. For one thing, with the premium placed on words that contain other words, it seemed like the winner was always going to be the one using the big point words. For example, “STONE” contains “TONE”, “TON”, “ONE”, and “ON” - at five points per letter, that’s 85 points. Also, the game boards seemed small - especially compared to the size of the box - and were quite hard to open.
All in all, though, it’s challenging, quick, and easy to play. My guess is that it would be more fun for younger word game players, as they are more likely to keep trying different strategies and words rather than quickly realizing the need to use the “big money” words.
Nerdy Wordy is a new word game from Briarpatch. At first I thought I had never heard of Briarpatch, but after looking at their web site, I realized I’m familiar with their games – just not the company. They also produce the “I Spy” games, “Thomas and Friends” games, and others you would probably recognize.
As a fan of word games, I was excited to give this one a try. It’s also a two-player game, and we’ve come to realize there are times that you can only find one person to play, so two player games are also of interest.
The game has two flip-top game boards (like the old “Battleship” game, each equipped with 25 letter cubes - five containing the letters A through F, five with G to L, five with M to R, five with S to X, three with Y and Z, and two blanks (wild cards).
The game boards contain five rows of five wells in which to place the cubes. You take turns choosing a letter from your remaining cubes, and both players secretly place the cubes into their board. The goal is to form as many words as possible - crossword style. When the all letters have been used and the boards are full, the winner is the one with the most points.
You get points for complete words but also for words within words. For examples, “STEAM” contains “TEAM”, “TEA”, and “AM” - all of them score.
Although the game seems like it should be fun, my oldest daughter and I didn’t really like it. For one thing, with the premium placed on words that contain other words, it seemed like the winner was always going to be the one using the big point words. For example, “STONE” contains “TONE”, “TON”, “ONE”, and “ON” - at five points per letter, that’s 85 points. Also, the game boards seemed small - especially compared to the size of the box - and were quite hard to open.
All in all, though, it’s challenging, quick, and easy to play. My guess is that it would be more fun for younger word game players, as they are more likely to keep trying different strategies and words rather than quickly realizing the need to use the “big money” words.
Game Review: Mad Gab Mania
Mattel,
rebus: noun - a representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound.
“Mad Gab Mania” is a new DVD game from Mattel, based on their game “Mad Gab.” Some of you out there may already have guessed that these games are based on rebuses – word puzzles using pictures where you have to sound out the pictures to figure out the word or phrase that solves the puzzle.
Since we all love word games, the family was very interested in this one. In the game, two teams compete for the most points by solving rebuses. Throw in sound effects, hints, timers, a verbally abusive emcee, and a few other twists, and you have an entertaining party game.
The box contains the DVD, instructions, and two remotes - batteries not included. You need to follow the instructions carefully for programming the remotes using your own DVD player’s remote or you’ll wind up a tad frustrated. (Don’t ask me how I know that!) Once you have the remotes programmed, load the DVD, choose teams, decide who gets which color (blue and orange are the team choices), and play away.
We had a lot of fun with this game the first time. The only complaints we had were that the game offered “catch up” questions to the losing team to keep the game close. Upon further plays, we found this feature caused it to often be advantageous to not get a question right. As a matter of fact, on our second game, we got some repeat puzzles, and puzzles that gave the other team a chance to steal points with the same question. Because of that, repeat playability is limited.When we saw a question that could be stolen, no one wanted to answer the question, because the points would always wind up going to the other team.
All in all, I’d have to call this more of a party game than a family game. What I mean by that is that at parties, you might have different groups of people over who will be enjoying the game fresh each time, whereas in a family situation you’ll quickly find that you’re getting repeat puzzles that take away from the game’s replayability.
If limited replay doesn’t bother you for a game this price, then you’ll certainly have fun and a few laughs playing this game.
rebus: noun - a representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound.
“Mad Gab Mania” is a new DVD game from Mattel, based on their game “Mad Gab.” Some of you out there may already have guessed that these games are based on rebuses – word puzzles using pictures where you have to sound out the pictures to figure out the word or phrase that solves the puzzle.
Since we all love word games, the family was very interested in this one. In the game, two teams compete for the most points by solving rebuses. Throw in sound effects, hints, timers, a verbally abusive emcee, and a few other twists, and you have an entertaining party game.
The box contains the DVD, instructions, and two remotes - batteries not included. You need to follow the instructions carefully for programming the remotes using your own DVD player’s remote or you’ll wind up a tad frustrated. (Don’t ask me how I know that!) Once you have the remotes programmed, load the DVD, choose teams, decide who gets which color (blue and orange are the team choices), and play away.
We had a lot of fun with this game the first time. The only complaints we had were that the game offered “catch up” questions to the losing team to keep the game close. Upon further plays, we found this feature caused it to often be advantageous to not get a question right. As a matter of fact, on our second game, we got some repeat puzzles, and puzzles that gave the other team a chance to steal points with the same question. Because of that, repeat playability is limited.When we saw a question that could be stolen, no one wanted to answer the question, because the points would always wind up going to the other team.
All in all, I’d have to call this more of a party game than a family game. What I mean by that is that at parties, you might have different groups of people over who will be enjoying the game fresh each time, whereas in a family situation you’ll quickly find that you’re getting repeat puzzles that take away from the game’s replayability.
If limited replay doesn’t bother you for a game this price, then you’ll certainly have fun and a few laughs playing this game.
Game Review: Uno Spin
Mattel, $17.99
Uno spin is the latest twist on Uno, an old classic. If you have never played Uno, before you continue reading put the paper down, go out and buy Uno, play a few games, and then come back to the paper. I’ll wait...
Good. Now that we’ve taken care of that, let’s talk about Uno Spin. (Now I know there are some of you out there who were too stubborn or lazy to follow the instructions above, and it’s just not my fault if you don’t get much out of the rest of the review!)
Uno spin is just like regular Uno with one major difference – that would be the large spinner from which the game gets its name. It plays just like Uno except that some cards have a “spinner” background. When one of these cards is played, the next player spins the wheel instead of taking a normal turn. Then a special action is taken as a result of the spin, and play continues.
The special spinner actions are: “Almost Uno” - discard all but 2 cards; “Discard Number” - discard all cards of the same number; “Discard Color” - discard all cards of the same color; “Draw Red” - draw until you get a red card or wild card; “Draw Blue”-– the effect of this card is intuitively obvious to the casual observer and is left as an exercise for the student; “Trade Hands” - all players pass off all of their cards to the player on their left; “Show Hand” - show your hand to all the other players; “War” - all players show their highest card, and the player with the highest card wins - in cases of ties, repeat until there is a winner; “Uno Spin” - the first player to say “UNO Spin” (note that it doesn’t say ‘shout’, but that’s usually what winds up happening) discards one card.
The spinner is about the size of a dinner plate and is easy to operate and read. It includes places in the center for the draw and discard piles. Everything is colorful and seems to be high quality.
My only beef with the game (and if you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know this is somewhat important to me) is that it doesn’t store well. The box wasn’t really made for storage, although we have managed to use it for that. If you didn’t save the box or don’t have enough patience to coax the parts back into the plastic insert, then you have the spinner to store as well as a deck of cards. I recommend keeping the box and having enough patience.
There you have it. You now know all there is to know about UNO spin. It’s easy and fun for the whole family. There aren’t a large number of games that are easy enough for the young ones to play (and be competitive) while still being fun and interesting for the adults. This is one of those games. If you like UNO and its other variants, you’ll like UNO Spin.
The game’s retail price is set at $17.99, but we’ve found it advertised for as little as $11, which is a good value.
Uno spin is the latest twist on Uno, an old classic. If you have never played Uno, before you continue reading put the paper down, go out and buy Uno, play a few games, and then come back to the paper. I’ll wait...
Good. Now that we’ve taken care of that, let’s talk about Uno Spin. (Now I know there are some of you out there who were too stubborn or lazy to follow the instructions above, and it’s just not my fault if you don’t get much out of the rest of the review!)
Uno spin is just like regular Uno with one major difference – that would be the large spinner from which the game gets its name. It plays just like Uno except that some cards have a “spinner” background. When one of these cards is played, the next player spins the wheel instead of taking a normal turn. Then a special action is taken as a result of the spin, and play continues.
The special spinner actions are: “Almost Uno” - discard all but 2 cards; “Discard Number” - discard all cards of the same number; “Discard Color” - discard all cards of the same color; “Draw Red” - draw until you get a red card or wild card; “Draw Blue”-– the effect of this card is intuitively obvious to the casual observer and is left as an exercise for the student; “Trade Hands” - all players pass off all of their cards to the player on their left; “Show Hand” - show your hand to all the other players; “War” - all players show their highest card, and the player with the highest card wins - in cases of ties, repeat until there is a winner; “Uno Spin” - the first player to say “UNO Spin” (note that it doesn’t say ‘shout’, but that’s usually what winds up happening) discards one card.
The spinner is about the size of a dinner plate and is easy to operate and read. It includes places in the center for the draw and discard piles. Everything is colorful and seems to be high quality.
My only beef with the game (and if you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know this is somewhat important to me) is that it doesn’t store well. The box wasn’t really made for storage, although we have managed to use it for that. If you didn’t save the box or don’t have enough patience to coax the parts back into the plastic insert, then you have the spinner to store as well as a deck of cards. I recommend keeping the box and having enough patience.
There you have it. You now know all there is to know about UNO spin. It’s easy and fun for the whole family. There aren’t a large number of games that are easy enough for the young ones to play (and be competitive) while still being fun and interesting for the adults. This is one of those games. If you like UNO and its other variants, you’ll like UNO Spin.
The game’s retail price is set at $17.99, but we’ve found it advertised for as little as $11, which is a good value.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Game Review: Pick Two
Outset Media, $19.99
Pick Two is a fun, unique crossword puzzle type game. Everyone starts off with 8 random letter tiles, each with a point value like that other classic crossword style game (it rhymes with “babble”). You then try to arrange all your letters into a crossword (like that other game).
The first person to successfully arrange their tiles says “Pick Two,” and everyone picks two more tiles from the bag. Then you have to add to or rearrange your crossword to incorporate the new tiles. This keeps going until there are no more tiles left in the bag and someone can yell “pick two” again.
You can play a single round or keep a running score card. At the end of each round, everyone gets points only for the tiles they have not included in their crossword, and the low score wins.
Clever, fun, fast paced and mentally stimulating - we liked it. The only drawback is that, if you get behind, the game is no fun - if you have several letters you’re still trying to figure out, and someone keeps yelling “pick two,” the tiles just keep piling up, and it can get very frustrating.
The back of the box says, “If you don’t feel ‘Pick Two’ is the best word game ever, I would like to hear from you” - quoted from the company president. I’m not sure I can agree with him, but I can’t disagree, either - this is an excellent game. If you like word games (like that other game), then you’ll love “Pick Two.”
Pick Two is a fun, unique crossword puzzle type game. Everyone starts off with 8 random letter tiles, each with a point value like that other classic crossword style game (it rhymes with “babble”). You then try to arrange all your letters into a crossword (like that other game).
The first person to successfully arrange their tiles says “Pick Two,” and everyone picks two more tiles from the bag. Then you have to add to or rearrange your crossword to incorporate the new tiles. This keeps going until there are no more tiles left in the bag and someone can yell “pick two” again.
You can play a single round or keep a running score card. At the end of each round, everyone gets points only for the tiles they have not included in their crossword, and the low score wins.
Clever, fun, fast paced and mentally stimulating - we liked it. The only drawback is that, if you get behind, the game is no fun - if you have several letters you’re still trying to figure out, and someone keeps yelling “pick two,” the tiles just keep piling up, and it can get very frustrating.
The back of the box says, “If you don’t feel ‘Pick Two’ is the best word game ever, I would like to hear from you” - quoted from the company president. I’m not sure I can agree with him, but I can’t disagree, either - this is an excellent game. If you like word games (like that other game), then you’ll love “Pick Two.”
Game Review: American Trivia - Jr. Edition
Outset Media, $29.95
This is your basic board game. You start at “start” and win by reaching “finish” first. In this case, you move one space at the beginning of a turn, and then answer a trivia question from the category corresponding to the space you landed on. If you answer the question correctly, you move another space. Rinse, repeat until you either miss a question or draw a card that ends your turn.
Topics questioned are history, geography, and general. The board also contains several flag spaces that require you to draw a flag card. These cards may help you, hurt you, help another player, or just end your turn. They add a little randomness to the game and can help balance things out. They definitely prevent someone who knows all the answers from winning the game on their first turn - a feature that will keep younger players from becoming discouraged.
The only knock I have on this game is that the “general” category cards (related to American life and culture in general) sometimes included questions about TV shows, movies, or personalities that aren’t necessarily family friendly. All in all, though, this is a good game, although it is more suited for the classroom than the family game room.
This is your basic board game. You start at “start” and win by reaching “finish” first. In this case, you move one space at the beginning of a turn, and then answer a trivia question from the category corresponding to the space you landed on. If you answer the question correctly, you move another space. Rinse, repeat until you either miss a question or draw a card that ends your turn.
Topics questioned are history, geography, and general. The board also contains several flag spaces that require you to draw a flag card. These cards may help you, hurt you, help another player, or just end your turn. They add a little randomness to the game and can help balance things out. They definitely prevent someone who knows all the answers from winning the game on their first turn - a feature that will keep younger players from becoming discouraged.
The only knock I have on this game is that the “general” category cards (related to American life and culture in general) sometimes included questions about TV shows, movies, or personalities that aren’t necessarily family friendly. All in all, though, this is a good game, although it is more suited for the classroom than the family game room.
Game Review: Lexogon and Lexogon One
Tippecanoe, LLC, $29.95
Tippecanoe, LLC, $27.95
Lexogon is a unique, new word game we recently discovered. The name is a combination of “lexicon” meaning “vocabulary” and “octagon”, the shape of the game’s playing area. The concept is quite simple: Roll the die and travel around the board while trying to score a credit in each of the color categories. The winner is the first person to complete all the categories.
“That’s nice,” you say, “but how do you score these credits and what makes the color categories different?” Well, I’m glad you asked! Each color space requires that you draw a clue card, and within 90 seconds come up with a word using the three letters corresponding to that color on the clue card - if you don’t, the other players can capture the credit.
But wait, there’s more! Each color also has a rule for how the letters must occur in the word. Some rules are simple - the first clue letter must be the first letter of the word; the last clue letter must be the last letter of the word; or the first clue letter must be the second letter of the word. Other rules are a bit more difficult - the word must begin with the first clue letter and end with the last; the first and second clue letters must be adjacent; the first clue letter must be the first letter in the word, and no clue letter may be adjacent to another; or, finally, the letters must all be adjacent, but the word may not begin with the first clue letter nor end with the third.
The game itself is well made and well thought out from the slick, high-quality game board and cards, metal playing pieces, score pads and included pencils. They even include two timers (the old hourglass variety) so you can keep the game moving instead of having to wait for the sand to finish falling on a single timer if someone answers the question with time to spare. Even the box is cleverly designed to hold all of the components. If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for clever storage in the box – there’s nothing worse than pulling a game off the shelf only to find the contents scrambled because the box wasn’t well designed. (Okay, there are actually quite a few things that are worse, but you get the idea.) Throw in some random event cards to even things out if you have mixed skill/vocabulary levels - or not if you want the game to be purely skill based - and you have a game that’s fun, competitive, and a good brain workout.
If Lexogon sounds a bit too difficult for your tastes, there’s also Lexogon One, which is designed for a slightly younger audience. The main difference is that the clues are only two letters, and the color rules are slightly different. For us, we like Lexogon better, and even our eight year old enjoys the play - and surprises us often when he comes up with a great answer. One of the things we like best about this game is that everyone is playing all the time - even when it’s not your turn, you’re still playing.
It’s not often you find a game that’s this fun and educational - Lexogon is a great addition to the family game shelf or the classroom.
Tippecanoe, LLC, $27.95
Lexogon is a unique, new word game we recently discovered. The name is a combination of “lexicon” meaning “vocabulary” and “octagon”, the shape of the game’s playing area. The concept is quite simple: Roll the die and travel around the board while trying to score a credit in each of the color categories. The winner is the first person to complete all the categories.
“That’s nice,” you say, “but how do you score these credits and what makes the color categories different?” Well, I’m glad you asked! Each color space requires that you draw a clue card, and within 90 seconds come up with a word using the three letters corresponding to that color on the clue card - if you don’t, the other players can capture the credit.
But wait, there’s more! Each color also has a rule for how the letters must occur in the word. Some rules are simple - the first clue letter must be the first letter of the word; the last clue letter must be the last letter of the word; or the first clue letter must be the second letter of the word. Other rules are a bit more difficult - the word must begin with the first clue letter and end with the last; the first and second clue letters must be adjacent; the first clue letter must be the first letter in the word, and no clue letter may be adjacent to another; or, finally, the letters must all be adjacent, but the word may not begin with the first clue letter nor end with the third.
The game itself is well made and well thought out from the slick, high-quality game board and cards, metal playing pieces, score pads and included pencils. They even include two timers (the old hourglass variety) so you can keep the game moving instead of having to wait for the sand to finish falling on a single timer if someone answers the question with time to spare. Even the box is cleverly designed to hold all of the components. If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for clever storage in the box – there’s nothing worse than pulling a game off the shelf only to find the contents scrambled because the box wasn’t well designed. (Okay, there are actually quite a few things that are worse, but you get the idea.) Throw in some random event cards to even things out if you have mixed skill/vocabulary levels - or not if you want the game to be purely skill based - and you have a game that’s fun, competitive, and a good brain workout.
If Lexogon sounds a bit too difficult for your tastes, there’s also Lexogon One, which is designed for a slightly younger audience. The main difference is that the clues are only two letters, and the color rules are slightly different. For us, we like Lexogon better, and even our eight year old enjoys the play - and surprises us often when he comes up with a great answer. One of the things we like best about this game is that everyone is playing all the time - even when it’s not your turn, you’re still playing.
It’s not often you find a game that’s this fun and educational - Lexogon is a great addition to the family game shelf or the classroom.
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