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.
Game Review: Mix Up and Connect Four
Out of the Box Publishing, $19.99
Milton Bradley, $12.99
Few games from my childhood do I remember as well as I remember Connect Four. And fewer games can I say are as enjoyable and addictive. When my wife Joni and I were living in England, we spent hours playing Connect Four with children as part of our community youth work. It was one of about three or four games that we found were challenging enough to be fun, but simple enough to go along with a good conversation.
Gameplay is simple: One player is trying to make a row of four black checkers while the other player is trying to do the same with the red checkers. This classic is perfect for the holidays and for family game nights.
If you’re looking for something along the same lines but just a little more challenging, let me introduce you to MixUp.
This new game from Out Of The Box Publishing is great. Basically, it’s the same idea as Connect Four, but in MixUp, you have three different shapes (lightning, teardrop, crescent) on sliding tiles, and each shape comes in three colors (red, blue and green). One player is trying to get four of any shape in a row while the other player is trying to get four of any color in a row. Oh, and you can also go with four of either in a square formation. What results is a game that takes just a little more concentration than you might think, because when you think you are setting yourself up for the win, you may actually be helping your opponent.
Another solid plus for MixUp is the high quality of absolutely every aspect of this game.
This is a new classic that families will keep around for a long, long time.
Milton Bradley, $12.99
Few games from my childhood do I remember as well as I remember Connect Four. And fewer games can I say are as enjoyable and addictive. When my wife Joni and I were living in England, we spent hours playing Connect Four with children as part of our community youth work. It was one of about three or four games that we found were challenging enough to be fun, but simple enough to go along with a good conversation.
Gameplay is simple: One player is trying to make a row of four black checkers while the other player is trying to do the same with the red checkers. This classic is perfect for the holidays and for family game nights.
If you’re looking for something along the same lines but just a little more challenging, let me introduce you to MixUp.
This new game from Out Of The Box Publishing is great. Basically, it’s the same idea as Connect Four, but in MixUp, you have three different shapes (lightning, teardrop, crescent) on sliding tiles, and each shape comes in three colors (red, blue and green). One player is trying to get four of any shape in a row while the other player is trying to get four of any color in a row. Oh, and you can also go with four of either in a square formation. What results is a game that takes just a little more concentration than you might think, because when you think you are setting yourself up for the win, you may actually be helping your opponent.
Another solid plus for MixUp is the high quality of absolutely every aspect of this game.
This is a new classic that families will keep around for a long, long time.
Game Review: Mamma Mia
Rio Grande Games, $11.95
“Mamma Mia!” is a card game that falls into the “memory game” category. According to the box “Mamma Mia!” is “easy, fast, and fun”. Boxes don’t always tell the truth, do they? Well, in this case it does. “Mamma Mia!” is easy to play, moves along quickly, and is fun.
Now if you told me you wanted me to play a memory card game, I’d probably roll my eyes and defer to the kids. Not that there’s anything wrong with memory games, it’s just that they almost always seem to be a version of the game “Concentration” with different pictures and possibly a slight twist on the game play. Well, “Mamma Mia!” is nothing like that.
The goal of the game is to make the most pizzas. At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a special ingredient – olive, pepperoni, jalapeño, pineapple, or mushroom. Six ingredient cards are dealt to each player along with one menu card. On your turn, you may either play as many of a single ingredient as you like or you may play a menu card if you think there are enough unused ingredients in the stack to make that pizza. After you play, you draw from either the ingredient pile or from your menu cards pile to build your hand back up to seven cards. The round ends when a player runs out of cards, and then scoring takes place.
Scoring sounds a little confusing, but after playing a round or two it will make sense. You “take the pizzas out of the oven” by turning the play pile upside down (so the first card played is on top of the stack) and turn the cards over one by one, sorting them into columns by ingredient type. When a menu card comes up, the player who owns the menu card scores it if all the needed ingredients are on the table.
You are allowed to “finish” the pizza with ingredients from your hand. If you can’t complete the pizza, that menu card goes back to the bottom of your stack. After three rounds, the winner is the one with the most completed menu cards.
“Fast, easy, and fun” is indeed a good description of “Mamma Mia!” – and you get to work on your memory to boot! It’s a little confusing the first game because play and scoring are so different from other games, but once you get it, it’s fun. This is another family favorite in
our home.
“Mamma Mia!” is a card game that falls into the “memory game” category. According to the box “Mamma Mia!” is “easy, fast, and fun”. Boxes don’t always tell the truth, do they? Well, in this case it does. “Mamma Mia!” is easy to play, moves along quickly, and is fun.
Now if you told me you wanted me to play a memory card game, I’d probably roll my eyes and defer to the kids. Not that there’s anything wrong with memory games, it’s just that they almost always seem to be a version of the game “Concentration” with different pictures and possibly a slight twist on the game play. Well, “Mamma Mia!” is nothing like that.
The goal of the game is to make the most pizzas. At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a special ingredient – olive, pepperoni, jalapeño, pineapple, or mushroom. Six ingredient cards are dealt to each player along with one menu card. On your turn, you may either play as many of a single ingredient as you like or you may play a menu card if you think there are enough unused ingredients in the stack to make that pizza. After you play, you draw from either the ingredient pile or from your menu cards pile to build your hand back up to seven cards. The round ends when a player runs out of cards, and then scoring takes place.
Scoring sounds a little confusing, but after playing a round or two it will make sense. You “take the pizzas out of the oven” by turning the play pile upside down (so the first card played is on top of the stack) and turn the cards over one by one, sorting them into columns by ingredient type. When a menu card comes up, the player who owns the menu card scores it if all the needed ingredients are on the table.
You are allowed to “finish” the pizza with ingredients from your hand. If you can’t complete the pizza, that menu card goes back to the bottom of your stack. After three rounds, the winner is the one with the most completed menu cards.
“Fast, easy, and fun” is indeed a good description of “Mamma Mia!” – and you get to work on your memory to boot! It’s a little confusing the first game because play and scoring are so different from other games, but once you get it, it’s fun. This is another family favorite in
our home.
Game Review: San Juan
Rio Grande Games, $24.95
Have you ever wanted to play a strategy game, but didn’t have hours to set up and play? San Juan may be the game for you.
The theme of the game is building the city of San Juan, and it contains a couple of cool (in my opinion) features. This game is the “little brother” of Puerto Rico, winner of several international game awards. After playing San Juan several times, I can hardly wait to try its “big brother.”
The goal of the game is simply to have the most points at the end of the game. Each building is worth a certain number of points, and the game ends when a player has built 12 buildings. There are many different buildings, but two main types. Production buildings produce trade goods, and “violet buildings” (so called because – you guessed it – the cards have a violet background) offer various benefits or privileges to the player who builds them or simply add to your victory points.
The first unique feature of this game is the roles. The player who goes first takes the governor chip and selects one of five game roles: builder, producer, trader, prospector, and counselor. Each player takes a turn at that role, and then the next player chooses one of the remaining roles, and all players take a turn at that role. Once all players have had a turn at selecting a role, the governor marker is passed to the next player, and the cycle continues.
There is always a benefit for the player that picks a given role. For instance, if you pick “builder,” buildings costs one less for that turn; if you pick the producer or trader role you can produce or sell one extra good, respectively. In the counselor role, you draw several cards (more for the person who chose it) and get to keep one of your choice. The prospector role allows you to draw one card – the other players get nothing unless they have built a gold mine.
The other unique feature of the game is that the cards are used as buildings, goods and money. You start with four cards in your hand and must spend from them to build any card from your hand. If you produce goods, you take cards (face down) from the draw pile and put them on the producing building. When you sell trade goods, you are paid with new cards for your hand. You always have to decide what cards to build and which ones to spend. The trade good cards are always kept face down, so in any given game, there may be cards that never come into play, because they were used as trade goods. This helps make the game different each time.
The box contains the deck of 120 cards, thick cardboard markers for the governor and the five roles, and six thick cardboard markers indicating prices for trade goods for use during the trading phase. There are also instructions, score pads, and a pencil – another game that is playable right out of the box. Everything is well made and attractive, while I’ve seen better, these seem just right for this game.
Game play is relatively quick and easy. While a good strategy is important, this is a game anyone can play and enjoy, and even a casual player can win. Last time we played, our son (who is below the recommended age) seemed to be playing foolishly. It seemed that even in the game his money was “burning a hole in his pocket.” You can probably guess who won the game – he did! This game probably won’t make my top 10 list, but it’s a comfortable game that can be played in a fairly short time, and that, I think, will make it one we keep going back to.
Have you ever wanted to play a strategy game, but didn’t have hours to set up and play? San Juan may be the game for you.
The theme of the game is building the city of San Juan, and it contains a couple of cool (in my opinion) features. This game is the “little brother” of Puerto Rico, winner of several international game awards. After playing San Juan several times, I can hardly wait to try its “big brother.”
The goal of the game is simply to have the most points at the end of the game. Each building is worth a certain number of points, and the game ends when a player has built 12 buildings. There are many different buildings, but two main types. Production buildings produce trade goods, and “violet buildings” (so called because – you guessed it – the cards have a violet background) offer various benefits or privileges to the player who builds them or simply add to your victory points.
The first unique feature of this game is the roles. The player who goes first takes the governor chip and selects one of five game roles: builder, producer, trader, prospector, and counselor. Each player takes a turn at that role, and then the next player chooses one of the remaining roles, and all players take a turn at that role. Once all players have had a turn at selecting a role, the governor marker is passed to the next player, and the cycle continues.
There is always a benefit for the player that picks a given role. For instance, if you pick “builder,” buildings costs one less for that turn; if you pick the producer or trader role you can produce or sell one extra good, respectively. In the counselor role, you draw several cards (more for the person who chose it) and get to keep one of your choice. The prospector role allows you to draw one card – the other players get nothing unless they have built a gold mine.
The other unique feature of the game is that the cards are used as buildings, goods and money. You start with four cards in your hand and must spend from them to build any card from your hand. If you produce goods, you take cards (face down) from the draw pile and put them on the producing building. When you sell trade goods, you are paid with new cards for your hand. You always have to decide what cards to build and which ones to spend. The trade good cards are always kept face down, so in any given game, there may be cards that never come into play, because they were used as trade goods. This helps make the game different each time.
The box contains the deck of 120 cards, thick cardboard markers for the governor and the five roles, and six thick cardboard markers indicating prices for trade goods for use during the trading phase. There are also instructions, score pads, and a pencil – another game that is playable right out of the box. Everything is well made and attractive, while I’ve seen better, these seem just right for this game.
Game play is relatively quick and easy. While a good strategy is important, this is a game anyone can play and enjoy, and even a casual player can win. Last time we played, our son (who is below the recommended age) seemed to be playing foolishly. It seemed that even in the game his money was “burning a hole in his pocket.” You can probably guess who won the game – he did! This game probably won’t make my top 10 list, but it’s a comfortable game that can be played in a fairly short time, and that, I think, will make it one we keep going back to.
Game Review: Too Many Cooks
R & R Games, $12.95
Have you ever heard the phrase “Too many cooks spoil the broth?” Well, some creative game designer took that concept and made an entertaining card game of it. The concept is similar to the card game “Hearts,” but with a twist. Everyone has their own goal, and a card that is good for you may be one that spoils another player’s soup.
In “Too Many Cooks,” there are four “suits”, each corresponding to a type of soup – onion, pea, mushroom, and chili. A game consists of five rounds. Each player begins the game with five menu cards – one for each type of soup and one marked “No Soup Today.” Every round, each player is dealt 13 cards. After looking at your cards, you decide what type of soup (or “no soup”) you want to play for that hand and secretly select the menu card corresponding to that soup. After all players have chosen their menu cards, they are revealed, and play begins.
Players take turns playing a card and must follow soup... er, I mean suit... if possible, adding the number on their card to the total in the pile. The person sending the total over 10 takes the cards and leads the next trick. The twist is that, in any given round, each player has their own goal. Cards you want to take may actually “spoil” (result in negative points for) other players, or another player may want the same thing you do. At the end of the round, you get one point for each card you take of your flavor and lose a point for each “spoiling” card you take. If you bid “no soup”, then you get five extra points to start with and then lose a point for each card of any type that you take. At the end of five rounds, the highest score wins.
The cards are funny and colorful, although something about the way the cards are made makes the edges a little rough when you are dealing. Play is quick and easy to learn for anyone that can count and add. Since you can never predict who will be attempting which flavor of soup
each round, strategy varies from game to game as well as from round to round.
Hearts has been my favorite card game since college, and Too Many Cooks has quickly become one of my favorite boxed games since a friend introduced me to it earlier this year. The kids love it, too!
Have you ever heard the phrase “Too many cooks spoil the broth?” Well, some creative game designer took that concept and made an entertaining card game of it. The concept is similar to the card game “Hearts,” but with a twist. Everyone has their own goal, and a card that is good for you may be one that spoils another player’s soup.
In “Too Many Cooks,” there are four “suits”, each corresponding to a type of soup – onion, pea, mushroom, and chili. A game consists of five rounds. Each player begins the game with five menu cards – one for each type of soup and one marked “No Soup Today.” Every round, each player is dealt 13 cards. After looking at your cards, you decide what type of soup (or “no soup”) you want to play for that hand and secretly select the menu card corresponding to that soup. After all players have chosen their menu cards, they are revealed, and play begins.
Players take turns playing a card and must follow soup... er, I mean suit... if possible, adding the number on their card to the total in the pile. The person sending the total over 10 takes the cards and leads the next trick. The twist is that, in any given round, each player has their own goal. Cards you want to take may actually “spoil” (result in negative points for) other players, or another player may want the same thing you do. At the end of the round, you get one point for each card you take of your flavor and lose a point for each “spoiling” card you take. If you bid “no soup”, then you get five extra points to start with and then lose a point for each card of any type that you take. At the end of five rounds, the highest score wins.
The cards are funny and colorful, although something about the way the cards are made makes the edges a little rough when you are dealing. Play is quick and easy to learn for anyone that can count and add. Since you can never predict who will be attempting which flavor of soup
each round, strategy varies from game to game as well as from round to round.
Hearts has been my favorite card game since college, and Too Many Cooks has quickly become one of my favorite boxed games since a friend introduced me to it earlier this year. The kids love it, too!
Game Review: Carcassonne
Rio Grande Games, $24.95
My wife Joni and I were in for a real treat this week when we visited our friends, the Stonebraker Family, to play and review Carcassonne. Excellent game!
In this beautiful, well-produced game, players lay down randomly-picked tiles to build towns, roads, monasteries and countryside, then they take one of their “meeps” (little people playing pieces) and, depending on which part of their tile they occupy, these meeps represent farmers, robbers, monks or knights. You get points for completing your cities and roads, and for building nine-by-nine fields and monasteries. The game is over when all the tiles are played, and the winner is, of course, the player with the most points.
This is an excellent game for families, because it is easy to learn and play, yet there is plenty of room to develop complex strategies.
My wife Joni and I were in for a real treat this week when we visited our friends, the Stonebraker Family, to play and review Carcassonne. Excellent game!
In this beautiful, well-produced game, players lay down randomly-picked tiles to build towns, roads, monasteries and countryside, then they take one of their “meeps” (little people playing pieces) and, depending on which part of their tile they occupy, these meeps represent farmers, robbers, monks or knights. You get points for completing your cities and roads, and for building nine-by-nine fields and monasteries. The game is over when all the tiles are played, and the winner is, of course, the player with the most points.
This is an excellent game for families, because it is easy to learn and play, yet there is plenty of room to develop complex strategies.
Game Review: Uno H20
Mattel, $8.99
Yeah, yeah, yeah... we’ve all heard of the card game UNO, but had you heard of UNO H2O? No?
The classic card game, which was created in 1971, now comes as plastic cards that are completely waterproof. This means you can skip, reverse and draw by the pool, at the beach or even in your bathtub.
Semi-transparent, plastic playing cards have become the rage in recent years, so it was only natural that UNO, one of the best family card games ever, would jump on board. The only major drawback will be if you bend the card, because the crease will show up worse. But on the bright side, the cards are more difficult to bend in the first place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... we’ve all heard of the card game UNO, but had you heard of UNO H2O? No?
The classic card game, which was created in 1971, now comes as plastic cards that are completely waterproof. This means you can skip, reverse and draw by the pool, at the beach or even in your bathtub.
Semi-transparent, plastic playing cards have become the rage in recent years, so it was only natural that UNO, one of the best family card games ever, would jump on board. The only major drawback will be if you bend the card, because the crease will show up worse. But on the bright side, the cards are more difficult to bend in the first place.
Game Review: Apples to Apples
Out of the Box Games, $29.99
This game is just silly. And we love it. My wife Joni and I were first introduced to Apples to Apples earlier this year at my aunt Elaine’s house, and at first I didn’t think I’d like it. Now it’s one of my favorite games ever.
The idea is for one person to be the judge and play down a green card that might say something descriptive like “terrible” or “smelly” or “beautiful.” The other players secretly play one of their seven red cards that might say something like “Clint Eastwood” or “underarms” or “politics” or something like that. The judge, possibly being influenced by their own sense of humor, decides which is the best match, the the player of that red card gets to keep the green card. After seven rounds, the player with the most green cards wins.
The box says “for ages 12 & up,” but last week we played it with a family, including their eight-year-old son, and everybody had a great time until late in the evening. What a lot of fun!
This game is just silly. And we love it. My wife Joni and I were first introduced to Apples to Apples earlier this year at my aunt Elaine’s house, and at first I didn’t think I’d like it. Now it’s one of my favorite games ever.
The idea is for one person to be the judge and play down a green card that might say something descriptive like “terrible” or “smelly” or “beautiful.” The other players secretly play one of their seven red cards that might say something like “Clint Eastwood” or “underarms” or “politics” or something like that. The judge, possibly being influenced by their own sense of humor, decides which is the best match, the the player of that red card gets to keep the green card. After seven rounds, the player with the most green cards wins.
The box says “for ages 12 & up,” but last week we played it with a family, including their eight-year-old son, and everybody had a great time until late in the evening. What a lot of fun!
Game Review: Art Ditto
by Birdcage Press, $24.95
We couldn’t have picked a better game for our first-ever GameTime game review!
“Art Ditto” by Birdcage Press is a real winner from the inside out. At the most basic level, this is a 48-card game of “memory,” where you turn the tiles face down and try to match pairs. If it were just a matching game, the high-quality, reproduced art cards are attractive enough to keep our attention. But this game can be stepped up a notch, too.
To play “Art Ditto,” players each take at least one card panel that contains three pictures of classic paintings. As the game of memory progresses, players try to collect the artwork found on their panels. If they do, they get to keep both cards. If a player matches cards belonging to another player’s panel, the two players must share the cards. At game’s end, the winner is the player with the most cards.
We like this new twist, which makes “Art Ditto” a great family game for all ages!
We couldn’t have picked a better game for our first-ever GameTime game review!
“Art Ditto” by Birdcage Press is a real winner from the inside out. At the most basic level, this is a 48-card game of “memory,” where you turn the tiles face down and try to match pairs. If it were just a matching game, the high-quality, reproduced art cards are attractive enough to keep our attention. But this game can be stepped up a notch, too.
To play “Art Ditto,” players each take at least one card panel that contains three pictures of classic paintings. As the game of memory progresses, players try to collect the artwork found on their panels. If they do, they get to keep both cards. If a player matches cards belonging to another player’s panel, the two players must share the cards. At game’s end, the winner is the player with the most cards.
We like this new twist, which makes “Art Ditto” a great family game for all ages!
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