MixUp

Let me tell you about MixUp, the game.

It is a two-player, multi-kibbitzer kind of strategic-like game. If you've ever played or seen a game called "Connect Four," you'll figure out the game more or less immediately, until you begin to realize the implications. Ah, the implications. There's a board with chutes, you could say, and it stands up, and you take turns dropping pieces into any channel, even on top of your opponent's tiles, in a familiarly Connect-Four-like manner.

Oh, your opponent's pieces, which are, actually, just like yours, except from the opponent's perspective they are mere shapes, while perhaps similarly from your perspecitive the tiles are mere colors, depending on who plays what. And you see, yes, of course, you are trying to get four-in-a-row of your what-have-you, but also, with all this color/shape craziness, you can get four-in-a-box. And then you win.

And then you slide all the tiles back into their compartment on the back of the board. And you slide the legs off and use them for the lid. And there you have it. Well-made. Well-played. Yet another fascinatingly Major Fun experience, from designer Maureen Hiron.