Walk the Dogs

Walk the Dogs is probably one of the most beautiful, most playable, and most original family game (8 and up) on the market. How's that for an enthusiastic review?

The game consists of 63 plastic dogs (colorful, carefully detailed, and highly covetable by anyone older than 3) and a deck of cards. The dogs, as this thoroughly instructional video shows, are arranged in a spiral on the center of the table. The cards are cleverly illustrated to indicate how many dogs a player can take from either the front, the back, or both ends of the spiral. Players then take turns, hoping to collect dogs of the same breed. Collected dogs must be placed in back or front of the player's own doggy line. This complicates things just enough, because in order to win, you have to get five dogs of the same breed in a row.

There are also special cards that, true to the spirit of any good competitive game, can be used to increase your chances of winning, or decrease someone else's. One of my first game design mentors, Julie Cooper of the Ideal Toy Company, used to call this the "screw you factor." At least, that's the gist of what he called it.

At $32.00, the game is pricey, but you get a lot of dogs, and, far more importantly, a lot of play value. The one, uh, bone I had to pick was that the Doggy Bag (cute, huh?), though made of a thickly feltish cloth, is a little too small to hold all the dogs, or be put back in the box when full (slated for change when the current supply is exhausted).

In all likelihood, this is not the only game from this company (SimplyFun) to be getting a coveted Major FUN award. The company itself is uniquely notable, Major FUN-wise. Launched in January, 2005, SimplyFun is "a direct selling party plan company offering games and other entertainment play products... (whose)... products are sold in the comfort of your own home, exclusively through a SimplyFun Independent Consultant." SimplyFascinating.

Shmuzzles - the puzzles

Though I've written with significant glee about various joys of Shmuzzling, it wasn't until we had an actual Shmuzzles Puzzle to play with that we were able to sense the full scope of this remarkable contribution to the quality of life of all those who jigsaw.

The puzzle comes fully assembled. This is a good thing - especially for those who, sometime after the disassembly, might be tempted to question the puzzle's inherent solvability. When disassembled, the remaining frame provides just enough guidance to get you started, and give you a cherished, but temporary sense of premature glibness.

Rocky, sacred wife of 39 years, is the puzzletrope in the family. She is also an artist (viz. her online art gallery. She was especially struck by how subtle the puzzle can get - especially as you get closer to the solution. With fewer pieces, and nothing but color to guide you (all the pieces being the same shape), you need a keen sense of texture, hues and shades, and/or very good lighting. She also liked how well-made the pieces were - so well-made that you can hear an audible "click" when they snap into place. A click, she claims, that gets louder when the placement is correct.

According to Shmuzzlemaster Sam Savage "the hardest core puzzlers can put an easier Shmuzzle Puzzles together in just a couple of hours, so I usually like to stress the uniqueness more than the raw difficulty."

Shmuzzles offer a fine balance between the challenging and impossible. There are only so many ways two shmuzzles can fit together. And the subject matter of all the puzzles is complex enough to provide a plethora of significantly subtle clues. And then, for further shmuzzle thrills, you can turn the pieces over and try some of the puzzles included on the instruction sheet.