Boochie

Boochie, by Gamewright Games, is an obvious play and variation on the popular game Bocce. But while Bocce can become an intense affair, especially for adults, Boochie is more of a silly, fun game for the family. Really - can you even say "Boochie" without smiling? Additionally, the Boochie ball itself is not a sphere, but a foam dodecahedron that bounces in odd directions and feels like one of those items that every household should have.

To play the game, each player takes a large plastic ring and beanbag ball of their color, placing a matching scoring device on their wrist. One player tosses the Boochie ball a distance away, and then players take turns throwing their beanbag balls and/or rings towards it. The player who has the closest object scores two points, and the player with the second closest object receives one point. Players also score points for "ringing" another player's bean bag or the Boochie ball itself. Finally, the Boochie ball lists another requirement ("+2 for the players with hoops closest together", "+1 for the object farthest away", etc.) that gives out bonus points. Players mark their points on the dial, which is on their wrist, and begin another round.

But that's where things become deliciously interesting. As players gain points, they suddenly have to toss the ball in strange and unusual ways. One player may be forced to make loud noises as they throw, while another must toss objects backwards, between their legs. This accomplishes two things - it increases the silliness (and therefore, fun) factor of the game, while it allows players who are behind to catch up. The more points a player has; the more difficult their throw is.

And therein lies the joy of the game, as families with a wide range of players can effectively play a fairly competitive game and remain close in competition. Little Johnny may throw his ring in a completely different direction and yet gain a point for being the farthest away. Young Tisha might laugh at Dad, as he has to jump while throwing, which results in hilarious contortions. Boochie is simply a fun, entertaining game that can be played outdoors or in large, open rooms. The fact that any group of four players can play this game designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative means that it is Major FUN. Boochie Boochie Boochie Boochie. See, I told you it was fun to say!


Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
The Dice Tower

Uptown

Uptown, you see, baby, it's like this, it'll fool you, this Uptown game. It's like that, with it's fancy 30s fonts and the sophisticated 30s night people on its cover. It's a game, all right, but it has nothing to do with guns, dames and booze, nah, not at all. See, that's the surprise. It's way more fun than that.

Speaking of fun again, you should know that the game is, surprisingly, from that fabulous online game store, Funagain. Makes sense. These are the kind of people who should know a good game when they see one. And it looks like they do, at least Uptown-wise.

Uptown is almost as easy to learn as punching out pieces from a chadless die cut board. Which you do. Four boards worth. Each punch a small pleasure. The game board is a grid, 30s-font-labeled A-I on the right and left, and 1-9 on the top and bottom. The grid creates 9 small grids, each 9x9 cells, in a sudoku-reminiscent manner. The cells in each of the 9 inner-grids all have the same graphic symbol in them.

Each player gets 28 square tokens (the ones you had previously so pleasurably detached from each other) - all of the same color. There are 4 different sets, so up to 4 people can play at the same time, or you can play in teams, if you are of such a mind.

You take 5 tiles from your facedown tile pile and place them on your tile holder. The tiles have either a number, a letter or a graphic. This determines where you the tile can be placed on the board. But you still have choice, since there are 9 different squares that every tile can occupy - just enough choice to make you have to think.

The idea is to put your pieces down so that they are all in one cluster, all touching. Me, I think my cluster number was 4. There are other considerations, o yes there are. For example, there's a wild tile that can go anywhere. And there's the thing about the game ending when everyone has only 4 tiles left on their tileholders, thus giving you 4 tiles you don't absolutely have to play, if you don't want to. And there's being able to substitute a tile for one someone else already placed if that tile is by itself or on the end of a cluster. Thus the possibility exists that you might be able to join together two of your clusters or somehow separate one of someone else's.

So you play a tile and then pick a tile from your tile pile and wait your turn to play another tile, and, basically, whoever has the fewest clusters at the end of the game, wins.

Uptown is fun. Gentle fun. Kind of sophisticated. Not flapperish nor even flipperish fun. But just that combination of luck and skill to make you think that you won because you were better. Thinking fun. Major FUN.

Bucket Brigade

Bucket Brigade - another rather gently competitive game from the profitably playful mind of Renier Knizia - is a horse race game you play basically with cards, a scoreboard and wooden firepeople.

There are only 4 wooden firepeople - a red one, a green one, a blue one and a yellow one - even though 3 or up to 5 humanpeople can play. Each wooden fireperson is a different color. There are also 55 cards. There are cards with red firepeople and cards with blue firepeople, and there are cards with firepeople who are walking and worth one step, and there are cards with firepeople who are walking and worth one step and firepeople who are running and worth. So, if you play a walking red firperson, the red wooden fireperson goes one step higher (one space further) on the ladder-looking scoreboard. And the higher you make a fireperson of certain color go, the higher the worth of the firepeople of the same color depicted on your cards. Totally tally is not taken, however, until one fireperson makes it to the top of the conceptual ladder.

Thus, you see, you're not racing to get a wooden fireperson to the top as much as you're racing to make the firepeople on your cards worth more. Simple enough? Yeah. But kind of fascinating. You wanting the yellow wooden fireperson to get to the space that makes all the yellow card firepeople worth three times as much, her rooting for the blue wooden fireperson.

Kind a like those horse racing games. But different. Easier to play. More fun for the family. Gently competitive. Moderately strategic. Major FUN.

From Face2Face.

Rage

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Rage. Being the mild-mannered Major you know me so well to be, it might strike you as uncharacteristic of me. But, you see, I'm talking about a game. A game called "Rage." A card game, for as few as 2, or as many as 8 players, all of whom know about trick-taking games. It will remind you, as a matter of fact, of that old trick-taking game, with the unfortunate, but evocative name "Oh Hell.

The Rage deck consists of 110 Cards of 6 suits of color cards each numbered 0-15. There are 14 "special" cards including: 2 Wild Rage cards, 4 Out Rage cards, 4 Change Rage cards, 2 Mad Rage Card. All those cards, and all those special cards might make you think of another card game. Not a trick-taking game at all, but the rather hilarious, and far less serious UNO game. Which makes sense, since the original publishers of UNO were in fact the same people who publish Rage. (In case you asked, Rage is now published by Fundex).

Trick-taking games. You know about those. The reason I am stressing that point is that we had one person in our Tasting who didn't know about trick-taking games, and it made the game less fun for all of us. If you know about trick-taking games, you can learn Rage in a few minutes.

First, there's the deal. The first deal, each player gets 10 cards, the next 9, the next 8, all the way down to the last round, with one card each. So each round is a little shorter, and the tension a little higher.

Then there's the bidding - everyone declares how many tricks she's going to win that round. Not bidding, really, since you're not trying to out bid anyone. More like, well, declaring.

Then there's the play. A card is thrown. You follow suit. If you can't, you throw anything, or throw trump. You know, like a trick-taking game.

Then there are the wild cards. There's Bonus Rage, which gives 5 points to whomever takes the trick. Mad Rage, which takes 5 points away from the she who took the trick. Out Rage, of course, there is no trump for the rest of the round. Change Rage, which lets you change trump to any color. And Wild Rage - allowing you to change the color of the suit being played.

So, no matter how card-countingly astute you are, anyone at any time can change pretty much everything. Which adds just that extra spice of fate-fickleness to make you laugh instead of scream.

Very Major FUN.

Traverse

Traverse is what you might get if you combine chess and Chinese Checkers - what you might get, that is, if you're something of a relatively brilliant game designer.

Like chess, there are different kinds of pieces, each with its own way of moving. Like Chinese Checkers (which, actually, is itself a variation of a 4-sided game called "Halma"), it's a racing game, the object being to be the first player to get all 8 pieces to the opposite side of the playing board. No capturing, no killing, just moving and jumping and racing to be the first.

Again, like in Chinese Checkers, the flow of the game changes as it progresses. As more pieces are moved towards the center of the board, things get crowded, and the possibilities for making multiple jumps increase. And, as they say, how fun is that? So much fun that players often find themselves so excited by the possibility of a really, significantly multiple jump that they forget that they're supposed to be racing to get their pieces to the other side of the board.

And yet, it's not Chinese Checkers. It's Traverse. And the pieces don't all move the same way. Not at all. One kind of piece can only move orthogonally (the cube-shaped piece), another only diagonally (the diamond shape), another, the triangle-shaped piece, moves diagonally forward, but orthogonally back. And the fourth, the sphere, moves any direction. This means that there's an additional strategic implication to where each piece is placed - relative to the board, relative to other pieces. And if yet further strategic implications are needed, there's the additional wrinkle of how you set up your pieces at the beginning of the game. Since they can be placed in any order (as long as they are on your home row), how you arrange your pieces in the beginning of the game can affect your strategy for the rest. Thus, each time you play, the game takes on a slightly different wrinkle.

Traverse can be played by 2 to 4 players. With 3 players, one player gets less-encumbered access to the goal row, so the other 2 have to cooperate against that player while competing with each other. Each combination leads to a different enough game that you are most definitely going to want to try all 3 possibilities (2, 3 and 4 players).

Despite the strategic complexity of the game, it is easy enough for a 7-year-old to play. The design of the pieces (sphere, cube, diamond and triangle) are of great value in helping the players to remember how each moves.

Educational Insights has recently released its 20th year anniversary edition of Traverse. It's easy to understand why, insofar as it's Major FUN.

Cheeky Monkey

Cheeky Monkey is what they call a "press your luck" game (similar in its pres-your-luckness to perhaps the archetype of all press your luckish games, the most significantly Major FUN Can't Stop, both of which, coincidentally, are published by Face 2 Face Games). It's easy to learn, and can be played with actually equal glee by both children (7 and up) and adults. Hence making it something like an ideal family game, but an equally good children's game and an even more equally recommended party game.

You get a collection of 52 poker-chip-like tokens, 8 "bonus tiles" (made of satisfyingly thick cardboard), and an even more satisfyingly thick cloth, drawstring bag. There are eight different animals depicted on the chips. Some animals are more numerous than others. For example, there are 10 monkeys but only 3 elephants. There is one tile for each animal, and the total number of of each kind of animal is indicated on the corresponding tile. The eight tiles are placed, face up on the table, and the chips placed in the bag.

On your turn, you pick and pick and pick chips from the bag, until you want to stop picking, or you pick an animal that you've already drawn. In the first case, you keep all the chips you drew. In the second, they go back into the bag - that's right, all of them. You are, of course, sorely tempted to keep on picking. Hence, the press-your-luckishness of the game.

When you have finished picking, you stack your chips, in any order you deem strategically beneficial. On your next turn, you add your winnings, again in any order, but you can't change the order of the chips you've already stacked. The relevance of stacking order becomes especially vivid during play, when you discover that if someone picks an animal that is currently on top of your stack, you must relinquish said animal to the aforementioned someone. This is a clearly less than desirable outcome for you, as the player with the most chips at the end of the game wins.

Then there are the monkeys, those cheeky critters, which, upon pickage, can also be swapped with any animal on top of anyone's stack.

As play progresses and stacks heighten, the strategic implications of stack order and animal distribution become ever more vivid. Seeing as there are only 3 elephants, for example, if you know that the other 2 elephants are already stacked, you can just about secure your stack if you place an elephant on top - that is, as long as no one picks a money and decides to employ it in a cheeky manner.

Yet another game by the prolific designer Reiner Knizia, Cheeky Monkey is further evidence of what good game design is all about. Major FUN.

Incan Gold

Incan Gold is another "press your luck" game, different enough from all other "press your luck"-like games to be just as fun, and just as worthy of your seriously playworthy consideration.

It doesn't take long to learn, it takes only about 20 minutes to play, and the joyful luck-pressing can be shared by 3, or as many as 8 players. You do have to spend some time arranging the cards, but, after the first time you play, all that card arranging adds to the anticipation of a significantly fun experience of engaging each other in an intense exploration of the various wages of caution and greed.

The game is played in 5 rounds. A round begins by drawing a "Quest card" from the pile, turning it over, and placing it face-up next to one of the "Temple cards." The card that is revealed can either be a Treasure card, an Artifact, or a Hazard. If it is a Treasure, the players divide it between them, placing small plastic pieces in front of their personal treasuries (in front, and not inside, because the Treasure can't be claimed until someone has taken it safely out of the Temple). If it is an Artifact, it will be added to the treasury of the first player to remove it from the Temple. If it is a Hazard, there's no score. If a second Hazard of the same type is drawn later on in the round, all the potential treasures and artifacts are lost. All those little plastic, colored crystal-in-the-rough-shaped pieces... They go back. And nobody gets to keep them. Nobody. Not even you.

Once a card is placed on the table, players all have the option to go forward and reveal the next card, or to leave the Temple and collect the goodies indicated by the graphically rendered significance appearing on the card.

On the other hand, before the next Quest card can be revealed, you all, simultaneously, flash one of two cards on to the conceptual table. One card shows that you want to go forward, as it were, into the Temple, and seek greater fortune. The other, that you want to "leave the temple" immediately.

If one and only one of you flashes the card that symbolizes the decision to "leave the temple" already, that player, you, for example, get to take all the exposed Artifact Cards as your very own. Heh. Heh. Hey. If you're not the only one leaving, you and your fellow leavers share the pretty plastic pieces potentially accumulated and put them into a little tent you made out of a folded card. And nobody gets the Artifacts. Heh, hey. But you don't play any more for the rest of the round. Also hey, hey, hey.

Incan Gold is produced by Sunriver Games and is also available from Funagain. An earlier form of Incan Gold, Diamant, was published in Germany by Schmidt Speile, and was also was also available from Funagain.

Hyper-Slide

Hyper-Slide, true to its name, involves sliding, and a level of activity which can accurately be described as "hyper."

There are 4 pucks. Each is a different color. There's a bridge which serves as a goal, as it were, and sometimes as a net, more-or-less. On top of the bridge are two buttons that light up. Go ahead, press one. Wait. First, put the batteries in. OK, now press one of the two light-up buttons.

The, shall we say, "Hypehost," filled with youthful, gameshowhost-like enthusiasm, says: "Hyperslide!" Then: "Choose the game you want, then press the button to get started."

One of the buttons is lit, so you press that one. "1)Fast Pass," says the Hyperhost, to gameshow-like musical accompaniment, "2) Add One," it continues, "3) Code Buster 4) Fast Pass Head to Head 5) Add One Head to Head." So you hit the blinking button.

"Fast Pass. The All Time Score is 52 Passes. Red begins." Says the Hyperhost.

And the light starts blinking and the music starts playing. So you throw a Yellow puck through the goal. And the voice says "Red Begins." So you throw the Blue through. And it says "Red Begins." So you throw the green one through. And the music is playing. And finally you throw the Red puck through. And the voice says "Red." So you throw the Blue through. And the music ends and the Hyperhost says: "You should have played Red: And it asks "play this game again or play another game?" And both buttons flash.

And then you realize that you really need two people to play. Unless maybe you install that "Cyber-rubber-band"ish thing across the goal.

The fun of each of the 4 games is greatly enhanced by the voice, musical timing, ability to know which of 4 pucks you slide through it, or don't, and very long memory of the Hyperhost.

You do what the Hyperhost tells you to do as fast as it tells you to do for as long as you can. And the Hyperhost creates the challenge, taunting you with its ability to rembember the score, forever, until you reset it.

Given only two flashing buttons and 4 different-colored pucks, a Hyperhost with a good sense of timing, like the one in Cyber-Slide, can put the proverbial partridge back into your conceptual pear tree.

This Hyperhost leads you in at least three games. Or five. Or ten. Depending on what you play and how you play them and how many people play - from one to probably four.

Fast Pass: slide the color puck the Hyperhost tells you to, and only that color puck, in maybe 90 seconds, as often as you can while the music gets faster and so does the Cyberhost.

Add One: like the game of Simon, you have to slide an ever increasing repeating series of pucks, puck-by-puck.

Code Buster - slide whatever works until you happen to slide the right ones across the goal. try to do it faster next time.

Fast Pass - Head to Head: Fast Pass for two. Hyperbandlessly.

Add One - Head to Head: Also Hyperbandlessly, Add One - for also 2. Or 4 especially even. Though playing by yourself is also fun, even.

Self-storing, with an almost intuitive game design, Hyper-Slide provides for many different levels of physical and cognitive challenge, featuring clear, but mild-mannered Hyperhost that acknowledges your success without rubbing your face in your failures. All-in-all, Hyper-Slide is Major FUN. For the whole actual family.

From: Hasbro.

Chateau Roquefort

Caution, perspective owners of Chateau Roquefort, some assembly is required. Do not attempt to do this by yourself. Why, you ask? Because no one, not even those who buy games just so they can poke things out, can believe how unusually pleasurable it is to everso gently punch the many pieces out of their frame - lovely, thick, two-sided, brightly printed, silk-textured cardboard pieces so well pre-cut that seem to fall out on command. It is an indelible experience of something well-made. Something made for kids and parents and especially people who like to collect things.

And even more especially for parents who like to collect things who also like to play with their kids who also like to collect things.

Chateau Roquefort is another beautifully made, European game from Rio Grand Games. It's a game of strategy and memory. The board remains mostly covered during play. On your turn, you can uncover part of the board, and you just might reveal images of different kinds of cheeses. Also on your turn (you have 4 moves per turn), you can move one of your mice (you have 4 mice) onto the board, or from the entrance to one of the horizontally or vertically adjacent squares, or from a square to yet another similarly horizontal or vertically adjacent square. You can also slide a row or column of squares, perhaps to reveal new kinds of cheeses, perhaps to reveal an empty hole, perhaps to cause one of your opponent's mice (as many as 4 players) to fall into said revealed pit.

It is probably true that children as young as six can play the game. However, they would have to be exceptional - given that there are many, many pieces, the loss of which would pretty much significantly impair the replayability of a unique and expensively beautiful game.

The object of the game is to win cheeses. You win a cheese when two of your mice are on squares revealing the same kind of cheese. There are many different kinds of cheeses. And you can only win one of each.

This is an unusually intriguing play principle - trying to position two of your pieces so that they are both rest on the same kind of cheese. On a unique kind of board (sliding tiles, always only partially revealed). Conceptually, it's probably elegant enough for a six-year-old to understand. But we believe that it is best suited to kids who are old enough to appreciate the beauty of the game, the necessity for taking good care of it, and the complexity of the relationships between all the different kinds of moves you take on one turn. It's probably a little too cute (wonderfully designed little wooden mice) for most boys of that age. But, given all those caveats, for the right players, kids, adults, and especially families, the game is the kind you may very well treasure, for ever.

There are some concerns about storage - given that there are so many pieces, and that the board is actually integrated into the box. You'll find a thorough discussion of the ramifications of all this in this review. Our conclusion: despite all the caveats, the game is Major FUN.

Gumball Rally

Ted Cheatham's Gumball Rally is another excellent card game from Z-Man Games. This one's especially for kids or for adults looking for a "filler game."

It's a race, all right, for up to 8 players. The game takes less than a half-hour to play, and probably less than half of that to learn. The manufacturers recommend it for kids 6 and up. We recommend it for kids who like playing race-type games, and especially for adults who enjoy playing light and quick.

You get 8 different Go Kart cards - that is, large, thick, well-illustrated, cardboard cards depicting different Go Karts. You also get a deck of playing cards - 4 different kinds of playing cards (Race cards - 4 suits, each numbered 1-10; Hazard cards (19 cards, no numbers), 10 point cards, and 8 small Go Kart cards to help you remember which Kart is yours. So there are several sorting moments required. And yet more sorting moments once you separate out all the Hazard cards: giving each player 3 cards, removing the Winner and two Checkpoint cards, shuffling the remaining cards, removing 4 cards and placing them in the box (without looking at the cards), taking 3 cards from the Hazard deck and shuffling them with the Winner card, then 3 more cards from the Hazard deck shuffled with one Winner card, and again - placing these all in a stack to form the bottom of the draw pile. All of which is very clever and logical once you actually play the game, because the Winner and Checkpoint cards, placed as they are near the bottom of the deck, force the game to some oft-delightful and generally timely conclusions. After the first game, all this shuffling and sorting seems to add both to the fun of the game and the fun of getting ready to have fun.

The large Go Kart cards are placed, in order of play, on the table - the first player in the first position, etc. Race cards determine which Go Kart is the fastest. If you play a Race card, and you are in, say, third position, and your card is higher than the Go Kart in the second position, then you move up one position. Then there are the Hazard cards which affect the Go Kart whose color matches the inner border of the Hazard card.

Oddly enough, despite all this apparent complexity, the game takes only about 15 minutes to learn and less than a half-hour to play. The pace is fast enough to keep everyone in play - even when there are 8 players. Which makes the game feel most race-like - especially as cars are constantly changing position, and even more especially when you pass the lead car.

The cards are vividly illustrated by John Donahue under the direction of jim pinto (who artistically spells his name in lower case).

A lot of big fun in this little game.

Nacho Loco

Nacho Loco isn't exactly a card game, actually. It's more of a tile game, played with triangles (hence "Nacho"s), made out of cardboard. And yes, it could very well remind you of Triominoes, though it plays more like a, well, card game - a bit like, perhaps, UNO.

You get 94 cards. If they were thick and made of plastic, you'd think of them as tiles. But they're cardboard. And not thick enough to stand up. Just thick enough to be impossible to shuffle. So you put them face-down on the table, smush them around until they're satisfyingly mixed, and give 6 cards to each of up to 6 players.

Each card is divided into three equal triangular sections. Some are different colors. Some have words on them. Some are black, and marked with an X. To play one of your cards, you have to match one of the sections of your card with one of the sections of a card on the table. The X-marked black sections can't be matched, by anything, even by other X-marked black sections.

The sections with words say "Skip Next," or "Go Again," or "Opponent Draws 3." If you have an exact match, then either the next player gets skipped, or you get to play again, or you can tell any opponent to draw 3 additional card/tiles.

The object of the game is to get rid of your cards. As soon as someone has played her last card, she gets one point for each card remaining in the other players' hands. The first player to get 20 points wins. And that's about that.

Visually, the game is quite appealing. As it progresses, colorful, three-dimensional-like patterns are created. And the back of the cards look like, yes, nachos. Rounds are relatively short, and the game has a fast-enough pace to keep everyone involved for the duration. Easy to learn. Mildly strategic. Fun to play.

Fun for kids as young as 8, the game should appeal equally to everyone in the family. Nacho Loco comes to us from Buffalo Games, makers of the Major FUN award winning iMAgiNiff.

Mother Sheep

Mother Sheep, from Playroom Entertainment, has 10, cute little plastic lambs, and 10 cute little plastic lamb cardboard, name-plated lamb-standing places. 80 fences, of different and oft-multiple colors, a deck of lamb cards and a lamb corral. There are 18 lamb cards. On each card there are five lamb names. Pick a card and be the first player to fence in your given lambs.

Since there are 18 cards, it is quite likely that you will end up with at least one shared lamb. If not several. That's quite fine. As long as the lambs are fenced, it doesn't matter actually who does the fencing.

As for the fencing: After you've placed all you lambs in some array, close to the mother sheep, but not too close, and not too close to each other, either, the rest of the game is about laying down fence rails. The array-setting is of course very important, since the position of each lamb relative to each other lamb is chock full of strategic significance. You can lay them anywhere in any angle (there's no board), but you have to make sure that they overlap another fence, and where they overlap, they match colors. Since the fence pieces can have as many as three different color bands, of any width, it can be quite a challenge to find an appropriately matching fence post.

You take three fence posts from the Fence Post Bag. These are your secret fence posts. Your secret fence post stock never gets replenished. So, even though you can use them any time during the game, you have to use them with care. You also get to draw three more fence posts for immediate play. Since you're trying to corral 5 different sheep, you'll always have at least one fence post that's worth playing.

As I said, there is no board. As I also said, the positions of everything - the lambs, the Mother Sheep, the cardboard fence posts - is of dire strategic consequence. This is not a bonus feature - especially if you are playing with the clumsy-prone. On the other hand, it's fun, not having a board while playing such a strategic, board-like game. And strategically speaking, it's complex enough to be worthy of pondering, but simple enough in principle to be understood and enjoyed, even by the younger player.

In a Pickle

In a Pickle is something you can get easily into, in Gamewright's party-like, family-worthy card game from for 4-6 players, especially. Especially players who like to play with words, and, amongst those, the ones who care more about fun than about winning.

You get cards, many cards, 320 many. Every card has a word on it. Every word is a noun. So you give each player a handful of nouns, and you take 4 nouns, place them in the middle of the table, head to head, in a plus sign, arrows out.

Arrows. Arrows help you remember the direction of the "fit-into" - for that is the key criteria by which one evaluates one's options - something that fits into something else. In the direction of the arrows. So like, if you had CHICKEN on one of the cards and someone overlaps BALLOON upon CHICKEN, one might be reasonably implying that a CHICKEN can fit into a BALLOON. Similar things could be said about underlapping WHISTLE with CHICKEN because a WHISTLE can fit into a CHICKEN, much to the chagrin of the aforementioned.

The fun makes itself especially apparent during "Pickle Rounds" which are initiated as soon as one of the arms of the plus (the array of cards, face up, on the table) reaches 4. After that, players may ONLY play cards on that arm, the last player to successfully add a card winning all the cards in that arm. O, both goodie and glee! All the cards in an arm!!

The success of this game depends a lot on the light-heartedness of the players, in the first place. But if you're a small group of friends, or an actually healthy family, and you enjoy arguing (who doesn't?) you'll probably find it Major FUN

Quartile

Quartile is a beautifully executed tile game for 2-6 players. According to SimplyFun, it is suitable for kids as young as 5.

It will make you think of dominoes. Which is a good start.

There are 49 tiles. Wooden tiles. In a wooden box. Just as lovely as a lovely set of dominoes. Square tiles. Not like dominoes at all.

Each tile has a number in the center, ranging from 2 to 14. The number is surrounded on 4 sides by domino-like pips, ranging from 1 to 7. To play a tile, you must match the pip-count of all adjacent tiles. The value of the tile is determined by the number in the center. The score for a play is that number, multiplied by the number of matching adjacent tiles. So, of you play an 8, and it is adjacent to 2 other tiles, and both sides match, you get 16 points.

The possibility of getting a higher score by matching more than one adjacent tile makes the game especially suited to family play. The younger player can derive satisfaction from making a simple match. The older players can find significant challenge by trying to make the highest scoring play possible (matching all 4 sides).

The artful distribution and configuration of tiles invites mathematically-oriented players to get even more engaged. There's only one tile worth 2 points, and all 4 sides have only one pip. There's also only one tile worth 14 points, and all 4 of its sides have 7 pips. There are 7 tiles worth 8 points. These tiles have anywhere from 1 to 7 pips on their edges.

Just enough complexity so that those who want to take the game seriously can find serious things to think about. Just enough simplicity to invite some significant glee.

Yes, Quartile is made in China. And yes, again, it has been carefully examined for lead and other bad things and as been found most consumer-worthy.

Zobmondo!! "Would You Rather...?"

Zobmondo!! "Would You Rather...?" is the party game for three or more players that asks your basically unanswerable questions - questions like "Would you rather be the circus person that the knife thrower throws knives at, or the one who puts their head in the lion's mouth?" It's the "conundrum-likeness" of the questions that is key to the fun of the game. There really are no correct answers. But they're fun to think about, and talk about, and maybe even argue over.

Zobmondo!! "Would You Rather...?" game comes in several incarnations. There's a version for people ages 12 and up and another for people 16 and up. There's Zobmondo!! You Gotta Be Kidding, a version designed for people 7 and up. And a travel version for 12 and up.

We'll talk about the travel version last, primarily because the mechanics are a little different.

In all of its manifestations, the game centers on your ability to predict which of the two choices most people will select. Since the choices are equally questionable ("would you rather be able to walk on water forever or fly for three hours on three different occasions in your life?"), you're more or less intuiting (all right, guessing) what everyone will decide. The real fun for everyone else is in the discussion (debate? argument?) over which of the two answers make the more sense (given that neither is actually more sensible than the other). There's a board and die that help determine who is closer to winning (the most intuitive/luckiest) of the group, what the category of conundrum will be ("Pain - Fear, Discomfort," "Appearance, Embarrassment," "Ethics - Intellect," or "Random"), or whether the player must select a "Challenge" card. (The 16-plus version has an additional category: "Food - Ingestion.")

Even though the basic premise of the game - arguing over basically absurd choices - is fun enough, the challenge cards add a valuable dimension to the game: variety. Some challenges can be won by any player (e.g., the "Best Reason" card which asks all the players to "compose the most creative, thought provoking, and/or funniest reason for your choice"), and some, like the "Would You Do It" challenge, where you win the challenge only if you do things like "demonstrate a pickle mustache by holding a pickle between your upper lip and nose for one full turn."), won only by the player who selects the card.

Of the three versions, You Gotta Be Kidding, the game for the 7-ups, is clearly the silliest. There are no categories. You get questions like "Would you rather eat a hair sandwich or an earwax omelet?" You have a game board which is actually much easier to use (we did have some minor problems interpreting exactly how to move from track to track on the other versions). And you get this really neat electronic "Red Chili Pepper" thing. It's only used for some of the challenge cards, and works kind of like a hot potato. And changes the pace of the game just about perfectly.

Then there's the metal-tinned travel version that comes without a die, or a board, or playing pawns, and yet is inviting and fun enough to help you bridge significant distances - geographically and socially. The key is the artful use of a write-on, wipe-off board. There are four spaces on the board: Contender, Dead-Ender, Limbo, and the Prediction space. At the beginning of the game, everyone writes their initials in the Contender space. There are category chips. The first Contender picks a chip, then a "Would You Rather...?" card, and the game proceeds as usual - the chip determining which conundrum gets read, the Contender writing her prediction on the board, everyone else having a semi-serious, consensus-reaching discussion. Guess right, you are still a Contender, and you pass the board to the next player. Guess wrong, you are a Dead-Ender. For the rest of the game, when it's your turn, you have to make up a new conundrum. If your prediction is correct, you get to move anyone else into the Limbo zone, which, in itself, becomes a source of further contention. The last Contender wins.

All in all, the game, in each of its various manifestations, invites many happy hours of contemplation, conversation, significant silliness, and Major FUN.

Gemlok

Gemlok, from Pywacket Games is a board game for 2-4 players combining chance and strategy in some rather delicious ways.

The object of the game is to score points by occupying high value spaces on the board. To do so, you move your playing pieces according to movement patterns determined by the throw of a unique pair of dice. You begin the game by positioning your 8 pawns on 8 of the 14 spaces along one of the edges of the board. Printed on the board is a large array of gems of different value. The gems in the center of the board are of the highest value, thus attracting much of the action of the game.

If you manage to land on a space occupied by another pawn (your own, your partner's, or your opponent's), you can "bump" that pawn up to three squares in any direction. Though you might feel it more important to bump your opponent off of a high-scoring gem-square, you would be wise to consider the possibility of opportunities for you to bump one of your pawns on to a higher-scoring space.

The word "Gemlok" is printed on the sixth side on each of the dice. This allows you to make the placement of any one of your pawns permanent, which, with all that bumping going on, often turns out to be highly desirable.

Gemlok has relatively few rules, and takes maybe a half-hour to play. But it is an intensely absorbing half-hour, one that you'll probably want to repeat several times before game time ends. Though dice are used, Gemlok is much more a game of strategy than chance.

Recommended for 2-4 children as young as 7 and grown-ups who can stand losing to them, Gemlok should prove as successful as a family game as it is worthy of somewhat serious adult consideration.

What's Yours Like?

Today's conceptual gift is a remarkably simple, and deeply fun party game from Patch Products called "What's Yours Like?".

Pick a card. The card has a word on it. Show the card to everyone except the person guessing, who asks: "what's yours like." Take turns answering the question, being sure to be accurate, and subtle. Too clear a clue, and it will be guessed immediately. Too subtle, and, well, it's just not fair.

For example, suppose the card reads "washing machine." Legitimate answers to such an innocuous "what's yours like" question might be: "mine is white," "mine has a lot of knobs," "mine is noisy," etc. However, given the age and nature of the people playing, the answers could just as easily become rife with double meaning, and I mean rife, like, for example: "mine makes my underwear wet."

For us, that was really the charm of the game - how much of it was really up to us - to our collective cleverness and naughty nuanciness. Which means that the game will be different, depending on who's playing with whom. Different when playing with family than when playing with friends, different with teen-agers than with seniors. Which makes the game even that much more successful, and fascinating, and Major FUN-worthy.

There are 188 two-sided cards "guess word" cards. One side is recommended for older players because they might include things that kids don't have (in-laws, ulcers, jobs). There are two wipe-off clue boards with markers. The player in the "Hot Seat" uses one, writing down each clue as it is given (the fewer clues, the better the score). There are 95 Challenge cards. These cards allow the Hot Seated player to share the Hot Seat, as it were. That's when the other clue-writing board comes into play. Now the two players with the Hot Seats compete with each other, the first to guess the word correctly gets to take two points (points are bad) off her score.

What's Yours Like is a game for 4 or more players. With 4 players, it takes maybe 15 minutes for a round. Figure 3 rounds per game. The art of giving just the right response, of being clever, yet accurate, actually outweighs the accomplishment of guessing what was on the card. It's a game that will make you laugh, a lot, even without keeping score. Like I said, it's Major FUN.

Spin-It

Spin-It puts a new spin on an old game. The old game I'm talking about is an American folk game that has been invented and reinvented so often that, according to this article, it goes under the name of: Arizona Golf Balls, Australian Horseshoes, Ball Dangle, BlongoBall, Bola, Bolo, Bolo Ball, Bolo Golf, Bolo Polo, Cowboy Golf, Dandy Golf, Dingle Balls, Flingy Ball, Gladiator, Golfball Horseshoes, Hillbilly Golf, Hillbilly Horseshoes, Horseballs, Ladder Ball, Ladder Game, Ladder Golf, Ladder Toss, Monkey Balls, Monkey Bars Golf, Montana Golf, Norwegian Golf, Norwegian Horseshoes, Pocca Bolo, Polish Golf, Polish Horsehoes, Poor Man's Golf, Rattlerail Toss, Redneck Golf, Rodeo Golf, Slither, Snake Toss, Snakes, Snakes & Ladders, Spin-It, Swedish Golf, The Snake Game, Tower Ball, Willy Ball, and Zing-Ball." Whatever name it goes by, you have a series of bars that serve as targets, and bolo balls that you try to wrap around the highest scoring bars.

Spin-It, however, puts such a big spin on the traditional game that the result is a truly new, unique bolo-tossing game - in fact, a small cornucopia of new games.

The, so to speak, "pivotal" innovation is a wheel of five different-colored bars. The wheel spins very easily, so that if you manage to wrap your bolo around any one of those bars it will add just enough weight to make the whole wheel turn, ferris-wheel-like, so that the wrapped-around bar goes towards the bottom, changing the position of all the other bars. Since each bar has a different point value, the strategic significance of every successful toss becomes readily, and often painfully apparent. This makes for genuine strategic depth, and at least ten different, but equally challenging Spin-It-using games, including Spin-It Golf and Spin-It Bowling, each of which is an inspiration for the development of yet more Spin-It variations.

Which makes Spin-It an invitation to play in the best and deepest sense. It invites participation, it invites creativity, it invites the entire family. Enough skill is involved to make you want to take the game seriously. Enough luck to make you laugh.

There's something about tossing a bolo that is inherently fun. There's something about Spin-It that makes bolo-tossing Major FUN.

The Spin-It set comes with two complete Spin-It goals, two sets of bolo-balls (each set has three bolos made of rubber balls held together by a rainbow-colored cord), in a cardboard carrying box. Once you figure out how to set it up the first time, you'll find it's quite easy to set up again and again. On the other hand, you might not want to put it away, ever. There are so many games to play with it. So much fun to be explored. We, for example, have been collectively wondering how much fun it would be if you tried using one Spin-It goal, placed in the middle of two players (or teams), standing about 20 feet apart, throwing simultaneously. This seems to engender the potential for sudden turns, and almost excruciatingly delightful agony.

Igloo Pop

Igloo Pop, from Rio Grande Games is a family game requiring listening, estimating, and some deductive reasoning. The main component of the game is 12 plastic igloos, housing (thanks to you patience and care) from 2-13 tiny glass beads. If you shake the igloos, and listen carefully, you can actually estimate how many of those little beads they each contain. It is one of the few games that center on the senses, and, if only because of that, merits our collective attention. Especially when you think about how many games there are, designed specifically for children, that involve everything but the senses. There are guessing games, memory games, thinking games, drawing games, puzzles. But how many games can you name that involve auditory discrimination? My wife said it reminded her of a Montesorri activity. Only much more fun.

In addition to the igloos, you get a deck of 33 cards, and ten small wooden discs ("Thalers") of different colors, one color for each of up to 6 players. The cards have anywhere from one to 3 different numbers on them - each number corresponding to a quantity of beads. Nine cards are turned face up, and the game begins. Players take turns selecting and shaking the igloos.

If you think an igloo has a quantity of beads that matches one of the cards, you place it on that card, and put one of your Thalers in a tight-fitting slot located by the door of each igloo. If the card has 3 different numbers on it, you are correct as long as the count matches any of the 3 numbers. You might also notice that there is only one Eskimo pictured on that card. Remember, some cards have only one number on them. Those cards have only one matching igloo. But they also have three Eskimos.

After there are no more igloos, or no one thinks any of the remaining igloos are worth a Thaler, the round ends. Players determine who is correct. The correct players win the Thalers on all the igloos that are parked on that card. And the player who's igloo has the most beads in it wins the card. The next round is then played, and the game continues until someone has run out of Thalers. The player with the most points (Eskimos and Thalers) wins.

Assembly, as hinted above, is most definitely required, and adult participation is highly encouraged. You get a bunch of empty igloos, a bigger bunch of tiny glass beads (very cool tiny glass beads), igloo bottoms, and a sheet of stickers numbering 2-13. Into each igloo, you have to put the exact number of beads indicated on the sticker of your choice, sometimes rather forcefully press the igloo bottom into the igloo, and then put the sticker on. Fortunately, the effort required is relatively minor, compared to the fun you'll have from playing the game.

Some kids might have a little difficulty in refraining from looking at the number on the bottom of their chosen igloo. If it's too hard for them to refrain, it's a good sign that they are not ready to play this game.

Though the game seems to be designed for children, it's a good challenge for every member of the family, hence, Major FUN.

Can't Stop

Can't Stop is the Majorest FUN of one of the Major FUNnest game designers I ever had the honor to know. The late Sid Sackson was a passionate, modest, and remarkably accessible game inventor and collector. His expertise, his appreciation for an elegant design, his love of play is everywhere evident in this most accessible of his games. And, thanks to Face 2 Face Games, you, too, may soon find yourself delightfully unable to stop.

Can't Stop is a dice game in which players try to be the first to claim 4 of the 11 rows (corresponding to all the combinations of two dice) on the Can't Stop board. You have 4 dice. You throw all of them, and then combine them into pairs - however you want. So, if you throw, for example, a 3, 4, 5, and 6, you can move one space forward in the 7 and 11 columns, or one space forward in the 8 and 10 columns, or two spaces forward in the 9 column - thus giving you just enough decision-making power to make you feel responsible for whatever fate awaits.

Can't Stop is perhaps the ultimate fate-tempting games. Because, you see, your turn doesn't end with one throw. Oh, no. You can throw and throw again. Until, don't you know, you don't have a legal move. If you only had stopped right before that, you could have progressed significantly up the board, coming everso closer to claiming a row of your own. But you didn't stop, did you. Oh, you could have. You should have. But, no. O'ertaken, once again, by the sheer bravado of your unassailable hopefulness.

You have three white pieces to move, and a bunch of markers to plant. You throw the dice and move one or two of the pieces. You feel somewhat sanguine about your next throw, knowing that you'll have at least one more piece to move regardless. Of course, any column already claimed by another player can't be used. Which is good (because any move that you can't make is not counted as a possible move) and not so good (because you have fewer opportunities to win).

If you have the good sense to stop at the right time, you remove the white pieces, and use your markers to indicate your progress along those columns. If you have the bad luck not to stop in time, all the white pieces are given to the next player, whatever progress you might have made on your turn is obliterated, and the game goes on.

The game always seems winnable, until it isn't. As more and more columns are claimed, the temptation not to stop becomes evermore profound. And the likelihood that you should've when you could've evermore self-evident.

Can't Stop can be played by 2-4 players. Or by that many teams. For anyone old enough to play checkers and appreciate the value of profound chagrin.

Sixteen

Sixteen is an original card game for two players, ages 8 and older. It is easy to learn (about 5 minutes) and takes about 15 minutes to play, though players will find themselves wanting to play again and again before they put the deck away.

Each player is dealt three cards. The remaining cards are placed face-down in the middle of the table as the draw pile. The cards are numbered 0-6. There are two of every card, but only one zero card for each suit. There are also two wild cards. Players take turns, picking a card, and then adding a card to a fanned-out, face-up play pile.

There are two ways to win a set: when the face-up cards total 16, or when the last three cards in the win pile are all the same color or number. So, you have to pay a lot of attention to what's in the pile, as well as what's in your hand, as well as make some educated guessing about what could very possibly be in you-know-who's hand. If the play pile goes over 16, a "bust" is declared and the other player gets the win. The player with the most sets when all cards have been played wins the round.

All of this results in some rather delicious strategic implications. The game can become quite competitive, but the elegance of the game, and the element of luck, keep the competition focused, and light-hearted.

The instructions describe four optional play variations, one of which extends the game play to younger children (perhaps as young as 6), but the game plays best with the recommended ages.

The card graphics are simple, yet very clear and functional. The cards of nicely shufflable stock. All in all, Sixteen is an unusually well-designed card game, unique, easy to learn, inviting, and with high replay value. In other words, Major FUN!

Thataway

Thataway is an easy to learn, quick to play, totally engaging addition to Gamewright's collection of 12 Minute Games. The card game, designed for 2-5 players, is a race in which players compete to build the longest chain of cards. Some cards point left or right, others up or down, still others point both directions (so you have a choice of either).

At the beginning of the game, the cards are divided into as many draw piles as there are players. Since players can draw from any pile, it doesn't really matter if the piles are equal. As soon as you have a playable card, you place it on the table, face up. When you draw a card that can be connected to it (if, for example, you've played a left-facing arrow, the only card that can't connect to it is a right-facing arrow), you place that card, face-up, and adjacent to the connecting card. There are also Gorilla cards. As soon as you play a Gorilla card, the game is over. The player with the longest chain of connected cards wins that round.

Cards that are played already are placed in a scoring pile. Cards that remain in a player's hand are passed to the player on the left, and added to that player's pile. The game continues until a fourth Gorilla is played.

Since, as soon as you draw a Gorilla, you have the chance to end the round, you have to pay attention not only to how many cards are in your chain, but also to everyone else's chains. This adds a delicious tension to the game. It's hard enough watching your own cards, having to watch everyone else's is just enough to distract you into losing - end the round too soon or too late, and someone else can score higher.

The game is more of a race than it is a strategic interaction. You're much more focused on winning than you are on making anyone lose. Consequently, the competition, as fierce as it is, is also quite gentle. You can lose without taking it personally. And, for all the tension, you tend to spend most of the time laughing. Thataway turns out to be a surprisingly entertaining little game, easy to learn, long enough to get significantly involved, short enough to want to play again next time. Major FUN for everyone 8 and over.

Highrise Dominoes

You know how every now and then you come across this beautifully packaged set of dominoes, sometimes in a tin, even, and the dominoes are in deed very nice - hefty, colorful, smooth - and sometimes there's even some kind of lovely plastic thing that sits in the center of the table or some place, and keeps score or turns around or even makes noise - and yet it's still dominoes? You know what I mean. Dominoes, in a nice package, but it feels like dominoes, and it looks like dominoes, and it plays just like dominoes. And you can't help feeling just a little disappointed, just a little like you were hoping maybe for a really different game, something new, something that maybe used dominoes, but was more interesting, more challenging, more, well, different?

Despair no more, my playful friend. For Highrise Dominoes is in deed a wonderfully different game. And the base that is included in the lovely tin is really functional, really central to the game.

The object is to build a tower of dominoes. First, a basement is built - 8 dominoes placed, face-up, in the bottom of the turntable base. From then on, players take turn building on to the base, the rule being that the domino has to match the numbers it rests on. And yes, you can lay your domino so that it rests on two different dominoes. And once that domino is laid, you can lay another domino on top of that. And the higher the level, the higher the score.

It's a completely different experience of dominoes. There's so much to look at. Which is why you're so happy that the turntable turns.

There are clear plastic blocks that are used when the dominoes you want to match are on two different levels. Which is fine, unless the dominoes are on two different levels that are more than one level apart. And then comes the joyous agony of having to maybe (gasp) draw another domino.

There are also wild dominoes, there's a double, with both halves wild. And there are others with only one wild half. But, boy, do you get to love those wild ones! Seeing as they are often the only ones that you can play. Which you really want to do. Because the first player to use all her tiles can get many, many points.

Stack revisited

I am certain you recall that Stack received a Major Fun Award a little over 4 years ago. In fact, it was a recipient of several awards: the Party Games award, the Thinking Games award, the much-touted Keeper award, and even, oddly enough, it was found most Senior-Worthy. And you probably even recall why.

I, on the other hand, have been exploring the game in greater depth, especially recently as I work more and more with various groups of seniors hereabouts. And what I have been exploring, actually, is the, shall we say, "Super Stack" set - two different sets of the Stack game (the deluxe, jumbo, of course), each set having different color dice, thereby enabling me to play a game with 8 people.

The large dice that come with the deluxe version prove to be especially comforting for senior eyes and hands. Easy to read, even at a distance, enjoyable to hold because of their greater heft, and easier to stack because of their larger size. Having enough for eight people makes the game ideal for building a sense of community and friendship. Because the group is larger, people don't can play at a safe distance from each other (psychologically safe), but because they're all sharing the same set of dice, they feel connected. If we need to, we can easily divide into smaller, more intimate groups. But having all those dice means that each player has twice as many options to consider. On the one hand, it makes the beginning of the game that much easier and more inviting. On the other, it makes the endgame that much more dramatic. Stacks get built, options constantly get fewer and fewer, the need to play strategically gets more and more vivid.

Stack, even with only 4 colors, has never disappointed us as a game for almost all ages. But having twice as many dice turns out to be more than twice as flexible, twice as interesting, for at least twice as many people.

Qwirkle

Qwirkle is