This is part 2 of a three part series.  Read part 1 HERE and part 3 HERE.
2013 TREND: Party Games
2014 Update: Party Games Are Still Chugging Along But Not HUGE Like Last Year
Not a big push in the part game area this year – yes, there were new ones but not quite as many as last year.  Still it felt like most companies I saw had at least one new one.  Here’s a nice mix:

Top to Bottom: Spot It! FREEZE Concept – Blue Orange, Concept- Asmodee,  i KNOW! – Tactic,  Say the Word - Peaceable …

This is part 1 in a three part series.  See part 2 HERE and part 3 HERE.

2014: The Year of Continued Status Quo?!

Since I started The Game Aisle in 2009 I’ve written a “Toy Fair Trends” every single year… and for the first time I can’t say that I felt like I saw new “trends.”  Instead, it felt like more of the same from the last couple years (and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing).  There wasn’t a hot packaging trend, there wasn’t a new theme or game-style that was …

Carcassonne is an interesting game in my collection because I bought the app before I purchased the physical game.  And I’ll admit that I like the app version a bit better simply for the scoring (because it takes care of it for you). Regardless, I think this is a great tabletop game for two players.  (And yes, you can play it with up to 5 players but I’m rather impatient when it comes to waiting to take my turn.)
Carcassonne is named after the walled city in Southern France.  In the …

When I started in this business we were still creating stand-alone toys and games.  After a while, the toy ideas became brand-focused and eventually the games followed suit.  Many companies wanted to leverage the popularity of their existing products to entice their fan base to purchase new, related SKUs.  It’s not a unique idea to the toy/game industry by any means – many of us are very brand loyal to a myriad of things like laundry detergent, mayonnaise, clothing, cars, etc. and take brands into consideration when making a purchase.
As …

Sometimes I drop the ball – and this time if it was a nice shiny glass ball, it would be in a zillion tiny little pieces because I really dropped it.  Yeah, I completely forgot to post the 2013 TAGIE article.  Yep… it’s been in drafts for the last month or so.  Whoops!  So without any further delay…. Let’s discuss the 2013 TAGIE awards!
As a special treat , this year’s TAGIE awards included not one, not two but several special performances.  During cocktail hour I got to see magician …

It’s about time that I got the game Timeline and I managed to snag a copy of the Inventions edition at almost half price right before Christmas.  Needless to say, the Inventions edition was definitely the version I wanted to own first as I rather like inventors and inventor history – go figure.
I really enjoy this game because it’s simple, fun and sadly similar to something I worked on a handful of years back.  The gameplay is easy; you shuffle the deck of cute little Ticket-to-Ride sized cards and deal …

In this shortened holiday season I feel like time is flying past and I’ve barely finished half of my holiday shopping and I just realized today that Christmas is less that two weeks away.  Just as I need to get moving on my holiday shopping lists, I also need to get a holiday suggestion article published.  There are many sites who do end of year best of guides – but this site always has a slightly different take on the holiday article.  This year, I’m going to tackle games that …