We’ve already established that Piece ‘O Cake is about cake slices and the whole game is about the golden rule of cake cutting – whoever slices chooses last.  The game is played in 5 rounds with 5 cakes comprised of 11 wedges that are a variety of flavors.  Each flavor has a different value if eaten which is shown by the number of whipped cream dollops. The number on each cake wedge is how many wedges of that kind there are in the game.  But I’m going to get to scoring in a minute…

Whoever’s turn it is to cut the cake divides it into however many slices they’d like up to the number of players.  (So if there are 4 players you can “cut” it into 2-4 slices).  If you slice it into 3 portions, since you’re choosing last you won’t get one – which is something to think about.  The fun comes in when you realize that the slices don’t have to be equal AT ALL.  Not only can they can have a different number of cake wedges – but they will have different values to different players.  One way to score in Piece O Cake is to collect the MOST of any one flavor.  At the end of the game you will receive the number of points listed on that type of cake wedge.  So if you have the most kiwi cake wedges, you’ll score 8 points at the end of the game.  The other way to score is to EAT the cake.  On your turn when you collect your slice, you can choose to eat any number of wedges of cake instead of saving them.  You will score 1 point for each whipped cream dollop (1-3) for those slices BUT they will not count towards your total for that particular kind of cake.   Now, if you don’t eat your cake right away but you decide you want to later, you can forfeit taking a slice of cake and instead you can eat every wedge of a particular kind and this will guarantee you points.

Overall, the game can be quick and fun.  It takes a bit of thought and foresight to cut the cake as you can’t rearrange the wedges to better suit your cutting desires.  Just don’t play this game with people who over think – or use a timer to keep the cutting thinking to a minute.  It definitely was a deeper game than I anticipated and I enjoy playing it even though I have yet to win.  Seriously – what’s a girl got to do to win Piece ‘O Cake?!

 Piece ‘O Cake stats:
~$23 Amazon, FunAgain Games, some mom & pop stores
2-5 players
~20 minutes
Ages 8 and up

If you follow me on twitter you may have seen the tweets from certain twitter folks who might be a bit disgruntled that Santa left a very hard to find copy of King of Tokyo under the tree for me.  As I pointed out to them – and now to you too – if you look to eBay it’s not super hard to find.

The theme of King of Tokyo is really compelling; each player is an enormous monster causing destruction and mayhem while vying to control Tokyo.  Who won’t like a crazy campy monster brawl board game?!  Overall it’s a press-your-luck game where you battle other giant monsters to get into Tokyo and stay there.   Tokyo is on the game board as is Tokyo Bay (but that’s only used for games with 5-6 players).  Each player selects a giant monster mover and takes the matching card that is used to count Victory points and monitor your Life points.  The goal is to reach 20 Victory points before anyone else does – and before you end up with zero Life points.

There are six dice that each have a 1, 2 and 3 which are Victory Points plus three symbols: Energy (thunderbolt), Attack (paw) and Heal (hearts).  On each turn players roll the dice 3 times and keep and re-roll what they want.  At the end of the third roll they “resolve” the dice meaning they have to score any victory points, collect any energy cubes, collect life points and/or attack.  Monsters who aren’t in Tokyo attack the monster only in Tokyo but the monster in Tokyo creates mayhem my attacking EVERYONE!  Energy cubes are used to buy cards, which help you in your journey to conquer Tokyo and your monster adversaries.  It sounds a little complicated, but really isn’t.

The game gets interesting when you have to decide to stay or leave Tokyo because being there can be brutal with attacks coming from every direction, but then it’s pretty fun to be doling out destruction too!  When you decide to abandon ship and leave Tokyo because you’re too wounded to stay, it forces whoever attacked you to enter Tokyo.  The bonus of being in Tokyo is that you receive 2 Victory points every time you start a turn there, so it’s definitely helpful when you’re aiming for 20, the minus is you cannot heal yourself when you’re there even if you roll a heart.

Overall King of Tokyo is a fun game with amazing artwork that will satisfy the gamers and casual gamers in your life.  The one thing I should warn about is that the box says 2-6 players but playing with 2 isn’t anywhere near as interesting – actually I’d call it “clunky” as it just doesn’t play as it should.

King of Tokyo Stats:
~$40 eBay, Specialty Retailers and Amazon.com —> right now it’s hard to find but I know there’s also lots of demand
3-6 players (don’t bother playing with 2)
~20-30 minutes
Ages 8 and Up

Back in the summer of 2009 I wrote an article on one of my FAVORITE dice games: Can’t Stop by Sid Sackson.  In this article I mentioned that I got my copy back in 2007 and it wasn’t going to be the easiest game to find — but good news for all, NOW IT IS!

You can scroll down to read my original review, but before that I’d like to rave about it’s new design.  The new Gryphon Games version is on the right and the older Face2Face games version is on the left in the pictures below. (*there are many older versions of Can’t Stop, this just happens to be my older copy.)

The games looks pretty similar but there are several improvements that I really appreciate.   First and by far the most important, the movers are so much easier to hold.  Maybe it’s the Industrial Designer in me, but the old game’s movers irked me — but since I loved the game so much I overlooked that they were small and really hard to hold.  When I heard that Gryphon Games was redoing Can’t Stop I was praying they redid the movers — and they did!  The new movers are taller and don’t nest as well but that actually makes it easier to see whose piece is stacked underneath. (see picture at the top of the page for the new version, and scroll down to see the old pieces in action.)  I also appreciate the built in cups in the plastic box insert — they’re not necessary, but boy are they handy!  And when you lift the board up the insert has a spot for the dice and the “runners” which is nice too.  Overall, the only negative I could find is that the new version is a tad bit larger box (13×13) — now, in all fairness, it was already a large game box (12×12) so does the extra inch of height and width make a difference?  Not really.  So go, buy, enjoy and win!  (Updated game stats are listed after the 2009 review below.)

My July 2009 Review:

Today’s pick is Can’t Stop by Sid Sackson.  Currently this dice games tops tall the others because I’m just so addicted to it and it’s an oldie but a goodie.  It was originally published in 1980 by Parker Brothers but was reprinted by Face 2 Face games back in 2007 and that’s when I got my copy.

The game is so easy to learn and play.  You’re trying to move your pieces from the bottom of the board to the top in columns numbered 2-12.  There are only 3 spaces in the 2 and 12 columns and 13 in the 7 column and since 7s are the easiest to roll using a pair of standard dice, it makes sense. The board is shaped like a giant stop sign which is a little ugly, but the shape easily lends itself to the bell curve that defines the odds in rolling dice.  So on a turn, you get 4 dice to roll and once rolled, you choose how to pair up the dice so it’s most advantageous to you.  Then you use 3 “runners” to move your pieces up the columns towards the top of the board.  And since there are only 3 runners you can only attempt 3 columns per turn.  The “Can’t Stop” part of the game comes in when you are holding the dice saying “I can roll just one more time, just once more, I can get a 2,7 or 9…then I’ll stop.”  You end up saying the same thing turn after turn until you gain some willpower to actually stop and move your pieces to where your runners are or you bust and don’t roll a 2,7,9 and the runners are removed from the board and without any advancement of your pieces, you pass the four dice to the next player and say “why did I keep going?!”

As the game progresses people who are really lucky or have the “slow and steady” mentality start to close out columns by reaching the top first.  Once a player closes out a pre-determined number of columns they win.  (The number of columns depends on the number of players.)

The thing about this game that I love isn’t that I have to fight my dice addiction to have a chance of winning – no, it’s that there is some luck mixed with a little mental game too.  The question becomes, how far in the lead do I have to be in a column before I should start working in other columns?  It kind of depends on how if your opponents are lucky, but also how gutsy they are.  It really makes me kind of antsy for my turn – and if I lose I want to play again…right away…because I just can’t stop playing.

So I guess Sid Sackson knew what he was doing when he created this game.  Addictive + fun is always a good combination in my mind.  Somewhere I read a quote from Sid that said something like “games should be easy to learn, give lots of strategic possibilities, include interaction amongst players and be played within 90 minutes.”  He had me until the last part.  I hate long games (which is why you won’t find a review for Monopoly on this site).  I think games should be played in 30 minutes or less and then if I have time to play it again, great.  Besides, it keeps people who want…er need… to win interested in the game even if they are getting killed because they know they have a chance of starting over in a couple minutes.  Ha!

So if you can find it get, yourself a copy of Can’t Stop.  It may be a bit of a hunt to find – try little mom & pop online retailers and eBay, though why someone would want to give up their copy of this classic is beyond me.  Maybe they don’t know what kind of fun they’re missing.

UPDATED Can’t Stop stats:
~$30 Amazon, FunAgain Games, some mom & pop stores
2-4 players
~15-30 minutes
Ages 7 and up (but I think the box says 9)

Here it is, a list of games which will make great gifts and entertain your family during the holidays and the long winter (and my top picks of the games I reviewed in 2011 plus 2 new games).

High Low RACKO, Winning Moves $9 NEW!

I invented it! (so this is somewhat of a shameless plug)  This is rack-less RACKO and players have their 10 cards lined up face-up in front of them.  Players then take turns drawing a card from the deck.  They MUST replace one of their cards with this new card and pass their discard to the next player.  Once the card has gone around the table, the next player draws a card.  Keep an eye on what you’re discarding or you may give your neighbor a win!

City Square Off, Gamewright $20 REVIEW

This is one of those games that I’ve played a lot even after I reviewed it.  Not all of the games I review end up in the regular rotation (because there are so many others I have yet to play and possibly review) but this one did.  It’s a great 2-player tile placement game that’s quick and easy to learn and play and it doesn’t really matter if one player is an adult and the other a tween, it’s still an even match.

Can’t Stop, Gryphon Games $32 REVIEW

IT’S BACK!!!  I’m so excited this Sid Sackson classic push-your-luck game is back on the market (now with Gryphon Games).  Back when I reviewed this game in July 2009 I had found a copy in the UK and had it shipped to me — and let me tell you that is not cheap.  It’s still not a steal at ~$32 BUT it’s worth every penny and with the giant plastic board, you know where some of the money went.  Any dice-game lover on your list will thank you for this one!

Sherlock, Playroom Entertainment $9  REVIEW

This one’s been around for a while, but I just reviewed it this year and LOVED IT.  It’s an adorable twist on memory because you are not just recalling which item is where, but you also have to plot a way to get to a face-up card.  You see, each card has a number and arrow on it and that tells you which card you have to guess next.  It a really fun game and definitely levels the playing field between kids and adults.

Solitaire Chess, Think Fun $20 REVIEW

I mentioned this one in last year’s Holiday Picks article (see HERE) but I hadn’t played it enough to review it yet.  After much post-holiday play, I reviewed it the 2nd week of January because I really enjoyed it.  Sure it’s a solo-play game — and essentially a chess brainteaser — but it’s really satisfying.  In truth, I like the app more than the physical game since you don’t have to bother resetting the board if you screw up.

Split Decision, Mental Floss Games $25 REVIEW

I really mulled over whether or not to include Split Decision on this list — this game was a riot with a large group.  They did such a great job on the cards; they’re hilarious!  BUT  you blow through a lot of cards in one game.  Still if you’re looking for something to play with a large group over the holidays, have 1 person be the reader and designate 1 side of the room “A”, the other “B.”  Losers sit, and play until there’s 1 person left — give them a nice prize. YAY!

Kwizniac, Kwizniac $15-30 NEW!

This giant box of trivia questions is great for a long trip or a lazy day where you don’t want to sit around a board game.  Each card has 10 clues and 1 answer. Read them one at a time starting with 10 and counting down to 1 and if someone gets the answer on say the clue #8, they get 8 points.  Get it?  We decided to cross off the clues we used so we can reuse the cards later.  Great gift for people who take the Trivial Pursuit box with them on vacation!

Halli Galli, Playroom Entertainment $15 REVIEW

I reviewed a couple good speed games this year (Jungle Speed being one of them) but I really enjoyed Halli Galli for a couple reasons.  First, it has a bell which makes winning the round really satisfying.  Second, it requires a little bit of quick math (not a ton) you just have to ring the bell when there are EXACTLY 5 of the same item shown on all the cards.  Great fun for kids and tweens!

Hope you all have been good this year so Santa brings you lots of fun games!  Happy Holidays! - Kim

For those of you who have been to ChiTAG in the past, you know that it’s a mix of mass-market games from larger manufacturers and mass-appeal specialty games from medium to very small manufacturers.  Overall, I’d say that the majority games appeal to casual gamers and families and here’s a small taste of what you’re going to see:

Educational Insights  

I’m so excited that they have a booth this year because they have so many fun games in beautiful packaging!  First there’s Buck Buck Moose by Mary Jo Reutter, who was last year’s TAGIE winner for Excellence in Game Design!  Buck Buck Moose is a speed game for kids 4+ and you lay out 4 stacks of colored Moose cards, which have the most adorable drawings.  Then players take turns pulling long skinny cards out of a cardboard holder – which will either be Buck, the ranger, or a Moose!  When a Moose card is pulled, players race to slap the matching colored Moose and they get to keep that card.  Player with the most cards wins!

They also have The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game! (invented by their very own Riley Wilkinson) and I raved about this game’s adorable packaging right after New York Toy Fair. (see HERE)  Thankfully, it’s not just a cute box – it’s also a fun game for kids 3+!  Players use squirrel-shaped tweezers to grab and steal acorns to complete their stash.  There are just so many cute things about this game that I’d like to post a bunch of pictures, but instead I’m just going to say “go to their booth!”  After seeing it I’m sure you’ll FIND a 3-4 year old to buy it for!

I should mention that Educational Insights doesn’t do just children’s games – they also have games like KaBAM!, a word-building card game for players 7+. Flip over 2 cards and use this 2-letter combo to create a word.  So if the cards are A and C if I yell “ACROSS” before my opponent yells “PACK” then I would win the pair of cards.  There’s also a KaBAM! round that adds some variety to the game, but I want to give the folks at their booth something to talk about.

Buck Buck Moose Stats:
~$12 ChiTag, EducationalInsights.com, Amazon.com
3-6 players
~10 minutes
Ages 4-7

The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game Stats:
~$20 ChiTag, EducationalInsights.com, Amazon.com
2-4 players
~10 minutes
Ages 3-5

KaBAM! Stats:
~$13 ChiTag, EducationalInsights.com, Amazon.com
2-4 players (although I recommend at least 4)
~15-20 minutes (you decide how many rounds you want to play!)
Ages 7 and Up

MindWare

A new exhibitor this year, MindWare is a catalog company that creates “brainy toys for kids of all ages” and works with inventors like Peggy Brown and Susan McKinley Ross to create fun, puzzle-like games.  Susan, who is up against me for the TAGIE for Excellence in Game Design, invented MindWare’s best selling game Qwirkle.  Qwirkle is a family game where players create lines of tiles with matching colors or shapes similar to the crossword-style play of Scrabble.

My favorite MindWare game was invented by Peggy Brown, and it’s called Q-bitz (reviewed HERE).  Q-bitz is a game where you use patterned dice to solve visual challenges and there’s going to be an oversized version of the game at ChiTAG with cubes that are 1 foot by 1 foot!  This is definitely a booth to stop by!

Qwirkle Stats:
~$25 ChiTag, MindWare.com, Amazon.com
2-4 players
~30-45 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

North Star Games 

I’ve reviewed their Wits & Wagers and Wits & Wagers Family games (see HERE and HERE) but they’ve come out with an interesting new game called Crappy Birthday.  I’ll admit I haven’t played this one yet, but I know it’s going to give at least a couple good laughs because the game is about giving and receiving bad gifts — and who hasn’t gotten a bad gift they laugh about years later?!

Crappy Birthday Stats:
~$15 ChiTag, Amazon.com
2-4 players
~30 minutes (or so the box says…)
Ages 8 and Up

ThinkFun

I’m a big fan of their single-player challenge game Solitaire Chess (reviewed HERE) – especially the iPhone app.  ThinkFun also has a bunch of great games like Zingo (see HERE) and Smart Mouth, but personally I’m looking forward to trying out their new word-search, single-player challenge game, PathWords, in which you use see-through Tetris-like pieces to mark words by covering the letters on a grid.  Does that make sense?  Well one look at the picture and you get what I’m trying to say.  Worth a peek I’m sure!

PathWords Stats:
~$20 ChiTag, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and anywhere that sells ThinkFun products
1 players
Play as long as you’d like
Ages 12 and Up

Spin Master

Yes, they’re in the game business!  And I believe they’ll be showing games like Quelf, which is like Cranium on Red Bull, and it’s counterpart Quelf Junior which is a game of wacky stunts for kids which is funny for a little while but didn’t have as much variety as Quelf.  Spin Master is also the one manufacturing Greg Zima’s game Stomple, which I talked about last year and reviewed this spring (see HERE).  Greg is another inventor who is nominated for the TAGIE for Excellence in Game Design.  I hear that there might be an oversized Stomple game at ChiTag, which would be really cool!

Quelf Stats:
~$25 ChiTag, Amazon.com, Target, Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble
3-8 players
~30 minutes
Ages 12 and Up

and the best for last…..Top Trumps

If I had to give ONE reason to go this year, what’s going on at the Top Trumps booth is it.  Yes, they have the World Record challenge happening with the Girl Scouts – but that’s not it.  They’ve giving away FOR FREE the Toy & Game Guru Top Trumps decks – and they’ve scheduled almost all of the inventors in the deck to be at their booth (#603) signing their cards!!  Yes, I’m lucky enough to be in the deck, so PLEASE stop by sometime between 12pm-12:45 on Saturday to say hi and pick up your free deck!!   I can tell you right now that I’m REALLY exciting about getting my deck signed by some famous inventors that I will most definitely geek-out about meeting!

Top Trumps Toy & Game Guru Stats:
*FREE* at ChiTag — and it is ONLY available at Chitag
2-4 players
~10 minutes to play — hours of fun reading all the inventor bios!
Ages 6 and Up

Some other companies you’ll see at the fair (and I’ve gone nuts linking each to a review of one of their games): Endless Games, Bananagrams, Find-It Games, Fun Q Games, Out of the Box, Buffalo Games, Rio Grande Games, also Mayfair Games, Talicor, Zobmondo, Moosetache Games, Smirk and Dagger, HL Games, Griddly Games…and I’m sorry to anyone I might have missed!

Even though there have been holiday decorations up in stores across the country for more than a month, I personally can’t believe it’s already November and the holidays are right around the corner!  Now, for many of you in the game world you know that before we can dig in to our Thanksgiving turkey, we have to meet in Chicago for ChiTag!  And the game I’m going to review this week, Befuzzled, will be the star of the Fun Q Games booth.

I’ve had Befuzzled on my desk for a little while but waited to write my review for a couple reasons.  First, I think this is a great family party game for the holidays – especially for a crowd of slightly over-served adults, teens and kids.  Second, if you are stopping by ChiTag I wanted to remind you to stop by the Fun Q Games booth #219 – not only are they nice people, but they have 2 games worth checking out (Befuzzled and Triplica) and you’ll be able to buy it there!

So what is this game I speak so highly of?  Befuzzled is a speed/action game with quick rounds; which is a nice combination for a family-friendly party game.  There are 3 types of cards in the box: Action cards, Flip cards and Shape cards.   Action cards list actions (duh!) like “Bark like a Dog” and “Snap Your Fingers.”  You lay 8 of these cards face-up on the table in 2 rows of 4.  Then you take the Shape card deck and lay one card on top of each Action card so you can still see the title of the action.  Next you pick a player to start the round and give them the deck of Flip cards. This person is the “judge” and they turn over the top Flip card so everyone can see what symbol it is.  Whoever does the action under the matching shape first, wins the round and gets to keep the Flip card.  The Flip deck gets passed to the next player and they’re the judge for the next round.  Play continues until there are no cards left in the Flip deck and then you can choose to count up cards and keep score, or just claim a winner for the game.

The instructions are pretty specific as to how many cards should be in the draw deck (5 x the number of players) but us beer-drinking adults skipped over that rule.  We did find that this game played really well with a larger group and while the instructions say 3-8 players, I’m not sure the game would be quite as much fun with only 3 players.  What I do like about this game is that it comes in a nice small box so it’s easy to pop in a bag and bring it to a friend’s or relative’s holiday party – or heck, you could even give it as a hostess gift!  (Man, am I filled with great ideas today!)

Befuzzled Stats:
~$14 ChiTag, Specialty Retailers and Amazon.com
3-8 players (although I recommend at least 4)
~10-30 minutes (you decide how many rounds you want to play!)
Ages 7 and Up

**For $2 admission to ChiTag, visit HERE

A while ago I asked on Twitter what everyone’s favorite speed games were and I got a variety of answers but one stuck out to me, “Jungle Speed.”  I was curious about this game as it was suggested by a couple tweeps who share my taste in games. Shortly after I got an email from the manufacturers of Jungle Speed and I figured the cosmos was trying to tell me that I’d enjoy this game.  And I do.  And apparently I’m not the only one since more than 2 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide.  That’s a lot of games!

In a way Jungle Speed is similar to Halli Galli as all players are flipping cards and looking at the cards to see if they find the right combination.  (see review of Halli Galli HERE) If they do, in Halli Galli they ring the bell but in Jungle Speed you grab the “totem” in the middle of the table.  In Halli Galli you’re trying to collect all of the cards, whereas in Jungle Speed you’re trying to get rid of your cards and they go to whoever wasn’t quick enough to grab the totem.  There are some small differences between the games but the big point of difference is that Jungle Speed includes cards that change up the play.  For example, you go from looking for the same symbol to the same color or it’s whoever is the quickest to grab the totem.  It keeps things fresh and players on their toes.  You can watch how to play here:

There’s one other thing I feel I must mention in this review.  In the past you’ve all heard me rant about boxes and how flimsy boxes don’t play nice on my game shelf.  Well, Jungle Speed has a flimsy box BUT they also include a nice fabric bag to contain the totem, cards and instructions, which is awesome, especially for travel.  So ditch the box and store everything in the nice bag!

Jungle Speed Stats: 

~$20 at Amazon, Target, ToysRUs, Barnes & Noble, mom & pop retailers
2 to 10 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 8 and up

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a big fan of dice games.  Therefore, when I saw Farkle Frenzy at the Patch booth at Toy Fair I was excited to get my hands on a copy!  (It was mentioned in my 2011 Toy Fair article, part 2.  See HERE) This time it wasn’t just because it’s a dice game that looks fun, but because it took away one of the things I dislike about classic Farkle – the waiting.  You see, Farkle Frenzy is an all-play game, so you no longer have time to get the mail and grab a Coke before it’s your turn again and I really like that.

If you know how to play classic Farkle getting started playing Farkle Frenzy is going to be a snap.  If you don’t know how to play classic Farkle, the instructions are at the beginning of the Farkle Frenzy instructions and it might be advantageous to walk through a round without using the tower before you get started because the game can get a little crazy!

As many of you know, Farkle is a game played with 6 dice and in Farkle Frenzy everyone shares the sixth die.  So each player has 5 dice in their hands, a stairway with 5 spaces in front of them that leads up to the communal 6^th die at the top of the pyramid.  To start the round, one player pushes the bubble at the top down into the pyramid and it does this fun multi-pop action back up to the top.  If die shows a 5, 1, 2x everyone starts rolling their dice right away.  If the communal die shows a Wild, the player who “popped” the 6^th die rolls once and picks which number (1-6) will be the wild and then everyone else starts.

Every die a player wants to keep is placed in a stairway step starting at the bottom and play is just like regular Farkle, like I can only keep three 6s if I roll them all at once.  If I roll two 5s and the communal die is a 5 that’s 500 points!  I’ll admit that there was a bit of confusion regarding when to use a communal 1, 5 or wild # – was it anytime during your rolls to get to the top of the stairway or on your first roll only?  We decided you could use it once anytime on your way up to the top of the pyramid, but it can’t be used to save you from “Farkleing” (aka “going bust” because you didn’t roll a die you could keep).

The round ends when all players decide to stop and keep their points, when everyone Farkles, or when one player reaches the top of the pyramid and yells STOP!  If a player makes it to the top and yells STOP! everyone must stop rolling and only the player with all of their dice nestled in the stairwell gets to decide if they want to take all of their dice and reroll them – which means they would get to use a communal 1, 5 or wild # again.  When the round ends, all points are totaled up and the game is over when one player reaches 10,000 points.

Now, because I’m a fan of making a game fit your group we made a few changes along the way.  We didn’t bother with yelling out STOP!, instead we allowed players to keep going if they could.  We did make them jot down their score at the end of the each trip up the pyramid just because it was so easy to forget!

Overall the game was a blast (even though I lost A LOT).  A couple people commented that they missed a 6^th die when the communal die was a 2x – but they were getting double points so really, what’s to complain about?!

Farkle Frenzy Stats:

• ~$18 Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, FunagainGames.com, and FatBrainToys.com
• 2-4 players
• ~15 min.
• Ages 8 and up

Sometimes it takes me a little while to review a game that’s been on the market for years but I really enjoy.  And even though these games aren’t NEW they’re still worth reviewing because games don’t “go bad” unless they’re trivia based or heavily rely on pop culture or politics.  It’s what makes games so great!  If you pick up a game from the 1950s, odds are very good that it’s still playable (provided none of the key pieces wandered off in the last 60 years).  This week’s game isn’t quite that old, but it was a 2003 nominee for the Kinderspiel des Jahres* so it’s been out for close to a decade, but it would still be just as good if it came out a month ago.  What game am I talking about?  It’s Sherlock, Sherlock! An elementary game of memory and deduction. (that’s the last bad joke in the article, I promise.)

Sherlock is essentially a memory game – but a memory game that does not bore the adults!  The game starts with 8 cards placed face-up in a circle around the rest of the deck.  Players take time memorizing the pictures on each card and then they are flipped face-down.  The youngest player gets to be Sherlock first and they take the Sherlock mover (which is a card, see right) and place it above whichever face-down card they’d like to guess.   Then they guess and flip it over.  If they’re wrong their turn is over and you have to wonder what they were doing for the last minute instead of memorizing pictures!  If they’re correct the card stays face-up they get to continue and guess again – and this is where the game gets fun!  There are red arrows next to a number on the top of every card and that indicates which direction and how many cards over you need to go.  Where the Sherlock mover lands is the card you MUST guess next.  If you can’t recall correctly, your turn is over and all the cards are flipped over again.  But if you’re right you keep that card face-up and advance the Sherlock mover based on what the number and arrow says.  When the Sherlock mover finally lands on a face-up card you get to collect it and replace it with a new one from the deck (of course showing everyone what it is before you place it face-down).  Then make sure all of the cards are face-down and it’s the next player’s turn.  The goal is to be the first player to collect 6 cards.

What is so amazing about this game is that after a little bit you’ll realize that you can plan out shorter moves by remembering the number and arrow direction on the cards.  I also like that you can play with 6 (easiest), 7, or 8 (hardest) cards in the circle without taking away the fun and excitement of the game.  Sherlock was invented by Reinhard Staupe and this spring I wrote about another one of Reinhard Staupe’s games, Saddle Up! which is another cute game for kids 5 and up.  In that article I gave a little information about the inventor and if you’d like to read about Reinhard or Saddle Up! click HERE.

* The Kinderspiel des Jahres is awarded every year (since 1989, although prior to 2001 it was called the “Sonderpreis Kinderspiel”) to the best children’s game judged by German game critics.  It’s the “kid sister” to the Spiel des Jahres which is awarded to the best family game.

Sherlock Stats:

• ~$7-10 Amazon.com, FunagainGames.com, and some mom & pop game stores
• 2-5 players
• ~15 min. (but it kind of depends on how good you are at remembering!)
• Ages 5 and up

As my regular readers know, here at The Game Aisle I tend to review mass-market, mass-appeal games and steer clear of games that appeal to more serious gamers.  Mostly because I, like a lot of casual gamers out there, don’t like reading long instruction books and I don’t like to spend more than 30 minutes on one game.  So when Gryphon Games asked if I’d like to try their game Incan Gold I was pretty sure it was going to be outside the scope of games I review – but oh my gosh it’s not!

Incan Gold looks a little like a German-style board game and for those in the know, it says on the box that it was invented by Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti.  Over his career Alan Moon has worked for Avalon Hill (maker of war & strategy board games) and invents for Ravensburger and Days of Wonder (publisher which specializes in German-style board games maybe most famous for Ticket to Ride invented by Alan Moon).  To me, this was not a great sign – but I agreed to try it out.

As it turns out, Incan Gold is a great press-your-luck game.  The story goes that everyone is an adventurer and you’re looking for jewels in an ancient Incan temple and on each turn you must decide if you want to keep hunting for treasure or return to camp with your haul.  That’s it…that’s the WHOLE game.

The game is played in 5 rounds so you have 5 opportunities to score.  On a turn a card is flipped and if it’s a Treasure card, the number of jewels it shows are split amongst the players who are still in the temple (which is everyone at the start of the game).  The jewels are actually little plastic jewels with the turquoise jewels being worth 1 point, the black or “obsidian” ones worth 5 and the gold are worth 20.  Like I said, the jewels are split equally amongst the players and then each player has to decide if they’re going to stay or go.  Players use one of two cards to blindly vote on whether they’re going to stay and keep “looking” for treasure or go.  When everyone reveals what they’ve decided, those who have decided to leave get to put the jewels they’ve collected under this cute paper tent and they’re yours to keep for the rest of the game, but you’re out for the rest of the round.  The players that stay in flip the next card and continue to split any treasure that comes their way.  There are also artifact cards that give out extra points but those can only be collected if you are the ONLY person to leave the temple on a turn (which takes a keen guess) but artifacts can get you a bunch of extra points.

There are also hazard cards in the deck like Giant Spiders, but they don’t matter until a hazard that matches one that’s already been played is pulled.  So when the first Giant Spider card is flipped over, it doesn’t matter.  It’s when the SECOND Giant Spider card is pulled that the round is over.  Anyone who is still in the temple loses all of the jewels they’ve collected and the round is over.  The round also ends when there are no adventurers still in the temple – but that’s pretty obvious.  Once a round is over the deck is shuffled and the round restarts with everyone back in the temple.  At the end of the 5^th round, players lift their paper tents and total up their jewels to see who can claim victory!

The game is easy to grasp once you’ve played it.  I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining the basics here, but the directions are a little long so I’d advise you check out an online explanation of the instruction, like The Dice Tower’s:

I also would agree with Tom from The Dice Tower that Incan Gold plays better with more players.  The box says 3-8 (and the directions say 3-5) but I’d say at least 4-5 players to make it interesting.  So good luck and happy treasure hunting!

Incan Gold Stats:

• ~$15-20 Amazon.com, FunAgainGames.com, some mom & pop retailers
• 3-8 players — but I’d say 4/5-8
• ~15-20 minutes maybe a bit longer if people are very lucky!
• Ages 8 and up