The neighborhood I live in here in Chicago, well let’s just say it’s “up and coming” and it’s been “up and coming” for pretty much the entire 7 years that I’ve lived here.  During those years, it’s definitely been getting better and this year huge strides have been made with great new bars, restaurants and shops going in nearby including an upscale toy store!  The owner of the new toy store *Play, asked for my help picking out games for their target age group (8 and under).  Trying to pick out stuff that is fun and unique, one of the games I suggested was Chicken Cha Cha Cha – another game in the “Chicken Family of Zoch” which includes the previously reviewed Pickomino (see here).

Now, Chicken Cha Cha Cha isn’t the easiest game to find (it’s being re-released in October), and with a $30+ price tag it makes it even harder to cough up the money to buy it before trying it but I really thought it was a great purchase.  The game’s been around since 1998 and it was invented by Klaus Zoch (hence the “Chicken Family of Zoch”).  Unlike Pickomino, Chicken Cha Cha Cha is aimed at a younger crowd – 4 and up.  The game is simple, each player gets a beautiful wooden chicken with one tail feather that is placed on an egg shaped tile that is one of 24 laid out in a circle.  (Eggs, laid…get it?)  Inside the circle there are 12 octagonal tiles scattered about face down.  On your turn, you look at the egg space in front of you and try to flip over the tile in the middle that has the matching image.  Obviously in the beginning it’s all guessing, but as you get going it’s a great memory game!  If you flip a matching tile, you “cha cha” your chicken one space forward and your turn continues until you don’t flip over a matching tile.

The point of the game is to collect all of your opponents tail feathers.  To do that, you must catch up to, and then jump over another player.  After which you collect ALL of their tail feathers.  If the game has just started, they may only have their own feather but as things get going they could have collected a tail feather or two already.

Chicken Cha Cha Cha is definitely a fun twist on classic memory with exciting head-to-head play.  And while the $30 or more price tag is really steep for a kid’s game, it’s one that adults can definitely enjoy – even without the kids!  I also have to say that this game is amazingly well made.  The tiles are really thick and durable and the wooden chickens are something you won’t find in games at Target or Wal-Mart for sure

Chicken Cha Cha Cha Stats:

$30-$45 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com,  FunAgainGames.com
2-4 players
15-20 minutes
Ages 4 and up

Obviously, Order’s Up is a diner themed game and to kick off play, everyone selects two guest checks, which each have 6 food and/or beverage items on them.  To win you need to collect all of the items on two checks.   The game starts with 4 meal/beverage tiles in the center of table surrounding the bell.  On each turn, a player rolls the die and it either has a picture of a bell, a broken bell (which puts you “on break” until your next turn – ouch!), a Free Meal, an Order Mixup or an image that indicates you need to add two tiles to the play area.  If you roll a bell, the first player to ring the bell gets to select a meal or beverage from the play area that matches an image on one of their guest checks.  If there isn’t one that matches, they draw from the stack and take it if it matches or add it to the center if it doesn’t.  So this is really a speed game, which makes you think that anyone who doesn’t have the reflexes of a cat probably isn’t going to win.  WRONG!  The inventor of this game, Myles Christensen, added in some nice catch up factors for the quickness-challenged folks out there.  For example, if you roll a Free Meal, then you could be a super-slow three-toed sloth and still get to start filling your guest check by grabbing a tile from the center.  If you roll an Order Mixup, then you get to swap either one of your guest checks with anyone else’s (tiles included) – my suggestion, steal from the player with the roadrunner like speed.  They’ll catch up again, right?  (You just can’t swap for a completed card; those stay with the player that finished them.)

Order’s Up did a really great job of putting a couple of catch up factors into a cute themed speed game.  And it’s these details that make the game memorable because at times it’s feels more like you’re getting bamboozled than your slow-as-molasses opponent is getting a chance to catch up.  Then again, it could be the lightning fast person who is getting all of the Free Meals, but it only takes one Order Mixup to change all that.

Overall, all of the parts of Order’s Up work together nicely, kind of like how a milkshake, burger and fries make a great diner meal.  And besides, the game’s got a bell and who doesn’t like a game with a bell?

Order’s Up Stats:
~$15 at Amazon, FunAgainGames.com (**Comes out June 1st but you can pre-order it now!)
2-6 players
15 Minutes or less (depends on number of players)
Ages 6 and up

Not far from my house there is a dive bar, with scary red lighting that hosts bingo on Monday nights.  It’s really not all that exciting; you win a brown paper lunch bag filled with random odd items.  I was lucky enough to win the first round Monday night and my winnings included some Cheez-It snacks, baby food, a bunny sucker and Chicklets.  By the end of the night our table had a skull candle, a bible card game and three colors of “fun dough.”  But before the bingo festivities began, we played quite a few rounds of the classic, but somehow not super well known, game Shut The Box.

Surprising to me, no one at my table had ever played Shut The Box before but by the end of the night everyone was addicted.  There are lots of variations of this game but traditionally it’s a box with tiles numbered 1-9 that you can flip forward and backward, which allows players to “check them off” as they use them.  The game is simple; you roll two standard dice and total them up.  Then you flip forward any available tile combination that equals the number you rolled.  So if you roll an 11 and it’s your first turn, you can flip forward a 9 and a 2 or a 1, 4 and 6.  It’s totally up to you, but once you flip forward a number you can’t use it again.  Your turn ends when you roll and you don’t have the right combination of tiles to equal your dice total.   You get your score for the round by totaling up the unused tiles.

There are a couple ways to score.  We played that whoever had the lowest number each round got one point.  You can then play until someone reaches a certain number of wins or until you run out of time.  Keeping a running tally of each player’s actual score is another way to play, just make sure you have a pencil and paper handy.  Play a certain number of rounds or until one player reaches a set number, and then the player with the lowest score is the winner.

Other versions of the game include boxes with tiles numbered 1-10 or 1-12.  There are also 2-player versions and 4-player versions.  Blue Orange games also has a game called Double Shutter that has two levels of tiles numbered 1-9 so you can flip two 5s if you roll a 10.  I also own a dice game named The Game of Chips by Jax that is essentially Shut The Box, with no box.  It uses poker chips numbered 1-10 and you flip them over as you use them.  This is a great low-priced travel alternative; it comes in a nice fabric pouch and can be purchased for ~$5.

Fun bit of trivia for you too, there was a TV show back in the mid-1970s called High Roller that was based on the game Shut The Box.  It was hosted by Alex Trebek and players answered “toss up” questions to gain control of the dice and the option of rolling or passing to their opponent.  It was on for a couple years and then again in the late 80s with Wink Martindale, but the new show wasn’t as successful.

Shut The Box stats:
$15 – $65+ at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us,  some mass market retailers, specialty retailers
Shown at top: Melissa & Doug Shut The Box retails for ~$19-$25
Article preview: Front Porch Classics Shut the Box Signature Edition retails for ~$45-$53
1 or more players
Any amount of time
Ages 6 and up

Double Shutter stats:
~$19 at Amazon.com, Toys ‘R Us, Target, specialty retailers
1 or more players
Any amount of time
Ages 8 and up (it’s a bit more complex)

The Game of Chips stats:
~$5 Amazon.com, online game retailers, some specialty stores
1 or more players
Any amount of time, ~15 if you play by their rules
Ages 6 and up

A friend of mine was over recently and asked if I could recommend a card game that’s “like UNO, but not UNO, but is easy for non-game people to get, like UNO — oh and it also has to be fun for two players.”  Huh.  So we headed up to my hallway of games and I started pulling products out for him to look at.  He really wanted something simple, fun and that takes 2 seconds to learn.  Something “familiar.”

The game that really resounded with him was Ratuki by USAOPOLY.  This game has been through testing several times and has made it to my list of games to review, but it kept getting pushed down the list because it almost felt “too familiar” in my opinion.  All of the play testers really enjoyed playing the game, but EVERY ONE of them said “it feels like another game I’ve played with just cards.”  And they’re right, it does BUT it has one neat and unique feature that makes it different and those are the cards themselves.  Instead of all of the cards being numbered in the same fashion, they have five different ways of writing the numbers 1-5.  They use pips on a die, roman numerals, the word, a hand and the standard number.  (see the image above)  This little change makes all the difference – and makes the game worth owning.

Ratuki is all about speed and each round ends when a player runs out of cards.  During a round, there is the potential of three stacks in the center of the play area and everyone can play on those three stacks.  Using the deck of cards in front of them, players build on the center stacks by playing a number one above or below the top card on the stack.  The goal is to get play a five and capture the stack.  At the end of the round, players count up the cards they captured, subtract any cards of their own they were left with and that’s their score.  Play by rounds or play to a certain number – it’s up to you!

The game is fast and frenzied, and to reset for a new round is a snap because players have their own color cards.  My friend and I played one quick round of the game and he really enjoyed it.  Like the other game testers, he thought the game had a familiar “feeling,” which was exactly what he was looking for, a “comfort food” kind of game.

Also, if you don’t have time to read the directions – check out the nice graphic explanation at www.playratuki.com.

Ratuki Stats:
$10-$15 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Specialty Retailers
2-5 Players
3+ Minutes (totally depends on how many rounds you play or how many points you play up to)
Ages 7 and up

ChickyBoom is a balancing game in which you pile up hay bales, wagon wheels, and adorable wooden chickens on top of a long platform and once you’re all set, you carefully move the platform to the rocking perch.  That’s where the game begins.  One at a time, each player removes an object.  Hay bales are worth 3 points, wagon wheels are worth 1 and the chickens are 2-3 points depending on their size.   The goal is to have the highest number of points when the platform comes crashing down.  And as an additional stroke of bad luck, if you’re the player that caused the crash you lose 5 points from your total.

The rounds are quick and without the “you touched it, you must remove it rule” it’s a really satisfying game to play.  I think the only negative the game has is that it can be hard for little ones to get the platform onto the perch and then balanced once it’s stacked high with chicks and hay.  Still, that’s very minimal setup help from mom or dad!

Like many other Blue Orange products, ChickyBoom is a beautiful all-wood game that is durable and cute.  Blue Orange makes it a priority for their company to be “green” and plants two trees for ever one that is use to make their games.  And bonus to you parents who are always losing pieces rendering games unplayable they have a replacement piece shop on their website!  You can find that here: http://store.blueorangegames.com/repi.html

We here at The Game Aisle think that Blue Orange did a great job on this game and I’m sure this one will stay in our collection for a long time!

ChickyBoom Stats:
$20 – $25 at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Target and some specialty retailers
2-4 Players
5-7 Minutes
Ages 4 and up

I think that games should look fun to play.  It’s much easier to convince a newbie to play a game if looks fun – granted it should also be fun, but I think that almost goes without saying.

Today’s game review is on Gobblet Gobblers.  It’s the colorful, cute version of the abstract strategy game Gobblet which has been a success for Blue Orange games for a couple of years now.  Invented by Blue Orange’s founder Thierry Denoual, the game is easy to play and learn but takes a bit of time to master. The wooden game consists of 6 (2 small, 2 medium and 2 large) blue Gobblers, 6 orange Gobblers and a playing grid.  On each turn a player can place a Gobbler in a space or move a Gobbler to another space and larger Gobblers can cover up either player’s smaller Gobblers.  A player wins when they get three in a row; it’s simple enough!

Gobblet Gobblers is really like an addictive and more complex game of tic-tac-toe.  You need to think about moves ahead but also remember what’s hiding underneath each of the Gobblers.  At the beginning you will make some stupid moves but the learning curve is very quick so you won’t have that “wow am I dumb” feeling for more than a game or two.  And trust me, that feeling just makes you want to have an immediate rematch, and since the games only take about 2-5 minutes each it’s easy to demand one – or six.

Because it is an offshoot of the schoolroom classic tic-tac-toe, it’s great for kids and parents to play together.  The manufacturer says it’s for ages 5 and up and while I didn’t test it with a kid that young, I’m pretty certain that a 5 year old would enjoy it – especially with the cute faces and funny felt hair that makes Gobblet Gobblers so much cuter than it’s parent game Gobblet.

Gobblet Gobblers Stats:
~$19 at Target, Borders, Amazon.com, local Mom & Pop stores
2 Players
2-5 Minutes
Ages 5 and up

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve got a degree in industrial design and ending up in the game industry was somewhat a fluke.  I needed a job, they were the only ones hiring after 9/11 so voilà -  “toy/game inventor Kim.”

Now if you don’t know what an industrial designer is, consider what a graphic designer does for 2D designs; industrial designers do that for 3D products like cars, electronics, household goods, furniture and the list goes on.  Essentially it means that I have a weakness for beautifully designed products.  And the sad truth is that I don’t come across much in the game aisle that makes me drool, so when I opened the Pentago box it was like I could hear the design angels singing.  It’s BEAUTIFUL.

I purchased mine at Target so it’s the plastic version of the game (as seen in the photo here).  I know there are wooden versions but I am so satisfied/enamored with my mass-market copy.  The plastic feels nice, the moving parts are smooth, the marbles are real marbles – not cheap plastic things.  It’s so amazing that I’ve been raving about it since I opened the box.

The game is simple: you need to get 5 of your colored marbles in a row.  The catch is, on each turn you must place a marble on the board (or move a marble) AND rotate one of the quadrants ninety degrees.  The movement of the quadrants is so fluid.  It slides out and rotate with such ease I had to stop the first game we played to take a closer look at it’s manufacturing.  And then to boot it comes with a nice plastic clip on cover that holds the marbles in place if you decide to drag it with you somewhere and don’t want the fuss of a big box.

The game itself definitely falls into the “abstract strategy” category, but it’s so simple to learn and satisfying to play that it’s really enjoyable.  It was invented by Tomas Flodén in Sweden and in 2006 it received the Mensa Select Award, but don’t let that deter you non-strategy game people from trying this one out.

As a side note here – Pentago has been around for a little while (2004-ish) but just showed up in my Target now.  It’s been on my “to purchase list” but as I am not a huge fan of abstract strategy games it wasn’t purchased until I saw it on the shelf there and I felt guilty that it was not already in my collection.  Points to the Target game buyer for snatching this one up; it’s not often that we see something like this amongst the boxes and boxes Twister, Clue and Monopoly games but it truly is a treasure.

Pentago Stats:
~$20 at Target, Amazon.com
2 Players
3-30 Minutes (30 minutes seems really high…but this is what it said on the box.  None of my games have been anywhere near that long, but I’m still working on mastering this game.)
Ages 6 and up

I know LOTS of people shy away from drawing games because often they think their drawings would be identical to that of a preschooler’s if instead of a marker they were using a bright green crayon.  I’ll admit it – I’m in that group.  I think I can hold my own pretty well but I avoid participating in any drawing contests if they include any of my designer friends.  I’m just not that great of an artist when it comes to sketching.

So then why would I give a good review (all reviews here are good reviews if you haven’t noticed) to a game with “drawing” in the title?  Because the person drawing isn’t really in control of what they’re doing so it can’t be their fault if it turns out looking like a four year old did it!

Backseat Drawing is a very simple game.  On each team there is an artist, a director and a bunch of guessers.  The director is the only one who knows what the word is and they instruct the artist what to draw.  They can only use words and phrases like circle, square, above, below, big, little, on an angle, etc.  So drawing something like a birdhouse isn’t that terrible whereas drawing a zipper can be outright hilarious since you can’t say something like “draw a pair of pants.”  All while the artist is drawing the artist and other teammates are guessing.  First team to guess correctly wins the round.

One of the inventors, Peggy Brown, is one of the funniest people in the toy industry and when I asked her how she came up with the idea for Backseat Drawing this is what she said:

“Backseat Drawing was invented in an Indian restaurant in Southport, Connecticut in the late 90s. While munching on nan bread and waiting for the mulligatawny soup to arrive, my buddy Catherine Rondeau and I began doodling on the backs of the paper placemats. Instead of, as many drawing games in the past have required, drawing things and getting the other player to guess what we were drawing, we decided to make the person who was doing the drawing have to guess what she, herself was drawing. That was it! A simple twist on a classic drawing game element was enough of a novel idea to make a really new and different, not to mention ridiculously silly and fun game. Because the player who gives the directions has absolutely no control of what gets drawn, we decided to call it Backseat Drawing. The name stuck, the simple play pattern and rules stuck, and that’s how Backseat Drawing was born. I can’t remember if we ordered the tandoori chicken, but I remember that as one of the most delicious meals I ever had!”

Amazing right?! All it took was a little bit of nan and Peggy and Catherine created this simple, but really fun game.  There is also a Junior version of the game out now, but I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t played the Junior version yet.  Still, I hear it’s doing well.

Backseat Drawing Stats:
~$20 at Target, Amazon.com
4-10 Players (the more the merrier)
~15-20 Minutes
Ages 6 and up

I recently got asked for a suggestion for a “simple fun kids game” – you know, something for the very young soon-to-be-game lover.  There are a ton of these games out there that cover memory, matching, follow the path, counting, gross motor skills, etc.  And in my eyes the true test on whether these games are good or not is if the parents have fun (or at least a decent time) playing them.  As kids reach 7-10 years they’re fine playing most games on their own, but when they’re only 3-4 years an adult really has to play with them so unless you love stomping the youngins at Memory and Elefun, you need to find something that somewhat levels the playing field.

A game I like is Hisss.  It’s manufactured by Gamewright here in the USA, but was first seen in Germany (I believe).  Anyway, it’s a cute game about building multi-colored snakes.  On each turn, players randomly flip over cardboard tiles and either add it to an existing snake with a similar color section or start a totally new one if the color doesn’t match anywhere.  If you finish a snake by adding it’s head or tail you get to collect all of the tiles in that snake.  The player with the most tiles wins.

I really don’t have much to add in regards to commentary about this game.  It’s cute, simple, it’s easy to teach the youngsters, and it comes in a really nice, thick box.  (I hate games in cheap boxes.)

Hisss Stats:
~$11-$15 at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Toys ‘R Us
2-5 Players
~5-15 Minutes
Ages 4 and up (or a 3 year old who understands taking turns)

Thankfully, it’s not just me; I think my entire family has a weakness for dice games. Every one of us has at least one well-loved copy of Yahtzee and if you asked, I’d say we probably all have a copy tucked away in our cars “in case of an emergency.” I’m not kidding. Two winters ago, I was riding through the middle of nowhere Wisconsin in a blizzard with my father heading to my aunt’s 50th birthday party when we slid off the road. As we waited for the tow truck to arrive, I climbed into the back of his van to fish out Yahtzee. We played about ten games before the tow truck arrived. Unfortunately, I lost almost all of them, which seems totally unfair since he was the one who drove us off the road. Guess luck had to roll his way at some point!

Yahtzee is really a well-loved classic and if you haven’t played in a while, it’s worth another look. There were tons of similar poker-dice style games that are probably quite a bit older than Yahtzee, like Yacht and Cheerio. But Yahtzee showed up on store shelves in the mid-1950s and beat out other similar dice games like Kismet to become probably the best-known dice game of all time. And since the mid-1970s it’s been a strong dice-game brand with more than ten line line extensions, although classic Yahtzee is still my favorite.

As a note to parents, Yahtzee is a great way to teach your kids math (adding & multiplying) and probability. Take the time to let them add up their dice, and explain why they’d have better odds rolling for one thing over the other. Unfortunately they may start beating you, but it’s still a heck of a lot more fun than insisting they do math workbooks.

Yahtzee stats:

• $10 and up at all major retailers
• 2 or more players
• ~5-30 minutes (Depends on how quick the players are)
• Ages 8 and up