A couple months ago my inventor pal Gina Manola asked if I would take a look at her new game when it came out.  While I don’t really fit into the target age demographic (kids 3-6), I am a sucker for cute and funny.  Her new game is called Feed the Woozle manufactured by Peaceable Kingdom Press and yep, you guessed it — it’s about feeding a Woozle!  The game is pretty simple and it all revolves around using a spoon to feed the charming monster a series of disgusting yet funny foods, like worm pie and moldy macaroni.  It’s a cooperative game and there are three different levels of play so a variety of ages can enjoy this game.  The key thing to remember is that the Woozle doesn’t abide by the “5 second rule” and won’t eat any foods that drop off the spoon, so dexterity is key to the players being successful.  In more advanced levels you have to do funny actions are even blindfolded and you still have to feed the Woozle — with a little help from the other players.  It’s hilarious for humans of all ages!

And now, a couple questions for the inventor!  (Thanks Gina!)

1. How did you get started inventing board games?

In my business, CALICO, I design games and packaging for toy companies and I have a background in product development. It was a natural transition for me to get into inventing. 

2. Can you tell me how you came up with the idea behind Feed the Woozle?

The name for the game came first. Then I built a narrative around the character from which the components and game play evolved. I wanted to create a game where the character made silly demands while wanting to be entertained by the players. This is where the twist comes in—we think of games as entertainment for us, which they are, but in Feed the Woozle, the imaginary character driving the game also wants to be entertained by YOU. 

3. Did you know right away that it was a cooperative game, or did you change it to make it a cooperative game?

From the beginning it was meant to be a cooperative game. Typically, when I invent games, the theme, content or targeted age range of the game will dictate whether it is competitive or cooperative. If appropriate, I will write rules that offer both ways to play. 

4. Did you come up with all of the funny foods in Feed the Woozle? 

Yes. The silly snacks are a key ingredient of the game play!

5. Can you share your inventing and prototyping process?

It depends on the game. Some games are built from the title and a narrative as described above. Other games grow out of an objective or challenge that I, or a client may set. Some games are developed around a philosophy of play that I think is important. In all cases, I do a lot of sketches—first on paper. Scribbly and fast to get my thinking down as quickly as possible. The game really begins to take shape for me when I can see it. Then I build a prototype, play with it and push myself to remain open to the game going in a direction that I hadn’t planned for. Play-testing and refining of game play comes next. From the beginning, I look at the game from a marketing perspective and ask myself what the distinguishable features are. I try to see it the way a customer might see it on the store shelf. Ultimately I try to create an experience that’s fun and meaningful. (actual prototype pic at right — thanks Gina!)

6. You do a lot of work with the Young Inventor Challenge, which is judged at ChiTAG.  What kind of advice do you give the young inventors you work with? 

I encourage them to keep their antennas up because ideas can come from anywhere. I also encourage them to cast a wide net and never discount any idea when they begin the brainstorming process. Eventually, their ideas will coalesce into a few strong concepts to take to the next stage. Once they have a strong concept, I’ll ask them to pitch their idea to me. This helps them focus their thinking and really define the essence of their idea. Based on that, they can make sure that the best or most unique aspects of their toy or game come through.  

Website for Young Inventor Challenge: www.chitag.com/yic

More about Gina: 

Gina Manola is an inventor and the  owner of CALICO, www.calico-kids.com, an award-winning, design studio offering product development, design, branding,  and marketing to companies in the toy, game, gift and educational markets. Gina has developed successful toy, game and gift products for the specialty and mass markets and her work has been honored by “100 Best Children’s Products” and “10 Best Socially Responsible Products.”

Feed the Woozle stats:
$20 Amazon soon but now some mom & pop stores
2-5 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 3-6

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

I’ve come to realize that either you like speed games or you don’t – which is similar to people who like games that require great fine motor skills like Jenga or Topple.  You’re either good at them and you like them or you stink and you probably hide when someone suggests playing one. (go figure, no one likes losing) Well, in general I like speed games – but I LOVE dice speed games.  It goes back to that little dice addiction I have.  (Read: “I LOVE Dice Games” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) So Ligretto Dice definitely gets a thumbs up from me!

You may have heard of Ligretto as it’s a pretty popular card game (and also called Dutch Blitz) but the dice version isn’t quite as popular (but it’s also newer – 2009 versus 1988).  But it doesn’t really matter because you don’t need to know anything about the card game to enjoy the dice game!  The game is simple, all 24 dice are put in the black bag and each player blindly draws a set number of dice.  (12 for a 2-player game, 8 for a 3-player game, etc.)  The dice go in your cup and when someone yells Ligretto! (or in my world Go!) everyone starts frantically rolling.  The goal is to be the first to get rid of all of your dice and you get rid of dice by placing them on the matching spot on the board.  There are 4 rows (1 for each color die) and there are spaces showing dice numbered 1-6 in each row and you can’t put your yellow 2 down until someone has placed a yellow 1 and you can’t place a red 4 until there’s a red 1, 2, and 3 on the board.  Got it?  So once you’ve placed all of the dice on the board that you can, you put the remaining dice back in the cup – including your yellow 2 — and keep rolling.

All of the players are going to be frantically rolling & placing dice, which makes the game a bit chaotic, but it’s also extremely quick.  So if you were bested in the first game – go ahead and play a second since you probably have time.  There is also a scoring system if you plan on playing a bunch rounds or you’re just that competitive.

Ligretto Dice Stats:

• ~$15 Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, AreYouGame.com, FunAgainGames.com, some mom & pop retailers
• 2-4 players
• ~3-20 minutes depends on if you are using the games scoring or just playing a couple rounds
• Ages 8 and up (although I’d say 6 and up)

**Like this and want to find out about other speed games? Click the SPEED GAME in the tag cloud to your right.

If you live here in the US, Memorial Day is this weekend; which means the kids will all have a truckload of extra energy – you know, the kind that comes from knowing that they don’t have school on Monday.  I don’t know why this occurs, but whether they’re your own children, your relatives, neighborhood kids or ones of questionable ownership that show up just in time to snag a hot dog fresh-off the grill, you’re going to need to find something to keep their salty potato-chip fingers off your garden gnomes, your vintage board games and the game of bags you and some of the other adults want to play during the requisite Memorial Day barbeque.  May I suggest grabbing a copy of Out of the Box’s new game Shake ‘N Take – it will keep them occupied and out of trouble, at least for a little while.

Shake ‘N Take is a fast-paced, frenzied game for up to 10 players, although you only need 2 to play.  Everyone gets a sheet of funny-shaped aliens and then one kid is selected to start with the dry-erase marker and shape die and the player to their right gets the egg with the alien die in it.  When the game starts, the kid with the marker rolls the die and starts circling aliens that match the shape on the die.  The kid next to them is shaking the egg hoping to get the alien face-up on the die inside.  Once the kid with the egg is successful, they grab the pen from the other kid and roll the die and start circling aliens on their own card.  Obviously the kid on their right is going to grab the egg and start shaking it feverishly so they can get a chance with the pen since the object of the game is to be the first player to circle everything on your sheet.  With 2-5 players you play with one pen and one egg but with 6-10 players you play with 2 pens and 2 eggs to make things a bit more exciting.  It’s a simple, fun and fast-paced game invented by Keith Meyers and since I know Keith, I thought I’d ask him how he came up with the idea.  Here’s what Keith said:

“I’ve always felt that to be a good inventor you need to be a good observer.  I think my development of the game Shake N Take is a good example of that.

Shake N Take was born from a game played at camp and in classrooms.  The original premise had the sheets filled with letters or numbers and you would be progressing down or up through the alphabet or counting down or up a string of numbers.

In watching the game play it was obvious the fun factor was there: lots of screaming and laughing amongst the kids and a certain palpable tension that made the game very exciting.  But in watching several groups play over time, I noticed a couple of core repeating issues that I thought detracted from the heart of the game.

First, the older kids, or at least the ones with better critical thinking skills, would spend time plotting out where their next batch of letter or numbers would be when they weren’t marking their sheets, while the younger kids were caught up watching the insanity revolving around the table.  Invariably, these methodical kids came out ahead, but also seemed to miss out on the fun and laughter surrounding them.  Changing the numbers and letters to symbols and adding a die that allowed you to mark them off, solved this issue nicely.  There was only so much planning you could do when it came down to dice rolling.

And the second issue was the tug-of-war that often ensued when one person was ‘stealing’ the pen from another person.  Someone would have a death grip on the pen, the other desperately trying to wrest it from the other.  While initially funny to watch, it did not help the play of the game, and it put younger players, again, at serious disadvantage. Some tinkering with pencil toppers and other concepts, yielded the workable, but ugly, design you see pictured (wooden spool with packaging tape).

These observations lead to my design of “On A Roll” which took another step forward in the capable hands of Out of the Box, who upped the quality of the components – like the awesome alien-egg shaker, and added spiffy alien-themed graphics to make this design out-of-this-world!”

Thanks to Keith for sharing the story behind Shake ‘N Take!  I should also mention that the sheets have 2 sides, one with aliens and the other with basic shapes so kids of all ages can play and the game is pretty even, so whether you are having just a couple kids or a small army at your house this weekend, I highly recommend you have a copy of Shake ‘N Take to keep them entertained.  And let’s face it, if kids are playing games, they probably aren’t causing any trouble – at least not any major trouble.

Shake ‘N Take Stats

• ~$29 Amazon.com, FatBrainToys.com, FunAgainGames.com and some mom & pop retailers
• 2-10 player
• Time completely depends on the number of players
• Ages 8 and up is what the box says…I say 6 and up

Now because I don’t want this article to be one paragraph – it kind of doesn’t do the game justice – I’ll delve a little deeper into the game play.  The setup is simple, mix up the deck of cards (you can’t really shuffle them because they’re too stiff) and place them in a stack.  Take the top two cards and place them next to each other so nothing matches (neither color NOR object can match either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.)  These two cards start the playing area.  Next, one player will flip over 2 cards at the same time for the whole table to see.  Everyone looks and tries to find a place to play one of the two cards where they won’t create any matches.

You would think the “no match” thing would be pretty easy – but it’s amazing how many times you screw up!  So when you think you’ve found a spot you yell “WHOA!” (or more likely “I’ve got it!”) and show were the card goes.   If you’re correct, it stays there and you collect the other card and the player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.  If you were wrong, you’re out for the round AND you must discard one of your cards.  The game is over when you run out of cards in the draw deck.

Saddle Up! also has 2 other game variants in it, which are okay – but I really liked the “no match” game the best.  After a while it’s amazing that your brain actually feels like it’s getting a little workout. Since the game requires no reading, it’s good family fun.  Adult’s brains aren’t wasting away from sheer boredom (like some other children’s games) and kids have a chance of winning.   It also plays well with 2 players all the way up to a larger group (up to 6 players).

On the invention side of things, Saddle Up! is the brainchild of Germany’s Reinhard Staupe (I know that because his name is on the box).  But Reinhard has also invented other games with Playroom Entertainment (Sherlock, Trading Faces) and  games you may remember Blink (Out of the Box, Mattel) and Ricochet (Gamewright) in addition to many, MANY others.  Like most inventors, it took him a little while to break out into the business.  He invented his first game in 1989 but didn’t sign a licensing contract until 5 years later.  You can read a nice interview of him on The Dice Tower website (see HERE).  My favorite part was a question regarding the difference between German and American game markets and he says “As far as I’m concerned, the basic structures of the American and the German markets are the same: The more complex a game is the more difficult it is to sell.”  Duly noted.

Saddle Up! Stats:

• ~$8-10 Amazon.com, FunagainGames.com, and some mom & pop game stores
• 2-6 players
• 10-15 min.
• Ages 5 and up

There’s something about those old school, hotel desk bells that is just awesome.  One of my all time favorite games – Pit – has that style bell.  The quick, frenzied game Halli Galli that I’m reviewing here also has that bell. Seriously, who can resist like a game that you have to hit a bell?!

I briefly mentioned Halli Galli in a holiday posting a couple years ago, but really the game deserves it’s own review.  But since I’ve already touched on it once, I’ll keep it short and sweet – kind of like the game!  Halli Galli is a simple to learn card game with, like I said, a bell in the middle.  Players keep a stack of cards with 1-5 pieces of fruit on them in front of them.  Everyone turns their cards over at the same time and if you see a total of EXACTLY five similar items on the table you ring the bell and collect the cards.  The player with the most cards wins and there are penalties for ringing in at the wrong time — like if there are too many or two few of one piece of fruit.

Halli Galli is a great game for tweens and kids because they have wickedly fast reflexes.  It’s been on the market since the early 1990s and has sold more than 2.5 million games worldwide but I think the odd-sounding name scares some people off.  Don’t let it!  And as a fun tidbit, rumor has it that it was originally called Tutti Frutti but then an erotic game show was launched with the same name so – for good reason – it got changed!

Halli Galli Stats:

• ~$16-20 at Amazon.com, AreYouGame.com, Barnes & Noble, and many more
• 2-6 players
• ~10-20 min.
• Ages 2-6 and up

I’ve always believed that every board game is in some way, shape or form educational.  One of the biggest things I think EVERYONE can learn from playing games is how to be a good winner or how to accept defeat gracefully.  And now there is this new category of games cropping up in which players either win or lose together as a group.  There’s no one winner nor is there one loser – and players compete TOGETHER against the game itself.  So maybe these games won’t teach you to be a good winner or good loser but they will teach you teamwork and group strategy – and that’s not a bad deal.

Any of you who have met me in person know that I love competition…I thrive on competition – especially when it comes to Boggle. (Which I won last night, oh yea!) So how do I feel about these “cooperative” games?  I actually like them.   One in particular I fell in love with initally because of the game’s look is called Hoot Owl Hoot and after playing it, I think it’s a great game for kids.

The object of the game is to get the owls to the nest before the sun rises.  There is a a little sun token that starts by the moon at the top of the board and if it reaches the sun before all of the owls are in the nest, the game wins.  The sun moves forward one space everytime a player discards a sun card.  To start the game off, you decide how many owls you’d like to attempt.  For younger kids, you start with 3 owls and then work your way up to using all 6 owls for the hardest game.  Players each are dealt 3 cards and on their turn if they have a sun, they must play it and move the sun token forward one space.  If they don’t have a sun they can play any color card in their hand.  Then they move any owl forward to the next available space of that color.  The strategy is to get owls jumping over each other because the nearest space of that color is occupied.  If all of the owls make it to the nest before the sun rises, the players win!

Hoot Owl Hoot is for kids ages 4 and up – but just to make sure it was actually fun for adults AND there was a real chance that the game would win, I played with my husband.  Just the two of us tackled the hardest version with all six owls on the board I’m happy to say that we won only 3 out of 4 and the one we lost, we lost BAD.  Why does that make me happy?  Because I want to know this game is decent competition…and it turns out it is.  The odds are in the favor of the players, but if you lost all the time would you ever play?  Probably not.  Which brings me to another important point: parents make sure you have time to play 2 games in case the sun wins the first one.

Couple other things to note: the rules are in the box top – and it’s a NICE box so you probably won’t smash or mangle it for many years.  Also the game is “Green” meaning it’s made of earth-friendly materials including soy-based inks.  Even the pieces come in a paper envelope instead of lots of little plastic baggies.  I have to say the design, artwork and planet-friendly parts make me smile.

Hoot Owl Hoot Stats:

• $15 at Amazon.com, some Barnes & Noble stores and some Learning Express stores
• 2-4 players (must omit challenge cards with 2 players so 3-8 is better)
• ~10-20 min.
• Ages 4 and up

I had never played it or even heard about it before I saw this picture – I bought it 100% based this photo…okay 90%, 10% was price point.  It was only a little over $12 so if it stunk, it wasn’t too much of my game budget out the window.  (Yes, I have a game budget otherwise I’d be very poor.)

Other than being visually cool with a Peter Max trippy look Aquarius is a pretty good game.  The goal is to get a chain of 7 panels of your particular pattern connected together. (In the pic at left, the fire has 4 in a row)  At the beginning of the game each player is given a goal card with their pattern on it but it’s good to keep in mind that goals may changed as the game progresses.  The game is all about building off a random “start card” and then you can build off any card in the mass by placing cards with matching panels next to each other.  As you can see, there can be multiple panels per card but you only have to match one – but if you match more than one you get a bonus.  There are also cards that allow you to move cards, remove cards, reshuffle everyone’s hands and trade or rotate goals, which keeps the game interesting.

Another thing I really liked about Aquarius is that it has amazingly written rules (click the image at right to see a larger image of page 1 of the instructions or you can download a full set HERE).  Not only do they GET TO THE POINT QUICKLY, there are color diagrams, they have visual cues for easy navigation and they keep the FAQs and alternative play stuff for the back page.  If you’re an inventor and need an example of well-written rules, spend the $12 and get yourself a copy.  I mean it…nothing irks me more than horrible directions.  They put me in a bad mood.

Aquarius Stats:

~$13 at Amazon, ToysRUs.com, AreYouGame.com, mom & pop retailers
2 to 4 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Earlier this week I posted an interview with Mary Jo Reutter who won the TAGIE award for Excellence in Game Design in November of 2010 and you can see that article HERE.  But now it’s time to take a peek at some of her games and Mary Jo has AGAIN been nice enough to share some tidbits about how the games changed from her initial prototype – which is something I always find interesting!

First up, Laundry Jumble by Educational Insights.  While this game has roots in the 1967 game Feeley Meeley I think that the updated theme is adorable.  During the game players select a card with an image of an article of clothing on it.  They reach into the “dryer” and try to feel around to find the correct fabric item.  If they do, the player gets to keep the card.  If you pull the “Skunk’s Undies” you need to return a card you’ve already collected.  (ugh!)  Regardless, of whether you pull the correct item or not, it goes right back into the dryer so there’s always tons of stuff in there.

Mary Jo:

“When I pitched Laundry Jumble I called it “Tumble Jumble” (and I think some of the older cards even still say Tumble Bumble).  We loved the name Tumble Jumble, but it was taken, so Educational Insights had to make a change to “The Laundry Jumble Game”. The prototype had a spinning mechanism and also folded flat.  Originally the child was to roll a die to see how many times they’d turn the dryer before reaching in to find the item. Unfortunately this didn’t cost out low enough so we had to lose that feature. Fortunately the play was not compromised.  I’m very pleased that Educational Insights was able to keep the fabric for the construction of the dryer — one of the sweet subtleties of the fabric construction is that the dryer begins getting warm as your hand reaches around searching for the right piece of clothing.  And I’m also very pleased that they were able to get the small details in all of the clothing items. The Skunk’s Undies are a favorite!” (See Mary Jo’s prototype at left – wow that looks just about the same!)

Second is her mini-line of Flip-A-Longs with Fat Brain Toys.  There’s a train version called “Long Long Locomotive” and a medieval version called “Knights of the Long Table” but both play exactly the same.  It’s a matching game but instead of matching the same thing, players must match two halves of the same scene.  In the locomotive version each player starts with an engine and each time they get a match they add this new car to their train.  Obviously, the player with the longest train wins.

Mary Jo:

“The Flip-A-Long theme that was originally pitched was “Lenny’s Limo” — a long stretch limo with different sets of interesting passengers inside.  We changed that theme out for Knights of the Long Table, and Long Long Locomotive.  This game is much like a standard match game in that you can have a lot of different themes, and the twist of using your winning pieces to create a long scene.  The kids are much better at the memory and matching than most of the adults who play!  I like it when kids can genuinely beat their parents at a game.” (see Mary Jo’s prototype at left – it’s super cute!)

Even though the previous two have classic game play roots, I really enjoyed them both.  I thought that Mary Jo really improved upon Feeley Meeley (especially cute fabric instead of weird plastic tchotchkes, click HERE to find out more about Feeley Meeley if you have no idea what I’m talking about.) and making memory/matching play FAR more interesting and visually appealing.

The last game I’m going to review was probably my least favorite out of the three I’m reviewing here, but it definitely gets BIG points for cute!   (But note, that I’m not entirely sold on games action games like Rock’em Sock’em that are essentially toys with rules that are designed for kids — I’m sure skews my rankings.)  Sumo Ham Slam is a game about Sumo hamsters, which in itself is hilarious.  Players battle their hamsters using a wand that goes underneath the plastic board and magnetically attaches to their hamster.  It’s a battle of the bulge with each hamster trying to push the other out of the ring.  Along the way you earn food which are little white discs that adds to your hamster’s bulk when you shove it down their gullet.  The funny theme mixed with the cute characters really makes it a great birthday party gift for any kid 6-9.

Mary Jo:

“Sumo Ham Slam was originally called Masu Masu (which means More! More! in Japanese). The brilliant addition of the hamsters goes to Jason Schneider at Gamewright!  The game play and mechanisms stayed the same, and the hamsters and fantastic name just take it over the top in wacky.” (see her prototype at left, click to enlarge)

Thanks again to Mary Jo for all of her help and the great prototype pics she was awesome enough to send along!

Laundry Jumble Stats:

~$25 at Amazon, Target.com,  QVC, EducationalInsights.com, mom & pop retailers
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Flip-A-Longs Stats:

~$13 at Fat Brain Toys ONLY
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 4 and Up

Sumo Ham Slam Stats:

~$20-25 at Amazon, Fun Again Games, mom & pop retailers
2 to 6 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Every holiday season at some point I end up raiding the game shelves at my father’s house looking for something to play.  I’ll admit that over the years, I’ve “liberated” many of my favorites and they now reside in one of my game cabinets, but there are some that I’ve left for sentimental reasons (and there are others that haven’t made the cross-town journey simply because I’m afraid of the wrath if he noticed they were gone). The games at my father’s house are classics from my childhood and earlier.  If something happened to them, some may be impossible to replace but others you can still find on store shelves, because good games are like that, they don’t die – they get reincarnated.

Most of the time games are resurrected using the same name to give consumers that warm-fuzzy nostalgia feeling; great examples out now are Bed Bugs, Hedbanz, Shark Attack, Mall Madness and Rock’Em Sock‘Em Robots.  All except Rock’Em Sock’Em (it’s a bit before my time) were out when I was a kid, disappeared for a while and came back.  Bed Bugs even reused the artwork from the 1985 box when Patch Products rereleased it this year, so it looks just like it did when I was putting it on my wish list for Santa.  On the other hand, Spin Master had some really dated box art for Hedbanz and opted to give the game a facelift, which resulted in a far more appealing package.  But either way if the reincarnated game was notable enough, the product should evoke memories of playing with friends, wishing for it to appear under the Christmas tree or even fuzzy recollections of the game’s commercial.

This “reincarnation” phenomenon isn’t exclusive to the game industry.  Toy brands, shoe brands, car brands, beverage brands, video game brands all go through cycles like this too, but what makes it interesting in the board game arena is that products don’t always stay with their initial manufacturer.  In fact, neither Hedbanz nor Bed Bugs is with the company that originally released it.  Hedbanz has been published here in the US by IRWIN Games, Pressman Toy, Western Publishing and many international manufacturers.  Bed Bugs doesn’t have quite as lengthy of a history, having only been published by Milton Bradley before being picked up by Patch Products.  So why all the jumping around?  Sometimes this is due to a “trickledown” effect.  Hasbro now owns Milton Bradley and they may not have thought that Bed Bugs could sell the volume of games needed for them to spend money to promote the product or maybe they’re focused on building their core brands and didn’t have room for it, either way it ends up with a smaller company who has the time to nurture and rebuild the brand.  Other times it’s in the hands of the inventor to find their game a new manufacturer “home.”  Regardless, it’s obvious that well-loved games have multiple lives and don’t disappear forever – which is good, because there are a couple I’m hoping to see again!

Part 2 – The Reviews

Instead of explaining Bed Bugs I think you can just take a peek at the “vintage” commercial:

Remember that?  And obviously, with New York’s little bed bug problem this year, the rerelease of this game is extremely timely.

Now, I couldn’t find a commercial for Hedbanz, but I’ll explain it for those of you who don’t recall how to play.  Everyone wears a band on their head with a card clipped in it.  Cards have a picture and say “I am a [image word].”   Players don’t know what picture is on their card, but obviously they can see the cards of the other players.  Everyone takes turns asking questions in a “20-questions like fashion” until they can guess what’s on their card.  The quicker you can guess what you are, the more likely it is that you’ll win.  Overall, everyone looks a little silly — but it just adds to the laughs!

Bed Bugs Stats:

~$15 at Amazon, Meijer, Are You Game, Wal-Mart
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Hedbanz Stats:

~$15 at Amazon, Target, Toys’RUs (which also has the exclusive Hedbanz for Adults for $17)
2 to 6 players
~20-30 minutes (depending on the number of players)
Ages 7 and Up