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 – …

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 …

I’m sure to some of you I’m starting to sound like a broken record when it comes to good looking packaging and decent graphic design.  Well here I go again with a great example of why graphics are important.  I bought the game Aquarius because of this picture:

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 …

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 …

Part 1 of this article is a reprint from an article I wrote for Global Toy News; Part 2 reviews the two games.
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 …