Earlier in the summer The Game Aisle put out a request for “Game Review Assistants” to receive a free copy of Truth Be Told, play it with their friend and family and then tell us how it went. We ended up with quite a group reviewing Truth Be Told including a Matt Morgan who writes for The Modern Day Pirates who took it on vacation with his extended family; the Northside Prep girls volleyball team (Chicago, IL) took it to their week-long camp in Michigan and last Colleen McCarthy Evans who brought it to a “Moms-Only Game Night” she put together for a charity winner. I hope you read all the way to Colleen’s. (She had to ask if it was “too racy” so you know it’s going to be good….

When it comes to “Junior” or “Family” versions of games I usually feel that a game loses a little of the magic or gets watered down to make it age appropriate for the younger set, but I really enjoyed the family version of Wits & Wagers!  I thought the changes the folks at North Star Games made to the original game were well thought out and the game doesn’t lose any of it’s magic.
Just as in Wits & Wagers (read that review here), Wits & Wagers Family starts each round …

Endless Games did a nice job of summing up the game play of their new board game, “Name 5,” in the title so this review was pretty short, but the game’s inventor, Brian Turtle, was nice enough to share how he came up with the game.  Here’s what he said:
“Yes, I thought I was a one-trick-pony after having initial success as an inventor with The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and never writing a “sequel”.  But lo and behold, much like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Name 5 is a parlor …

I somewhat feel that it’s a copout to review a game that’s been on store shelves (mostly mass market shelves too) since 1984 BUT recently, I’ve realized that just because it’s been out that long doesn’t mean that people have actually played it.  Like, I found out that three of my favorite game test monkeys have never played Balderdash.  Jeez!  They’re all shy of 30 (which means that the game has been out since BEFORE they started reading!) and they like and play games regularly, so how did they miss …

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since Toy Fair!  I feel like I just got back, but that’s probably since I’m still wallowing in follow up work!  Anyway, the first game sample I got while at the show was given to me by the wonderful people at Educational Insights (I was at their booth visiting Tim Walsh who was signing his hit game BLURT: read review here).  They were so excited about Stix & Stones that they gave me a copy, along with the biggest tote bag I’ve …